Arena: Scouting Grounds
Riot·4/19/2017, 7:59:46 PM·1 votes·6,283 views
Arena:
Scouting Grounds
04 | 19 | 2017
Arena is a new monthly series about the whats, whys, and hows of the NA LCS, straight from the team behind the League. Over the next year, we'll be exploring topics that NA LCS fans are curious about such as decision-making, processes, and behind-the-scenes content.
Legend has it that back in 2011, Doublelift landed a sub spot on CLG after duo-queueing with HotshotGG. Soon after, Doublelift snagged a starting position on Epik Gamer, then moved to unRestricted, which was later bought by Curse Inc. And after that, well, you probably know the rest.
Six years later, there are 200 occupied Challenger spots in NA. But as of the 2016 Summer Split, there were 10 pro NA LCS teams. In six short years, the number of players who were skilled enough to one day turn pro grew exponentially, yet the number of NA pro teams increased by only two. It's clearly not practical for pro team scouts to recruit players like Doublelift from the post-game lobby anymore.
Sourcing from the top of NA ladders has also become increasingly more difficult as League's numbers expand across the world. "I don't know which players on the NA ladder are smurfs," says Liquid co-chief executive officer and owner Steve Arhancet. "Or which of those players are in California or North America or South America."
For a while, we'd heard from coaches and team owners that recruiting programs and ways to find local players were pretty much non-existent. To try and remedy this problem, we introduced the NA LCS Scouting Grounds last November, hoping the program would help showcase amateur players to teams searching for their next all-star.
The NA LCS team partnered with teams, pros, and coaches to develop programs that would test and highlight the skills required of any upcoming pro player. Everyone invited to Scouting Grounds were mechanically talented, so what we really wanted to be able to test were secondary skills. This would help everyone involved understand if these players could be LCS pro material or gel within their Challenger roster.
We worked with teams to create situations that tested how pros performed in cooperative environments, under pressure, and with coaching staff. These situations also helped players (and teams) understand how feedback could be received or given and how to adapt and grow with it.
During the event, players were drafted into four squads supported by pro teams:
Team Cloud Drake (CLD), supported by CLG: Top: fallenbandit, Jungle: Omargod, Mid: Butler Delta, ADC: Zag, and Support: LOLFILL
Team Mountain Drake (MTN), supported by IMT: Top: Bobjenkins, Jungle: BmxSpecks, Mid: Tuesday, ADC: Shynon, and Support: Winter
Team Infernal Drake (INF), supported by FOX: Top: Shadow, Jungle: Gahlin, Mid: Strompest, ADC: deftly, Support: Jiu Jiu
Team Ocean Drake (OCN), supported by TL: Top: Maxtrobo, Jungle: Wiggily, Mid: rjsdndgod, ADC: Vex, and Support: Whyin
The teams trained and scrimmed with one another, eventually facing off in a recorded tournament. At the end of the event, Team Ocean (supported by TL) finished victorious, becoming the first North American Scouting Grounds Champions.
Since Scouting Grounds wrapped, five of the participating players have joined Challenger Series teams, while six others joined several LCS teams, like C9 and CLG, as subs.
"We felt like the talent was almost too good to not look into the idea of bringing in five of the guys there and give them an opportunity to prove themselves," said CLG's head coach, Tony Gray. "We always have a team of guys we can train up while keeping our own players in check mentally to be the best that they can be."
So what's next? This year's Scouting Grounds will be focused around improving the event for three different groups.
Teams: The big focus here is making sure teams feel like Scouting Grounds is a valuable place to work with new players and hopefully discover their next god-tier pro.
Players: Just as pro teams should find Scouting Grounds valuable, so should the players who contribute their time to be at the event. Ideally, Scouting Grounds should not only connect players to teams and coaches, but offers training around out-of-game experiences like media and sponsorship opportunities.
Fans: Since last year was the first Scouting Grounds, it was hard to say how much fans would want in on the action, but looking back at the event, it's obvious they want more. Plans are still in flux, but expect more coverage around the inner workings of Scouting Grounds and the teams and players that make it happen.
We may be far from the days when landing a spot on a pro team was a matter of being noticed by the right person at the right time, but that doesn't mean spots in the NA LCS will be reserved for seasoned veterans and international trades. The future of the league may rest here in North America with a handful of Challenger players ready and waiting to take the stage.
