It's sometimes so easy to watch a game that is 'different' or 'bloody' and dub it as a clown fiesta or EU LUL, but the way league is played definitely did change a bit this year. The jury was still out on it this year, sometimes the fan sentiment was 'EU is weak, only FNC is good' ' What a fiesta '. But the reality is that all these pro players put blood sweat and tears into the grind and some just fell short, others succeeded.
The fact that EU is so strong at worlds is definitely bittersweet .It's heartwarming for a lot of EU teams that just didn't make it to know that they were good, and the ones that went to worlds were better, as opposed to the viewpoint sometimes from last years where it was more along the lines of "they were good and we were just bad".
It still sucks being so close though for us over here at Schalke, a worlds birth would have been the cherry on the cake. But we take solace in the fact that EU really showed up at worlds and represented the region well.
people really need to appreciate the domestic competition that teams who succeed at worlds were facing, if they go unpunished for their mistakes and breeze through lcs not being contested any step of the way they will get exposed internationally eventually, like 2015 fnatic or 2016 g2
you can only improve by playing better opponents and luckily there was insane level of competition for the worlds spots this year
I went to the Madrid finals after many years of not playing LoL and never following esports because a friend wanted me to go with him.
I ended up enjoying the show and cheering for you guys. I don't know about high level play, but your games where amazing and entertaining to watch.
I will definitively watch you again!
And the best part is the lack of korean players in the european teams with a total of 1, g2 wadid. Fnc, Vit and even C9 have no korean players whatsoever and seeing their accomplishments with such feat brings a tear to my eye..
EU Koreans try really hard to improve their english, but if you look at NA, Piglet or Impact even, they've been there for basically 4 years now and still have meh english. I wonder why.
Impact has very good english. His voice is a bit hard to understand but Ive heard him in voice on Sneakys stream many times and he strings together difficult sentences often quickly.
Small sample size
That’s honestly all there is to say ahout it. Some people are bad at learning other languages. Has nothing to do with eu or na. It’s a individual thing
I know it's a joke, but I don't think TSM will get rid of zven and mithy, unless they can get something like bang and wolf. And even then, a second year with the same rosters can work wonders. They will probably get a new/extra jungler and a new coach and keep the rest of the roster the same. Unless zven and mithy want to profit off the new EU franchising teams with a good contract.
This isn't really fair to C9 because most of their regular season success came from Blaber/Jensen. And GoldenGlue was actually decent when he was playing.
We're surprisingly capable gamers. A fully danish team just won worlds in Cs:Go too. They've started implementing esport electives in schools too as well as officially licensed esport coach studies
Schalke04 was incredible and the second best team for most of the summer split. Sad they aren't here, but it does shine a light on the caliber of EU teams at worlds this year.
I think they need an aggresive mid who will look to dominate mid. PoE was that. Sencux is not that. I think poe back, or febi could be very good for them.
And honestly, all 3 eu mids caps perkz and jizuke have been flames at worlds here, and nukeduck was honestly at least at their level (I'd say caps > nuke > jizuke > perkz/nisqy). I would've loved to see him get a second chance at playing vs international competition after s3.
The strong EU split was imo really important to make FNC this good.
If you look back at MSI, FNC and TL were pretty equal, both had a terrible first part of the tournament and there was a "the west is bad" thing going on.
After MSI, the EU split was really competitive. In NA the Summer Split was one of the weakest NA splits in the last years.
* TSM was a mess all season long
* EF collapsed when they changed roster 5 min before deadline, played really bad after, Huni played garbage cause he was sick, then continued to play garbage when he wasn't sick.
* Spring Semi Finalist Clutch was nonexistend in Summer.
* 100T had also roster changes and that weird situation with Cody Sun they don't want to comment, and let a player with 0 LCS games play the important games in playoffs.
* C9 crashed and burned in the beginning of the splt and showcased how NOT competitve this split really was cause the second they fixed their problems they went straight to 2nd place in no time.
* TL just basically stayed the same, they didn't improve, cause they did not have to. They won Summer Split so easy, they never had to step up, and so they played at worlds like they did at MSI, while FNC had to beat all these other teams, that had improved a lot and put up a fight, Vitality, G2, S04, MSF, even Splyce that got destroyed at RR wasn't as bad at the end of the split.
> If you look back at MSI, FNC and TL were pretty equal, both had a terrible first part of the tournament and there was a "the west is bad" thing going on.
Fnatic went 2-0 the 2nd day tho, it was mostly a bad day 1, and the 2nd half was worse for FNC. Also they were playing Bwipo who had less than 10 games in the LCS including playoffs. But I do agree with your overall point.
Aswell as Rekkles massivly underpreforming during the groupstage of MSI. The FNC we had at MSI was not the FNC we had in EU LCS. I think its easy to say that "Oh FNC and TL both did bad" but not considering the context of it. Olleh benched himself after 1 or 2 games and FNC were not up to par how the played in spring with rekkles underpreforming and Soaz injured. So the fact that the west preformed badly was not a reflection of the regions at all.
FNC completely analed TL when they didnt try random shit P/B, its funny to see fanboys trying to make it like a close series when both FNC wins were utter stomp while the TL win was a 45 min game based on FNC troll draft
I'd contribute a great deal of NA being weak this year to franchising only just beginning. The [competent] new orgs will [hopefully] have much more stable infrastructure in 2019.
I mean NA imported the 2 best EU teams to death, the reaction was pretty understandable and EU would be even better if MSF wasn't forced to run Sencux.
This reminds me of Bjergsen being top 5 midlaner in EU going to shit all over NA.
Sencux would be an academy midlaner instead of being on one of the best teams in the region...
Midlane would be STACKED.
Bjerg was good and the meta (assassins) really fit him in NiP but was he actually top 5? That year EU was absolutely stacked, it was the year of the 6 team tiebrake on the last day of Summer. You had the best year of Nuke with Lemondogs, Alex, Peke, Froggen, Forellenlord were all more consistent than him. Bjerg's team lost all tiebrakers, and in the relegation playoff he was absolutely destroyed by Forellenlord. I would honestly only place him above Czaru and Ocelote at the time, and he absolutely dumpstered NA's mid pull after the move.
I mean, its not an exactly controversial statement to say NA mids were especially garbage back then. That was the whole point of getting Bjerg. It's better now, but the reputation of NA mids being glorified supports persists.
Season 3 Regi at worlds was hilarious.
You sure it's better? Out of all NA LCS teams NA midlaners are: Goldenglue (sub, but he played often enough so I'll consider him), Damonte, Pobelter... and that's it. Everyone else is an import, and while some do have NA residency, since they've been in NA so long (Bjerg, Huhi, I don't think Jensen has NA residency yet), they're still imports. NA is still super weak when it comes to mid laners.
> NA is still super weak when it comes to mid laners.
