The play-in stage is in the books at MSI 2026, and with fans now being tasked with locking in their Pick’ems for the bracket stage, we’ve got the best team picks available to score high and nab rewards.
The Mid-Season Invitational is the second-most prestigious event on the League of Legends esports calendar each year, behind only the annual League of Legends World Championship. This year’s MSI tournament is stacked with big names and top teams, leading to plenty of fan excitement coming in.
Unfortunately for fans looking for excitement, the play-in stage was largely lacking in it. Each series played in the stage resulted in a 3-0 sweep, and none were particularly competitive.
But if you were following us here at gameland.gg and our Pick’em recommendations for MSI, you were probably happy anyway, as our play-in picks were perfect. And now we’re ready to help you strive for perfection in the playoffs.
Best Pick’em picks for the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational playoffs
The 2026 Mid-Season Invitational playoffs should bring a little more drama than the play-in stage given the increased level of competition, and it does make sorting out the best Pick’em options a little more complicated.
Scoring high enough to earn rewards from Riot Games is often about leaning into the event’s favorites, while being willing to make a few upset picks when and where it makes sense. With that in mind, we look for G2 to start us off by defeating Top Esports in the first round.
Even as the rest of the LEC has struggled internationally, including Karmine Corp at this very tournament, G2 has continued to remain a steadfast presence. Seeing it best TES would be a surprise given that Top Esports beat G2 twice back at the 2025 World Championship and G2 has recently struggled versus LPL teams, but it’s worth taking a risk here.
We otherwise like the expected results in the first round: Lyon beating Furia, and Hanwha Life beating Team Secret Whales. T1 besting BLG is a tighter pick, but we’ll go with a T1 side that’s already 9-0 at this tournament.
From there we’ll take HLE to beat G2 and T1 to beat Lyon, with HLE winning in the upper bracket final. G2 may be a tempting pick against any LCK team given its dominant wins over Gen.G and FearX at First Stand, but we need to see it again before believing that’s a sustainable trend. Hanwha Life dispatched T1 3-1 in the LCK Road to MSI tournament, and seems to have T1’s number for the time being.
Down in the lower bracket, we see the event’s LPL teams making a run, with BLG defeating Furia and G2, while TES beats TSW and Lyon.
We’re willing to try G2 for an upset over TES, but against a BLG team that would have its back to the wall, we’re not quite so willing. And while Lyon has been in good form and is a tempting upset pick versus TES, we just have more faith in the LPL teams.
And speaking of having faith in the LPL, our Pick’ems bracket has BLG defeating domestic rival Top Esports before going on to consecutive series wins over T1 and Hanwha Life to take home the 2026 MSI title.
It’s by no means a lock. BLG infamously crashed out of the group stage at the World Championship in 2025 despite being an event favorite, and that included a 2-1 loss to TES. But 2026 has been a great year for Bilibili Gaming. The team has won both LPL splits played thus far, and has already taken home an international championship with a win at First Stand that included dominant victories over G2 Esports and JD Gaming.
BLG’s consistency this year, and its proven ability in 2026 to perform under pressure internationally, is enough for us to point our predictions towards Knight, Viper, and the rest of the LPL’s top-seeded squad.
