Kim ‘Doinb’ Taesang, mid laner for LNG Esports and former world champion, revealed on April 6 via a livestream that the LPL’s in-person attendance at MSI 2022 is in jeopardy.
According to Doinb, a combination of Shanghai quarantine policies and scheduling conflicts could mean that the LPL’s MSI representative is forced to play remotely while the tournament is held in-person in Busan, Korea.
The international schedule for the LPL MSI representative this year is a brutal one. Not only do they have the Mid-Season Invitational and their domestic summer splits to worry about, they now have to factor in the scheduling of the Asia Games, where Chinese and Korean representatives will compete in League of Legends for only the second time since the Games’ inception in 1951.
Accommodating for the Asia Games
In a previous livestream, Doinb discussed the LPL’s summer split undergoing a format change in order to accommodate for the Asia games, which will take place in Hangzhou in September.
Doinb shared his information on the 2022 #LPL Summer Split:
"The Summer Split may only last over a month at most.
There may be four games (BO3) per day.
We should play one match about every two days." pic.twitter.com/xJ8wiF63LL
— LPL Fanclub (@LPLfanclub) April 4, 2022
He claimed that the split would be condensed into a singular month of competition, where normally it takes place in a two-month window, in which four best-of-three series would be played per day in order to accommodate a full double round-robin.
However, the quarantine period required upon entry into Shanghai is 21 days – meaning that the LPL’s MSI representative would still be under quarantine at the start of the newly-scheduled summer split. Doinb explained that there were very few options for a team to compete in quarantine, and that the “only way” for the LPL to be able to compete at MSI would be through remote play.
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Doinb mentioned if the LPL representative can't play remotely in MSI, they may not attend the tournament because of the Asian game and the LPL Summer Split schedule.
If it is possible for them to join, LPL will play the games with 30 Ping like the Mid Season Cup(MSC) format. pic.twitter.com/P5VgrZnTEs
— Rita (@cutebchu) April 6, 2022
“If you don’t quarantine, you can’t play in the summer split. You can’t promote academy teams to play, right? It’s impossible to play the matches via the hotel’s computers when you have to quarantine in a hotel.”
No confirmation from Riot as of yet
Riot has not yet commented on the LPL’s status at MSI. Remote play from China to Korea is not impossible – the LPL competed remotely for the 2020 Mid-Season cup on around 30/40 ping, which while posing a slight disadvantage is by no means unplayable.
— LPL (@lplenglish) April 6, 2022
To add to the confusion, the LPL playoffs were postponed on April 6 due to the ongoing rise of cases in Shanghai. The date of the finals has not yet been confirmed, but it will be a tight schedule for the LPL’s representative with MSI beginning on May 10.