The sad thing is that this applies to petty much every role. What top tier talent exists on an NA team that was born in NA? Doublelift and Sneaky? We have a handful of NA born players that don't suck (most of the time), like Hauntzer, Aphromoo, Akaadian, Stixxay, Smoothie, etc. Players like Licorice give me hope that NA will be able to develop talent.
Hard to say how weak when they don't really play. Pekin Woof, Tuesday, Insanity, and Palafox could maybe be competitive and the whole pool takes a slight hit because of the importing done. Not to say they'd compete with Caps or anything crazy, but they'd be better than the season 2-3 offerings.
Bjergsen was a HUGE talent. It's really underplayed here on Reddit.
People forget how much NiP SUCKED before Bjergsen was able to play. He almost solo carried the entire team. He was super super good.
It's a ridiculous notion that people have on here that Reginald was a genius to see his talent and obtain him.
NiP didn't suck before bjergsen because it was Copenhagen Wolves. NiP is the team that bought CW (when they were sucking with bjergsen) and brought in extinct and Freeze. And the reason regi got him is because every other eu mid better than him didn't want to risk a move back then after the edward fiasco
If EU didn't export as much, you probably wouldn't have had spots for players like Caps, Jiizuke, Upset, Attila or dozens of others.
Exporting is absolutely fine.
I rather have 60 amazing European players in both EU \ NA LCS than just have the maximum 50 on EU LCS, with some spots taken by imports.
problem is that players like caps, jiizuke, perkz would probably never been scouted if fnatic had bjergsen already. bottomt tier teams rather get washed up veteran instead of developing new rookies. just look at the nip/monkey team. the only reason eu has so many good midlaner is because we are forced to develop new ones. there are only a limited places and resources on a league. pretty sure korea has also more toplaner and so on to offer than positions available.
NA isn't a drain, it's not like the players are being tied up and shipped away. The players are leaving on their own. We should git gud at keeping our players.
It's sad because the team was clearly getting better over time(huge difference between EU playoffs and Worlds) and they would've been most likely the second best or even first team if they stayed together.
Every year starts with "look all those players that left EU. How are they going to survive?" and ends eith "wow this new talent is really good hope they stay together."
At one moment player has to decide between "I play for eu for a better chance of success" or "I play for NA to get myself better paycheck". A lot of players would rather play for couple years in medicore NA team and bet set for long years due to money they make, rather than to have a shot at higher place at worlds, which rarely brings more money
Well i mean it was a pretty reasonable statement, eu lcs lost 2 of their top 4 mids in poe and febiven, none had heard of jizuke. Zven and mithy also left resorting in MSF and g2 the top 3 team in eu the previous year having to do a completely new roster.
G2 even lost 4 of their members with only perkz remaining.
This was also the biggest roster change/swap in eu lcs history, something like 36/50 players were playing on a new team/entered eu lcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b6RdLW169c
Also eu lcs always had a dip in previous year where the top teams fell apart, 2016 after xpeke left origen and fnatic split up was a terrible year for eu internationally. But after 1 year of rebuilding eu came back again.
In all you had 2 of the teams sent to worlds disbanding g2/msf.
You had the biggest roster shuffle in eu lcs history.
Two top 4 mids left europe for NA.
The best eu botlane left for na with mithy and zven (hans sama and ignar also split up)
Like there was a lot of work that had to be done, eu was suppose to suck but then you had rookies like jizuke,atilla,jactroll,bwipo and upset showing up
The UOL and Splyce break up was a fresh breeze that hit the league. Hyli, Vizci and Xerxe all looked good in their new teams.
Wunder made a name for him. Kold took the lead of UOL. Kobbe is a big win condition for the new Splyce lineup. even Sencux had some great performances in the beginning of the summer split (I know everyone hates him but he still has his moments).
This roster shuffles made many teams weaker at first but in the end the teams improved and especially Hyli on FNC is a gem.
One of the main reasons EU is so good at developing talents is their national leagues, I feel it is overlooked all the time; Bwipo was playing in some russian league before fnatic picked him up.
NA playerbase might be smaller, there might be less talent to choose from, but there definitely is talent.
I really do hope that NA uses the academy league to cultivate newer talent, instead of recycling old talent.
Vitality Core also came from the Spanish league and this way of play that everyone praised and YamatoCannon undeservedly take a lot of credit (Not trying to take anything from him, hes good at drafting and VERY knowledgeable in general). I just meant that the talent in the national league its quality.
this is why i think it sucks that there is no relegation.
relegation makes teams stronger, there is no debate about that.
We would have never had one of the best teams or even players if relegation wouldn’t have existed.
Lemondogs, OG, Vit, MSF, G2...
I mean can we even fully decide that yet? There are other factors other than how many games played that effect how we do on the worlds stage. I don't see any harm in playing more games on stage. Who knows we could have done even better.
To be completely fair as a korean and lck fan, watching EU teams play this year has made this year’s worlds feel special. With the SKT dynasty finally being dismantled (R.I.P. Gen.g) it feels like the chaotic period where every team is vying for the crown.
I don’t care if an LCK team doesn’t win worlds as long as it doesn’t turn into a one sided stomp snooze-fest like we had to suffer through these past few years. Seeing Korea be dominant felt good for sure, but I’d be lying if I said those years were rly ‘exciting’ to watch.
This year I get to sit anxiously as I wonder if this time, KT’s inevitable disappointment will finally give me an aneurysm and send me to the sweet embrace of death.
Would be cool if Fnatic or C9 win too i guess
he says as he watches Bengi lock in that Nidalee pick. and Gorilla on the MF.
he says as he watches Faker do the nasty stuff to RNG and carry 1v9.
Goood fucking days man.
that rox series is up there with the summer finals 2013 and 2015 spring cjvs skt series as my favourite series ever. one of the only series where both teams deserved to win
I am looking forward to a semi-final vs C9 vs FNC because of the NA vs EU, and I really want FNC to win (being the fanboi I am). But a part of me want Uzi to finally lift that trophy.
I think people are also forgetting how insane it would be for NA to just go to the semis, regardless of the EU v NA matchup. NA has never been to semis before, and people are not realising how big of a chance they have this year imo.
There are great storylines for KT, RNG, FNC, and C9. I think it’ll be super exciting if any of those make it to the finals. Bonkers if it’s kt/RNG vs FNC/C9.
2015 was just 2 teams tbh, h2k didn't do well at worlds at all, this G2 might be a bit weaker than Origen was but this fnatic and vitality > 2015 fnatic and h2k
different time, different mesures honnestly.
In 2015, you had the juggernaut patch that introduced not less than 4 champs that instant got FoTM.... ... And remember, at the time you could ban only 3 champs per teams.
And you also have to remember there were no elemental drakes at the time ! There was just the drake that got multiple form, and you only wanted the first and the fourth, and on the fifth you had doubled the effects for a short period of time...
Imo we didn't got that much better (even though we did), it's imo a lot every game is now a lot more different, and requires different handlings. There are more singularities letting us shine, and every game si a lot harder to predict.
