Riot Games has issued a statement confirming what participants of MSI 2022 already reported: the latency in-game was not what it was supposed to be. Originally, all teams were meant to play on a 35 ms ping, manually implemented to level the playing field with RNG, who are competing remotely. However, after three days of competition, Riot has confirmed that this latency has been higher than intended. The ping issues resulted in an unfair advantage for RNG, and thus Riot is making the LPL champions re-play all their Group Stage games.

"Following extensive technical evaluation of the competitive and training environments during the first three days of the 2022 Mid-Season Invitational, we discovered following Day 3 that there was a discrepancy in the latency being reported in-game logs for all matches versus what was being experienced in the Busan venue," the statement from Alex Francois, Global Head of Competitive Operations at Riot Games reads.

On May 11, the second day of the Mid-Season Invitational, the on-site team was made aware of concerns from pro players regarding the ping, the statement reads. They started their investigation on that day, looking at client logs and other facets to determine the cause of these complaints. The following day, on May 12, Riot simulated the competitive environment and confirmed that the technology was not working as intended.

RNG's games to be replayed

Because the ping issues only impacted teams on-site, LPL champions RNG were not affected. The team is competing remotely from China instead of being in the Busan venue because they were supposed to play in the 2022 Asian Games and could not make it to MSI in time. Since their opponents in the Group Stage (PSG Talon, RED Canids, and Istanbul Wildcats) were forced to play with more ping than RNG because of the technical issue, all games will be replayed.

"We have determined it is in the best interest of competitive integrity to replay all three of these matches," the statement reads.  RNG's group, group B, is playing its roundup matches today, on May 13. The re-played matches will not be taking place starting today. On May 14, after Group C's matches round up, RNG will play all of its games consecutively.