The Chengdu government and Riot Games revealed Thursday that the 2024 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (MSI 2024) will be held in Chengdu, China, from May 1-19. This marks the first time Chengdu will host the League of Legends global event in the history of LoL esports. In addition, Riot also noted that the winner of MSI 2024 will be directly invited to the 2024 League of Legends World Championship (Worlds 2024). Worlds 2024 will be held in Berlin, Paris, and London from Sept. 25 to Nov. 2.
Chengdu is the economic center of China’s Southwest, and one of the first Chinese cities to host large-scale esports events in the country. In 2009, the World Cyber Games (WCG) first came to China and was hosted in Chengdu. Honor of Kings, one of the biggest mobile esports titles in the world, is also developed in Chengdu by Tencent’s TiMi Studios. Chengdu is also the third Chinese city with two International airports, following Beijing and Shanghai.
Chengdu recently hosted CrossFire’s world championship event—CrossFire Stars (CFS)—at Chengdu Gaoxin Gymnasium on Dec. 10; NetEase’s Naraka Bladepoint World Championship (J Cup 2023) at Chengdu Financial City Arts Center Dec. 16-17, and the $9.63M Honor of Kings World Championship at Chengdu Phoenix Hill Gymnasium on Dec. 30. In addition, NetEase also hosted its Identity V League Spring Split Final in Chengdu on Monday.
A representative from the Chengdu government told The Esports Advocate that the Chengdu Gaoxin District expects to invest ￥240M RMB ($33.5M) in developing the esports industry in the next three years, and the city aims to become the de facto esports cultural city of China. According to its public policy, the government will offer a maximum ￥5M ($700K) allowance to organizers who host large-scale international esports events in Chengdu. The strong support policies behind Chengdu are more likely one of the reasons that Riot picked Chengdu as the hosting city of MSI 2024.