Another Worlds...

BeatinWarDrumz·10/12/2015, 10:06:21 AM·28 votes·3,953 views

Another year when NA gets crushed by Korea. Why? It's not magic, it's not genes, it's culture

Quite simply Koreans are far more accepting of nerds and gamers and far more dedicated to success.

In America, if you play LoL and take is seriously you are laughed at as some no life nerd, even if you're challenger and make money off the game. In Korea, success is success, regardless of what it is in.

So, until Esports and gaming gets more recognition in the U. S. as a non-loser thing, look forward to seeing yet another year of NA getting crushed.

48 Comments

ABlueQuaker10/12/2015, 12:03:11 PM16 votes

I was about to agree with you when I saw the mention of culture, but then you went the wrong way with it.

Koreans, and by extension a vast majority of people within a variety of Asian cultures, have an impeccable work ethic. That's the edge that Korea, China and GPL teams have over EU and NA. They see LoL Esports as their occupation and they give it 100%.

Kal Vas Flam10/12/2015, 11:56:00 AM6 votes

Koreans bash on nerds too, not really sure why you think they don't. They win more because commit more. Commitment is one of NA's biggest weaknesses right now as a nation. Christianity has nothing to do with video games.

Omniphonic10/12/2015, 10:49:47 AM5 votes

korean society isn't dogged by the albatross of christianity nor plagued by the pestilent spectre of multiculturalism. but no, it's probably because greed affects people differently, you're totally right.

Cynical Rain10/12/2015, 12:11:04 PM4 votes

This is one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

NA is the global center for achieving success in the most diverse of manners. This is mostly because it has the liberty/luxury of being able to sustain that sort of society due to its economy. So much in NA revolves around service instead of production. If you have an idea, and you know how to sell it, people will buy, because they have more money to "throw around".

NA companies acquire the most foreign players as well, and those players agree to move. Why do you think that is? It's not about culture, it's not about magic, and it's not about genes. It's about discipline and motivation. The competition in Asia is far greater than the competition in North America. If Doublelift under-performs, what will the team do about it? Replace him? With who? NA doesn't natively produce great players one after the other. In contrast, if a player under-performs in Asia, there are many others who can replace him.

At that point, you can argue your point - that the lack of motivation stems from e-sports' perception - but it'd still be a weak argument. Players in NA are happy with just being able to "game for a living". The ambition of becoming champions is lesser here than in Asia because you'll still have fans, and you'll still have your contract. All you need to do is create a persona which people love. Even if you're a terrible player, if people like you enough, you're fine.

TL;DR - It's not about magic, genes, or culture. It's about complacence which stems from a lack of discipline and motivation.

Silica SAO10/12/2015, 2:43:31 PM3 votes

Bull.

An NA team won TI in Dota 2 this year, which proves that it has nothing to do with gaming culture and whatnot.

The cause of the poor performance of NA teams in LoL Worlds simply boils down to:

Lack of competitive discipline in terms of adhering to a tight scrimming and training schedule, instead prioritising streaming on solo queue.
Refusal to innovate in terms of preparing multiple new strategies and experimenting with less popular champions, both before the tournament began as well as figuring out counter-strategies on the fly in between games.

Kaitri10/12/2015, 3:38:24 PM3 votes

na didnt get crushed by korea... they also got crushed by china, taiwan, eu and wildcards :D dude dont blame it all on korea, na lost to every team this year lol. i bet clg would have lost to bang cock titans.

Ale non è male10/12/2015, 1:13:53 PM2 votes

Except NA situation isn't much different from Eu and Eu has historically performed better than NA at world stage...

The problem is simpler, there is a smaller and with less average quality pool of potentially good pro players in NA server compared to the other main regions (barring maybe LMS, and I underline the maybe at this point) for a number of different reasons

Rinky Dinky10/12/2015, 2:47:20 PM2 votes

I would argue its because NA teams love to randomly stop using the strat that works for them, and try to copy others, at the last second, resulting in crushing defeat.

Teams from NA seem to randomly stop playing towards their strengths. EU is also guilty of this

gubigubi10/13/2015, 12:19:21 AM2 votes

Or maybe its because their solo Q is considered the best in the world as far as competition and skill level of each player. Maybe if NA started taking ranked soloQ more seriously then we could actually compete.

Validation from outside sources is no real excuse to stop anyone from doing what they set out to achieve.

CrazedPorcupine10/12/2015, 8:35:23 PM2 votes

But, NA won the Dota 2 International...

junglerboy1610/12/2015, 10:41:22 PM1 votes

the sad thing is NA getting crushed in worlds just adds to the mentality that NA gamers are no-lifes or losers. It's a self fulfilling prophecy.

DarthSpectrum10/13/2015, 12:26:19 AM1 votes

On the contrary.

By no means Koreans, or any Asian ethnicity condone playing video games. Most teenagers in Asia have extra morning classes, after school cramp course, and/or weekend private school lessons.

Korea even had to ban night classes after 10 p.m. because they were negatively impacting the students' well being.

The reason Koreans, and Asians in general, are so dominate in League is because they dedicate a lot more time to it. Just like focusing on their studies, they are used to spending every waking hour improving in one aspect.