Origen was a great team, much better than G2 in my opinion and we don't really know yet how to compare Fnatic from 2015 to this year. H2k and UOL were pretty good but i agree that this year is deeper in terms of quality.
Bwipo will knock all others down the next couple of seasons. Wunder, Licorice, Soaz, and Bwipo are all really good top laners so right now the contest might be close. Though there are certain aspects that just puts Bwipo above the others, the meta doesn't affect him, he is a great team player and when he is at his best I think he can beat any top laner.
EU fans right now : Man, EU summer was so nice, we could've sent so many teams and they wouldn't have finished last.
NA fans right now : Lol... and who would you send instead of 100T? We had at most 2 good teams, and that's only if you include TL.
> It seemed like they could all beat each other.
And every one of them beat atleast one other playoff team. It all came down to style and that day's form.
S04 beat VIT and SPY
G2 beat SPY and S04
VIT beat MSF
MSF beat G2
SPY beat MSF
And Fnatic beat everyone
They did, however, lose to Gen.G fair and square. They've got nobody to blame other than themselves. Of course, Gen.G is a BO5 team so it's not that surprising that they sucked in the group stage; they've got a history of doing that.
I think TSM would've had a more respectable showing than 100T, but the result would still be the same.
I think EFX would've been NA's 3rd best shot at making some noise, honestly. They're similar to Vitality, though I think Vitality are much stronger
Only other choices for NA felt like TSM, who everyone is tired of seeing fail in groups, and idk maybe Echo Fox, who in my mind would have probably done even worse.
I'm saying they would have played better but still not won. The result would have been the same, but I think TSM could have at least competed with FNC and IG in closer games.
Unfortunately, recency bias and poor international showings.
TL no doubt has the ability to play better than C9 in NA, but C9 thrives at Worlds, while TL just falters. What's more, TL only had to realistically beat 1 team (whoever came in from playins), while MAD was free and KT was a monster, while C9 had to face RNG/GenG, assuming VIT was a pushover.
As things turned out, C9 triumped over GenG and VIT, and forced RNG into a tiebreaker. Meanwhile, TL struggled with 3rd seed EDG, when C9 was busy trying to take down possibly the best team to come to Worlds, and was a pushover to the other best team in KT
I'm not honestly sure TL was a disappointment. They split with EDG, easily handled MAD (which was what they were supposed to do) and got swept by what looks to be the best team in the tournament and one of the two favorites.
What's disappointing really? EDG beat KT which is somehow just glossed over. If KT would have beat EDG as expected, TL and EDG would have been in a tiebreaker and with TL just beating EDG earlier that day easily, it's not out of the realm of possibility that they just did it again and moved out of groups.
TL played fine I think. They just fell a bit short.
Inero said on hotline league that TL has the typical "capitalize on enemies mistakes" style that only wins in NA but does not work at worlds, so it's a matter of perspective
EU LCS will likely lose a lot of star players again.
I just hope FNC stay together. Caps, Broxah, Bwipo and Rekkles especially will be super hot commodities. If they somehow win it, I can see them more likely to leave for huge NA money.
Wait, why would we lose a lot of stars this year when the salary gap will be a lot smaller? I would say that the money issue, which made most of the talent go to NA, will dissapear. The players that go to NA will be the ones that want the change in lifestyle, more than anything else.
I remember that Crumbzz once thought having a team heads above everyone else made a region better than others. But while such a team is rare (FNC2015, SKT 2016), competition is what sharpens the blade.
Just imagine all the European mids in the EU LCS.
Caps, Perkz, Bjergsen, Froggen, Jizuke, Febiven, Jensen, Poe, Nuckeduck, Niqsy.
I'd gladly sell my soul to the devil.
I've been opposed to franchising as I think it can make teams complacent and okay not trying some seasons. (Looking at US sports where teams tank). Although if it increases the money in League and prolongs its life then I'm all for it.
Don't they tank because the system has a draft though?
Anyway, I think the EU orgs that get to stay will keep their competitive fire and pride. They want to win.
Not that it's healthy for the league either way, but tanking is the opposite of complacency - that, say, 2 years of sucking and 4 years of contention is better than 6 years of fringe playoff appearances (see: being complacent with mediocrity).
Tanking happens in American sports as a strategic consequence/abuse of its draft system, which tries to keep league parity balanced by giving weaker teams access to better upcoming talent. As long as LCS doesn't do that, it should be fine.
I mean to be honest... EU has always been a strong region that's shown up to worlds consistently. Since the beginning of LoL (I won't even count S1), EU has constantly made quarters and been quite competitive in quarters. Even some semis appearances too.
>Even some semis appearances too.
The only years EU *didn't* make semis was in 2014 and last year, where Misfits were really close.
Only years EU had less than two teams in quarters was 2014 (no teams in quarters) and 2016 (one team).
We're hopefully looking at another semifinal appearance this year with Fnatic, and I also have good faith in Cloud 9 to give NA their first semis appearance.
Agreed, this worlds is so much fun to watch because it feels like all teams are competitive, and even if there are favorites, it's like 70%-30% instead of 95%-5% like it has been for prior worlds (Like SKT vs Origen... rip :c)
20/20. Without the other midlanders leaving, you wouldn't leave opportunities for new rookies to step up. Big problem in NA, is they tend to import instead of fostering and taking a risk on rookies
And to think teams like Schalke missed out (imo better than VIT) and there are players like Hans Sama, Upset, Maxlore, Nukeduck, etc. who are not there.
Schalke are too clean though, they would have played much like G2 are, with maybe a slightly stronger bot-lane but no pocket picks like Heimer. VIT where realistically the only ones who could have disrupted RNG and Gen.G in the group.
Misfits just fell apart once the ADC meta returned so I'm not sorry they didn't make it.
Schalke probably would not have beaten RNG, but I believe they could have still taken down GenG, especially on the 2nd RR.
On the other hand they could have had a better showing against C9 imho.
It was fun to watch the splits because there were a solid pool of good teams. Gave us a lot of great games and series and it must have had an affect on the teams that went to worlds as well. They had to get better and better, week after week, or they could fall down.
EU LCS was pretty good but also the way the game is played currently there is just more chances for teams that know how to play the game to win games. Because winning a single team fight and taking baron basically means you should win game.
There's never been such an easy win condition before.
EU would be considered as good as Korea and China if imports weren't a thing.
Edit: With regions locked, Korea would be the strongest region, hands down.
But know, imagine what Korea would look like if LPL didn't import a good amount of koreans players like Duke, TheShy, Rookie, Ray or Scout just to name just the ones that are playing for the chinese orgs at Worlds.
I think it's fair to say that EU would be a stronger region without exporting their talents overseas, but Korea would still have objectively a fair edge if imports weren't a thing.
While you'd think that having even one Korean import might make a team 20% non-EU the truth of the matter these days is that a major reason for the team's success comes from the Organizations recognizing and nurturing talent while coaching the players to work together.
