Once again, the USA has taken a beating in an international tournament in League of Legends. Former professional player and expert Yilang “Doublelift” Peng now explains what the problem of US players in LoL is and how Riot can solve it. They should look to the servers of CS:GO and Valorant.
This is the situation:
- Economically, the US teams of LoL are doing brilliantly. They can buy star players and up-and-coming talents from Europe for millions of dollars. Allegedly, Cloud 9 paid 5 million $ for the Croatian exceptional player Perkz before the season.
- Internationally, however, the US teams are not doing well at all. The top regions China and South Korea are far away. They also look outdated against Europe now. At the Worlds 2020, the strongest team in the USA, TSM, was eliminated from the main round without a win. At the last tournament, MSI 2021, Cloud 9 only came in fifth.
- The expert Doublelift now explains: It is due to the poor servers of the LCS. He calls for a “location-based matchmaking” to solve the problem.
“It’s like telling an NBA player to train at home with a different basketball”
This is the problem of US players in LoL: Doublelift says that the poor ping on the US servers of the LCS is the issue:
“It’s an unfathomably big deal that in our solo queue environment, pro players are playing with a ping of 50-60. It’s like telling a professional basketball player from the NBA to train at home, but his basketball is heavier there.”
Doublelift
Doublelift is sure that it’s the “60 ping” that makes such a big difference. Import players from South Korea like Impact or SwordArt would confirm this as well.
Even though US teams spend millions of dollars and all the professionals put in so much effort, the “60 ping” has kept North America from being internationally competitive.
The cliché that “US players are just lazy” is not true – it’s due to the ping.
Doublelift demands: Players should play on the nearest server
What Riot should do: Doublelift demands: Riot should look at the servers of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Valorant. They need “location-based matchmaking”. In CS:GO and Valorant, people from a region also play on a server from that region.
In LoL, however, players, even if they are all from California, would play on a server in Chicago. This is a real problem because:
- Most professional players in LoL live in California, where the LCS is located.
- The servers would then be located in Chicago.
- Chicago and California are about 2780 kilometers apart.
At the moment, it’s just terrible to play with 60 ping, especially when you’ve come from a tournament and are used to playing with 5 ping. LoL feels like a completely different game with 60 ping.
Doublelift says that’s not the only problem. And the USA will not immediately gain international fame and honor when Riot solves the problem, but it would make a big difference.
Another reason why the USA is so bad at LoL is provided by a world champion:
