Reflections on the Spring Split

The Spring Split has concluded aside from what is currently a few remaining matches such as promotion tournaments and one final yet to be decided. There's still plenty to cover how I felt the split went for each of the major regions and where I feel they shape up going into MSI or even the summer split. Some of it may be obvious, disagreed upon, or you may not have known about it at all. I broke it up around a couple of categories:

• Competition - How the teams stacked up against one another.
• Variance in team performance - How close the teams looked on a power spectrum
• Macro play - How the best looked in tandem with the worst and vice versa.
• Viewing value - How interesting the regions were to keep up with. Reflected off of the three categories.
• International rating - Where the winners lie internationally (TW and NA included should they get to the Main Event).

TL:DR (brief details below for whoever is interested): Competition: NA | CN | KR | EU | TW Variance: CN | NA | KR | EU | TW Macro: KR | NA | TW | CN | EU Viewing Value: NA | CN | KR | EU | TW International Rating to MSI: KR (SKT) | TW (FW) | EU (G2) | NA (TSM) | CN (RNG/WE)

League Master Series (LMS) - "Same story, different split" Competition: This split generally saw no difference in the dynamic of the teams in the region; same story really. But don't get me wrong, the start of the split did have a bit of interest and curiosity as to what teams would really come up above the bar. Unfortunately that fell pretty flat from the same outcome feeling.

Variance: Basically, there still existed a clear cut #1, 2, and 3, with one dark horse, a team on the outside looking in, that 6th place team, and the relegation material that usually takes claim to one of the two. Anyone could have seen this coming, therefore making it the most predictable of the regions. If I had decided to use expectation vs reality as a category, they would absolutely win

Macro: The macro among the region was a pretty well cascaded result. Basically better team has better macro. In Flash Wolves and a lesser extent in AHQ, they have pretty much shown time and time again that their play is something which the rest of the region should look up to. It's not easy to really approve of teams who have those periodic boosts of confidence.

Viewing: Of course there still exists the matter of a lack of English broadcast. In general, I found there wasn't all too much to be missed outside of how the top teams would continue to perform.

International - Flash Wolves: FW finished the split with one of their best performances in regional history. Coming off of their previous Worlds finish, the team proceeded to emerge as finalists at IEM Oakland and win IEM Katowice, giving positive praise to the team coming into MSI. Of course, their title as the "Korean Slayers" is one that does support that praise. I see them having no problem getting into the Main Event and there is a world where I do believe they can take the tournament themselves over heavy favorite SK Telecom T1. Unfortunately, they get second on the list.

League Pro League (LPL) - "The return of Chinese Aggression" Competition: Where do I even start with this one? It had incredible competition at the expense of everything else about the region that made them noteworthy. There was almost never a time where I could say that a particular team would win outright. With it, that's both a good and bad sentiment. Good because you normally never knew what to expect on a particular night. Bad because if you want the best, this is probably the worst option to watch.

Variance: The competition really gives away how varied the teams were throughout the split. Aside from the top teams in each group, everyone else was still in the running for seeding or to just outright escape relegation. By the last week, most of the teams still have realistic chances.

Macro: Chinese Aggression is a thing that was lost with the Korean Exodus of 2015. We can firmly say that the exodus is over. But that has honestly left this region in a vast sea of prize fighting. I never really knew where a ceiling was with any team; even its best in Team WE and RNG had a spiral of sorts.

Viewing: This was not for people who want or prefer the best competition to see. Nonetheless it still counts for something though. I can say I found myself constantly saying "they're dead" or "this is a bad idea." Personally, I enjoyed it, especially on the casting side of things.

International - Royal Never Give Up vs Team World Elite: The LPL Finals will be happening at the end of this week between the 1st place teams from each group. If you are a betting man, this might be hard to judge who would turn out better at MSI. Both teams have a strength that may throw opponents off but also a weakness that the best from around the world can exploit rather easily. Either way, I feel their regional performance does not compare to the other top teams. But who would I be to question Chinese Aggression based off of its pre-2015 reputation?

League Champions Korea (LCK) - "All of this hype for sweeps..." Competition: The LCK this split was practically star studded with the return of many Korean talents from their time in China and roster moves that would make any and every other region shake in their boots once Worlds comes around. In a way, that is still true and that cannot be denied. But for what a lot personally expected to be the best split of LCK yet, it really didn't do that outside of a few heated matches. Like the LMS, its story kind of fell right back to the same thing.

