Na a Minor region?

ßårbarïcChámpîõn·4/21/2019, 5:55:19 AM·4 votes·3,166 views

MSI 2019 Play-In Draw Show Guide

I was unaware a region that just made it to world's semi-final, the region to CRUSH! the last Korean hope, to defeat the reigning world champions, and a region that has franchised would be considered a minor region. If this was before 2018 worlds the argument could be their but as the latest results shown North America was the 3rd best preforming region so they shouldn't be in the play in for MSI and should be directly in the group stage even if the argument that Korea is back to being the top region putting every other region down a spot would still make NA in the top 4 I don't know about you but 4th best in my book would still be considered a major region. would love some other input from others on this topic

27 Comments

GeminiRune4/21/2019, 11:10:00 AM1 votes

Looks like someone else didn't acknowledge that the Latin American regions merged coming into 2019.

This essentially removed one spot in Play-In teams, regressing the qualification process to its 2017 MSI format. Had it just been 4 teams straight to main stage, there'd only be 7 teams in the RR pool.

Since the aim is to keep 2 even groups for Play-In Round 1, they took one main spot and made Round 2 the same as it was in 2017, where 4 teams fight for the 3 spots.

And given its 2-year international success as the determining factor, NA unfortunately reclaimed its spot in Round 2 alongside LMS.

To answer your question, if you're throwing shade at NA, call them a Minor region. But now you know why this was done.

ModKnightsKemplar4/21/2019, 3:31:48 PM1 votes

I think NA is still considered top 4 (or at least 5) here? Only 3 regions avoided playing in the play-ins (LPL, LCK, and LEC), so we're basically being placed one tier below that with LMS. And I think that's pretty fair. All 4 of those regions have world championships, and LEC went last year to finals. They should be ranked above NA.

III BAKURYU III 4/21/2019, 9:34:12 PM1 votes

It's 50/50 for me about NA playing in the (Play-in Stage) mainly because it gives NA the opportunity to learn, develop and able to get on a hot streak towards the main MSI Stage, if they do in fact make it to such. We've seen what late surges from teams does to their performances in the regular season and not just from League but from other sports also.
2007 the NYG could have rested their roster and not care about the final 2 games of the regular season as they were already locked as a Wild-Card team and two wins/loses wouldn't matter or affect their #seed but instead of resting, they played hard and actually became a better team for such. 2010 The Green Bay Packers were a team dead in the water in the regular season but they kept on fighting and got on a hot-streak and won the Superbowl. 2019 We're seeing from the NHL what late surges can do(Blue Jackets/Avalanche/Blues)

Point is this, Team Liquid belongs in the Play-In stage because they're called "Team Liquid" and not "Cloud 9" they need to prove not to us that they're a great team but to themselves.

Master Korrok4/22/2019, 9:00:56 PM1 votes

I feel like they should just add more teams too the tournament, I like the idea behind playins trying to help emerging regions but so far all it's done is force them to play the lottery to see who is going to have to play a major region... There have been close series here and there but for the most part I don't even enjoy watching because it feels kind of wrong. Before it was the strongest of the emerging regions would make it, now it's whichever emerging region doesn't have to play NA or LMS.

ChompyWulf4/24/2019, 4:10:24 AM1 votes

Let's squash some false suppositions.

First, franchising means nothing about quality of a region's talent in relation to global skill levels. It's purely an economic setup to share profits and offer economic stability. If anything, the necessity of NA to franchise shows the lack of profit for many teams and a struggle to remain afloat, which suggests talent is lesser and appeal to audiences is low.

Second, Afreeca Freecs were not defending world champs. They were not even at World's the year before, and clearly were not the best Korean team. Furthermore, C9 subsequently being equally swept the next round by an EU team doesn't help.

Third, Korea's only real hope at World's that year was KT Rolster, and for all intents and purposes their playoff match with IG was really the only great matchup of the tournament and in essence the real final.

Fourth, due to format, only three region champs are automatically past the play in. NA has never been a consistent top competitor on the level of Korea, EU, or China. They are top tier. NA and LMS are second tier, and the rest are 3rd tier.

It all makes sense and fits if you're not a hardcore and blind NA fanboy.