LPL Finals Compared to “Internet Café”
A few days ago, TES officially became the champion of LPL 2025 Split 1 after defeating AL with a score of 3-1 overall. In reality, this match was quite “one-sided” as TES dominated completely against AL for most of the game, so their victory was understandable. Therefore, the notable point of this final lay in the sudden game pause in game 4 when the audience could clearly see that TES was extremely frustrated with this decision.
What is noteworthy here is that the tournament organizers did not provide any reason or explanation for this game pause. It was only when former 2019 World Champion – Crisp went live on a stream and answered the audience that the community learned the real reason behind this incident. Not stopping there, Crisp also made very harsh comments about the playing conditions at the recent LPL finals.
“You ask me about the game pause in game 4? The organizers or commentators didn’t explain at all, perhaps they didn’t dare to speak the truth. At that time, Cream’s (mid-laner of TES) machine suddenly crashed while everyone else completely lost connection, including AL’s side. I was really frustrated because the machines on stage were so poor, playing the game had very annoying stutters. I thought I was playing at an ‘internet café’, this could not be the LPL finals,” Crisp expressed angrily.
The Incident at LPL Seems to be a Common Issue for Riot
It should be noted that this is not the first time professional tournaments under Riot Games’ system have received criticism regarding playing conditions. This is even a common problem for Riot as they try to cut down on tournament operating costs. A few months ago, VALORANT superstar TenZ made similar comments. This former player claimed that the playing conditions at VCT (the largest VALORANT tournament system) were unacceptable, and TenZ even used his own noise-canceling headphones because the ones provided by Riot were so poor.
Fairly speaking, major tournaments of League of Legends and VALORANT receive immense attention from the audience. Therefore, any mistake, no matter how small, from Riot is always noticed and leads to significant criticism from both the audience and the competing players. Of course, Riot can use the high costs as an excuse, but for top-tier tournaments, the best playing conditions will significantly enhance both the quality of the competition and the viewer’s experience. We hope that they will soon improve this in the future (starting with First Stand 2025) and avoid regrettable incidents like this from happening again.