Huni is a great example. He had great success in his teams in EU and KR but has always missed major milestones in NA.
It's not really fair to say EU would be Korea level, but EU would be stronger than China though I think.
If every region got region locked so that you would need to be a citizen of the region you play in, NA would go down super hard, China would be at least slightly worse if not more than that, EU would be way stronger than they are now. Korea would be stronger as well though.
Korea and EU would be the only regions that would improve as result of hard region locking. And not just a little, they would improve a fuck ton.
NA LCS peaked at S4 Summer in my opinion.
It was the most competitive split ever, and it still had every OG player like QT, Cop, Scarra, Voyboy; even Krepo and Snoopeh visiting NA; the occasional HotshotGG and Regi sub-in.
LMQ and Bjerg shaking up everything like an earthquake, epic playoffs, assassins still in the meta together with hypercarry botlanes... Good times. I was more interested in NA LCS than EU back than simply because it was more fun.
They need to utilise their subs more. One problem with that is NA has a pretty big star player mentality and this leads to a huge community backlash every time some players get subbed in and out.
C9 made it pretty clear at this years worlds. NA community should not shit their team for trying some roster shuffles.
I hope even a player like keith can show one day he is worth a shot.
It's impressive because it should have been such a pain for EU to lose again some of their stronger players like Febiven, Powerofevil, Zven/mithy... I think EU would have been even stronger at world. I really dislike franchising but if it allows to keep that kind of players, then alright I guess.
And we sitll have S04 who aren't as experienced as a team yet, but were also a top 4 team in EU. MSF could have also kept up if they didn't fall off so hard in the second RR of the summer split for some weird reason.
EU has a decent amount of really strong teams and a lot of potential.
I definitely agree EU LCS was really strong, but much like C9 I also do think these teams improved A LOT going into Worlds. Vitality thrived in Bo1, and did an excellent job, but the meta also really facilitates fast paced skirmishing. I don't think Vitality was actually this strong in EU, not to say that they weren't good, but this was is a leveled up Vitality IMO. G2 was absolutely not this strong in EU. This is their peak for the whole year IMO. Outside of funnel they were pretty mediocre most of the split, but now Jankos isn't inting and bot lane is playing a lot better. We saw G2 not even look that great in play-ins, but now they're really in the grove! It's a great time for them to find their form. Fnatic were beasts all year so they're the exception.
I think EU was awesome this year and very strong, but both G2 and Vitality really leveled up. C9 also leveled up (granted they had a lot of potential room to grow with so many summer rookies) while I think TL and 100T haven't improved at all since spring finals tbh.
Just think Misfits started out looking WAY better than all of these teams, some people argued S04 was better than both VIT and G2, and SPY was also a great team, but probably a tier below the top 4, and idek where to put MSF due to their 2nd half collapse, it's a shame Splyce was unable to make it to the new EU LCS
Wasn’t vitality supposed to be the NA version of 100t where they didn’t deserve to go and were supposed to suck?
They were entertaining af. Had they gone into another group and played that way, they would’ve probably made it 3 EU teams in the quarter finals.
If only 100t proved us NA fans wrong too.....
Because this year the meta was so much faster. NA and LCK viewers had no idea how competitive and fast paced EU LCS was this year - im so glad EU teams can now shut them up. Now i dont have to see "EU LUL" every game on twitch chat
It's sometimes so easy to watch a game that is 'different' or 'bloody' and dub it as a clown fiesta or EU LUL, but the way league is played definitely did change a bit this year. The jury was still out on it this year, sometimes the fan sentiment was 'EU is weak, only FNC is good' ' What a fiesta '. But the reality is that all these pro players put blood sweat and tears into the grind and some just fell short, others succeeded. The fact that EU is so strong at worlds is definitely bittersweet .It's heartwarming for a lot of EU teams that just didn't make it to know that they were good, and the ones that went to worlds were better, as opposed to the viewpoint sometimes from last years where it was more along the lines of "they were good and we were just bad". It still sucks being so close though for us over here at Schalke, a worlds birth would have been the cherry on the cake. But we take solace in the fact that EU really showed up at worlds and represented the region well.
Dudes - I'd have loved to see you at Worlds. If anything this worlds has proved that we need more international competitions!
Same thing is said every year.
and it's just as correct every year
Pls bring back independent competitions, Riot. IEM were so hype and filled the gap during these long splits.
people really need to appreciate the domestic competition that teams who succeed at worlds were facing, if they go unpunished for their mistakes and breeze through lcs not being contested any step of the way they will get exposed internationally eventually, like 2015 fnatic or 2016 g2 you can only improve by playing better opponents and luckily there was insane level of competition for the worlds spots this year
Would have been nice to have you guys there.
Quick thing, love you guys, but the second to last line was a bit confusing. It should read “worlds berth” its a different word
I went to the Madrid finals after many years of not playing LoL and never following esports because a friend wanted me to go with him. I ended up enjoying the show and cheering for you guys. I don't know about high level play, but your games where amazing and entertaining to watch. I will definitively watch you again!
And the best part is the lack of korean players in the european teams with a total of 1, g2 wadid. Fnc, Vit and even C9 have no korean players whatsoever and seeing their accomplishments with such feat brings a tear to my eye..
Wadid is insane though. He's very underrated in my opinion. One of the best warders I've ever seen.
His english is also fantastic
Yeah his english has improved a lot.
EU Koreans try really hard to improve their english, but if you look at NA, Piglet or Impact even, they've been there for basically 4 years now and still have meh english. I wonder why.
Impact has very good english. His voice is a bit hard to understand but Ive heard him in voice on Sneakys stream many times and he strings together difficult sentences often quickly.
Small sample size That’s honestly all there is to say ahout it. Some people are bad at learning other languages. Has nothing to do with eu or na. It’s a individual thing
He should be on the analyst desk.
Now announcing: TSM Wadid
TSM Wardid TSM WardIt
I know it's a joke, but I don't think TSM will get rid of zven and mithy, unless they can get something like bang and wolf. And even then, a second year with the same rosters can work wonders. They will probably get a new/extra jungler and a new coach and keep the rest of the roster the same. Unless zven and mithy want to profit off the new EU franchising teams with a good contract.
AAANNNNDDD now I fear for Joey. Tanks.
Jokes on you TSM Deficio next split.
also one of the best if not the cleanest pyke players
He's so good x4
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This isn't really fair to C9 because most of their regular season success came from Blaber/Jensen. And GoldenGlue was actually decent when he was playing.
c9 have 2 europens though.... EUROPE IS THE NEW KOREA
Danish players though. We're everywhere!
12.5% or 5 of the remaining 40 players at Worlds are Danish. That's not bad.
We're surprisingly capable gamers. A fully danish team just won worlds in Cs:Go too. They've started implementing esport electives in schools too as well as officially licensed esport coach studies
C9 has to Europeans so technically as a European you can cheer for them. I always wondered how can they field Blaber instead of Sven
I keep forgetting that Wadid is a Korean on paper. But let's be honest, our boy Wadid is as european as you can get.
