The 26-year-old Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski is one of the best players of League of Legends in Europe. He is a jungler for the LoL team G2 and has been named MVP of the LEC twice. He analyzes Europe’s poor performance at Worlds 2021: One of the reasons he cites is the weakness of his team G2, which was the only one able to keep up with Korea. Additionally, wealthy US teams annoy him.
This is the situation:
- The European team G2 reached the finals of the LoL Worlds in 2019, the most important tournament in League of Legends. In 2020, they made it to the semifinals. Before the 2021 season, they sold key player Perkz to the USA and could not qualify for Worlds without him.
- The 3 European representatives were no match for the representatives from South Korea at LoL Worlds 2021: 2 teams were eliminated in the group stage, the third team in the quarterfinals.
- Jankos stated in a livestream what the reasons for the poor performance of the Europeans are. He made it clear: There is not just one reason, but a whole range of causes.
European teams cannot compete with the USA in salaries
This is the role of the USA: Jankos believes a problem in Europe is that every year some of the best players in Europe are bought away by US teams because Europe does not have the financial means to compete with the USA. European teams are unable to pay comparable salaries.
Indeed, it has been noted that US teams send very few US-Americans to the Worlds – and some of the best players in Europe are now playing for US teams.
“Only G2 was better than Korea – the rest was bad”
This is the role of G2: Jankos clarifies that “Europe” has not been able to keep up with South Korea in recent years. Only G2 could do that, and they had a crisis in 2021:
“We have the problem that G2 was simply bad. And G2 was the team that could keep up with Korea the most. One can ask: Why is Europe worse than South Korea? But only G2 was better than the LCK – every other team was bad, to be honest.”
This is the attitude difference: Regarding the topic “these advantages do Koreans have”, Jankos can hardly contain himself. He says:
- Koreans take the game “super seriously” and have “super strict” rules
- Koreans play 24/7
- They have a fantastic coaching staff
Additionally, Koreans would play “Best of Three” series and thus have many more competitive matches than Europeans:
“We have about 18 players in a season. They can play damn 60, 70 matches”.
The mistake of the fans: From Jankos’s perspective, LoL fans always make it easy for themselves and it ultimately comes down to “European players are just lazy”, but the actual causes are much more complex.
Europe from the “One-Team-Region” to the “0-Team-Region”
This is being discussed: Jankos’s statements are extensively discussed on YouTube and Reddit. The one point that could be relatively easily changed seems clear to many: Making every competitive game in LoL a “Best-of-Three” series would more than double the games “on stage” under competitive conditions.
But it seems that western leagues reject this because they fear scaring away the “regular viewer” if the match no longer lasts 40 minutes, but instead two hours.
Other points made by Jankos are viewed more critically by Reddit users. It is said that “the USA buying players” cannot count as a reason since the Chinese are also buying excellent players from South Korea, yet they are still superior. It is a wonder that a country like South Korea can keep up with the much larger China. They have apparently optimized their system.
The problem is that Europe has been a “one-team” region for years; there was only G2. After DWG KIA broke them in 2020, Europe is now a “0-Team” region.
No good laners in Europe – only good skirmishers
A user on Reddit explains that the big difference at Worlds is the strength of the teams in the laning phase. In Korea, outstanding mid-laners like Showmaker, Chovy or BDD force all others to improve their lane game. Excellent players in Europe or China like Caps or Doinb are indeed good in team fights, but they are not outstanding laners. They are known for other strengths.
Especially in the top laners, this becomes noticeable: It is a major weakness in Europe. The best European top laners like Adam or Armut are hardly challenged regionally and are then completely exposed internationally.
Some feel that such a “We save the West” discussion is held every year. Normally, the discussion focuses on the USA – this year it has also hit Europe.
LoL: All Western teams are out – US coach explains why Worlds are totally unfair
