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NA needs more talent

TheBentOn3·10/20/2019, 5:31:48 PM·8 votes·7,376 views

It’s as simple as that, our regional superstars are at best mediocre when placed against the best of the world. Our third and second best teams had no chance, and the team the went out and bought every single one of the best players in the region couldn’t even make it out of groups.

Our talent pool is piss poor, we keep retreading the same mediocre and worse players over and over again, our farm system is non existent, our best carries are over the hill EU imports.

I know we are the smallest major region but something has got to give, as long as we have the worst players we are forever going to be a joke region. Rework academy so it actually develops new talent, stop paying for past their prime imports looking for an easy check, stop filling rosters with players that we all know suck, and maybe start sniping hungry talent from our neighboring smaller regions like EU does with Russia and Turkey. Just do something.

26 Comments

GeminiRune10/20/2019, 5:43:40 PM4 votes

I say to invest more into the Academy talent. Half the teams dip into their pool but only like 3 genuinely commit and usually they only do until it stops looking good or until fans just demand the better acquisition.

100 Thieves for example. Moved Ssumday down, flipped a few things around, and everyone on both squads were looking better. Didn't save the main team but the Academy team wasn't all the Ssumday show. They won it all and looked pretty promising.

III BAKURYU III 10/21/2019, 6:38:52 AM4 votes

Honestly just going back to basics and doing things the right way.

Stats and the importance of such Look at the LCK( The longevity of League power for 5+ years) before any regular split games begin the casters, production teams etc talk about stats and rankings and team stats for legit 10-20 mins before each game series. Look at LCS games in general it's nothing like that it's just - ' sit down and watch our clown fiesta games' Understanding "WHY" X team won or lost is beneficial more so than just "unlucky" as the reasons.

Fans - Sometimes league is a slow paced game but to fans the slower paced games are "boring" but they don't realize those "boring games" the 40+ min games are needed for good teams that are methodical and smart.
EU competed with Korea way back around 2012-2013 ( Gambit eliminated SSW in the 2013 WORLDS) because they knew the importance of slowing down the pace and playing SMART! but nope, not in NA - in NA you either play like a clown so fans can be entertained or you play smart and methodical and have fans be bored [zombie-nunu-tears]. I HAVE A BEDTIME TO KEEP! I CANT WATCH 4-5 40+ min games! SO I'm GOING TO COMPLAIN TO RIOT ABOUT SUCH...INSTEAD OF JUST WATCHING SUCH GAMES AT A LATER DATE [zombie-nunu-tears]

Watch streams and how the streamer will say " Arrgh, this game should have been over like 10 mins ago or we stalled out the game for so long" Who gives a shiT?!? You didn't win - the enemy didn't win!........continue to play and not make it seem like every game needs/should be over at the 25 min mark. You actually LEARN more in the 40+ min games oppose to the 20 min 1 sided "feelsbadman" - "unlucky" games. F$ck I feel like we as a generation or so fixed on having magical excitement up our anuses 24/7 and action, action, action but then we realize that way sucks compared to the slower games/movies what have you. Look at horror games and how the genre was filled with action and how it became not scary but dumb. Now fans are crying for horror to return to it's roots. Movies are the same in which, 20 years from now do you think people are going to be talking about "Avengers XIVII" as an all-time great film? Joker 2019 // Suicide squad in comparison. Which movie had the better "Joker" which movie was overall, better? Suicide Squad had gasm: ACTION...... OWWWW ACTION...... delicious, stinky ACTION. Joker 2019 didn't really have "action" and to some it was one of the greatest movies of all time because it wasn't a "gun blazing" movie.

If everyone(majority LCS players but solo Q players also) can calm down and play smart, slow and methodical the NA LCS might not be trash.

Prep and scouting Ovilee interviewed D-Lift a week before Worlds started and asked him about scouting the teams in his group and he was like and I'm paraphrasing ' No, we haven't scouted or researched our opponents yet. We don't scout them until the day we face them' something like that and in theory it kinda makes sense as we've all heard the ol' " Onto the next X team" from Patriots coach Bill Belichick but overall, I honestly think NA coaches, talent, players everyone take sitting down and watching vods or certain teams as a chore.... and not as your job. The players don't want to sit down for 1-2 hrs in a day watching vods OH NO, they want to PLAY FOR FUN SOLO Q...... DELICIOUS SOLO Q! Create memes and say stuff like " POGGERS!!! instead of doing their jobs and in the long run be able to make it out of groups on the reg.
Anytime I ever saw players watching vods or so they are texting or asleep on the couch instead of paying attention.

