In recent days, the 2023 World Championship (Worlds 2023) has been filled with thrilling matches featuring notable matchups. Highlights include the Gen.G vs. T1 clash and G2’s impressive victories over a series of strong opponents before Gen.G halted their winning streak. Additionally, GAM Esports is teetering on the brink of elimination and has only one chance left against Team Liquid to save themselves. The new format of Worlds 2023 adds an unpredictable element, forcing players to focus intensely to achieve the best results.
However, recently, information surrounding the matches has sparked controversy within the LoL community. Notably, former renowned commentator Caedrel pointed out: “The Blue Team is truly showing unreasonable strength. An 80% win rate is terrifying. Weibo Gaming’s (WBG) two matches on the Red team both resulted in losses.” Echoing Caedrel’s sentiments, the Express website, which specializes in statistics from the LoL scene, revealed that at the 2023 World Championship, the Blue team’s win rate has reached 80% before the tournament even concludes, far exceeding last year’s rate of just 52.2%.
Notably, this is not the first time the issue of “whether the Blue or Red team has an advantage” has been discussed on forums about LoL. Since 2021, this issue has sparked intense debate at least three times. The reason remains the same: Riot’s “200 years of experience.”
Specifically, the Blue team consistently has an advantage in securing Baron and controlling the top-side jungle. With early access to the Rift Herald, snowballing in the early game becomes quite simple. If that team faces disadvantages, just one Rift Herald or Baron buff can resolve nearly all issues.
The Red team has an advantage in controlling the Dragon pit. While Dragon buffs are very powerful, a team that secures the Rift Herald early can use this advantage to set up an attack on the Dragon pit. Moreover, just possessing around 1-2 Dragons allows a team to forgo at least 2 subsequent Dragons to focus on lane control thoroughly. In terms of Dragon buffs, only the Dragon Soul is valuable, while the Elder Dragon has a time limit, and the previous Dragon buffs provide only minor stat increases that aren’t particularly significant.
Furthermore, during the draft phase, the Blue team can have 3 picks that are both comfortable for them and counter 2 picks from the Red team. This gives the Blue teams more options and makes it easier to “read” the opponent’s strategy.
According to the Express website, the Red teams that win usually do so because they are simply “outclassing” their opponents, as seen in the JDG vs. BDS or LNG vs. C9 matches. In these matchups, the draft or advantages in the match become irrelevant due to the significant gap in skill levels.