There's a couple of people who can tell you all kinds of recommendations. Personally I've been following the League eSports scene on a much closer level this season particularly (but was quite dedicated during Seasons 5 and 6, getting deeper into it with time). Honestly, if you were to start from the beginning, that would be quite some time before you really catch up to speed. I believe that you came back at a good time for playoff runs, which are what usually matter for the upcoming MSI at the end of April. I would suggest to get a rough understanding of what's new in the scene and the game in general. Allow me to do my best to give a lightning round of sorts for the competitive league...starting with the general stuff.
- The Competitive League now plays on a 10-ban system as of this season. If you know how DOTA's snake drafting is, that's pretty much how it is. This has improved diversity and strategy even by a bit following the previous season's very stagnant meta of same bans, same picks 24/7
- Also as of this season, all regions from around the world will be acknowledged and competing at the Mid Season Invitational and Worlds events. This includes Minor/Wildcard regions (IWC tournaments are gone). This gives a bit of encouragement to keep an eye on OPL if that interests you.
- Korean teams still rule the world. This is a sad but true fact. And specifically teams! Because you know...there's teams like Team Envy...this for some reason had to be added to general stuff.
As for the NA LCS as that is one of your main mentions on the topic:
- The split is coming to an end tomorrow and there's A LOT that is still on the line going into the playoffs. The competitive degree of the split has probably been one of the highest it's ever been (the last place team is in 1st in first turrets taken for crying out loud). But do NOT get this mixed up with competition being mechanically profound because it sure wasn't about half the time.
- TSM and C9, like back in Season 4, still reign as the powerhouse teams in NA. This split however saw a handful of stories across every team on the split. One of the biggest stories was Doublelift having been on TSM at the time took a brief split retirement which was cut short following long stay LCS team, Team Liquid, and their near relegation struggle. Yes, Doublelift left CLG and went to TSM and is now on TL with intent to return to TSM in the summer even though TL just beat TSM yesterday. Basically there's a bunch of stories that are pretty long winded and would take meme amounts of manifestos to go through them all
- Like I said above, with the 10-ban system in competitive play, champion diversity has increased slightly at the very least. The current competitive meta reflects around a steady assortment of picks, pokes, and comfortable teamfighting. NALCS Newcomer team FlyQuest (Formerly C9 Challenger) have been strong innovators of new and crafty picks and team comps...which were somewhat successful. Each region has its own claim to flavor at least. You can expect just a bit of difference from at least one team in each region.
Okay that was a lot more than I thought. And unfortunately I haven't watched as much OPL as I should have been outside of the Tainted Minds issues. But I do know I'll put some attention to it next week.
