For many years now, specifically from 2020 to the present, LPL has almost been unable to compete with LCK on the international stage. The only year they somewhat regained their status was in 2021, but it was also in a highly controversial manner. Specifically, Royal Never Give Up won the MSI 2021 when they were allowed to compete online. Meanwhile, Edward Gaming was considered to have “benefited” a lot when DWG KIA had to give their all to win against T1 in the semifinals.
Following EDG’s championship, LPL officially said goodbye to the throne at the Worlds and even in very forgettable ways. Specifically, in 2022, they sent 4 representatives who were considered extremely strong. In fact, Doinb stated that all 4 LPL representatives were as strong as a seed 1. But in the end, the finals were an “LCK internal battle” between T1 and DRX. By 2023, the situation was even more dire with 3 LPL representatives in the semifinals but this region still went home empty-handed. In fact, all 4 powerful representatives only managed to secure 1 game win against the reigning champion T1.
According to commentator Joker, the most important reason causing LPL to fall behind compared to LCK actually stems from the League of Legends community in this region. Accordingly, the male commentator explained on the occasion of the end-of-season transfer: “If teams do not change, fans will be frustrated because the teams are not changing and have poor results. But if you do change, they will criticize you for only switching to old players from other teams without any chance of winning titles. If you create opportunities for rookies, they will think you are wasting the time of other players and ruining their careers because the rookies are too bad.”
In reality, LPL has not introduced any promising new faces for a long time. JDG this year consists entirely of players already familiar to the audience. BLG, WBG, and LNG are similar, while EDG even had to bring back the “veteran” Uzi and he was the “team-carry” factor. Meanwhile, LCK has introduced new faces in many recent seasons. For example, the young stars from T1, Peyz from Gen.G, or Aiming from KT Rolster are all very notable players.
LPL is still very strong and remains the main rival of LCK. But no one knows when the current stars of LPL retire or grow older, who will be capable enough to replace them.