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I really hope SKT don't win international tournaments this year

C9 Elfolorix·4/19/2017, 3:36:39 PM·2 votes·2,273 views

Imagine SKT wins MSI or Worlds. They have already won 3 international tournaments in a row (S5 Worlds, S6 MSI and S6 Worlds). Imagine they win again, e-sports wouldn't make sense anymore. It has been proven that people watch less League e-sports everyday. In 2014, NA LCS had over 300k viewers every weekend, this year the games barely get 200k (C9 and TSM, the rest of them get even less viewers). In my opinion that's happening because in 2014 there were many more doubts about who was going to win Worlds or who was gonna do best in them. Now we already now that S7 Worlds will have all korean teams in the semifinals and another team who is gonna be destroyed by the korean team he get, and a korean team will win Worlds again, probably MSI too. People are starting to not be interested in e-sports because they already know what the end is gonna be like. And if SKT continues winning everything, finally no one will watch Lol e-sports anymore, or at least it will continue loosing viewers. If only another different reggion was able to win this MSI, the hype would come to worlds again, doubts of who will be the winner this year would come again, and doubts would come together with people watching the solution of them. I really want hype to come again to e-sports, I dont want SKT to win again. Sorry for my bad english I'm spanish :S

What do you guys think about this?

9 Comments

Darth West4/19/2017, 3:43:53 PM1 votes

As much as I love SKT, I'm tired of seeing them win.. Every. Single. Time. As happy as I am for them, it gets tiring after a while. Want me to be honest?

You are absolutely correct. Me and my best friend in real life used to watch Esports together and literally get some popcorn because we didn't know what was going to happen, ahh.. The memories. Sadly he quit watching after SKT won nonstop and he found it incredibly pointless, since he already knew what would happen each time.

Risk of Fate4/19/2017, 3:46:02 PM1 votes

I'm willing to bet SKT is going to win again simply because the West don't really put out good enough teams. C9 gets overconfident which makes them run into a wall, TSM chokes when on the spot and the only real competitor were Edward Gaming and Rox Tigers, I think. Who knows, though, last year saw an almost upset when they were dethroned. Still, given how eSports is viewed outside of Korea, I'll be surprised if a NA or EU team wins.

TurquoiseYoshi4/19/2017, 3:59:29 PM1 votes

I'm hoping that at least KT can beat SKT in the LCK finals to keep SKT out of MSI. I feel like it's possible to beat Korean teams if the teams play correctly, which no team has done recently for a Bo5, but if things keep going as they are right now, it's gonna start getting stale really quick.

Although to be fair, things are getting stale everywhere else in-region too. NA Finals are TSM/C9 for the 3rd time in 5 splits and TSM has never missed a finals. G2 and FW are the favorites to win a 3rd straight EU/LMS title respectively. EDG and RNG still have reasonably large chances of winning LPL. We're seeing a lot of new teams in WC regions, but the major regions are all getting pretty stale.

Stillname4/19/2017, 5:36:24 PM1 votes

I think one problem is that it is year round. People just aren't going to stay interested in it when it is constantly happening. Even if they follow the pro scene they don't necessarily tune in each week.

No pro sports take place all year they all have a season and then about half of the year off which is mostly because it would be too much for the players to handle but I bet it also helps the viewer base not get burnt out on it.

Imo there should be a summer league that leads up to worlds and the rest of the year riot should just let 3rd party companies host tournaments that teams would get invited to like IEM.

Truly Prideful4/19/2017, 5:50:16 PM1 votes

I don't want to see them win, but until everyone else steps up their game they deserve to keep collecting the trophies.

GeminiRune4/19/2017, 6:30:29 PM1 votes

I do agree that seeing the same results time and time again does get a bit dull in the long run. But in a way you're only telling a rough half of the story. You leave out the channel expansion to cover other regions thus resulting in less active followers, the viewbots that existed on Twitch which would balloon that viewership a rough 20% on assumption. Honestly I feel that your point goes beyond just SKT winning internationally.

