Boards›Esports

My Thoughts on Why NA Struggles Internationally

IncrediPhiLL·10/18/2019, 8:36:51 PM·14 votes·9,602 views

First of all, I'd just like to say that the tournament isn't over for NA. The second best team in the world (based on MSI results) is still in the tournament and they still have games to play, so lets not write NA off just yet.

There are some great conversations happening on a previous thread and I wanted to share a more detailed analysis of my stance here.

I personally believe that NA struggles because the casual player base of soloque games in NA is not as competitive as the casual players in soloque of other regions. I have no evidence to support this, but I'm willing to wager that a large bulk of NA soloque players are casual players, who maybe play a few times a week and move on to other titles or go out and do other things. After all, there are so many options for the gaming population as a whole in the region, that I just don't think a large number of players take the game as seriously as players in other countries.

Now, what does this have to do with competitive play?

The answer to that question is that if the average NA soloque player isn't very good because they don't spend a lot of time with the game, then our ranked ladder is far and away inferior to the ranked ladder of other regions... meaning that the amount of high quality players is severely lacking and the high quality players we do have ARE NOT high quality compared to other regions.

We've all heard that "NA Challenger is Korean Silver" and what not, and while I think that's an exaggeration, I do think it makes sense. The Korean ladder has far more serious and less casual players, meaning the top of the ladder in that region has a lot more practice against top notch players and require better play to be the best.

There is a reason that imports from other regions doesn't make ours better. They are coming over here and dominating our soloque rank and domination our split, but they are actually getting worse in international play because they no longer practice against top tier players.

If we want to change the skill level in NA, I think the discussion is far more complicated. In order to do so, we need to change the amount of casual LOL gamers to more serious LOL gamers... and that is something that I don't think will ever happen in NA unless the amount of things you can do here gets severely limited.

I think a potential solution is to just bootcamp the entire year in the Korean region on Korean servers... but then could we really call it the NALCS anymore?

I just think the solution to becoming a better region in League of Legends is far more complicated than "Get Good" and "Get on my level." The entire culture needs to change. Not just the game.

17 Comments

Hong Kong Annie10/18/2019, 10:00:48 PM7 votes

I think a big part of why the ranked ladder problem has alot to do with the internet infrastructure in the US.

I'm not sure how it is in Europe, but I know in China and Korea They have high bandwidth internet in very dence population centers which results in low latency to the servers. In NA most alot of places don't have high bandwidth internet, and our population is spread over a large area resulting in higher average ping. Not to mention from my experience ISPs in NA are less than reliable. My own ping can be 26 one game and 65 the next all because my ISP started routing my traffic a different way. And I can tell you that sometimes makes the difference between life and death or dodging a skill shot or not.

So bottom line not everyone has the dedication and skill to complete at the highest level, but even those that do might not have the means to do so.

AquariusGine10/19/2019, 4:15:41 AM3 votes

Send NA players to Korea for a year. God it's painful watching them get obliterated by eastern teams.

ChompyWulf10/18/2019, 10:29:18 PM3 votes

Completely true. Serious competition when it comes to videogames is a longer existing cultural thing for Korea especially.

Another factor for China over NA is population count. They literally have three times the population, and while that country is oppressive and in some regions downright crappy, they still have a larger gamer population than us and by that virtue alone will turn out more top level pros.

The entire NA issue is definitely the gaming culture and the player base specifically. Until we see a team winning NA without stacking the best imports possible, hopes on the international stage are bad.

Talisid10/20/2019, 1:18:38 AM2 votes

NA has less players, like a LOT less players, than Korea or China or EU.

Therefore they have a smaller pool of top-players to draft from to make pro teams.

NemeBro10/20/2019, 5:26:04 AM2 votes

Imagine unironically thinking that we should shift our culture to emulate a bunch of dweebs who actually pay money to use a computer to play ranked League of Legends in an internet cafe, because the game is that important to their lives.

Us not taking League as seriously is a good thing. esports is jokes.

Troll Slaiyer10/20/2019, 12:28:26 AM1 votes

who.the hell.cares.

Just Jangle10/20/2019, 5:34:52 AM1 votes

NA sucks, thats all.

bmwmangal10/20/2019, 10:29:57 PM1 votes

[deleted]

IronyAndSublime10/19/2019, 2:24:31 AM1 votes

It doesn't help that other regions constantly joke about NA, and have been spamming the same shit every year. All that does it make the region less and less motivated to compete. I wouldn't be surprised if NA stopped playing the LCS entirely because of the lack of respect and no success out of it. Seriously, why do we even bother? Even Riot thinks NA jokes are funny.

gileskd10/19/2019, 4:53:11 AM1 votes

here is my biased opinion a majority of china/Korean, love the fast pace gaming. a majority of north America, hate it (this is based off what I see on the boards) you play a game of league of legends

  1. you enjoy it, you will play it more as well as get better (practice makes perfect)
  2. you hate it, play it for a bit/once in a while, then go play something else

once again this opinion is biased. I love love LOVE to play tanks. but each day I see riot pump out more and more damage, remove armor and magic resist, find more ways to give players extra gold. and then they have the audacity to claim "no damage creep here" lets give blitzcrank some buffs! oh silly us, he is too strong now, instead of reverting it, we will just nerf his armor. no one will catch us doing it, and if they do, we will simply deny it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [sg-syndra]

Sinister Anubis10/19/2019, 5:04:42 AM1 votes

It's the culture in America. Most parents dont understand pro gaming and dont support it. Most are told to get real jobs and pay Bill's because that's what they did. Also most players who make a living playing spend a lot of time outside the game as well eatting out hanging with friends etc etc. They just arnt as devoted as korea is.

A little Peepo10/19/2019, 8:53:36 AM1 votes

Other regions are just better than NA, except turkey. I play in both regions and I can tell you the quality of players just surpasses NA to the point where it's unfair to compare NA to EUW. Maybe it's because other regions tend to be more competitive and play to win since EU is extremely more toxic than NA, out of all regions NA tends to be the least toxic but more troll prevelant. But when it comes to pro play I don't think regions should matter, I just believe it is the quality of the players and how committed they are compared to the players on NA. Not saying they are bad because who am I to call others bad but that is my opinion based on what I've seen