MSI Pickems is the prediction game Riot runs alongside the Mid-Season Invitational - the smaller of the two international League of Legends tournaments, held around the midpoint of the competitive year.
It works the same way as the Worlds version but on a shorter bracket, which makes it a good place to learn the game before the stakes rise in October.
MSI 2026 - what happened
The 2026 Mid-Season Invitational was held in Daejeon, South Korea. The Play-In stage ran from 28 June to 1 July, and the bracket stage from 3 to 12 July.
Pick'Em opened on 17 June, roughly a week and a half before the first match - consistent with how Riot has timed it at previous events.
The notable change was the Crystal Ball: 2026 was the first year it appeared at MSI, having previously been a Worlds-only feature. That is a reasonable signal that it is becoming a permanent part of Pick'Em rather than a seasonal novelty.
What you predict at MSI
MSI does not use a Swiss stage - that format is specific to Worlds. The structure is simpler:
- Play-In stage - the opening round that decides which teams join the main bracket.
- Bracket stage - a knockout bracket played in best-of-five series through to the final.
Because there is no Swiss stage, there are no exact-record bonus picks. The scoring is more directly about calling series winners, with later rounds worth progressively more and the champion pick weighted heaviest.
Fewer teams also means fewer picks, which cuts both ways: the bracket takes less time to fill in, but a single wrong call carries more weight than it would across a sixteen-team Swiss field.
MSI 2026 rewards
| Tier | Reward |
|---|---|
| Crystal Ball submitted before the opening day | "Doesn't Look Good" Smolder emote |
| Participation (Play-In or bracket stage) | El Tigre Braum "Pinfall" emote |
| Top 50% | Zenith Games Blitzcrank "Settle the Score" icon |
| Top 25% | Janitor Thresh & Zac "Clean Up" emote |
| Perfect picks | Broken Covenant Jhin skin + the champion |
Worth noting for expectation-setting: ultimate skins were removed from the MSI 2026 perfect-picks reward, leaving a single 1350 RP skin where previous events had offered a bundle. Tiers stack as usual, so reaching the top 25% delivers the lower tiers as well.
MSI versus Worlds Pickems
| MSI | Worlds | |
|---|---|---|
| Time of year | Mid-year | Autumn |
| Group format | Play-In + bracket | Play-In + Swiss + bracket |
| Exact-record bonus picks | No | Yes |
| Field size | Smaller | Larger |
| Crystal Ball | Since 2026 | Established |
| Participation | Lower | Highest of the year |
The practical difference is that MSI is a lower-variance version of the same game. A smaller bracket means less to get wrong, but also fewer opportunities to recover from a bad call.
What to expect next
MSI 2027 has not been announced. Based on the pattern across recent years, a reasonable expectation is that Pick'Em opens around a week to ten days before the first match, that the Crystal Ball returns now that it has debuted at the event, and that the reward structure keeps the participation, top 50%, top 25% and perfect tiers.
We update this page when Riot confirms dates and format rather than leaving last season's details in place.
Frequently asked questions
Is MSI Pickems the same as Worlds Pickems?
The mechanics are the same - free, played on the LoL Esports site with a Riot account, scored automatically, rewarded in cosmetics. The difference is the tournament format underneath, and MSI has no Swiss stage.
When did MSI 2026 take place?
In Daejeon, South Korea. The Play-In stage ran 28 June to 1 July 2026, and the bracket stage 3 to 12 July 2026.
Was there a Crystal Ball at MSI 2026?
Yes, for the first time at an MSI. It had previously appeared only at Worlds.
Do MSI and Worlds Pickems scores combine?
No. Each event is scored and rewarded separately, with its own leaderboard.
Is MSI Pickems easier than Worlds?
Fewer picks and no Swiss stage make it more straightforward, but a smaller bracket also means each individual call matters more. Neither is clearly easier to place well in.