League of Legends MSI 2024 Play-In: Start date, schedule, and more

The League of Legends MSI (Mid-Season Invitational) 2024 is making its way to Chengdu, China, and will run from May 1 to May 19, 2024. A total of 12 teams will compete in a double-elimination format at this event. The competition will be divided into two parts, the Play-In stage and the Bracket stage.

Riot Games has revamped the format of MSI this year, and it will be interesting to see how teams adapt to it. This article will focus mainly on the first part of the double-elimination format, the Play-In stage.

League of Legends MSI 2024 Play-In stage: Format, teams, and venue

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Format

The Play-In stage will kick off on May 1 and run till May 5. Of the 12 teams, eight will participate in this phase. These eight squads will compete in best-of-three matches, with the winner going to the Upper Bracket and the losers in the lower bracket.

Each team should win two matches before losing two to move on to the next round. After all the matches in the Play-In stage, four teams will join the remaining four in the Bracket stage.

Teams

Currently, each team from the LLA, CBLOL, PCS, and VCS — along with second seeds from the LCK, LPL, LEC, and LCS — will take part in the Play-In stage. The eight teams taking part in the League of Legends MSI 2024 Play-In stage are listed below:

Top Esports
T1
Fnatic
FlyQuest
PSG Talon
GAM Esports
Estral Esports
LOUD

Venue

The League of Legends MSI 2024 Play-In stage will take place at the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Center in Chengdu, China.

League of Legends MSI 2024 Play-In stage: Brackets and matchups

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The draw for the Play-In stage was held on April 20. Eight teams were divided into four tiers, with each tier containing two teams. The tiers were determined based on their performance in the Spring Split 2024 playoffs. Here are the tiers and teams for the Play-In stage:

Tier 1: T1, Top Esports
Tier 2: Fnatic, FlyQuest
Tier 3: PSG Talon, GAM Esports
Tier 4: Estral Esports, LOUD

Furthermore, these teams were split into two brackets via a draw. Each of the two squads in each tier was kept in separate brackets for fair competition.

Bracket A	Bracket B
T1	Top Esports
FlyQuest	Fnatic
PSG Talon	GAM Esports
Estral Esports	LOUD

MSI 2024 Play-In stage schedule

Bracket A (May 1, 2024)

FlyQuest vs PSG Talon: 1 am PT, 10 am CET, 1:30 pm IST, 4 pm Beijing Time, 5 pm KST
T1 vs Estral Esports: 4 pm PT, 1 pm CET, 4:30 pm IST, 7 pm Beijing Time, 8 pm KST

Bracket B (May 2, 2024)

Fnatic vs GAM Esports: 1 am PT, 10 am CET, 1:30 pm IST, 4 pm Beijing Time, 5 pm KST
Top Esports vs LOUD: 4 pm PT, 1 pm CET, 4:30 pm IST, 7 pm Beijing Time, 8 pm KST

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