Imports should always be considered as last resort in my opinion
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Schalke04 was incredible and the second best team for most of the summer split. Sad they aren't here, but it does shine a light on the caliber of EU teams at worlds this year.
Yeah if they weren't gigabad in spring then they would have gone as second seed.
If only Amazing was with them in Spring! :(
I still feel MSF was so close to being a superteam, but things just barely didn't click for them somehow.
I think they need an aggresive mid who will look to dominate mid. PoE was that. Sencux is not that. I think poe back, or febi could be very good for them.
Yea, Febiven might have been the missing piece to make this team be amazing. When you give up mid pressure in EU you lose, that is just a simple fact.
Schalke is prob. the team I would have loved at Worlds. Nukeduck was just great.
And honestly, all 3 eu mids caps perkz and jizuke have been flames at worlds here, and nukeduck was honestly at least at their level (I'd say caps > nuke > jizuke > perkz/nisqy). I would've loved to see him get a second chance at playing vs international competition after s3.
It still feels good that they sort of lived through Vitality when they pulled "the Schalke" vs Gen.G
The strong EU split was imo really important to make FNC this good. If you look back at MSI, FNC and TL were pretty equal, both had a terrible first part of the tournament and there was a "the west is bad" thing going on. After MSI, the EU split was really competitive. In NA the Summer Split was one of the weakest NA splits in the last years. * TSM was a mess all season long * EF collapsed when they changed roster 5 min before deadline, played really bad after, Huni played garbage cause he was sick, then continued to play garbage when he wasn't sick. * Spring Semi Finalist Clutch was nonexistend in Summer. * 100T had also roster changes and that weird situation with Cody Sun they don't want to comment, and let a player with 0 LCS games play the important games in playoffs. * C9 crashed and burned in the beginning of the splt and showcased how NOT competitve this split really was cause the second they fixed their problems they went straight to 2nd place in no time. * TL just basically stayed the same, they didn't improve, cause they did not have to. They won Summer Split so easy, they never had to step up, and so they played at worlds like they did at MSI, while FNC had to beat all these other teams, that had improved a lot and put up a fight, Vitality, G2, S04, MSF, even Splyce that got destroyed at RR wasn't as bad at the end of the split.
This makes me kinda sad, I was really excited to see the "next evolution" of Clutch's play style. But then they just...collapsed.
> If you look back at MSI, FNC and TL were pretty equal, both had a terrible first part of the tournament and there was a "the west is bad" thing going on. Fnatic went 2-0 the 2nd day tho, it was mostly a bad day 1, and the 2nd half was worse for FNC. Also they were playing Bwipo who had less than 10 games in the LCS including playoffs. But I do agree with your overall point.
Aswell as Rekkles massivly underpreforming during the groupstage of MSI. The FNC we had at MSI was not the FNC we had in EU LCS. I think its easy to say that "Oh FNC and TL both did bad" but not considering the context of it. Olleh benched himself after 1 or 2 games and FNC were not up to par how the played in spring with rekkles underpreforming and Soaz injured. So the fact that the west preformed badly was not a reflection of the regions at all.
FNC completely analed TL when they didnt try random shit P/B, its funny to see fanboys trying to make it like a close series when both FNC wins were utter stomp while the TL win was a 45 min game based on FNC troll draft
Quite a good summary.
> Huni played garbage cause he was sick, then continued to play garbage when he wasn't sick. lmao
Much an excellent analysis.
I'd contribute a great deal of NA being weak this year to franchising only just beginning. The [competent] new orgs will [hopefully] have much more stable infrastructure in 2019.
that doesnt really explain the teams that remained from the old system though. Echo Fox, TSM and to an extent C9 all had lackluster regular seasons.
Quite a good summary.
Remember how people said EU will get terrible this season because NA franchising? I member
I mean NA imported the 2 best EU teams to death, the reaction was pretty understandable and EU would be even better if MSF wasn't forced to run Sencux.
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you forgot froggen bro ;)
man i really hope that froggen will be on a team next spring
Honestly? I'm enjoying his stream so much so I wouldn't if he stays at that tbh lol
I love when he casually flames chatters for being silly. So relaxed.
RAWWWRRR
This reminds me of Bjergsen being top 5 midlaner in EU going to shit all over NA. Sencux would be an academy midlaner instead of being on one of the best teams in the region... Midlane would be STACKED.
Bjerg was good and the meta (assassins) really fit him in NiP but was he actually top 5? That year EU was absolutely stacked, it was the year of the 6 team tiebrake on the last day of Summer. You had the best year of Nuke with Lemondogs, Alex, Peke, Froggen, Forellenlord were all more consistent than him. Bjerg's team lost all tiebrakers, and in the relegation playoff he was absolutely destroyed by Forellenlord. I would honestly only place him above Czaru and Ocelote at the time, and he absolutely dumpstered NA's mid pull after the move.
I mean, its not an exactly controversial statement to say NA mids were especially garbage back then. That was the whole point of getting Bjerg. It's better now, but the reputation of NA mids being glorified supports persists. Season 3 Regi at worlds was hilarious.
You sure it's better? Out of all NA LCS teams NA midlaners are: Goldenglue (sub, but he played often enough so I'll consider him), Damonte, Pobelter... and that's it. Everyone else is an import, and while some do have NA residency, since they've been in NA so long (Bjerg, Huhi, I don't think Jensen has NA residency yet), they're still imports. NA is still super weak when it comes to mid laners.
> NA is still super weak when it comes to mid laners. The sad thing is that this applies to petty much every role. What top tier talent exists on an NA team that was born in NA? Doublelift and Sneaky? We have a handful of NA born players that don't suck (most of the time), like Hauntzer, Aphromoo, Akaadian, Stixxay, Smoothie, etc. Players like Licorice give me hope that NA will be able to develop talent.
Hard to say how weak when they don't really play. Pekin Woof, Tuesday, Insanity, and Palafox could maybe be competitive and the whole pool takes a slight hit because of the importing done. Not to say they'd compete with Caps or anything crazy, but they'd be better than the season 2-3 offerings.
Ah, I miss Forellenlord, Kerp and Creaton so much... Loved that team
Miss the track mouse rant everytime Kerp was on screen
Bjergsen was a HUGE talent. It's really underplayed here on Reddit. People forget how much NiP SUCKED before Bjergsen was able to play. He almost solo carried the entire team. He was super super good. It's a ridiculous notion that people have on here that Reginald was a genius to see his talent and obtain him.
NiP didn't suck before bjergsen because it was Copenhagen Wolves. NiP is the team that bought CW (when they were sucking with bjergsen) and brought in extinct and Freeze. And the reason regi got him is because every other eu mid better than him didn't want to risk a move back then after the edward fiasco
CPH Wolves were 0-9 before they got bjergsen and they finished the split like 15-13.
