More than 1.7 million players engaged with Crystal Ball and Pick ‘Ems during the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational, making it one of the standout fan experiences of the tournament. Behind every stat those fans tracked was official data from GRID.
Crystal Ball, a long-running community favourite, challenges fans to predict how players and teams will perform across a range of in-game stats, earning points for correct predictions as a tournament unfolds. For MSI 2026, GRID powered the game’s ‘Stats Tracking’ hub, embedding official match data and stats visualisations directly into the fan experience through the game client for seamless tournament tracking.
GRID’s Stats Feed API supplied the data behind every Crystal Ball question, from KDA and win rates to Elder Dragons slayed, damage per game, objectives completed, and most first bloods. It also delivered the leaderboard widgets, Crystal Ball Recap Components and Stat Spotlights that fans returned to throughout the tournament.
Because that data came directly from the game servers, every Crystal Ball statistic was verifiable and fast, straight from the source. For fans, that meant a reliable and accurate way to track their predictions from the group stage to the final.
“At Riot, esports fans have always been at the centre of what we do,” said Doug Watson, Head of Business Strategy for Global Esports at Riot Games. “Crystal Ball is a great example of what’s possible when you listen to the community and apply official data where fans are already engaged. The same data that has been used across integrity, broadcast innovation and more, is now enhancing the experience for LoL fans in real time.”
The integration marked another step in GRID’s partnership with Riot Games, turning official match data into an elite fan-facing product for League of Legends esports fans.
Crystal Ball stats and results from MSI are available now on LoL Esports.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, which has gone on to be one of the most-played PC games in the world. In the years since, Riot has released VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Riftbound and 2XKO. Riot’s titles have led to the creation of some of the most-watched and widely recognized esports in the world, culminating in events like the League of Legends World Championship, VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) and the TFT Open, which are watched by millions of fans each year. Riot has also expanded its IP through multimedia projects across music, comic books, board games, and Arcane, its Emmy-winning animated series.
riotgames.com
About GRID
GRID is the official esports data platform, holding exclusive live data rights with the game publishers and tournament organisers behind the world’s biggest esports titles. GRID distributes live data to rights holders, media platforms, fan experiences and technology partners with products including live data feeds, video streaming and fan-facing widgets, all built on a single source of truth from the game server.
grid.gg
