The Play-In Stage of World Championship 2022 (Worlds 2022) has taken place for some time with many exciting surprises. In addition to DRX’s unexpected stellar performance, defeating Royal Never Give Up – the reigning MSI 2022 champion, names like Saigon Buffalo (SGB) and LOUD (LLL) also bring a lot of excitement.
It’s not just any other well-known name in the League of Legends (LoL) scene like GALA or Deft, but Shogun from SGB is the player who delivered the second Pentakill (single-handedly wiping out the enemy team in a team fight) of Worlds 2022. Meanwhile, LLL achieved a surprising feat by defeating Fnatic (FNC) – a team that is significantly more skilled compared to the representatives from the Latin America region.
Witnessing teams from smaller regions consistently perform well, the LoL community can’t help but feel excited. Some opinions even express that having only 2 international tournaments in a year for LoL is far too few. Additionally, the format is somewhat outdated compared to other Esports tournaments, which is also a factor preventing LoL’s international events from becoming more attractive.
These opinions have received significant support from the international community. There is a substantial skill gap between teams from smaller regions and those from Major regions. Specifically, for regions like Latin America or Turkey, having only 1 representative at each international tournament further limits their opportunities to compete at high-level platforms.
The lack of international tournaments also prevents smaller regions from gaining recognition from the international community, despite the fact that those teams are heavily supported in their own regions. A prime example is LLL. While SGB had an impressive MSI 2022 season, not many audiences are aware of LLL, even though the audience support and organization of the tournament in Latin America are quite good.
However, the need for a change in the tournament format has been mentioned by the community for many years, yet there has been no signal from Riot. Currently, teams from smaller regions have proven themselves to some extent on the international stage. But perhaps, in the near future, there won’t be a comprehensive overhaul from Riot to meet the demands of the audience and all LoL teams worldwide.