Perhaps no year has seen Esports tournaments disrupted by a pandemic as heavily as 2020, with major events like MSI 2020, Major CS:GO, DOTA2, and The International 2020 either being canceled or postponed. The real losers are undoubtedly the fans, as they would miss witnessing high-level competitions for a relatively long time.
For League of Legends, MSI 2020 could have been the most exciting MSI ever, as all the spring champions were incredibly deserving and had strong motivation to compete on this international stage. It’s such a shame it was canceled. Have you ever asked yourself, “What if MSI 2020 had gone ahead as planned?” Just hours ago, ESPN’s Esports department (the sports broadcasting giant) hosted a stream called “MSI Simulation” to answer this question.
A total of 4 ESPN reporters participated in this stream, including Arda Ocal, Emily Rand, Tyler Erzberger, and Jacob Wolf. Each provided their own insights on the group stage standings and playoff results. Notably, all four ESPN reporters believe that Team Flash could advance past the play-in stage and reach the group stage if the tournament were to take place.
Regarding the playoff results, 3 out of 4 ESPN reporters believe JD Gaming will reach the finals of MSI, and the reason is quite simple: they are the representatives of the LPL, which is considered the strongest and most balanced region currently. In fact, if they meet T1 in the finals, JD Gaming is also rated stronger and could win the championship.
Speaking of T1, Faker and his teammates, despite winning the LCK Spring Championship, are still not rated too highly when facing a team as unpredictable and dynamic as G2 Esports. Of the three reporters predicting the G2 vs T1 semifinal, two believe the European representatives will come out on top, with only Tyler ‘Fionn’ Erzberger predicting T1 will win.
Of course, all of these results are just predictions since MSI 2020 was canceled. It’s truly unfortunate because if this tournament had taken place with such strong names competing, it could have been the best and most exciting MSI ever. We may have to wait until the 2020 World Championship to enjoy some truly spectacular matches.