RNG or TES
LPL To Compete at MSI Remotely
A few weeks ago, the LPL's most infamous leaker Kim "DoinB" Tae-Sang spoke out during a stream about the chance of the LPL not participating at this year's Mid-Season Invitational. At least not in person. Well, Riot has now confirmed those statements.
The LPL representative at this year's Mid-Season Invitational will not be heading down to Busan, South Korea. Instead, they'll be allowed to play remotely from Shanghai instead, due to strict COVID-19 regulations.
LPL Representative To Play Remotely at MSI 2022
In a statement by Naz Aletaha, Global Head of LoL Esports, it is announced that the LPL representative will not be able to travel down to South Korea due to travel and quarantine restrictions. Therefore, the team is unable to physically attend the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational.
Instead of kicking the LPL representative from the event, Riot worked on finding a solution to try and get either TES or RNG to compete at this years international competition. In the announcement on the official Riot page, Aletaha wrote:
To keep the competition fair, we will be using a network latency tool to maintain a ping as close to 35ms as possible for all teams throughout the competition. This same tool was used to maintain ping between China and Korea for the LPL vs. LCK Showdown during the 2020 Mid-Season Cup.
This decision comes after extensive tests with the technology to ensure a fair competition for all teams qualified for the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational. So, you won't be seeing either Top Esports or Royal Never Give Up in person, but the team – whoever qualifies– will still be allowed to compete at the second-biggest international League of Legends esports event.
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LPL Packed Schedule For the Rest of 2022
One of the main issues as to why the LPL representative cannot leave the country are the strict quarantine laws when coming back to Shanghai. Anyone who enters the city will have to quarantine for two weeks alone in a hotel. Due to the LPL Summer Split starting shortly after the end of MSI.
Due to Chinese and Korean teams participating at this year's Asia Games, their schedules are even more packed than usually. DoinB had even stated that the LPL, which is by far the biggest league, is thinking of shortening their summer split to a single month.
Therefore, teams are not forced to compete at this year's MSI from the LPL Arena in Shanghai or the team facilities with officials to oversee everything.