Yeah, it's surprising he amount I agree w/ you on a lot of those but we also disagree on some very key points. I think the biggest thing we disagree on is what was sold to RNG. The contracts for Chris and Mash expired on 11/16, and I believe 1 other player had the same date, but I can't remember if it was Pekin or Shrimp. Either way it creates a very different scenario for RNG than buying the space AND the line up.
So essentially the come into the line up of KonKwon, and either Wolf or Shrimp (can't remember which). If it's wolf I actually like the concept of getting a top tier top and jungle plus a free agent LCS ADC (apollo, altec, and freeze all had not announced teams yet if I remember right so it seems like the best pool of free agents to bring in established talent to shore up the line up). However, I could see going GBM over a jungle because the talent pool of high caliber jungles is smaller and the mid lane for NA is a little weak imo (bjerg is pretty good, Fenix, Pob, and maybe Huhi have decent potential, but overall weak compared to many other regions so a good spot to bring in a known factor that you think can punish the weakness of that role in the region). With fewer strong jungles overall the price is likely higher, so the cost benefit might not have been there. It's an experimental line up, not one that was top 4 last season and you're trying to improve by replacing one player and deciding between mid or jg to replace, so on some level you have to do a cost analysis. I think Pekin looked like he had the potential to keep up w/ NA mid laners, but he's not going to dominate, so to justify going w/ him over someone like GBM who I think will do well mechanically and create some strength for the team vs NA talent, you'd have to have a jungle w/ a big impact. Who is available? Rush (who may be C9 which would have out bid RNG, and I'm honestly surprised and think it has to be enjoying NA if he stays in NA bc I think after his season and performance in KR solo que he'd have some tryouts for KR teams while he's there), Dexter (who is good but wasn't a huge impact for CLG), maybe one of the KR players who left CN, but they probably want to go back to KR and are too high a price for RNG too bc they are probably still considered tier 1 in the world and GBM isn't (but might be top tier in NA for mid lane). There aren't many good options for a second tier import that will out class the NA jungle talent the way I think GBM has the potential to, so I think it comes down to options and cost honestly.
The point is they had to renegotiate contracts for players and w/out knowing what that looked like I don't think we really have a good picture of it. In the NFL you draft your top players then work out a contract. In the LCS you get to do contracts w/out committing to the player first. If you think of some of the NFL drafts where players didn't start for weeks bc the player was asking for a ton of money and the organization didn't want to pay someone at their draft spot the kind of money they expect to shell out for a higher pick, I'm sure some of them would have loved to be able to say "nope, we're dropping you and going to make an offer to the guy picked next for your position" but they can't do that bc another team already has that player and the contract. If Chris and Mash are considered mediocre talent for LCS and good talent for challenger series, there may have been an issue when it came to making new contracts. If Altec and Mash ask for the same amount when you're looking at talent bc Mash expects to be payed more now that the team is in the LCS and not Challenger, you'd be fairly stupid to go w/ Mash over Altec for the same price imo. Maybe the organization wanted to keep wolf, but when contract negotiations came around it was the same price to get him vs GBM and they just thought it would be something they'd regret turning down.
As for "this is why NA doesn't build talent" I think there is a big error in that logic. The first is that I'd bet money Pekin gets picked up by one of the rosters w/ giant holes in it currently bc he looks like he at least would be competitive, and if he has the potential to grow and good synergy w/ the team he'd be a great investment if the org feels like they can not get relegated w/ that roster. The second is that I think it is more related to infrastructure for player development than it is to organizational choices in terms of why NA doesn't have more development options. The first infrastructure issue is addressed well in an interview w/ Scarra I watched recently where he pointed out something I've never thought of. Not only is KR a fairly small country compared to NA, a huge % of their population that plays league is located in Seoul. Teams have much greater access to players and it is easier to see if it is worth taking the risk of signing a player. In KR a team can speak w/ a challenger/masters player and express interest in giving them a try out, and they pay for a bus/train ticket (usually just local transport in Seoul) for the player to come to the gaming house for the weekend or something and live w/ the team and practice for 48-72 hours. If the team gets along and the player fits well into their practice they can offer them a spot either on the team or as a sub and help the player grow into top talent. If the team doesn't like the new player's personality, or if he doesn't perform well w/ them in scrims, they can send the guy home and not have lost more than the price of food that weekend and a subway ticket. If an NA team wants to do the same, but the challenger player is in Boston, the price is astronomically higher just to see if the guy fits in w/ the team. This means NA can't use solo que to scout talent nearly as easily as smaller geographical regions like KR. The second issue is the structure of developmental leagues and sister teams. In KR sister teams used to be huge before riot changed the rules. Teams could bring on talent they scouted not just as back ups trying to improve but actually as a second team. If they developed into a top tier team, the org had two premier teams and was rewarded for the effort of developing new players on a second team. If the whole team didn't develop but a star player did they could swap players between teams and still get benefits from the second team (plus it kept players motivated to keep working on each team so they could move up/weren't replaced). Alternatively, you could look at something like baseball which has triple A ball developmental teams that build up talent to move into the majors. Players are with a particular org on their feeder team that provides players for their top team. I hate baseball, so I'm not sure how it works w/ contracts and players who are good moving up to other organizations if there isn't an open spot on the organization that they play for currently, but I think the system at least shows that a "feeder" league to develop talent can exist in a way it doesn't right no for lol.
