The issue of whether LPL receives favoritism from the League of Legends management has always been a hotly debated topic. There are numerous examples suggesting that LPL is given preferential treatment compared to other regions. However, these pieces of evidence are often ambiguous and thus not very convincing. This issue has become even more heated during MSI 2022.
As is known, China is implementing strict policies to combat COVID-19. Furthermore, it is also the host country for ASIAD 2022. Therefore, LPL teams are facing a very packed training and competition schedule. As a result, Royal Never Give Up will not participate in MSI 2022 in Busan, and Riot has allowed this region to compete online. All teams will play at a ping of 35, similar to LPL, which has caused controversy in the League of Legends community in recent days.
Just as the “ping 35” situation was simmering down, the League of Legends community was once again thrown into a heated debate when former LCS coach Zaboutine, during a livestream with commentator Laure Valeé, accused Tencent of allowing RNG to practice in a special mode that even Riot could not control. According to the former coach of Immortals, this is a practice mode similar to a training room but allows all 10 players to participate at the same time.
Of course, this incident sparked debates. Many opinions suggest that if Riot cannot control Tencent’s actions, then this mode should be implemented in all regions.
However, it turns out this was not an act of favoritism from the Riot-owning corporation. As commentator Valeé stated in a post recounting Zaboutine’s comments on Reddit, it was simply a bug in the PBE server. And the former coach later also had to “turn around” and issue a quick apology for his mistake.
It is clear that issues related to LPL are never out of the spotlight, especially in the lead-up to MSI 2022. However, League of Legends fans should also keep a cool head in the face of negative information that may impact the teams and players involved.