[2021] MSI 2021: Qualified Teams, Broadcast Schedule, Watch Rewards

Hey there! Long time no chat! I wanted to answer a couple notes I saw so far! I'm on the drops team, so here it goes!

• Drop Tech - Yeah, we had some issues last time, and I would be insane if I didn't say we all take every error pretty seriously and work around the clock to fix it up. No excuses, just know the MSI drops team cares about this a ton and we tweak and fix everything we can as fast as our little fingers can carry us.

• The Rewards - We've heard you all and are dropping some more valuable stuff on a more randomized basis. Log in and you'll likely have a chance at scoring Hextech chests, skins, champion shards, or mystery skin tokens. We're also dropping several MSI-exclusive icons and emotes, along with a couple of exclusive ones for watch missions (we do that thing too!) so you should walk away with a few ways to flash an emote during a game of LOL or TFT.

• The Moments - We leveled up the team and brought on someone to help us in creating drop moments that make sense, and pivoting as the battle in Iceland rages on! We also created some more custom art in the model of the MSI style, so we hope to see several of the things we're looking for happen! If we don't, we'll ready up new ones, and we're hoping the drops happen every gameday!

• For MSI, all of the drops that you all get will have a reward, or at least a chance to get a reward through a sweepstakes. We don't have any digital content drops (like wallpapers, playlists, or fan kits) for MSI. :)

Hi! We have to make and localize every drop so that everyone can see them in a number of countries and streams, so we usually make them up ahead of time and then trigger when they happen. Do we know? Nope, not at all! We use stats to decide which moments are likely to happen, then we pick a whole bunch more based on the performance of the teams as the games go on, and there you have it. We're not dropping any digital items this time (playlists, wallpapers, fankits) and instead worked up a little menu of other in-game stuff we're giving away to a percentage of fans watching every day.

Also, you mentioned the leagues! Each league who was running a drops program had a different plan. LEC, LCS, TCL, LCL, LLA, & EU Masters all ran drops in split 1, designed in-market by those teams for their fans based on their fans feedback. They then shot us that feedback and results to help make this MSI program feel inclusive of all the leagues battling it out. So, every time we do a drops thing it's a little different and based on the needs of the split or event. The Rioters in the leagues who did run drops were highly focused on fan feedback and we learned a lot of cool stuff to grow with!

Thanks! Yeah, the Pentakill one felt especially bad because we legit had a failure and it didn't go, and it didn't help that it was a SUPER RARE HYPE moment, which was EXACTLY why we made drops in the first place during a once-per-century pandemic. :( We were all super bummed out about it but happy to have been able to get it to everyone regardless.

We're focused on lolesports.com at the moment because we can do quite a bit more there (with the art and all that). I hear you, though, as someone who personally prefers to have a good game of lol eating up the whole living room on a TV. :) You can use Chromecast to cast from your PC to a screen, which isn't the easiest, but it has worked for us in the past. We are looking at some things to help the couch potato in all of us, just couldn't make anything happen in time for MSI.

Interesting! Why 2014? Also, I can look into maybe adding some...when we did the Worlds Anniversary capsules last year at Worlds, we included some of the vaulted and legacy icons from 10 years of pro LOL. We didn't really want to keep going there for drops, but if you all like those things we'll keep looking into it!

Maybeeeeeeeee??!!?? ;D

Thanks for being a fan! We're just here to add a little more fun to the events. :)

Yep! We're really hoping to get those icons and emotes to as many people as possible, but the drops decide. :) We also hope everyone gets both the icon and emote of the "set", but again, the drops decide.

Sorry to hear that. We know we made mistakes, and we fixed a ton of them as we've moved forward. We decided to try and bring something fun to lolesports.com last year during the pandemic and while also working with teams to get our other new games into everyone's hands. A big chunk of that was learning from you all on what was a hit or a miss on our part, like some of the rewards, so we did away with quite a few things and tested out some of the new things with our regional leagues (LEC & LLA come to mind with what they did over split one).

If you would rather not watch on lolesports.com, you don't have to. It's optional, but I love having you watch anywhere you love, because at the end of the day I'm a fan of professional League of Legends and just want to know i'm catching the cool stuff with fellow fans, be they on our site or whatever. Every split and event we work to make it better, or different, or solve an issue. The team and I love it, and we haven't stopped trying to make it better every working hour since launching it last year, and we're not stopping anytime soon.

If I hate anyone, it's usually myself for not being a better support in Wild Rift. :) Globally, there were quite a few fans who liked the playlists, which where exclusive to the event last year. Having said that, we're not dropping any playlists for the MSI event this year.

Nice! That makes sense! Definitely will look into that, thanks for the feedback!

That's a pretty excellent reason. :)

I'm glad you're liking the EM drops! We're definitely keeping an eye on how it does so we can learn more. :)

Thank you very much! Thanks back at you for being a fan!

Thanks! Yeah, Drops were running for LCS, LEC, LCL, TCL, LLA, and EU Masters. All of them had different programs, and some were more generous than others. LCS only did a couple drops in North America, which could explain a lot of that.

Hey there! Thanks for the feedback! We've heard this a bit since dropping the exclusive emotes, and we're definitely working on a solution that still feels good for the next release. There are a number of exclusives we're dropping in the tournament that we're pretty sure no one has yet, so keep watching for those! Also, thanks for reaching out and letting us know how you feel about it, it helps us work on ways to keep growing and making it better.

Hey Reddit! As we head into the second half of MSI, I wanted to share some info with you all! We did a ton of small, rare drops in the first 6 days of the tournament where we dropped some Morgana bundles, some Hextech Chests & Keys, some Champion shards, a few lolesports.com exclusive icons and emotes, and some Bose sweepstakes entries for the US (Use those entries! The prizes are pretty sweet, and I cannot get any since I work here, so go get 'em!). In all that, we also dropped a small number of the 2021 Exclusive Icons and Emotes (Karma Mains Rejoice!) and there are many, many more on the way! We've been watching the feedback and know some of you are annoyed at not getting a drop, or getting a drop of something you already had. On not getting a drop, we're ramping up our un-capped, everyone-gets-it drops as we get into the end of MSI, and we're going to be dropping all of the 2021 exclusives we said we would, so keep watching! As you might have noticed in other events (LEC, LLA, LCS, EM) the "everybody-gets-it" drops tend to increase towards the later stages of the tournament, and MSI follows a similar approach. As for the duplicate issue, we're going to solve that, we just can't solve it in time for MSI. :( We are listening and working to make sure that everything exclusive to this event will be dropped globally throughout the tournament so everyone has a fair chance to get them. Other rewards, like the Hextech Chests and Skin bundles, are more down to luck.

Oh, nice idea! We have watch rewards for that in most cases, but I love the idea of some drops specifically designed for the super fans who have watched a lot. Thanks for the suggestion! Also, YW!