Lifting the Curtains on LMS Circuit Details and the New Taipei Arena
Riot·11/10/2014, 10:59:20 PM·0 votes·4,484 views
Editor's Note: There were two quotes attributed to Kevin Pai that were actually given by Cody Chen. This has been corrected. We apologize for the inaccuracy and mistake.
With Garena’s announcement of the League of Legends Master Series, the face of LoL esports in South East Asia is about to radically change. The LMS, a new weekly circuit in the style of the League of Legends Championship Series, will cover the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, greatly broadening the top-level support for the region’s best teams -- a much-demanded change considering their current competitive performance.
The skill disparity in South East Asia’s Garena Premier League has been notable for a while, with Taiwanese teams monopolizing top honors ever since the circuit’s inception in 2012. Previously, their dominance was largely mitigated by a regional quota that restricted them to two teams in the GPL and a single Worlds seed at the end of the year. But both rules were relaxed for 2014, leading to their dual representation at Worlds this year at the cost of the rest of South East Asia.
Yet their increased representation was symptomatic of their problems, and further proof that the northern sub-region was chafing under the restrictions imposed by the circuit's restrictions. Even GPL semifinalists, such as the Azubu Taipei Snipers, found themselves out on the proverbial streets despite solid performance, as the biggest threat to their standings in their region's highest circuit wasn't from within the circuit itself, but back home along the Taiwan Strait. As each region ran independent qualifiers, teams like the Bangkok Titans and Neolution Full Louis survived the transition to the summer split despite losing in the GPL spring group stages, whereas the Snipers were knocked out of the runnings by Machi E-Sports.
In light of evidence that the Taiwanese competitive scene was much larger than the slots allocated to them in the GPL, Garena chose to spin the region off as its own competitive circuit for 2015.
"Basically, we wanted to give more exposure and more chances for the teams in different regions," said Riot representative Cody Chen. "Back in the GPL last year, we had to eliminate a lot of strong teams in Taiwan and Vietnam, even in Singapore. In order to solve that, we figured that maybe it's time for us to provide both GPL and LMS to give more chances to these teams," he said.
"That's the first reason. The second reason is that we had a lot of physical issues with connections, like a cable cut in Vietnam," explained Pai. "That's something we want to solve by splitting the LMS and GPL."
Garena will be operating three tournament realm regions for competitive play: ones in Vietnam and Singapore for the GPL, and a dedicated realm in Taipei. "We understand there's still difficulties for the rest of the GPL teams, but we're trying the best we can do to solve that."
"Furthermore, Garena just opened an esports stadium in Taipei," added Taiwan and SEA esports manager, Cody Chen. "So that provides more chances for local teams to play on the ground."
"Basically we're running more offline events for the LMS, which will be entirely offline," clarified Pai. "For the qualifier, the LMS will have an online tournament -- for those in Taipei, they'll have to go to the esports stadium. And for those in Hong Kong and Macau, they will play from a place we choose to play from. But after the qualifiers, some time around January, all of the teams will fly to Taiwan and fight all of their matches in Taipei."
According to both Riot officials and team managers, the teams that benefit most from the new arrangement are largely the same powerhouses that carried weight over the course of the last two GPL seasons. "We believe the top teams in Taiwan benefits most, like TPA, AHQ and Yoe Flash Wolves," said Quaker Liu, manager of the Taipei Assassins.
He's particularly excited for the prospects of regular live attendance for the teams, believing it to greatly expand the scene's potential growth -- an opinion shared by the Riot representatives, who state that the tighter regional focus works well to draw in local company branches and advertisers.
Pai clarifies that these changes also bring with them the cancellation of the Taiwan-only League of Legends Nova League, as its purpose is now entirely subsumed by the LMS. As for how many Worlds seeds this means for the region, the specifics are still under discussion between Garena and Riot.
This does, however, mean better overall benefits for the region's teams, financial or otherwise.
