LEC & LCS: Are the fat years over?

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It”s the same picture every year. From Season to Season China and Korea dominate the World Championship as well as the MSI, while EU and NA always feel ten steps behind. Especially after losing the 2019 finals, it seems like the fat years are finally over for the West.

Gary Lineker is a true football legend. The Briton has had some notable successes, but is particularly well known in this country for a quote in which he expresses a clear opinion on the subject of football and Germany:

“Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes, and in the end the Germans always win”. Historically, this may not always have been the case – we are looking in particular at the 2018 World Cup in Russia – but all in all, there is a spark of truth to the saying. For many years, Germany was one of, if not the best national team in the world.

If one were to model Lineker”s saying on the world of eSports, especially League of Legends, it could read as follows: “League of Legends is a simple game. 10 men try to destroy the opponent”s base for about 35 minutes and the Koreans or Chinese always win in the end. And that wouldn”t even be a lie.

Asian dominance from China and Korea

In recent years, almost every international tournament in League of Legends has always featured a winner from Korea or China – with one exception, the Taipei Assassins 2012. But even they hail from Taiwan and accordingly strike the same chord as the dominant neighbouring countries.

Some would now argue the fact that there was a western world champion in 2011 with Fnatic. That may be true, but the tournament was held to the exclusion of Asian teams as we know them today, because there were effectively no local servers. If they had existed back then, there is almost 100 percent probability that Fnatic would not have ended up in first place.

Accordingly, the world champion teams were not called Fnatic, G2 Esports or even Rogue. Instead, it was Samsung Galaxy, which later changed its name to GEN G, the aforementioned Taipei Assassins, FunPlus Phoenix, DAMWON KIA, Invictus Gaming, DRX and, above all, T1, who not only outdistanced the western competition, they seem to be miles ahead of the local teams. Accordingly, fans were sure that no Western team would ever be able to compete with the Koreans or the Chinese. And yet, for a short time in 2018 and especially 2019, it seemed as if just that would happen. But only almost.

Europe as a beacon of hope

In 2018, a Western team managed to reach the League of Legends World Championship final for the first time since 2011. And, who would have thought it, Fnatic of all teams made it to the final of the most important tournament again. Neither EDG nor Cloud9 were able to stop the high flight of the troop around superstar Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. Nevertheless, the team did not manage to show their own qualities in the final as demonstrated before, which is why Invictus Gaming from the Chinese LPL had an easy game with the Europeans. Due to internal restructuring and departures, including Rasmus “Caps” Winther”s move to long-time rival G2 Esports, Fnatic fell significantly behind in the national competition and lost out to G2 in the course of the Spring Split 2019.

Speaking of G2. The most successful LoL eSports organisation in Europe built a real super squad that would go on to dominate everything and everyone. It almost seemed as if even China and Korea could not hold a candle to the boys around Luka “Perkz” Perkovic. To a certain extent, that should even be true.

The fat years … 2019

Between the Spring and Summer Split, the Mid-Season Invitational has been held since 2015. In the tournament, in which only the best teams of a league compete, G2 Esports counted as an underdog despite winning the split – like every team that does not come from the LCK or LPL. But this year everything was to be different. Not only did the European representative start like fire, but North America, the big major region that has never really won anything in League of Legends, also got involved in the form of Team Liquid.

Accordingly, it was not T1 or Invictus Gaming that faced each other in the end, but Team Liquid and the aforementioned G2 Esports. At least in the case of G2, it was to be a groundbreaking final, which the European champion won by a clear 3:0.

The boys around Perkz and Co. didn”t let up in the Summer Split either. EU”s superteam marched from one victory to the next without any major problems and finally secured the LEC crown.

Accordingly, it was hardly surprising that the team was one of the big favourites in the subsequent world championship. G2 lived up to this role right up to the end. And yet it was not the supposedly best EU team of all time that was allowed to lift the Summoners Cup into the Parisian night sky in the end. Instead, it was once again an Asian team that swept the favourites off the pitch by a clear 3-0 margin. So while FunPlus Phoenix went down in the history books, G2 were forced to lick their own wounds and try again next year. But far from it

.. Are over (2020 to date)

In fact, not a single team in the LEC, let alone the LCS, would subsequently manage to even come close to matching G2”s or 2018”s Fnatic”s performance. The question now arises as to what this is due to.

Is it the understanding of eSports and League of Legends in general? Is there a lack of the right players? Are there too few support programmes or are video games still not taken seriously, especially in Germany? Basically a little bit of everything.

The biggest aspect in this country is probably acceptance. While football is hailed up and down, eSports continues to have a hard time. The colourful hustle and bustle on the screen seems too complex, which is why it is difficult, especially for older people, to follow the action during a match between two professional teams.

The history of the sport itself also plays a role. While football has been taking place in Germany since the late 19th century, video games have only been a topic since the mid-1970s, while eSports per se did not pick up speed until the late 1990s. Fun Fact: The roots of electronic sports go back to the 1950s, when the first competitive telergames were released with digital variants of Tic-Tac-Toe or Tennis for Two.

If one equates sports such as football, which can look back on a century-long tradition, with eSports, it should quickly become clear why the colourful pixel world lags behind the physical competition. Nevertheless, in this case, history and a look into football”s past also serve as a glimmer of hope for digital competition. When Konrad Koch kicked the round leather for the first time in 1874, the game was frowned upon for a long time and was only gradually accepted by society and advanced over time to become the German national sport par excellence.

While Germany is still struggling with itself, Korea and China are already five steps ahead. In Korea in particular, eSports titles are just as popular in society as football or baseball. Players like Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok are nationally known pop stars who never leave home without their own security team so as not to run the risk of being surrounded and possibly overrun by countless groupies and fans. Something that European players, at least as of now, can only dream of.

Thousands of players & support programmes

League of Legends is one of the most played games of all time and is particularly popular in the Asian regions. Accordingly, it is hardly surprising that the largest number of hobby gamers can be found here.

Millions of people log on to one of the countless internet cafés every day to climb up the rankings together or alone. The selection of players who are invited to tryouts to subsequently and possibly become part of one of the renowned teams is correspondingly large. And here, again, the understanding and acceptance of the sport plays a big role. While many in this country dismiss the whole thing with a sneer, a tryout in the Asian region can cause admiration.

If different people were eventually invited to tryout and did well, they may well be signed directly to the organisation”s first team or become part of a development programme. The example of T1 shows that with the right programme, a lot can be achieved. In addition to Faker, the team started the season with four rookies, went on a winning streak par excellence and in the end narrowly missed out on the world championship title, which by the way – once again – went to another Korean team.

Summary …

So what remains is a mix of better or generally creating funding programmes, such as the esportsplayerfoundation, expanding national competitions and pointing out over and over again how great, diverse and inclusive eSports can be.

Then, and only then, when more people pay attention to the topic and ensure better structures and environments, can a healthy and successful generation of Western players grow up. But until that happens, we will have to cheer for one or the other Asian team in the final.

But hey, nothing comes from nothing, right?