The Solution to League's International Competitions
It's widely known that Riot only wants two major tournaments a year. They prefer a League format, which is completely understandably because it might be more sustainable. However, this hurts the scene because of less international competition. When NA goes to worlds and gets stomped, I can't help but think that wouldn't have happened if they had more international practice beforehand.
But there is a compromise! We don't need other tournaments to have international competition, we can have money matches! This has a shitload of good reasons behind it.
To clarify, a money match would be like if FNC right now just took a trip to NA right now and played a Best of 5 with Team Liquid for 5K$. It's like a public scrim with money on the line.
A) It is very cheap to only be moving one team around, as opposed to the many teams for an international competition.
B) Could be very creative with prize pool and which matchups get played. Could be crowdfunded up to a cap, say Riot posts 3 or 4 matchup and they say whichever one is funded up to X amount first is the matchup that gets played.
C) It would be completely up to teams. Riot would talk to the teams beforehand whether they would like to be considered for a money match. They could also decide on format and type of series, IE they could do a Bo7 instead, or 3 Bo3s.
D) Money matches are hype as fuck man. They are a big thing in Project M, and they have created some of the most highly regarded matches in that game, ever.
E) It gives our teams the practice they might need so that they don't fluke in playoffs because of nerves or something like that.
F) It gives more incentive to be an LoL pro because now they have more chance to go international and see places all around the world, especially for mid tier teams like TL, NRG, and REN (In NA.. I think this split there are a lot of amazing Korean teams that deserve some international recognition)
G) It also makes it easier to open up wildcard regions/Lesser known regions. A team from somewhere like Brazil would benefit a lot from playing a public Bo5 with CLG or TSM. It would make League as a whole more awesome, as opposed to only the players at the very top receiving all the benefits of being a pro.
H) Last but not least, Money matches are easy as hell to fit into a schedule. You're only moving one team around, and it's only one series. You could literally have 10 in the time teams are bootcamping in Korea.