So Korea...

SKT absolutely dominated Korea, as I'm sure anyone who watched the LCK would've noted. Sure, they had an issue with CJ Entus in the semi-final, but once the lineup they planned to take to Worlds came in (with Faker and Bengi replacing Easyhoon and Tom) they proceeded to sweep. Yes game 4 was rather tight, but one could argue that SKT won on a comp that had long since hit a power trough.

Of course, we've all heard (and hopefully watched) what SKT did to the GE Tigers, the guys who were SUPPOSED to be among the best in the world. With Easyhoon in, they 3-0d the Tigers. Remember that Easyhoon had struggled immensely vs CJ Entus. By the end of the split, it was clear SKT was the clear and unopposed victor of the LCK.

Now, excluding Edward who absolutely dominated their own region, we could say that no other team managed this feat. TIP at least game TSM problems, and C9 on a really rough split managed to steal a game away. Not to mention C9 will have a mid laner they hope can match or exceed bjerg this coming split, replacing Hai who has been having troubles with injuries. FNC had a strong showing early but then met the Unicorns Of Love in the finals who gave us a very, very exciting Bo5 (though some [Monte] would argue it was too mistake ridden). AHQ out of Taiwan... Well, they've got some good teams but I'm not sure what I can really say about them as a whole.

What I'm trying to look at is, especially looking at the performance by FNC vs SKT, and keeping in mind both of their general positions to their respective regions (SKT being far above Korea, FNC being... just above EU), I believe Korea has fallen to the point where they're no longer a region worth noting outside of SKT.

Yes, this seems obvious with the changes of many Koreans (most notably World Champions Pawn and Deft) leaving Korea for China. But the one thing that's always been believed about Korea is it is not only incredibly talented, but incredibly deep. At least currently, the depth doesn't seem to be showing. Sure, GE Tigers are on a patch that doesn't suit them. However, they STILL had to win their way to the finals. It isn't like we've seen any team capable of rising up above them outside, perhaps, CJ Entus.

Largely, we COULD make the same case for China. Edward buried China even more than SKT, split MSI as a whole (3-3), but did look impressive vs both Western teams (exclude BJK, they aren't good for a sampling). The difference is, we KNOW PawN is so wildly inconsistent at times that Edward could very well be the best in the world and we just get different looks from them depending on how Pawn is doing. In all fairness, Pawn v Westdoor is not really that fair a match-up to judge since Westdoor has kinda shown only three champions and his refusal to stop playing Fizz probably hurt more than we're letting on. However, the dominance of EDG in China, the fact that Deft will carry Pawn even on an off day and Pawn's ability to show up huge makes it a much harder question to ask towards them.

So really, is Korea (and China) the big baddies of the East this year, or are they both going to show up as one trick ponies. At the point, with FNC once again picking up a carry ADC, C9 picking up a carry mid and EU/NA both looking very close internally, I would imagine that this year the western regions have far more depth and realistically are not that far off from the top of the other regions in Bo5's.