With MSI London 2023 fast approaching, Riot Games is ramping up its announcements around the major League of Legends tournament, the latest being MSI Champions Queue.
Champions Queue (CQ) is an ‘invite-only, adaptive League of Legends system that allows pro players to practice in an organised competitive environment against their fellow competitors’, Riot said.
All eligible players will be given access to a server that will schedule, track and organise games between players.
Riot is opening League of Legends CQ on Sunday April 30th 2023, and it will end when the tournament is over on May 21st.
It will be available for approved players every day, opening at 19:00 BST / 20:00 CEST, and remaining online until 01:00 BST / 02:00 CEST – with the off-roll queue opening at 00:00 BST / 01:00 CEST.
Riot added that players are ‘highly encouraged’ to stream MSI Champions Queue matches, but they may not stream during the MSI broadcast. Stream delay is not required, and there is a limit of 15 in-game spectators per game.
“The spectator/co-stream pool of MSI CQ will also be expanding, offering streaming access to select content creators globally,” Riot said.
The news comes after NLC players missed out on EMEA Champions Queue earlier this year.
How MSI Champions Queue works
Riot said in an announcement post: “MSI Champions Queue will be organised much like Worlds CQ before it. Admins will be on-hand and act as the main point of contact for players if they encounter any issues, and make sure their experience is seamless.
“To give players a low latency environment ahead of the MSI procession, the tournament server will move to the server closest to the MSI, in Frankfurt, and will support zero-delay streaming by any player or spectator with CQ access.
“MSI CQ will follow the same patch cycle as MSI 2023. Champions disabled in MSI 2023 will also be disabled in MSI CQ. Players are able to pause for technical issues and emergencies, however to ensure a seamless experience, after 10 minutes, they must resume play if one team wants to unpause.
“Given the high skill level of all players and the small queue population, matchmaking prioritizes time in queue when generating matches. Once a match is formed, teams are balanced against MMR.”
One of the following criteria must be met for a player to be eligible to use MSI Champions Queue:
- MSI 2023 players (including substitutes)
- LEC starting line-up players
- ERL players and LEC substitutes who are currently Challenger rank
- 2023 on live servers (this does not include their peak, it must be their current rank)
- Players from MSI-qualifying leagues who are bootcamping in EMEA
- ERL and Ex-Pro players who are vetted and approved by the EMEA CQ
- Player Council (Ex-pro players are those who have played in at least two Splits in a LoL MSI-qualifying region)
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
