Item value stability: Riot 1 – 0 Garena
First, on the North American League of Legends server, 10 USD can be exchanged for 1380 RP, while a pretty hot skin released by Riot, such as Dark Cosmic Jhin, costs 1820 RP in the NA region, which is about more than 10 USD. This means that for just over 225k VND, a gamer in North America can buy themselves a Jhin skin. However, on the Garena server, the skin Dark Cosmic Jhin is priced at 599 RP (which means you have to recharge 300k VND to have a chance to buy this skin).
Perhaps gamers playing on the Garena server are no strangers to the fact that this publisher inflates skin prices significantly compared to Riot’s server prices. Another example, in 2016, when the skin Wukong – The Monkey King was released, Garena promoted “this skin was designed by Vietnamese” and back then the price was 599 RP even though Wukong – The Monkey King was not an exceptionally special skin or had standout effects.
Immediately after this incident, Garena’s skin pricing no longer followed any rules, but instead went by the popularity of champions — the more popular the champion, the more expensive their skins would be. Moreover, Garena was even accused of taking regular skins from Riot’s server to Vietnam and turning them into limited skins that weren’t even sold. A typical example is the Chaos Warrior skin line (on Riot’s server, this skin line only costs from 1350 – 1820 RP with Jax at the highest price of 1820 RP).
It cannot be said that when Riot takes over, players on the Vietnamese server will have a conversion rate similar to the international market. However, one thing is certain: at least gamers will not have to suffer from outrageous price inflation. Especially, players will have the opportunity to own all the skins that should normally be available for purchase instead of participating in events with incredibly difficult and stringent rules. Sometimes, to own these skins, gamers might spend even more than their actual value.
Promotional events: Riot 1 – 1 Garena
One fact is that, aside from the issue of inflated skin prices, Garena is very “proactive” in providing promotional programs for gamers. For instance, on average, there are at least 1 to 2 top-up promotional events each month, along with additional gifts if the RP converted reaches certain milestones. Additionally, Garena creates in-game events such as Daily Check-ins or certain match wins to receive rewards that can be exchanged for valuable items.
In this regard, it can be seen that Garena outperforms Riot in catering to the “hard-working yet financially constrained” gamers. For “free-to-play players”, topping up a game card can require a lot of contemplation. However, almost all gamers will be willing to top up during Garena’s 50% or 100% off promotional days. Gamers on the Garena server, especially in Vietnam, are also more active in grinding the game; for example, the recent event requiring players to accumulate Feather to exchange for skins or items in the Phoenix Revival event. And of course, after the Phoenix Revival event ends, players continue to be treated to many large and small events such as exchanging RP for gifts, skin discounts, and Treasure Shop…
Overall, although heavily criticized for skin price inflation, the fact remains that there is no region in the world (except China) that offers players as many opportunities to own free skins or discounted skins as Garena’s servers do. In the future, if there is indeed a breakup, Vietnamese gamers will have reasons to miss the “super sales” that this publisher provides, with dozens of Ultimate and Legendary skins obtained completely for free.
Tournament System: Riot 2 – 1 Garena
One truth is that, regardless of the reasons, Riot always strives to operate tournaments according to a predetermined schedule. Even at this very moment, when the whole world is facing the Covid-19 pandemic, in areas already taken over by Riot, the organization and operation of tournaments are still conducted systematically. Moreover, Riot has enough capability and resources to maintain two consecutive Worlds tournaments in the two years when Covid-19 was most rampant. Amidst countless esports events that had to be canceled in 2020, including Dota 2’s The International, the continuation of Worlds is a commendable effort by the Riot team and all participating teams.
In all League of Legends tournament systems worldwide, currently, it seems that only the VCS region cannot organize tournaments, while another region also managed by Garena, the PCS, has already completed its tournament with two teams qualifying for Worlds 2021, PSG Talon and Beyond Gaming.
However, while the PCS region is still receiving Garena’s attention, the VCS can be considered “neglected” in terms of both the tournament system and the teams. Besides the fact that the Summer Split cannot be organized, while Garena continues to host numerous online tournaments for Arena of Valor and Free Fire, League of Legends has to continually postpone dates due to the pandemic. Especially since the announcement that the Summer Split would still be organized back in mid-August, teams and fans have not received any further information from the VCS organizers or Garena, while the schedule for Worlds 2021 has already been finalized.
Another noteworthy point is that among all regions worldwide, only LTA (Latin America) and OCE (Oceania) do not have a secondary tournament system. Most other regions, especially the four Major regions (LCK, LPL, LCS, LEC), have at least one tournament for smaller teams, youth teams, and academy teams. In South Korea, there are up to five tournaments including the LCK and four lower-tier tournaments (LCK CL, NLB, CK, and LAS). This number is nearly double compared to China (three tournaments, including one major LPL and two minor LSPL and LDL).
In the two regions managed by Garena, VCS (Vietnam) and PCS (Taiwan and SEA countries except Vietnam), only the VCS has a VCS B tournament system for teams to promote to the main tournament. However, the VCS B tournament does not receive attention from the League of Legends community, and Garena does not care about the teams competing here either. Most teams in VCS B only compete for promotion to the main tournament, while issues related to prize money or a large-scale tournament are nearly impossible. In fact, the VCS B tournament is not even recorded in Riot’s system as an official tournament.
With the above factors, League of Legends fans, especially in Vietnam, are eagerly awaiting a day when Riot will take over the VCS region from Garena. There may still be issues afterward, but at least the VCS will receive the attention it has long deserved.