Two years in a row we've had a boring Worlds showing (spoilers)

Well, the picks were really boring this year.

4 bans instead of 6. Low diversity ( Kass, Lulu, Rek'Sai, Ali all the time). Predictable winner. Same problems second Worlds in a row.

I think the forced bans really ruined team diversity. GP/Morde 92% bans basically ruined targeted bans.

The only thing fair in my opinion is to finish a tournament on the same patch it started on, with the exception of bug fixes. They all qualified for worlds before they even played on a HUGE meta shift patch.

Riot could have saved all the juggernauting for Season 6 and left the game where it was, not broken with obscenely different champions.

Group stage was fun with all the upsets.

However, Bracket stage was a disaster. No series to 5 games. Most matches horribly one sided. Korean VS Korean finals...

SKT intentionnal throw in game 3 just to make the finals last longer (anyone who think otherwise is just delusional).

For the first time since I started playing LoL (2011, before season 1 Worlds), I did not watch the finals (aside from that short clip in game 3), because I knew from the start it was SKT who would win.

It's like that for pretty much any game really. As soon as Koreans step in, they crush any competition. I don't see how we can avoid avoid Koreans champions in any of the upcoming seasons.

Honestly, if NA/EU wants to have a chance at winning Worlds, the LCS needs be restructured so that games happen throughout the period of a week, and do best of three instead of best of 1.

Right now, Every other region's Pro Scene conditions teams way better for how worlds works. 10 weeks of round robins doesn't prepare teams for worlds. It doesn't help them deal with the mentality of best of 3 or best of 5s which is where Fnatic choked, HARD. (lose one game, lose all motivation and cool and end up looking like C9 when C9 faced Fnatic)

I haven't watched a worlds since Taipei vs AzubuF. lol

I only watched a clip of the first Round of the match, up to the point where SKT pushed down the Nexus. Then I went and looked at their bracket history and was like "Lol, I don't need to watch this". x3

Honestly, the reason the korean teams seem so much better is because literally all of them are trying to make a literally living out of it.

Not saying that other teams that make it to worlds AREN'T, but teams like SKT literally make it their life job. Honestly I find it really foolish and short-sighted, but hey. Humans. (note that this is coming from someone who doesn't particular care that much for "esports" to begin with)

The juggernaut patch was a mistake only because they didn't give them enough time to balance before worlds. If they could've done world on 5.19 or 5.20 it probably would've been better. There were a ton of picks, and picks that were thought to be under powered coming back was really interesting to see (Ryze, Kassadin). A lot of the games were really close even though the end results don't tell that story. There were some stomps but that's the way professional sports can be sometimes.

I think in general the regions are getting closer together when it comes to skill. SKT is really the only outlier. Fanatic could've beaten either Koo or Kt, the same with Origen and EDG. Flashwolves and AHQ could've also given the teams a run for their money. I'm just glad the wildcards aren't getting hopelessly stomped anymore and besides SKT 3-5 teams could've made it to the finals with a bit more luck in placements and how they played that day.

Tbh the only fun team to watch was C9 (i'm not a fan) they were just fun to watch. veigar mid, tristana roaming mid and bot, darius pentadunk

What would you offer as an alternative? Segregate the regions? But then you are encouraging the shoddy NA teams to continue being lackluster and give them a false sense of skill by not playing in the big kids yard

Some key points to take away from it;

1.) Korea is still doing things right, despite losing a lot of last years stars Korea prevailed again and in dominating fashion. 2.) China got messed up badly this year. Likely due to how they as a region play League of Legends and how the juggernaut patch goes against that style. 3.) Europe has a bright future and just might have found the magic needed to break into the top tiers and compete with Korea and China on even footing. 4.) Wildcards are also improving and if the trend continues we might even see one break out of group stages next year. 5.) North America has moved backwards in comparison to all other regions, the lack of effort and the drama of their lives gets in the way far too much for the region to be any serious challenge on the international level so far.

As for what to take away.... I guess I would say that as the game evolves you won't see Korea or Europe slacking, China will likely dust themselves off, Wildcards are no joke and NA is still a joke. I am NA, but sorry guys we are absolutely horrible at this game currently and need a complete restructuring of how we train and play this game if we ever want to be taken seriously again. It was a valiant effort we made in groups, but it shows just how far off we are from every other region. :(

Of course there is a solution.

And that is for western teams to get better. It's not easy but doable.

the group stage is what screws everything up. way too much luck involved with grouping the teams and you don't get a good idea of which teams are better coming out of groups and then you get a crappy, mismatched bracket stage like we did. imo they should knock the number of teams down to 10, get rid of the group stage, and instead have every team play every other team. doing this you would get a much more accurate seeding for the bracket stage.

When Asians dominated an esport, white racist QQ about it. But when Whites dominated an esport(cs:go), no one really qq.

White people are genetically racist.