Quite frankly put, Korean teams invest a lot more time practicing, and their success isn't exclusive to their culture. Look at Fnatic or AHQ for example. They have shown themselves capable of competing against Korean teams without being predominately Korean.

NA will start winning too when they also find the same dedication for League of Legends.

The Loveless10/13/2015, 3:36:13 AM1 votes

NA teams are pretty nerdy too. Some of those guys stream non-stop. Like, they wake up, log into twitch and/or just the client, and play all day for the whole week/month/year.

I will say that Korean coaches are infamous now for practically torturing their teams. They live in worse house conditions too. It's common for teams to all share one room.

They just have better mental fortitude. They live tougher.

Myz10/13/2015, 7:34:50 AM1 votes

Why do you say US when both CLG and C9 are registered as Canadian teams & most of the top NA players are either Canadians or from EU ?

Plus in korea they practice for like 60 + hours a week, in NA teams barely practice 30-40 and most of it consist of solo q.

ElegantDoge10/13/2015, 4:18:42 PM1 votes

And you believe it's different in Europe ? Here in Europe,being a pro player is still not a "thing". Even in Korea they're not praise like actors and celebrities but clearly accepted.

JavelinJoe10/13/2015, 9:45:55 PM1 votes

Shhhh..... Keep the genetics part a secret.

kaltenashes10/12/2015, 1:55:08 PM1 votes

its sad life bro, its a sad life

TurquoiseYoshi10/12/2015, 2:24:07 PM1 votes

COUGH JIMMY KIMMEL COUGH

Teslablade10/12/2015, 6:21:12 PM1 votes

YES

General Esdeath 10/12/2015, 6:40:21 PM1 votes

I assumed it's because in America they make money off of just being the team whereas in Korea they get more money from sponsorship. It's a little detail but it drives people.

Xonra10/12/2015, 7:01:55 PM1 votes

I'd say it is partially what you mentioned about it not being accepted, but in reality it is a matter of commitment more than anything. These spoiled and coddled NA kids get to move into a nice big house, have all of their stuff paid for, and in plenty of cases we have seen (from it being shown publicly) their isn't a very strict environment from coaches and management.

In Korea, for example, they are barely sharing spaces bigger than a 1-2 room apartment sometimes during the times they are "in season" playing. They have strict diets, are required to go to the gym in some cases with each other, aren't allowed to have girlfriends or at least have them around, unlike most NA teams. They don't just play a few scrims and call it a day, they grind their asses off, and in most cases for less money and terrible streaming deals (thanks to how the payouts and management works there).

They want to WIN where in NA it is just something kids think is cool to do and get paid for. How many kids wanted to grow up and get paid for playing games, sitting in their bedroom playing Zelda or something? In Korea they do it because they are good at it and want to win. In NA in most cases they do it because it is a pay check and fun. It is hard work, and we've seen plenty of cases where the pro players aren't willing to put in that hard work. Look at Cop from Curse/Gravity. Dude didn't play but maybe 5 solo queue games in what, 2-3 years? Imagine how good Cop would have been had he actually practiced and put in effort, seeing as he was still statistically relevant with little solo practice.

Most of the problems are easily fixable with more dedication, but that isn't going to happen, because it has to start first with the owners, and outside of, I'd say 2 and a half of them (Steve from Liquid, Regi from Tsm, and at one point HotShot, who apparently hates League right now so he declared) really care, so not holding my breath of NA winning more than unimportant tournaments or events at best.

evil magic10/12/2015, 7:22:42 PM1 votes

you also left out the part where faker was like 12 when he became a professional gamer. half of the people from NA are 16+ when they start, and some are like 30 something neckbeard losers (like me).

they literally only know league of legends. zero real life experience outside of gaming.

thewire66610/12/2015, 7:28:22 PM1 votes

No, EU raped NA, not just korea :)

T RexHasTinyArms10/12/2015, 9:24:15 PM1 votes

It's not a thing of being accepting of nerds/gamers so much as it is a thing about money. There are football players at fancy prep schools who are absolutely encouraged to go pro by their families when 50 years ago they would have been disowned for bringing up the possibility of wasting their education and family prestige to go pro. The difference is money. Before the NFL became big enough to be a wealthy and prestigious career option you would never have seen someone from a university like Stanford playing ball instead of working in business (like Andrew Luck).

Similarly there was an article on Faker a while back (ESPN magazine maybe?) where it mentioned his father was hesitant I to let him sign at first but realized it was a good option for his son and a good way to make money. South Korea has a smaller economy and so the opportunities provided by esports are a larger % of the opportunities to earn that kind of money than in NA. The average esports player earns what, 30-100k Max a year maybe? Factor in the cost of living and travel expenses to see family in NA compared to KR and it gets smaller for NA. I'm not sure how many major cities are in KR where you could reasonably expect that pay range, but there are so many in the US where with an education 40-60 k is just like good average pay for a 40 hour work week, so I think in a lot of ways the hub just isn't as good a job in NA economy bc the money isn't there yet.

The Bíg Ticket10/12/2015, 9:52:59 PM1 votes

The only problem is NA never produced an elite player who could keep up with the best at his position. Korea, China, EU and even LMS had several of those but there never was any NA player who you regarded as absolute top tier at his position.