Royal Never Give Up crowned MSI 2022 champions

After a month of fierce competition that saw the world’s best teams come together in Busan, Korea, Royal Never Give Up have officially been crowned champions of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational.

The first international event in the 2022 League of Legends calendar has come to a close. Eleven teams battled it out for four weeks to be crowned champion, with LPL representatives RNG and hometown favorites T1 fighting their way through to the grand final.

The series was a five-game nail-biter, with RNG taking the first game in a dominant style, only to fall flat on their faces in game two. The entire series was full of back-and-forth, and both teams proved that they were more than worthy of their finals spot.

The situation was far from ideal, with RNG unable to even lift the MSI trophy due to travel restrictions that left them unable to fly to Busan for the tournament – but with this win, they have become the first team in the history of League of Legends to hold three MSI titles.

Triumph for RNG

Screengrab from Riot Games on Twitch

The circumstances weren’t ideal, but RNG brought it home for the LPL whilst playing from their Shanghai facility.

It’s been a rough road for all involved at MSI 2022, with ping issues and travel restrictions leaving teams both unable to attend in person and struggling with lag issues on-stage.

Riot Games were challenged to their limits when it came to hosting their first in-person event with fans since 2019, and they had their fair share of successes and misses when it came to the tournament’s logistics.

• Read more: As NA fandom calls MSI 2022 a success, Jojopyun wants to push expectations higher

But if there’s been one constant throughout the tournament, it’s been incredible performances from RNG. They’ve been by far the most consistent team at MSI this year – dropping only four games throughout the entire tournament, two of which were in the finals.

The title of MVP for the series went to none other than jungler Yan ‘Wei’ Yang-wei. Having flown a little under the radar throughout MSI, he showed up spectacularly in the finals, controlling the map from the outset in all five games and leaving very little room for T1’s Moon ‘Oner’ Hyeon-joon to breathe.

Mid laner Li ‘Xiaohu’ Yuan-hao and support Shi ‘Ming’ Sen-ming are now the first two players in League history to hold three MSI titles, as the only two players on RNG’s roster to have been with the organization for all three of its MSI titles.