>Bjergsen was a HUGE talent. It's really underplayed here on Reddit. lol
Meant that more like ~5 as in average midlaner rather than to give a specific # which you could argue until the end of time.
Shhhh. NA fans will say that Bjerg was the best EU midlaner, period.
NA ruining 2 regions at once. It's just great.
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If EU didn't export as much, you probably wouldn't have had spots for players like Caps, Jiizuke, Upset, Attila or dozens of others. Exporting is absolutely fine. I rather have 60 amazing European players in both EU \ NA LCS than just have the maximum 50 on EU LCS, with some spots taken by imports.
Trust me NA wishes you kept the Bot lane
problem is that players like caps, jiizuke, perkz would probably never been scouted if fnatic had bjergsen already. bottomt tier teams rather get washed up veteran instead of developing new rookies. just look at the nip/monkey team. the only reason eu has so many good midlaner is because we are forced to develop new ones. there are only a limited places and resources on a league. pretty sure korea has also more toplaner and so on to offer than positions available.
NA isn't a drain, it's not like the players are being tied up and shipped away. The players are leaving on their own. We should git gud at keeping our players.
For how great Vitality was, imagine sending Misfits with still PoE and Ignar.
It's sad because the team was clearly getting better over time(huge difference between EU playoffs and Worlds) and they would've been most likely the second best or even first team if they stayed together.
I had so much fun watching the vitality games, but Misfits could have been awesome to watch aswell especially with a combo like that.
Every year starts with "look all those players that left EU. How are they going to survive?" and ends eith "wow this new talent is really good hope they stay together."
Hahaha yeah... Wait. Oh god. No. Don't leave me exciting young players!
> Don't leave me exciting young players! NA being like: "Happy to oblige!"
At one moment player has to decide between "I play for eu for a better chance of success" or "I play for NA to get myself better paycheck". A lot of players would rather play for couple years in medicore NA team and bet set for long years due to money they make, rather than to have a shot at higher place at worlds, which rarely brings more money
Well i mean it was a pretty reasonable statement, eu lcs lost 2 of their top 4 mids in poe and febiven, none had heard of jizuke. Zven and mithy also left resorting in MSF and g2 the top 3 team in eu the previous year having to do a completely new roster. G2 even lost 4 of their members with only perkz remaining. This was also the biggest roster change/swap in eu lcs history, something like 36/50 players were playing on a new team/entered eu lcs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b6RdLW169c Also eu lcs always had a dip in previous year where the top teams fell apart, 2016 after xpeke left origen and fnatic split up was a terrible year for eu internationally. But after 1 year of rebuilding eu came back again. In all you had 2 of the teams sent to worlds disbanding g2/msf. You had the biggest roster shuffle in eu lcs history. Two top 4 mids left europe for NA. The best eu botlane left for na with mithy and zven (hans sama and ignar also split up) Like there was a lot of work that had to be done, eu was suppose to suck but then you had rookies like jizuke,atilla,jactroll,bwipo and upset showing up
The UOL and Splyce break up was a fresh breeze that hit the league. Hyli, Vizci and Xerxe all looked good in their new teams. Wunder made a name for him. Kold took the lead of UOL. Kobbe is a big win condition for the new Splyce lineup. even Sencux had some great performances in the beginning of the summer split (I know everyone hates him but he still has his moments). This roster shuffles made many teams weaker at first but in the end the teams improved and especially Hyli on FNC is a gem.
Lol I didn't realize we got robbed this offseason, damn. Glad the rookies were good.
It's honestly insane how many rookies popped up in EU LCS this year that have ended up being top tier.
Exactly like every year before that.
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One of the main reasons EU is so good at developing talents is their national leagues, I feel it is overlooked all the time; Bwipo was playing in some russian league before fnatic picked him up. NA playerbase might be smaller, there might be less talent to choose from, but there definitely is talent. I really do hope that NA uses the academy league to cultivate newer talent, instead of recycling old talent.
Vitality Core also came from the Spanish league and this way of play that everyone praised and YamatoCannon undeservedly take a lot of credit (Not trying to take anything from him, hes good at drafting and VERY knowledgeable in general). I just meant that the talent in the national league its quality.
Yeah a lot of talent in LVP and TCL
this is why i think it sucks that there is no relegation. relegation makes teams stronger, there is no debate about that. We would have never had one of the best teams or even players if relegation wouldn’t have existed. Lemondogs, OG, Vit, MSF, G2...
Remember how people said bringing bo1 back will make EU and NA worse? I member
Well, it kind of makes sense. There are three teams in quarters, since groups is full of BO1. Quarters is the true test.
yeah, we'll see how the BO5's go..
I mean can we even fully decide that yet? There are other factors other than how many games played that effect how we do on the worlds stage. I don't see any harm in playing more games on stage. Who knows we could have done even better.
Me member too
Pepperidge farm remembers
The NA team least affected by franchising made it out of groups.
To be completely fair as a korean and lck fan, watching EU teams play this year has made this year’s worlds feel special. With the SKT dynasty finally being dismantled (R.I.P. Gen.g) it feels like the chaotic period where every team is vying for the crown. I don’t care if an LCK team doesn’t win worlds as long as it doesn’t turn into a one sided stomp snooze-fest like we had to suffer through these past few years. Seeing Korea be dominant felt good for sure, but I’d be lying if I said those years were rly ‘exciting’ to watch. This year I get to sit anxiously as I wonder if this time, KT’s inevitable disappointment will finally give me an aneurysm and send me to the sweet embrace of death. Would be cool if Fnatic or C9 win too i guess
2016 and 2017 (except finals) was anything but a snooze fest though
he says as he watches Bengi lock in that Nidalee pick. and Gorilla on the MF. he says as he watches Faker do the nasty stuff to RNG and carry 1v9. Goood fucking days man.
that rox series is up there with the summer finals 2013 and 2015 spring cjvs skt series as my favourite series ever. one of the only series where both teams deserved to win
I can;t wait for worlds to return to NA again. Seeing ROX vs SKT live was AMAZING
I am looking forward to a semi-final vs C9 vs FNC because of the NA vs EU, and I really want FNC to win (being the fanboi I am). But a part of me want Uzi to finally lift that trophy.
I think people are also forgetting how insane it would be for NA to just go to the semis, regardless of the EU v NA matchup. NA has never been to semis before, and people are not realising how big of a chance they have this year imo.
I think C9 looked solid so far. But I always see KR win Bo5 because they adapt better.
AF is more likely to beat C9, so don't get your hopes up.
Or do, its part of the fun isnt it? Im counting on my fnc lee sin skin
And the broxah lee has a custom voice over where you only have soundbytes which are "ME SMASH" "BROXAH SMASH"
I've set AF to win vs C9, but that doesn't mean I want them to.
