At the international arena, typically, teams from smaller regions are only expected to pull off surprises. This is because, compared to the 4 major regions, the level of investment and the average skill level of players in smaller and wildcard regions lag far behind. As SofM himself shared after GAM Esports lost to Fnatic previously, the salary of just Humanoid is nearly double the entire salary fund of GAM. Not to mention that regions like LCK or LPL view Esports in general and League of Legends in particular as a “national game” and the players are as closely followed as celebrities in other entertainment and sports fields.
However, at MSI 2024 this year, VCS unexpectedly achieved results nearly on par with a major region. Specifically, with Team Liquid’s defeat in the opening match of the group stage MSI 2024, teams from North America only managed to win 2 games out of a total of 37 games played in BO3 and BO5 matches against teams from LCK/LPL, according to statistics from the past 2 years. This is a record that demonstrates the incredible disparity of LCS compared to the other 3 regions. The LEC’s record is also 6 times better than LCS, with 12 wins out of a total of 57 games.
Of course, the results are still dismal across the board, but at least LEC has shown that it is a major region, as teams like G2 Esports or Fnatic can easily obliterate smaller and wildcard teams. However, in the last 2 international tournaments, LCS has had teams eliminated by teams from smaller and wildcard regions. At Worlds 2023, Team Liquid was defeated by GAM and had to exit the Swiss round early. At MSI 2024, FlyQuest was knocked out by PSG Talon in the Play-In stage.
And the performance of LCS, in some ways, is only slightly better than VCS, specifically GAM, by just 1 game win. This is because, at Worlds 2022, GAM defeated Top Esports and directly ended the hopes of the LPL runner-up. Of course, after the word “if,” anything can happen. But indeed, in the years 2022 – 2023, if teams like Saigon Buffalo, GAM could seize the opportunities better, LCS might have been surpassed by VCS itself.
And because of this, perhaps the LCS region should feel “lucky” that they are the “home of Riot.” Moreover, in terms of investment level and tournament scale, LCS still surpasses VCS. But this very investment and scale, at present, is the most ironic thing for North American League of Legends due to the dismal results accompanying it.