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An the NA underperforms again....

Pippen The Short·10/24/2016, 10:35:24 PM·1 votes·586 views

Hey Riot, hire me please! Lol

But seriously....

So once again, a lot of NA fans are dissatisfied with the "professional" play in their region. Which I put "professional" in quotes because I would wager if you placed an NA LCS team into the LCK, they probably wouldn't even qualify for the LCK. The LCK is King of the LCS, as has been proven, since the last 4 seasons (including this year) we will crown an LCK team Worlds Champ. Which partly, or mostly, I blame the NA teams for this lack of ability to adapt and overcome what appears to be a rather consistent problem. Which I think where this problem stems from is the lack of access to the NA LCS. So essentially to get into the NA LCS, which is a small room, you have to go through a small door. This door connects the LCS to the CS, which is an even smaller room with an even smaller and somewhat ambiguous door. This current system is so confined that it allows for current teams to essentially control a monopoly on the system simply by status of incumbency and makes it very difficult for new management/ideas to enter the arena of play. Which is why we have stale air in the room of the NA LCS. The best solution to this problem is a solution that drives competition, creates a transparent environment, and provides a clear path to the LCS which captivates the imagination and determination of the casual player. To make the case for this I point to Major League Baseball. The MLB has the highest required skill cap for professional play of any traditional and nontraditional sport, and I say this as a huge NBA fan. You can literally count the number of errors committed in a standard game of baseball on one hand. Baseball didn't get this way by focusing only on the professional level of play though. There are 244 minor league baseball teams, not including dozens of international operations and hundreds of "players on loan" to international teams. Which is fed by an even larger field of collegiate and amatuer pools, and the pyramid continues to get larger and larger all the way to the base of the casual/rec league player and enthusiast. There are people who live for the game despite never even swinging a bat. This same structure can be found in just about every major sport, from baseball to tennis. But, it all starts with a system that gives hope to the efforts of the average player. Because to make the NBA it starts with the hope to do well and make the team on an AAU team, then make the high school varsity team, then go play for a Div 1/2/3 or junior college team, hopefully get drafted but even if you don't get drafted you still have the opportunity to play in one of of a dozen Amateur leagues, compete as a walk-on to an NBA D-league team, or go play for an international team and hopefully catch the eye of an NBA recruiter. Contrast that to the current LCS system, which basically requires that you and a team be successful in finishing the marathon of a climb to the top of the Challenger team ranked boards, then somehow break into the fortress of the CS that is currently dominated by a system that requires teams to play it safe and do what everyone else does driven simply by the fear that failure to be successful could push a team out of the ranks of the CS. This system to its creators may appear to be a good system, but the problem is that it dashes the hopes of new teams. Because when teams run into a rough patch, they have to correct themselves back onto the right path and get going again, overcome their obstacles and continue the climb. However when the end destination seems like a task of improbable odds most teams lose heart, lose determination and simply abandon the pursuit. Despite this though, you still see dozens of new posts in the Team requirement board labeled "LFG serious team", there still exists this drive to go pro. Riot, in efforts to move the Esport side of League forward, really need to adapt their system.

33 Comments

Lauchmelder10/25/2016, 9:49:42 AM2 votes

Try to format your text m8, barely anyone will read it like that.

And it's not only an NA problem, EU has the same performance.

III BAKURYU III 10/25/2016, 12:03:12 PM2 votes
                       ADDING MORE TEAMS

I do think adding more teams in the LCS will help greatly help with just the overall competition as well as having Spring split only for a regular games NO PLAYOFFS. The reason I say no Playoffs is while CLG did fine at Worlds this past year it was pretty obvious that their best games was in the past in the spring split and not the summer split. So why not just have SPRING SPLIT - NO PLAYOFFS SUMMER SPLIT - PLAYOFFS.
If Say CLG are 10-10 their record carries over to the Summer split. Any major patches that Riot decides to unleash make it 2-3 weeks BEFORE the Summer Split starts not the day of like they always seem do for some reason.

                       NO MORE RELEGATION GAMES

Make the teams that are in the LCS Legit. NO MORE RELEGATION GAMES. Riot is having trouble with sponsors and the only sponsors are on the say 3 teams for the past 6 years( TSM-C9-CLG) why? Because they're the only consistent teams in the LCS. No sponsors are going to back behind a team that is new and fresh to the LCS and why should they.
Teams that are say 3-17 bad like Echo Fox they still have fans but for how much longer ? They have already been in one relegation tournament do you think fans will stick with any teams that are consistently being relegated? I don't.

