Missing BO3's in NA LCS

Gohnaku·4/15/2018, 12:03:45 PM·1 votes·656 views

So I gave it the whole season and I must say I miss the BO3 format. I have 2 main reasons for this.

One off games are less compelling in terms of a story. Look how things can develop in a playoff series. Sometimes I just give games a miss where I would definitely watch the BO3 to see what happens. This leads me to point 2

Picks and bans. I think with the one off game type you get conservative picks, less likely to end up with a slightly more "out there" pick or different strategy for bans. In short, you get meta slave matches and that is it.

I am still a fan but the playoffs confirmed for me that I miss the best of format

2 Comments

GeminiRune4/15/2018, 1:26:37 PM1 votes

I still feel like it is a mixed bag of pros and cons for both formats. In general, BO3 is a fancy way of saying "you get one chance to screw up free for each series." BO1 tends to make each game truly count in a run for positioning. But some fans do like the decisive victory that emerges from the BO3 format and I feel that's what's missed.

One fallacy that I feel doesn't matter as much from past opinions witnessed is that it's "more stage time to perform well" and "teaches adaptation." Firstly, they should be learning the adaptation on and off the stage through their scrims on a like competitive server. Secondly what's stage time to long tenured players; it's the exposure of the competition that hones your experience is it not?

But to now break to your reasons. For story, that almost felt the same to me really. Particularly in NA it's often more about the memes than any story not about C9, TSM, or CLG in any combination just in terms of matchup. But if you wanted my opinion, the entire split was the story. No specific matchups or anything. It had you on the edge of your seat wondering what teams would ink out the title based on the preseason expectations. Even the likes of Golden Guardians and their underdog tale, when Echo Fox was gonna freaking melt, and how great was Optic gonna be. Sure it didn't make any rivalries but organizational rivalries don't get produced with just a single split either unless the right elements are involved and there aren't enough elements if you ask me. But if it's storyline through rivalries you're looking for, you go straight to the LPL and the amount of legacy and fan backing over half the teams have.

As for the PB, I feel like that didn't matter in any league. You were either an innovative, risk taking team or you were practically a sheep. And there are so few of those off the wall teams outside the LPL once again on the mention. The one off feeling is upsetting, but again every game did honestly matter this split for NA, so I really don't blame them.

I miss the BO3 a bit. But from the strain on both broadcast and fan viewing, not to mention the extremely slanted fanbase that already exists in NA, I rather enjoy the entire league under a BO1 and let the playoffs give me my decisive representative.