In the League of Legends Worlds 2019, no team from North America made it past the group stage. Team leaders, casters, and players are now analyzing where the region’s weaknesses lie.
What happened? On Sunday, the final matches of the group stage of the LoL Worlds 2019 took place, and Team Liquid did not make it to the knockout stage.
The best American team of the season started well in the Worlds and was able to finish the preliminary round with 2:1 thanks to Doublelift. However, in the second round, they lost to DAMWON Gaming, the third-place team from Korea.
This means the third and final one of the three American teams has been eliminated.
What is the cause of the early elimination of the teams? Many team leaders, shoutcasters, and players from America are currently discussing this question. The problems are being sought in various areas.
The owner of Cloud9, Jack Etienne, sees disadvantages in how the league is played in NA. The Korean leagues have the better system.
Are Best-of-1 games bad for America?
Where does Etienne see problems in NA? In a tweet, he complains about the LCS, which is constantly played in a Best-of-1 format. Since the individual games are so important, teams cannot afford to field their newcomers:
Our academy system is not build well to give proper experience to developing players. The low number of LCS games in a Bo1 format means its very high risk for teams to use rookies on LCS stage games.
— Jack Etienne (@JackEtienne) October 20, 2019
In America, 18 games are played per split, all in Best-of-1. In Korea, there are also 18 games, but all in Best-of-3. To the criticism that Europe has the same style of play, Etienne replied:
Europe has a variety of other leagues where players can develop before joining the LEC. In combination with a much larger player base / a better SoloQ, this has led to much more talent being produced. This is not open for discussion.
NA has also struggled with issues at the World Championship in previous years. They are now challenged to find a solution for the coming year.
Indeed, European teams are performing significantly better at the Worlds 2019. All three have survived the group stage, even though it was very close for Fnatic in the group of death.
What do other notable personalities say? The discussion sparked by the owner of Cloud9 was triggered by Riot employee Isaac ‘Azael’ Cummings Bentley. He believes it is imperative that NA seeks or develops more talent.
The former shoutcaster Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles also spoke up. He agreed that the Best-of-1 system in LoL is foolish. In his view, it also depends on adapting to the opponents’ playstyles, which can only work with multiple duels.
NA has also struggled with issues at the World Championship in previous years. They are now challenged to find a solution for the coming year.
