In the events that Riot Games has launched for the upcoming World Championship 2021 in Iceland, notably, the Pick ‘Ems event is attracting the attention of the League of Legends community. However, what’s disappointing is that people are only interested because, according to experts, this event is a prime example of how Riot shows indifference, even disdain, for the Play-in stage as well as for smaller regions.
Specifically, the Pick ‘Ems event is essentially a prediction format where participants make their choices such as which team will win, which teams will advance, the tournament MVP, and the champion of the World Championship… and receive valuable rewards from Riot. However, notably, the Pick ‘Ems event will only take place when the main group stage officially begins. In other words, Pick ‘Ems does not apply to the Play-in stage even though this year, the Play-in stage includes several strong teams like Cloud9, Hanwha Life Esports, and LNG Esports…
Experts, journalists, and the international League of Legends community immediately voiced their concerns about this issue. Most were very upset about Riot’s “bias” towards stronger teams and larger regions while smaller regions (minor majors) are being neglected.
Immediately, Riot had to respond and clarify the issue. According to the “father” of League of Legends, they have always loved the Play-in stage, but the change of the competition venue along with numerous other issues arising from it, such as the VISA problems for teams… has made it impossible for Riot to apply Pick ‘Ems to the Play-in stage. And the fact that everyone saw the announcement about the Pick ‘Ems event above was due to a mistake by an employee during the process of finalizing Pick ‘Ems.
However, Riot’s “blame” on the change of the competition venue and the pandemic situation causing teams to be uncertain about participating in the World Championship 2021 is highly unreasonable. In fact, given their resources, Riot could certainly prepare the Pick ‘Ems event for the Play-in stage, especially since they immediately replaced Rogue in place of the VCS team in the Main Event and even kept the format exactly as it was during the World Championship 2020.
Nevertheless, the reality is that the upcoming Play-in stage will not be applicable for the Pick ‘Ems event. And the international League of Legends community has every reason to continue suspecting the favoritism in Riot’s operations, especially regarding the relationship between teams from the four major regions and those from other regions, including VCS as part of it.