Sad to see
LoL MSI 2023: Another International Tournament Without Rookie and TheShy
The 2023 Mid-Season Invitational is going to take place throughout the month of May, with some of the biggest teams from all around the world competing. This year, Riot has switched up the tournament format a bit, giving the four major regions (LCK, LPL, LEC and LCS) two slots rather than just one in London.
With one extra slot available, many older League of Legends fans were excited to see either Top Esports or Weibo Gaming qualify, due to the immense popularity of their players. Well, it looks like this is going to be another tournament without the big names from China.
MSI 2023: Top Esports And Weibo Gaming Fail To Make It To MSI
Top Esports built one hell of a team ahead of the 2023 season. They picked up Song "Rookie" Eui-jin who met back up with former Invictus Gaming teammate Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo to try and finally take home the LPL trophy. Unfortunately, the team fell short in the second round of the playoffs against dark-horse Oh My God (but with someone like ppGod on the team is it really a dark horse?).
Are you mad about the new skins as well?
Weibo Gaming also upgraded their roster ahead of the 2023 LPL season with former RNG mid laner Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao and jungler Hung "Karsa" Hao-Hsuan. While Weibo Gaming had a good regular season in the highly competitive LPL, finishing in fourth place. Unfortunately, their LPL playoffs didn't go as planned as they faced off BiliBili Gaming.
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With both Top Esports and Weibo Gaming getting kicked out of the playoffs, just ahead of the double elminiation bracket, it means that neither team will make it to the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational. This also begs the question, whether players like Rookie and TheShy can still be regarded as highly international as they once were.
In 2018, when iG won the League of Legends World Championship they were an unstoppable force, along with bot laner JackeyLove, but in recent times neither former World Champions have managed to even make Worlds or MSI. The last time we saw TheShy on the international stage was in 2019 at the World Championship. The same can be said for Rookie as well.
Round 3 of the LPL playoffs will continue on Tuesday, April 4, 2 023 when LNG faces off against OMG. This will be the final match before the double elimination part of the LPL playoffs will commence, with JDG, BiliBIli Gaming and EDG already qualified for the upper bracket games.