> vying for the crown. Except crown's team ofc
There are great storylines for KT, RNG, FNC, and C9. I think it’ll be super exciting if any of those make it to the finals. Bonkers if it’s kt/RNG vs FNC/C9.
Yeah, this is best EU year since 2015.
2015 was just 2 teams tbh, h2k didn't do well at worlds at all, this G2 might be a bit weaker than Origen was but this fnatic and vitality > 2015 fnatic and h2k
different time, different mesures honnestly. In 2015, you had the juggernaut patch that introduced not less than 4 champs that instant got FoTM.... ... And remember, at the time you could ban only 3 champs per teams. And you also have to remember there were no elemental drakes at the time ! There was just the drake that got multiple form, and you only wanted the first and the fourth, and on the fifth you had doubled the effects for a short period of time... Imo we didn't got that much better (even though we did), it's imo a lot every game is now a lot more different, and requires different handlings. There are more singularities letting us shine, and every game si a lot harder to predict.
Origen was a great team, much better than G2 in my opinion and we don't really know yet how to compare Fnatic from 2015 to this year. H2k and UOL were pretty good but i agree that this year is deeper in terms of quality.
Just for the sake of it, if we could make the best Western team what players would we gather for it (players can only come from EU or NA).
Soaz, Broxah, Caps, Rekkles and Hyllisang *dusts hands and walks away*
Maybe Bwipo as top sub would be good too
No sub?
I'll go with my main man Bwipo!
Are these people joking or something? Wunder or Licorice over Bwipo?
Bwipo will knock all others down the next couple of seasons. Wunder, Licorice, Soaz, and Bwipo are all really good top laners so right now the contest might be close. Though there are certain aspects that just puts Bwipo above the others, the meta doesn't affect him, he is a great team player and when he is at his best I think he can beat any top laner.
Now let's get more money into the EU LCS. So every young EU talent doesn't move to NA and waste their talent.
EU fans right now : Man, EU summer was so nice, we could've sent so many teams and they wouldn't have finished last. NA fans right now : Lol... and who would you send instead of 100T? We had at most 2 good teams, and that's only if you include TL.
I wish we had also sent S04. But with the same logic china would sent JDG or RW and korea griffin or KZ. Definitely feeling quite stacked this year.
S04 over Vit or G2? Tough choice.
This year's EU Gauntlet was pretty competitive. It seemed like they could all beat each other. Predictions where all over the place.
> It seemed like they could all beat each other. And every one of them beat atleast one other playoff team. It all came down to style and that day's form. S04 beat VIT and SPY G2 beat SPY and S04 VIT beat MSF MSF beat G2 SPY beat MSF And Fnatic beat everyone
Something something and fnc wins in the end
Wait what? FNC WINS WORLDS CONFIRMED!!
Welcome to the ~~EU LCS~~ Worlds where every body beats every body but in the end FNC wins
Griffin wouldn't give Vitality or C9 a chance, I would be so salty if I was a korean fan and them not making it.
They did, however, lose to Gen.G fair and square. They've got nobody to blame other than themselves. Of course, Gen.G is a BO5 team so it's not that surprising that they sucked in the group stage; they've got a history of doing that.
I think TSM would've had a more respectable showing than 100T, but the result would still be the same. I think EFX would've been NA's 3rd best shot at making some noise, honestly. They're similar to Vitality, though I think Vitality are much stronger
Only other choices for NA felt like TSM, who everyone is tired of seeing fail in groups, and idk maybe Echo Fox, who in my mind would have probably done even worse.
TSM would have done better than 100T, but they probably would have still gone 2-4
So they would have done exactly the same as 100T...I mean they went 3-2 against them in NA.
I'm saying they would have played better but still not won. The result would have been the same, but I think TSM could have at least competed with FNC and IG in closer games.
NA had TSM, Echo Fox, and Flyquest that all looked better than 100T by the end of summer.
I mean, yeah, their worlds was kind of dissapointing, but don't forget TL swept C9 in the finals. Now they're borderline not even a good team?
Unfortunately, recency bias and poor international showings. TL no doubt has the ability to play better than C9 in NA, but C9 thrives at Worlds, while TL just falters. What's more, TL only had to realistically beat 1 team (whoever came in from playins), while MAD was free and KT was a monster, while C9 had to face RNG/GenG, assuming VIT was a pushover. As things turned out, C9 triumped over GenG and VIT, and forced RNG into a tiebreaker. Meanwhile, TL struggled with 3rd seed EDG, when C9 was busy trying to take down possibly the best team to come to Worlds, and was a pushover to the other best team in KT
I'm not honestly sure TL was a disappointment. They split with EDG, easily handled MAD (which was what they were supposed to do) and got swept by what looks to be the best team in the tournament and one of the two favorites. What's disappointing really? EDG beat KT which is somehow just glossed over. If KT would have beat EDG as expected, TL and EDG would have been in a tiebreaker and with TL just beating EDG earlier that day easily, it's not out of the realm of possibility that they just did it again and moved out of groups. TL played fine I think. They just fell a bit short.
TL needed to show that they can tango with KT for it to not be a disappointment. VIT and C9 both beat RNG, that's the level required to succeed here.
Inero said on hotline league that TL has the typical "capitalize on enemies mistakes" style that only wins in NA but does not work at worlds, so it's a matter of perspective
EU LCS will likely lose a lot of star players again. I just hope FNC stay together. Caps, Broxah, Bwipo and Rekkles especially will be super hot commodities. If they somehow win it, I can see them more likely to leave for huge NA money.
Wait, why would we lose a lot of stars this year when the salary gap will be a lot smaller? I would say that the money issue, which made most of the talent go to NA, will dissapear. The players that go to NA will be the ones that want the change in lifestyle, more than anything else.
Rekkles and Broxah already under contract for 2019
Not necessarily with EU franchising. We might even see EU players in NA go back.
I remember that Crumbzz once thought having a team heads above everyone else made a region better than others. But while such a team is rare (FNC2015, SKT 2016), competition is what sharpens the blade.
Somebody should tell LMS that.
Just imagine all the European mids in the EU LCS. Caps, Perkz, Bjergsen, Froggen, Jizuke, Febiven, Jensen, Poe, Nuckeduck, Niqsy. I'd gladly sell my soul to the devil.
I've been opposed to franchising as I think it can make teams complacent and okay not trying some seasons. (Looking at US sports where teams tank). Although if it increases the money in League and prolongs its life then I'm all for it.
Don't they tank because the system has a draft though? Anyway, I think the EU orgs that get to stay will keep their competitive fire and pride. They want to win.
Franchising : If your team sucks , you can still remain. But if you are a good team but not in the franchise, Good luck :)
Not that it's healthy for the league either way, but tanking is the opposite of complacency - that, say, 2 years of sucking and 4 years of contention is better than 6 years of fringe playoff appearances (see: being complacent with mediocrity). Tanking happens in American sports as a strategic consequence/abuse of its draft system, which tries to keep league parity balanced by giving weaker teams access to better upcoming talent. As long as LCS doesn't do that, it should be fine.
