Ahead of the MSI 2023, League of Legends fans have mostly focused on the clash between LPL and LCK – two of the mightiest regions in the world. Although the MSI stage has brought glory to the League of Legends scene in the Land of Billions in recent years, the LCK currently only trails by 2 championships. With both LCK representatives making it to the Group Stage, this region is poised to narrow the gap in MSI titles with its fierce rival.
However, before the tournament kicks off, LCK has “knocked out” the LPL in one category. According to statistics from Express (which specializes in gathering data from the League of Legends scene), LCK is the region with the highest number of players who have participated in MSI tournaments. Throughout the history of this tournament, LCK has contributed 81 players, whereas LPL has only contributed 28. In fact, LPL only surpasses VCS by 7 players.
Additionally, LCK is also the region with the most League of Legends players participating in MSI 2023, with 28 individuals. Alongside the two teams Gen.G and T1, players from LCK are also scattered across other regions such as LPL, LJL, LEC, LCS… Only 4 teams, namely GAM Esports, PSG Talon, Bilibili Gaming, and G2 Esports, have no foreign players from the Land of the Morning Calm.
The dominance of LCK is entirely understandable given that this region has a very strict and systematic training process. After many years of training, these players are either promoted to the first team to compete in LCK or must seek opportunities abroad in other regions to compete. Moreover, these players possess very high quality, making them favored by top teams. If we also consider coaching staff, the number of personnel from LCK would increase even further.
However, there is a sad reality that at MSI, LCK is currently trailing in the number of titles compared to LPL. For this reason, LCK teams heading to MSI this time will need to be more determined and strive harder to prove that they not only have quantity but also quality that surpasses their fierce rivals, and bring the MSI championship trophy back to the Land of the Morning Calm after many years apart.