It is officially time to dust off your galaxy brain and prepare to have your crystal ball shattered by a random wildcard region. Riot Games has officially re-launched Pick’Ems for the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), running from June 17 through July 1.
If you have ever wanted to prove to your friends that you understand the League of Legends meta better than the actual pros, this is your moment. If you completely fail, you can just blame a format change.
The Play-In Bloodbath Begins
Riot is switching things up this year with a revamped format, which means your bracket predictions are going to look a bit different. The tournament kicks off with the Play-Ins, and the group is an absolute pressure cooker.
You have heavy hitters like T1 and Karmine Corp rubbing shoulders with Team Liquid and Revolve Deep Cross Gaming. The catch? Only one team from this group gets to survive and advance to the main stage.
It is going to be a total carnage for the second-seeded squads from the LEC, LCS, LCK, and LCP. Once the dust settles and the Play-In winner is decided, the main event bracket will be drawn on June 30, which is exactly when the knockout stage Pick’Ems lock into place.
Gunning for Jhin Skins and Bragging Rights
Naturally, Riot is not asking you to predict the future for free. They have lined up a tier of rewards based on how accurate your crystal ball actually is.
If you manage to fall into the top 50% of all users, you grab a commemorative profile icon. Creep up into the top 25%, and you unlock the Clean Up Emote.
For the absolute prophets out there who manage a flawless, perfect record, Riot is handing out Jhin alongside his Broken Covenant skin. It is a flashy reward for a feat that usually requires trading away your soul or guessing every single upset perfectly.
To make things sweeter, community leaderboards are making a comeback. You can set up local groups to humiliate your friends directly while simultaneously checking how you stack up against the global leaderboard.
Gazing Into the Crystal Ball
If predicting match winners feels too mainstream, the Crystal Ball category is back to test your deep, analytical League knowledge. This is where you make macro-level predictions that have nothing to do with who destroys the Nexus first.
You can earn between 50 and 100 points per correct guess by picking stats like the most played champion, the highest and lowest win-rate characters, or which player will rack up the highest KDA. You can even bet on things like the total number of Elder Dragons secured, First Blood stats, and who secures the shortest game victory of the tournament.
Riot created a separate scoring system just for these props. If you manage to place in the top 100 players globally on the Crystal Ball leaderboard, you also walk away with that Broken Covenant Jhin skin.
Lock in your picks before the timers run out, and may the draft gaps be ever in your favor.
