As known, starting in 2025, smaller regions like VCS and PCS will be grouped into the APAC region for the determination of teams participating in MSI and Worlds. This announcement made not long ago has sparked a heated debate mixed with concerns within the Vietnamese League of Legends community. Many people believe that while this is understandable, it could limit VCS’s slots for MSI and Worlds, reverting the tournament back to the days of LMS, when VCS had to compete in the same region as teams from Japan, Taiwan, and others. The uneven skill levels between smaller regions inadvertently stunted VCS’s development until Riot separated it in 2020.
However, recently, in a follow-up statement after announcing events for VCS next year, Riot representative ChisinX also stated: “PCS has taught us a lot in recent years, and the most important lesson is that the effort to bridge the competitive gap between LMS and LST players was not truly successful for many reasons, including timing (the rise of mobile MOBAs in the region and COVID-19). Moreover, it involved navigating the complexities of game releases. Nothing is certain, but we hope to steer the APAC tournament in the right direction.”
“Some necessary changes are needed in how Tier 2 teams operate, but we are committed to ensuring that key markets (VCS, PCS…) will have strong partners to collaborate with us to continue and develop their local tournaments, as well as provide talent for the teams. This is also to compete for slots in the APAC tournament through promotion and relegation,” ChisinX affirmed.
From the affirmation of Riot’s representative, it can be understood that the scenario of VCS being held back by merging with regions that do not have a strong League of Legends scene in APAC like before will not occur. However, obtaining slots for Worlds and MSI will now truly be more challenging, and the VCS teams themselves must strive if they do not want to be eliminated “from the parking lot” before reaching the international stage.