JD Gaming miss out on the Mid-Season Invitational

_{^{Image credit:}}_{^{JD Gaming (Twitter/X)}}

It ends in heartbreak for JD Gaming as the defending champions miss out on the Mid-Season Invitational next month.

Last season's winners and defending champions of the Mid-Season Invitational, JD Gaming will miss out on the first international tournament of the year after they lost to Top Esports in the lower bracket finals of the LPL Spring Split. This was the second time in a space of a week that Top was able to get the better of JDG with the first taking place during the upper bracket semifinals, where Top convincingly won 3-0.

The second time round, JDG was able to get at least one win before Top cleaned house once more to set up its own rematch against Bilibili Gaming in the grand finals. BLG had already confirmed its spot at MSI next month in Chengdu after they defeated Top in a thrilling back-and-forth series. The winner of the rematch in the grand final will determine which team will move straight to the MSI Bracket Stage and the Play-In Stage.

And unfortunately, JDG will not be able to defend its crown in its home country in a few weeks time. The Beijing-based org was arguably China's best team last season, but the same can't be said this season. JDG were by no means terrible during the spring split as they finished third in the group stage, only losing out to Top in map differential. Even after they managed to take out last year's Worlds finalist Weibo Gaming, that was all JDG could manage as they couldn't get past Top after four games.

Of course, it's worth noting that JDG did make three significant changes to its starting line-up after they brought in two new toplaners alongside a new midlaner. And despite all that, JDG were still able to be in the top-three teams of the season thus far. Sadly, that isn't enough to get them to Chengdu and they will have to head back to the drawing board and prepare for the LPL Summer Split. There will also be the Esports World Cup to look forward to later this year as well.

The grand finals between BLG and Top will be an upper bracket final rematch to determine who can avoid the MSI Play-In Stage by lifting the LPL trophy. The last time Top won an LPL regional split was back in the Summer of 2020 where they defeated JDG in the grand finals. But if BLG were to win in a few days time, it will be the org's first-ever LPL title after making its debut in 2018.

The best-of-five series will take place this Saturday, April 20 at 6.00 p.m. GMT+8 to see which LPL team qualifies to which stage of MSI.