Paul Delos Santos is a reporter based in Las Vegas. He covers the Vegas Golden Knights for NHL.com and also covers esports and general Las Vegas sports for The Sporting Tribune. He’s a gamer who never has time to play them, so he naturally opted to write and talk about them instead.
Olivia Richman is a seasoned esports journalist who has worked with Inven Global, Esports Illustrated, Esports.gg, and more. As an editor and writer at Esports Insider, she loves telling unique esports stories, especially within the FGC. When not working and gaming, Olivia loves collecting Kirby plush, eating sushi, and driving her cars at the track.
Image Credit: Liu Yicun / Riot Games Underdog stories aren’t built on random happenstance. Rather, they are fostered through the unseen moments that fly under the radar.
League of Legends isn’t any different from any other form of competition. Teams are bracketed into their specific roles, similar to other sports.
China’s LPL is making a run at the dominant LCK, Korea’s top league. North America’s LCS and Europe’s LEC have a long-standing rivalry for who can claim to be the best in the Western Hemisphere.
At the bottom are Brazil’s CBLOL and the wide-ranging, five-country region known as the LCP.
Naturally, when the regions converge at international events, the LCP and CBLOL are widely viewed as the teams that would have the happy-to-be-stints.
But ask the region’s players about their aspirations during these tournaments, and they’ll reveal something more nuanced.
There is no false bravado in the teams. Instead, they view each opportunity to play outside of their regions as a chance to learn something valuable.
“I mean, definitely win probably against anything that’s not Asian would be like a good expectation,” FURIA midlaner Arthur “Tutsz” Machado said to Esports Insider. “Asian, I mean LCK or LPL. I think we, if we lose to [LCP], it’s kind of a little bit upsetting for us. So I think we’re definitely looking forward to beating G2 or Team Secret Whales. … I think we have a lot of strengths, and I think if we get good drafts and understand what we need to do, I think we’re going to be fine.”
For LCP champion Team Secret Whales and CBLOL champion FURIA, the Mid-Season Invitational 2026 served as a reminder of how far each region has come, but also offered a stern reminder that growth isn’t going to be linear.
Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games The CBLOL Cup was the event that would send a team from Brazil to First Stand for the first international in South America.
FURIA did not make it to First Stand, finishing third. They did, however, manage to earn a spot in the Americas Cup – a cross-region battle between the second- and third-place teams in the LCS and CBLOL.
While CBLOL had grown during the short-lived LTA experiment, much of the narrative was locked into the idea that, despite CBLOL’s strides toward competing, winning would remain difficult.
FURIA blew this expectation out of the water, going undefeated in the Americas Cup to secure a trophy for the region. They rode this momentum through the CBLOL Spring Split to book a trip to Korea for MSI.
“Super excited,” FURIA jungler Pedro “Tatu” Seixas said. “The next fight is about getting six spots for MSI, too. Because now we’re the only region without a second MSI spot. Let’s fight for it. Dude, let’s get some wins, enter some tournaments.”
Entering the tournament, expectations were high. Winning had already happened, but now it…