                         SPONSORS AND TEAMS FUTURE

Make every team that is the NA LCS stay for good and maybe sponsors will stick with these teams. Look at Dignitas(RIP) a fan favorite team with so much HISTORY with Imaqtpie/Kiwikid/Barons/Worlds now GONE.
Even if Dignitas was bad for 1-2 split they still could have gotten sponsors and I'm pretty sure every keyboard company sponsors teams but legit real companies like Monster energy drinsk/ McDonalds/ Burger King/ NBA.
If an energy drink came out called the Baron I'm pretty sure Dignitas would get them to sponsor them. Teens+Energy drinks+Barons+Dignitas+League=RIot Profit and 1 of their teams are getting a sponsor. If league stays popular for a little while longer or if NA ever wins Worlds say TSM with Bjergsen still on the roster who wants to bet that Bjergsen(BURGER KING) might sponsor him?

                            TEAM ROSTERS AND TRADES 
 Teams have over millions of players to fill out their rosters.  Take the Challenger scene and ask the solo Q players and CS players if they want to play in the LCS players such as (Trick 2g  Nightblue  Annie bot  Tyler 1  QT Pie etc etc) not every player will want to play in the LCS because they care more about streaming.  Move the Diamond players up to Challenger, Plats up to the Diamond elo etc etc EVERYONE MOVES UP.   This game shouldn't be about where you're at if Riot wants to really make the LCS and League an established company for the long run.

An example on why NA doesn't do good each year at Worlds could be because it's the same players with their same mentalities year after year after year by doing this it would give a fresh start on League.
Adding over 100 new players to be the next League stars will help motivate players to play well in Solo Q also. Every 2 years Bronze players move up to Silver NO QUESTIONS ASKED- Silver players move up to Gold NO QUESTIONS ASKED ETC ETC. Just by a random player seeing the words GOLD as they log into League or their league profile will most likely give them a purpose that in X amount of years they could be on the LCS STAGE.

                                Q and A ( I did this with my brother so I didn't make up questions for myself to answer)

" Well if X player is Bronze in X amount of years he will represent us"

  • If teams with the 3-4 coaches/supervisors/managers can't see a good solo Q player from a bad one then they shouldn't be where they are now and instead just be fired. Keeping people playing the game is important lets do say every 2 years everyone in each elo moves up an elo. Bronze players will be in Challenger in 12 years or just make it less like every year so 6 years they are in challenger but that doesn't me they will be pros at that point. Teams will get a chance to scout talent even if your are in Challenger and good or bad doesn't mean you will get picked up by a team.

" 6-12 years that's a long time"

  • Indeed however some players stop playing this game after 2-3 years because they just don't see a point to get out of Gold to Plat-Diamond-Master- to get to Challenger. The Climb is long enough anyways.

" What if you are Gold and you stop playing for X amount of time but return after those years purposely to get to the Challenger scene with out actually playing the game"

  • You need to play at least 500+ ranked games per year to be viable to move up PERIOD. Only playing 2-3 games for that year and thinking you will get moved up from Bronze to Silver is out of the question and will not happen.

Overall I think this will make League the most popular game of all time with players from (kids-Teens-Adults) wanting to play the game for a chance to go pro.

Just my thoughts and Thank you.

Sagan Forever10/25/2016, 2:25:40 AM2 votes

I think there problem is that they do not know how to prep well. Think they always do very well the first week when no one knows exactly what to expect, and then fail week 2. I feel instead of getting Korean players they need a Korean coach to teach them how to do better prep.

UKP LK10/24/2016, 11:23:28 PM2 votes

too long to read. Someone make it shorter plox

Pippen The Short10/25/2016, 2:44:17 AM1 votes

Well see this is why I say expand the LCS, expand the CS, and then add an amateur series. Doing this would provide the necessary structure for game houses to effectively develop a "farm" system for talent where they can afford the risk to try different things, while at the same time you could also open the grounds for new teams/communities/etc to compete.

Pippen The Short10/24/2016, 11:06:52 PM1 votes

For those who disagree I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Manwalrus10/25/2016, 12:32:18 PM1 votes

A. Adding more teams doesn't fix the issue, it's not as if there's top NA talent being crowded out, we don't have enough of it so we just import people (that's why imports exist in the first place). Adding more teams won't magically make people better or conjure top tier players out of nowhere.

B. Why does everyone forget MSI happened? NA can't compete consistently with the top 3 teams from LCK, which clearly means that they wouldn't qualify for the LCK? What kind of backwards logic is that?

C. The challenger series is awful but having it be 20 sketchily run teams with no money to pay their players isn't better than having 6. It definitely needs fixing but just adding teams won't do anything.

D. The reason we lose to Korea is because our teams aren't disciplined enough compared to theirs and they have way stricter coaches. That insane practice schedule is what makes Korean challenger players into the best pros in the world, no matter how many of them decide to retire to China for money. They've had developed esports infrastructure for years and years and years before we even started.