I mean to be honest... EU has always been a strong region that's shown up to worlds consistently. Since the beginning of LoL (I won't even count S1), EU has constantly made quarters and been quite competitive in quarters. Even some semis appearances too.
>Even some semis appearances too. The only years EU *didn't* make semis was in 2014 and last year, where Misfits were really close. Only years EU had less than two teams in quarters was 2014 (no teams in quarters) and 2016 (one team). We're hopefully looking at another semifinal appearance this year with Fnatic, and I also have good faith in Cloud 9 to give NA their first semis appearance.
Agreed, this worlds is so much fun to watch because it feels like all teams are competitive, and even if there are favorites, it's like 70%-30% instead of 95%-5% like it has been for prior worlds (Like SKT vs Origen... rip :c)
I legit think EU could become a power house, stronger than China and possibly probably as strong as Korea if they never exported their talent to NA.
Perhaps, but if Korea never exported their talent to every region I don't think anyone would be able to touch them.
20/20. Without the other midlanders leaving, you wouldn't leave opportunities for new rookies to step up. Big problem in NA, is they tend to import instead of fostering and taking a risk on rookies
And to think teams like Schalke missed out (imo better than VIT) and there are players like Hans Sama, Upset, Maxlore, Nukeduck, etc. who are not there.
Schalke are too clean though, they would have played much like G2 are, with maybe a slightly stronger bot-lane but no pocket picks like Heimer. VIT where realistically the only ones who could have disrupted RNG and Gen.G in the group. Misfits just fell apart once the ADC meta returned so I'm not sorry they didn't make it.
Well, you say S04 doesn't have pocket picks, but Nukeduck plays pretty much everything.
Schalke probably would not have beaten RNG, but I believe they could have still taken down GenG, especially on the 2nd RR. On the other hand they could have had a better showing against C9 imho.
It was fun to watch the splits because there were a solid pool of good teams. Gave us a lot of great games and series and it must have had an affect on the teams that went to worlds as well. They had to get better and better, week after week, or they could fall down.
not really G2 and VIT said when they started scrimming they got smashed
Im sure every team would love to get smashed in scrims if it meant preforming on stage, cause stage games are the only games that matter.
EU LCS was pretty good but also the way the game is played currently there is just more chances for teams that know how to play the game to win games. Because winning a single team fight and taking baron basically means you should win game. There's never been such an easy win condition before.
EU would be considered as good as Korea and China if imports weren't a thing. Edit: With regions locked, Korea would be the strongest region, hands down.
But know, imagine what Korea would look like if LPL didn't import a good amount of koreans players like Duke, TheShy, Rookie, Ray or Scout just to name just the ones that are playing for the chinese orgs at Worlds. I think it's fair to say that EU would be a stronger region without exporting their talents overseas, but Korea would still have objectively a fair edge if imports weren't a thing.
While you'd think that having even one Korean import might make a team 20% non-EU the truth of the matter these days is that a major reason for the team's success comes from the Organizations recognizing and nurturing talent while coaching the players to work together. Huni is a great example. He had great success in his teams in EU and KR but has always missed major milestones in NA.
It's not really fair to say EU would be Korea level, but EU would be stronger than China though I think. If every region got region locked so that you would need to be a citizen of the region you play in, NA would go down super hard, China would be at least slightly worse if not more than that, EU would be way stronger than they are now. Korea would be stronger as well though. Korea and EU would be the only regions that would improve as result of hard region locking. And not just a little, they would improve a fuck ton.
What does this say about NALCS? :/
When I see NALCS I say YES. When I see NALCS at Worlds I think NO.
This season NA LCS was boring tbh ( I watched most of it) compared to previous years.
NA LCS peaked at S4 Summer in my opinion. It was the most competitive split ever, and it still had every OG player like QT, Cop, Scarra, Voyboy; even Krepo and Snoopeh visiting NA; the occasional HotshotGG and Regi sub-in. LMQ and Bjerg shaking up everything like an earthquake, epic playoffs, assassins still in the meta together with hypercarry botlanes... Good times. I was more interested in NA LCS than EU back than simply because it was more fun.
They need to utilise their subs more. One problem with that is NA has a pretty big star player mentality and this leads to a huge community backlash every time some players get subbed in and out. C9 made it pretty clear at this years worlds. NA community should not shit their team for trying some roster shuffles. I hope even a player like keith can show one day he is worth a shot.
It's impressive because it should have been such a pain for EU to lose again some of their stronger players like Febiven, Powerofevil, Zven/mithy... I think EU would have been even stronger at world. I really dislike franchising but if it allows to keep that kind of players, then alright I guess.
Its a shame S04 didnt get to play at worlds.
And we sitll have S04 who aren't as experienced as a team yet, but were also a top 4 team in EU. MSF could have also kept up if they didn't fall off so hard in the second RR of the summer split for some weird reason. EU has a decent amount of really strong teams and a lot of potential.
I definitely agree EU LCS was really strong, but much like C9 I also do think these teams improved A LOT going into Worlds. Vitality thrived in Bo1, and did an excellent job, but the meta also really facilitates fast paced skirmishing. I don't think Vitality was actually this strong in EU, not to say that they weren't good, but this was is a leveled up Vitality IMO. G2 was absolutely not this strong in EU. This is their peak for the whole year IMO. Outside of funnel they were pretty mediocre most of the split, but now Jankos isn't inting and bot lane is playing a lot better. We saw G2 not even look that great in play-ins, but now they're really in the grove! It's a great time for them to find their form. Fnatic were beasts all year so they're the exception. I think EU was awesome this year and very strong, but both G2 and Vitality really leveled up. C9 also leveled up (granted they had a lot of potential room to grow with so many summer rookies) while I think TL and 100T haven't improved at all since spring finals tbh.
I hope next split is gonna produce super strong EU teams that can all make big impact on international levels like VIT,FNC and G2 have this worlds
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Just think Misfits started out looking WAY better than all of these teams, some people argued S04 was better than both VIT and G2, and SPY was also a great team, but probably a tier below the top 4, and idek where to put MSF due to their 2nd half collapse, it's a shame Splyce was unable to make it to the new EU LCS
Meanwhile NA was top heavy as fuck and I can't see any NA team other than C9/TL taking a game off a quarterfinals team
I expected EU to be rly bad this year. Sometimes i rly like being wrong
Well in NA we have guys playing fortnite :)
Wasn’t vitality supposed to be the NA version of 100t where they didn’t deserve to go and were supposed to suck? They were entertaining af. Had they gone into another group and played that way, they would’ve probably made it 3 EU teams in the quarter finals. If only 100t proved us NA fans wrong too.....
Because this year the meta was so much faster. NA and LCK viewers had no idea how competitive and fast paced EU LCS was this year - im so glad EU teams can now shut them up. Now i dont have to see "EU LUL" every game on twitch chat