Self criticism Close to every Doublelift stream whenever a player on his team does anything he's always " You're so BAD!" Other streamers like Tyler1 and IWD are also partly to blame with how players act in solo Q. It's actually "cool" these days acting like a rage filled 5 year old and a person to throw blame instead of actually THINKING "What can I have done" These are just some examples as there are other side of the coin NA players that are different like( Anniebot - who sounds like a nice person that doesn't really rages or switches blame). Overall, I think if we as a region want to actually grow and become better we need to work on self criticism and self control. I do believe Korea actually has the more toxic community and players but at least they have the mechanics to back it up and pedigree.

I could go on and give out other points and examples but it's just easier to say something rude as being informative gets 0 attention but being rude gets you attention and more. Overall, sucks that this is the way NA ends their tournament but also my viewing of such because there's honestly no real rhyme or reason continuing to watch the LCS or really league content after Worlds. It'll just be the same thing again.

#stay Free NA - Stay Free

RISE Shlack12310/21/2019, 3:29:01 AM2 votes

The problem is the NA ladder, mainly. It's a cultural thing, and this problem isn't something you can just snap your fingers to solve. Especially now that the game has turned really gimmicky with skins and 100-0 team comps, people are just playing to get the thrill of one-shotting or trolling. We punish people who call out the trolling more than the trolls. And we are watching our best streamers become just as toxic. It's a holistic issue with the NA region. We are, by definition, not competitive. When's the last time someone from EU or KR came to boot camp on NA servers? lol

HeeroTX10/21/2019, 9:45:16 PM2 votes

I said it after Rift Rivals. Look at the average AGE of all the top teams, they're all younger (often MUCH younger) than ours. Faker is considered an OLD eSports player in Korea, he himself has mentioned that in interviews. If we recruited him today he would be the YOUNGEST player on Team Liquid. Part of the problem is the "win now" mentality, part of it is the questionable strength of our players in solo-q/Academy, and a big chunk is probably the "Jerry Jones effect", ie. the "bankability" of players who might be skilled but no one knows who they are. By the time most players would sell jerseys, they're past their prime. This is why we keep dragging in imports, because they're "known" and also expected to be really good.

ALL of the NA Academy teams at BARE MINIMUM should be playing at least 2 players that's 17 - 18, if not younger, so that they can see how those players are and hopefully training players that will be playing soon. No one over 22 should be on the Academy teams for more than a year, because none of them should be expecting to move up to LCS, unless it's a temporary demotion to prove a point (like C9 once did) which shouldn't last more than a year or if you have some situation where you're either putting someone elsewhere pending a trade (again shouldn't be more than a year) or getting them back into shape after a reasonable absence for some reason (like a family tragedy or something else demanding player attention).

Der Lindwurm10/20/2019, 5:34:19 PM2 votes

I think we can be sure at this point that getting talent from other regions does not work.

SheNeedAMan10/21/2019, 6:43:00 AM2 votes

NA will always be bad because our culture doesn't encourage competitive gaming. Gaming in America has and will be a thing to just past time. "You can't make money from it." Is the mentality we have. And anyone that's high skilled knows that it's not worth putting effort into this game as solo que is just one tricks/mems/streamers.

MakJuice10/20/2019, 6:49:24 PM2 votes

The simple reason is that after seasons 3 and 4, NA started looking abroad for talent, and buying either washed up superstars whom were on par with our stars of the time, and kept trying to build off of that. The other route we took was also buying talent from other regions that didn't mesh with our already NA scheme/meta talent and therefore produced an odd product all across the board...

EU will continue to climb because they didn't buy talent those years. They use home-grown talent and after seasons 3-4, they continued to look internally and build a foundation within their professional scene where all the players were home-grown and grew together into superstars. Occasionally they do buy players, but they typically dont have 2 koreans, 1 American, and 2 europeans on a team.

Yami No Ignis10/21/2019, 10:41:01 PM1 votes

NA players get boosted too much.

Emperor Talquin10/20/2019, 6:35:45 PM1 votes

Place your pro players in a lck environment.

Talisid10/20/2019, 7:18:31 PM1 votes

NA just has way less players in total than EU or Korea or China. Its just a matter of statistics that they have a smaller talent pool for competitive as a result.

bmwmangal10/20/2019, 9:53:29 PM1 votes

NA needs more EU imports but also def need less calories

DenderaSet10/21/2019, 5:45:02 AM1 votes

They need better coaches. Papa Smithy did the right thing. Make froskurinn a coach...she knows the game. and I agree that trolling seems like the new meta. It is wrecking the game.

7thHeaven10/21/2019, 5:47:24 AM1 votes

NA doesnt need more clowns*[sg-lulu]*

Saezio10/21/2019, 8:44:45 PM1 votes

NA needs to stop playing one dimensionally and they need to stop relaxing when they are "good enough to win LCS".

I mean, is there even a single TL fan that thought Xmithie was up to par to play in worlds stage?

Is there a single C9 fan that thought Sneaky could be competitive vs Uzi/Teddy/Perkz/Jakeylove?

It's better to go for an adc/jungler with untapped potential than to keep scraping by with players that are worn out and can't improve any more.