"We have a similar format as the LCS and we also do financial support in the GPL," said Chen. "Currently, we have tournament support: we provide 200,000 NTD for each team, which doesn't include the prize money. The teams that join the qualifier but don't pass still get prize money for ranks 9-16. We also provide Hong Kong and Macau teams flight and accommodation support. Each one will get 60,000 NTD."
"From Riot's perspective, we want to keep the league and pro teams operating in the long term, so we talk to Garena and all of the pro teams about what kind of assistance we can provide," said Chen. "Not just financial status; we can also provide teams that want Korean coaches or the best players, and we can consult other regions to provide information to help them."
Liu's unfamiliar with Riot and Garena's plans to assist in foreign recruiting, but that's largely due to TPA's frontrunner position in the region. "Mostly, the recruiting of coaches and players are done privately. For TPA, we always have the possibility of getting a good player, no matter where he's from."
The 16 top teams of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau begin qualifiers on November 19, 2014.
"Basically, we wanted to give more exposure and more chances for the teams in different regions," said Riot representative Cody Chen. "Back in the GPL last year, we had to eliminate a lot of strong teams in Taiwan and Vietnam, even in Singapore. In order to solve that, we figured that maybe it's time for us to provide both GPL and LMS to give more chances to these teams," he said.
"That's the first reason. The second reason is that we had a lot of physical issues with connections, like a cable cut in Vietnam," explained Pai. "That's something we want to solve by splitting the LMS and GPL."
Garena will be operating three tournament realm regions for competitive play: ones in Vietnam and Singapore for the GPL, and a dedicated realm in Taipei. "We understand there's still difficulties for the rest of the GPL teams, but we're trying the best we can do to solve that."
"Furthermore, Garena just opened an esports stadium in Taipei," added Taiwan and SEA esports manager, Cody Chen. "So that provides more chances for local teams to play on the ground."
"Basically we're running more offline events for the LMS, which will be entirely offline," clarified Pai. "For the qualifier, the LMS will have an online tournament -- for those in Taipei, they'll have to go to the esports stadium. And for those in Hong Kong and Macau, they will play from a place we choose to play from. But after the qualifiers, some time around January, all of the teams will fly to Taiwan and fight all of their matches in Taipei."
According to both Riot officials and team managers, the teams that benefit most from the new arrangement are largely the same powerhouses that carried weight over the course of the last two GPL seasons. "We believe the top teams in Taiwan benefits most, like TPA, AHQ and Yoe Flash Wolves," said Quaker Liu, manager of the Taipei Assassins.
He's particularly excited for the prospects of regular live attendance for the teams, believing it to greatly expand the scene's potential growth -- an opinion shared by the Riot representatives, who state that the tighter regional focus works well to draw in local company branches and advertisers.
Pai clarifies that these changes also bring with them the cancellation of the Taiwan-only League of Legends Nova League, as its purpose is now entirely subsumed by the LMS. As for how many Worlds seeds this means for the region, the specifics are still under discussion between Garena and Riot.
This does, however, mean better overall benefits for the region's teams, financial or otherwise.
"We have a similar format as the LCS and we also do financial support in the GPL," said Chen. "Currently, we have tournament support: we provide 200,000 NTD for each team, which doesn't include the prize money. The teams that join the qualifier but don't pass still get prize money for ranks 9-16. We also provide Hong Kong and Macau teams flight and accommodation support. Each one will get 60,000 NTD."
"From Riot's perspective, we want to keep the league and pro teams operating in the long term, so we talk to Garena and all of the pro teams about what kind of assistance we can provide," said Chen. "Not just financial status; we can also provide teams that want Korean coaches or the best players, and we can consult other regions to provide information to help them."
Liu's unfamiliar with Riot and Garena's plans to assist in foreign recruiting, but that's largely due to TPA's frontrunner position in the region. "Mostly, the recruiting of coaches and players are done privately. For TPA, we always have the possibility of getting a good player, no matter where he's from."
The 16 top teams of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau begin qualifiers on November 19, 2014.