Every League of Legends MSI Champion: A Year-by-Year History (2015–2025) | RFT.GG
byEthan Cohen•
FeaturesMSI
Every League of Legends MSI Champion: A Year-by-Year History (2015–2025)
Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
The Mid-Season Invitational is League of Legends' second-most prestigious international tournament, the midyear summit where the best teams from every region clash for the second global trophy of the season. Launched in 2015, MSI has crowned ten champions across ten editions (the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) — a history shaped by the LPL's early dominance, Europe's lone miracle run, RNG's record three titles, and Gen.G's recent back-to-back. Here's every MSI winner, year by year, with the scores, venues, rosters and storylines that defined each edition.
Tallahassee, Florida. The first edition of MSI was a barebones affair held in a Florida State University arena, but the upset it produced echoed for years. EDward Gaming, fielding Korean stars PawN and Deft alongside a young Meiko, broke SK Telecom T1's seemingly invincible aura in the grand final, winning 3-2 in one of the longest Bo5s in MSI history. SKT had just won the LCK Spring Split with a 100% win rate; their MSI loss was the closest any team has ever come to derailing the Golden Road. Clearlove's Evelynn pick in the deciding game five became one of the early defining moments of LPL international identity — a willingness to break the meta when it mattered most.
Shanghai, China. SKT returned to MSI a year later with one mission: revenge on the LPL, on their home turf. They got it. After a shaky group stage, the defending world champions cruised through the bracket and dismantled Counter Logic Gaming 3-0 in the final. The series was a coronation more than a competition. SKT went on to win the 2016 World Championship later that year, becoming the first — and to date the only — team to win both Worlds and the Mid-Season Invitational in the same season.
Jungle: Han "Peanut" Wang-ho / Kang "Blank" Sun-gu (Did not play)
Mid: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
ADC: Bae "Bang" Jun-sik
Support: Lee "Wolf" Jae-wan
MVP: Wolf
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. SKT's third straight international final saw them dispatch G2 Esports 3-1 in Brazil, becoming the first team ever to win back-to-back MSI titles. Faker collected his fifth career international trophy and looked, at the time, untouchable. The Rio crowd was famously ferocious, and the tournament cemented Brazil as one of LoL Esports' most passionate audiences — a reputation that has only grown since. SKT would lose the 2017 Worlds final to Samsung Galaxy later that year, ending the dynasty's first era.
Paris, France. The MSI Uzi had been chasing his entire career. After years of falling short on the international stage, RNG steamrolled the field at the Zénith, beating Kingzone DragonX 3-1 in a final that felt like a passing of the torch. Uzi's Ezreal and Kai'Sa carried the series, and the bot-laner finally got his international crown as well as the MVP. The win launched RNG on the most decorated MSI run in history — though the Golden Road dream that followed would unravel at Worlds 2018 in one of the most famous upsets in the game's history, against G2 Esports.
Taipei, Taiwan. Europe's only MSI title, and one of the most stylish runs in the tournament's history. G2 — fresh off acquiring Caps from Fnatic to form what fans dubbed a Western superteam — flexed champions across every role, embraced chaos, and turned the bracket into a highlight reel. They knocked out SK Telecom T1 in the semifinals and then swept Team Liquid 3-0 in the final, the only 3-0 sweep in an MSI final with SKT in 2016. To this day, it remains the LEC's only international trophy.
Photo Credit: Yicun/Riot Games
2020 — Cancelled
The 2020 Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the only year in MSI history without a champion. It was eventually replaced later that year by the Mid-Season Cup, an exhibition event between LCK and LPL teams won by Top Esports — though it does not count as an official MSI title.
Reykjavik, Iceland. The pandemic-era MSI, held in a single venue at Laugardalshöll with no live audience. RNG returned three years after their first title with a reshaped roster — Xiaohu moved to top lane to make room for rookie midlaner Cryin — and beat reigning world champions DWG KIA 3-2 in a tense five-game grand final that swung dramatically throughout. The win flipped the international script once again: after DWG had taken Worlds 2020 from the LPL, RNG reclaimed the international crown at the very next opportunity. The trend continued at the end of the year, when EDward Gaming beat DWG KIA 3-2 in the Worlds 2021 final — another five-game LPL win over the same Korean side, sealing one of the most LPL-dominant calendar years in the game's history.
Busan, South Korea. MSI 2022 was a tournament marked by an unusual asterisk: due to COVID restrictions in China, RNG was unable to travel to Busan and played the entire event remotely from Shanghai, with the whole tournament run on a synchronized 35ms server to level the playing field. The decision was contentious and fueled regional debate for months. None of it changed the result. RNG beat T1 3-2 in the grand final — Faker's first international final appearance since 2017 — to become the first team in history to win three MSI titles. RNG remain the only three-time MSI champions to this day.
London, England. Held at the Copper Box Arena, MSI 2023 introduced the modern double-elimination format and the rule that two teams per major region could qualify. JDG — fresh off the LPL Spring title and chasing the Golden Road — dropped a single series the entire tournament, beating T1 in the upper bracket final and dispatching fellow LPL side Bilibili Gaming 3-1 in the grand final. Midlaner knight took Finals MVP on the back of three dominant Jayce performances. The win extended the LPL's MSI streak to three straight years and felt, at the time, like the dawn of another Chinese dynasty.
Chengdu, China. Built as a Korean superteam in the 2023 offseason, Gen.G had been dominating the LCK domestically but kept stumbling internationally. MSI 2024 ended that narrative. They went unbeaten in the bracket stage and beat hometown favorites Bilibili Gaming 3-1 in front of a partisan Chengdu crowd, with Lehends' Blitzcrank and Maokai performances earning him an unexpected but deserved Finals MVP. It was the LCK's first MSI title since 2017 — breaking three straight years of LPL dominance — and made Gen.G the second Korean organization ever to win MSI.
Vancouver, Canada. The first MSI held in North America since 2015, and the first ever to feature Fearless Draft in a global setting. Gen.G — with Ruler joining from JDG to form perhaps the most stacked LCK roster of all time — went undefeated through the entire tournament, extending their unbeaten season streak to 23 series.They beat T1 3-2 in a five-game grand final, becoming the third team in history to win back-to-back MSI titles (after SKT and RNG). Chovy was named Finals MVP, capturing his first international Finals MVP after years of being labeled the best player without a trophy. The result reframed the 2025 LCK title race and set up T1's revenge arc at Worlds later that year.
Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
What the numbers say
Ten editions, six different champion organizations. The LPL leads with 5 titles (EDG 2015, RNG 2018-2021-2022, JDG 2023), the LCK has 4 (SKT/T1 2016-2017, Gen.G 2024-2025), and the LEC one (G2, 2019). RNG alone account for 3 — still the only team to win MSI three times — while Gen.G's 2024-2025 back-to-back made them only the third organization to defend the title after SKT and RNG themselves.
Xiaohu is the most decorated player in MSI history with three titles to his name, having won all three of RNG's trophies — first in the midlane in 2018, then from the toplane in 2021, before moving back to mid in 2022. Faker remains the only player to have reached MSI finals in five different editions, with two titles and three runner-up finishes to his name.
The road to an 11th champion runs through Daejeon this summer, where MSI 2026 takes place from June 28 to July 12 — the first time the South Korean city hosts a major LoL international, and the first MSI on Korean soil since RNG's contested 2022 run in Busan.
