Organizer
Tournament edition
Mid-Season Invitational 2016
SK Telecom T1 won MSI 2016, defeating Counter Logic Gaming 3–0 in the final. Six regional champions competed at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from May 4 to 15.
Share this page
Updated October 28, 2026Competition snapshot
Host and dates
Oriental Sports Center, Shanghai, China · May 4–15, 2016
Riot's broadcast announcement places the tournament at the venue.[1]
Champion
SK Telecom T1 won the final 3–0.[2]
Combined prize pool
USD 450,000
Leaguepedia's reported distribution totals USD 450,000.[2]
Games
Participant scale
6 regional champions
Riot described the field as six regional champions.[1]
CategoryPartnerCommercial note
Category
Organizer
Partner
Riot GamesCommercial note
Tournament organizer · Recorded in the 2016 edition.[2]
Reach & distribution
Audience
Peak concurrent viewers (Riot-reported)
More than 6 million[4]
Riot's reported tournament peak; the source gives a lower-bound figure.
Average concurrent viewers (Riot-reported)
2.3 million[4]
Average across the eight days of gameplay.
Hours watched (Riot-reported)
119 million[4]
Live-broadcast viewing time, excluding rebroadcast viewership.
Unique daily impressions (Riot-reported)
More than 202 million[4]
Riot defines this as the sum of unique viewers for each day, not deduplicated tournament-wide unique viewers.
Distribution
Overview
Riot brought the six regional spring champions to Shanghai for the second Mid-Season Invitational. A double round-robin group stage seeded four teams into the best-of-five knockout bracket. SK Telecom T1 defeated Counter Logic Gaming 3–0 in the final, earning the title after finishing fourth in the group stage. Riot reported more than 6 million peak concurrent viewers, an average of 2.3 million concurrent viewers across eight gameplay days, and 119 million hours of live-broadcast viewing excluding rebroadcasts. Its “more than 202 million” figure is the sum of each day’s unique viewers, not a tournament-wide deduplicated audience. Leaguepedia records a combined prize distribution of USD 450,000.[1][2][4]
References4
- [1]2016 Mid-Season Invitational On-Air Team — Riot Games / LoL Esports
- [2]MSI 2016 — Leaguepedia — Leaguepedia
- [3]Day 1 - MSI 2016 — LoL Esports Photos / Riot Games
- [4]2016 Mid-Season Invitational By the Numbers — Riot Games / LoL Esports
Work with Press The Game
Bring an opportunity to the table
Looking for media reach, industry insight or the right esports partner? Bring us your brief—we’ll help move it forward.