North America is always producing the same outcome in at least 2 of the big 4 (C9, TSM, CLG, or TL) getting a surge of interest or making it far.
Taiwan is practically unchanging if you account for the last 2 or so years.
Latin America North is always about Lyon Gaming, the team with a record TSM fans would die to have but other obvious things in which they wouldn't

That's just a few. Each region doesn't always make the best mix up but when they do, it draws attention. But in League's case, it's a weird attention. Royal Club, OMG, and even Fnatic's falls from grace. Fans will often draw out the death note conclusions when big names go down at some point in history. It's as if they're being afraid of change while comparing to other regions that aren't really changing. And that's where the SKT mention comes in. They're still at the top and looking good. But who knows what could happen until the event comes around.

I know your discussion refers to League eSports but an entire eSports scene such as League doesn't have to die based off of the same result. If you're shutting yourself down from eSports because of that, then it's as simple as just taking a break which is what fans with busy lives have routinely done. CS:GO often has a general European dominance yet still remains just as hype. It's not always the same though; teams will look better on different stages. But fans won't always boon until the main events. Smash Bros Melee: odds are one of the 5 gods will take something. It still remains exciting nonethelsss. UMvC3: a player by the name NYChrisG would practically win tournament after tournament back in 2013-2014 and was just absurdly unstoppable. The scene had a brief lull period but it's still going strong now that even the best can be found out.

SKT will have that moment where they fail to take claim for a title. But as long as players and teams are following behind them rather than running their own game (which is why nobody beat ChrisG until it mattered), then we'll more than likely see the same result if not a high performing one. And if there's any hope: EDG has done it; different time but still did it. It's not impossible.

GenghisEmo4/20/2017, 5:27:54 AM1 votes

I hope SKT wins XD.

It is the best LoL and the world needs to embrace it. China/LPL fell off with the Chaos they have, a shadow of their former glory. NA and EU struggled recently at Worlds, but overall the gap to LPL/LMS is now closed. IWC have caught up to an extent as well.

But LCK, the best of the best, SKT showing us that there is a process to creating a "winning" team needs to win yet again. KT could also win it, and I'm down for that. Shoot even SSG, that would be cool too.

But SKT wins, it would mean so much more. We, the rest of the world, need to step up. We, the rest of the world, need to copy LCK a bit more. Maybe, just maybe, then we will finally not have SKT win yet again.

If anything, a vocal minority possibly mostly from NA (based on as we boo'd in 2016 while EU was quite chill and nice in 2015) will talk about the death of Competitive LoL. But I see a continued growth in which LCK will not be able to climb higher as they are already at their peak, while NA, EU while improve a bit more (but unsure if they will transition that growth well into Worlds). LMS is stagnating, yet they seem to still do relatively well internationally. LPL is stagnated, and to an extent regressed, but they have a die hard following and just love the eSport so much. IWC has mixed results historically getting rekt but upsetting as well, but they are overall progressing well.

Overall, the trend is LoL and its eSport is further advancing in a positive direction. we may not make it to LCK levels here in NA, but we can have hope another region will. And another Super Team that can rival SKT was born, KT. And we have seen how SSG play too, and they are not push overs (they lost to KT, but they are not awful by any means).

The day SKT lose, it will be one hell of a paradigm shift.

ronukon8/29/2017, 1:30:04 PM1 votes

Im putting my money on longzu. Na and eu are terrible china always flops and korea has 3 power house teams all around the same skill level. Korea defintly wins this year but its still up in the air if faker can contiue to pull his season 3 tier of play. Longzu khan is a monster carrying in a role that doesnt carry in meta. Bdd goes toe to toe with faker in his peak performance. Pray and gorilla both arguably top in their roles and dominate skts weak bot lane which has had many issues. Then cuzz the rookie can go from getting completely stomped to the next game using skt stratagy and pulling it off better. Also if skt wins its not like they didnt earn it their the gods of macro plain and simple other teams need to get serious if they want worlds its not a freebi like most american things.