Variance: Fortunately, unlike LMS, there was quite a bit of shift in opinion after the first few weeks of LCK. Pre split there were 5 teams constantly talked about, power ranked around 1-7 just on paper, etc. As it went on, it started to turn out that most of those teams were rather overhyped more than they should have been (yet power rankings still remained the same). It did keep a bit of a "what if" factor week after week especially on the middle of the pack teams.

Macro: As always, still the best region in regards to coordinated macro play. Even with the fumbles of expectations, it would be unreal not to expect something out of the ordinary from one of the many stars of Korea across the teams (even Kongdoo).

Viewing: I rate this a bit lower than the others due to its predictability and interest over time. Early on, the split seemed hype. But I honestly found its value dying down from a mix of the same and asking the question of what am I getting out of this compared to other regions.

International: SK Telecom T1: Once again, the team that just keeps winning will take another jab and come in as favorites to win again at MSI. Given their systematic destruction against world regarded 2nd best team in KT Rolster (which I no longer believe is true at all), they come into the event poised to run undefeated. I do not believe that will happen. I do believe they will win if not get far and close. But I do feel that they will take one or two losses somewhere in the Main Event.

European League Championship Series (EULCS) - "How Roccat almost made this region interesting" Competition: Honestly, Roccat had a good impact on their rating on this category. Unfortunately that was not enough to get them any higher, especially given the rest of the teams. The split was rather frustrating for it to be practically decided in the first 3 weeks. Nothing really to it aside that, and that's the horrible part about it to me.

Variance: Definitively the worst variance among the regions. There were winners, the winners beat the losers, the losers would beat each other up to determine relegation victims, then Roccat happened.

Macro: Aside from the top of both groups, Europe's macro play was something of an eye sore. More than often it wasn't the sharpest, something we can obviously expect from UOL, MSF, and H2K. G2 on the other hand may not have been sharp either but still won their games when it mattered; as if they were only pushing themselves at like 80%. Where they take a bigger blow is the lower half, including Roccat. It's just hard to weigh out the good talent against terrible play in general and over a span of time.

Viewing: I personally felt shut down starting with the cross groups due to how evident the teams turned out to be. Through the casting and expectations of the teams however is where they do receive a bit of value. But compared to China, viewers expect a performance equivalent to their records (aside from that rebuilding phase). That's not necessarily what happened. Between both group play regions, I found China to just be the more interesting.

International: G2 eSports: 3rd time's the charm for Riot Events right? Once again G2 will compete for Europe back where their joke and meme status had begun. This time around, I can honestly say that there's more to them than what we have seen before. Among the five regions, I place them in 3rd through trust in my assumption that what they were throwing in Europe was not their full potential.

North American League Championship Series (NALCS) - "Yep...still scripted" "Storytelling is fun!" Competition: This was far and away the split that brought out the widest spread of competitive value across the board. Every single team had a sort of up and down period. The top teams had weaknesses despite winning and the bottom teams had strengths despite losing. The statement that really marks the evident competitive value comes from the final week of the split, where 8 placements were still yet to be determined. I know this region jokes about script writers but who could expect to write that even close?

Variance: This was a close vote for the best variance but I chose China over it for the following reason: there were clear cut top caliber teams and honestly not necessarily a relegation direction. The rest was the biggest game of limbo ever where even the bottom teams could have surged at any time.

Macro: Once again, another 2nd place. Honestly when putting the macro of China and Taiwan into the competition for 2nd, it was pretty obvious that I would be defeating my own bias by giving it to them without putting their lower table teams in the mention. Long story short, the spring split was not a split for immaculate macro play.

Viewing: Its competition genuinely gives away how interesting this was to watch. "You don't want to miss this" is pretty much defined by this split alone. If you are one of those single team fans, I honestly feel that you were robbed of some of the value this split also had.

International: Team SoloMid: Now that I'm done praising North America, let's get to the real downside of the split. I have less faith in TSM and even C9 (should they have won) based not only off of their regular season but their most recent international records at Worlds. Between TSM and FW, I do see a world where TSM is the team that would fall into the last chance qualifier for the Main Event at MSI. Extremely unlikely though as best of series are where they tend to shine domestically. What worries me is the Main Event when they get there. I safely put them getting to playoffs but falling out immediately.