LoL eSports Discussion

[BROseidon]

welp

[pickemgenius]

im not particularly sure what the thought process was for tsm today.

huh.

[Voidedmafia]

guys, two things.

Can we kindly not call Russia EU.
And can we kindly not call ANX M5's successors.

Is H2K Russian? I never knew.

I called them M5's successors?

I just said EU bested Na for once this tournament because H2K are in and CLG (and now TSM) are out.

im not particularly sure what the thought process was for tsm today.

huh.

Find a way to lose to every non-EU team in their group? Seems like the standard MO for NA teams most of the time, anyways.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

voided can you please choke on a dick <3

[Voidedmafia]

voided can you please choke on a dick <3

What? I'm just as big a TSM fan as you are, and while I can't say that was as bad as CLG's dropout this was pretty damn disappointing for a team who's effective motto was "semis or bust" going into this.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

I'm sorry I'm sorry you're right that was rude.

Could you please

kindly

choke on a dick?

[Voidedmafia]

I'm sorry I'm sorry you're right that was rude.

Could you please

kindly

choke on a dick?

Why would I choke on a dick

[animorpherv1]

I'm the only one here who actively encouraged TSM choking.

[PJ.]

Last thing I wanted. Yuck. A boring to loss flameout. No drama. Just Ls. Meteos next man up.

[mykonian]

So, surely we can bury the closing the gap myth now. NA isn't coming any closer, EU isn't coming any closer. Sometimes you have a better group that gets together, sometimes worse, but at this point you have to see the western regions as plateau'd. Infrastructure is there, there's a league, best of somethings etc. What's missing and what will be missing is a culture and the same competition the major eastern leagues have. To break it youd need a (magical) lineup that comes together and makes it work, or some major overhauls in tournament structure (more international tournaments, not going to happen) and even then a healthy amount of luck. Every year the best NA and EU teams will come to worlds, sometimes one or two makes it out of groups, and they likely won't play for the cup. The gap that might close is the minor regions, who do have infrastructure to catch up on.

Even if C9 at this point pull everything together and jensen bodies everybody, or H2K play on their peak the rest of the tournament and somehow they make the finals and make it close, I don't think you can use that to fuel the myth. Sometimes it's going to go worse, sometimes better, and for those things to happen they'd need a healthy amount of good fortune, hardly indicative of regions strength.

IDK, I can't be the only one who gets tired of hearing yet another hopeful story how this year it's all going to be different. Changing things is hard, it's not going to be different just like that.

[PJ.]

Yeah, I agree that the best way to learn to beat Koreans is to be able to play them more often.

[zoraster]

I don't know. I think the gap's closed some. Obviously disappointing performance by western teams, but I don't get the sense that any team in this tournament is as dominant as Samsung White (or blue for that matter) in Season 4, SKT in Season 3 or 6. It may well turn out they are. Rox could pull it together, SKT could be the real deal (I think we'll know more after today), but in terms of how beatable (even in a best of 5 series) the Korean teams look, I don't think there's been a year like this in a while in terms of the gap in potential. Western teams have put up disappointing performances, but I haven't seen them as super outclassed, except C9 vs. SKT. Even G2, who performed extraordinarily poorly for their expectations showed a lot of life in individual games.

[Voidedmafia]

Still no wins, still no advancements out of groups.

If there's gap closure, it's marginal at best. At this rate we'll match the Koreans in, like, 2050, and by that time League will probably not even matter as an eSports game.

[Voidedmafia]

Yknow what would constitute real gap closure?

1.) Consistent victories against Korean teams that is not based on cheese picks or one-off victories. An NA team must 2-0 a Korean team at least once internationally in groups, and then repeat that performance. In this case, the actual way the games play out may be irrelevant unless it's based on constantly falling behind and coming back (unless they come back like ROX does or something), at which point decisive victories would be best.
2.) Actual and consistent advancement at worlds and other tournaments where Koreans are teams that must be fought. Semis and finals or bust, beating out korean teams to get there, and holding our own during those plateau moments at the very very least. Nothing like 2014 vs. SSW where it was kinda obvious they were messing around game 3. MSI this year was a promising start (CLG was one of the more dominant teams there), but without follow-up at Worlds it means squat, and there was no follow-up.

There cannot be any more of these small steps. That's just not cutting it. NA and EU teams have shown time and time again that the only places they can be dominant for any stretch of time is in their local regions, although EU has had their big moments (S3 and S5). THere's almost no point in being hopeful internationally when this year's TSM was almost literally the best team NA has ever produced and completely failed in groups, and it's started to sour my expectations because I can't look at regional success and believe it translates to international victory anymore.

[zoraster]

Well, you're free to use that standard if you want.

I suspect you're mostly just disappointed by TSM's performance. Which was sad and disappointing.

[Voidedmafia]

Well, you're free to use that standard if you want.

I suspect you're mostly just disappointed by TSM's performance. Which was sad and disappointing.

Mostly TSM, but CLG as well.

It's not just a question of whether or not Korean teams are as dominant as before. I agree that they aren't, but it doesn't matter when it doesn't translate to NA or EU leapfrogging ahead of them, even if it's just for one year. It just doesn't matter if teams are showing individual specks of life now because we've been shown time and time again it means nothing, especially from NA teams.

We can't keep hoping for those kind of things, Zor. At this point, only concrete evidence of advancement in something along the lines of the two things I mentioned can suffice.

[mykonian]

I'm sorry I'm sorry you're right that was rude.

Could you please

kindly

choke on a dick?

There there. It's all going to be alright.

[SleepyKrew]

[pickemgenius]

so the left side of the bracket is FUCKING STACKED

[zoraster]

this is about the best draw i can imagine for theoretically close matches throughout.


and the worst draw for a close finals.

[Voidedmafia]

I just got off work, you dumbass. Do you expect me to magically have knowledge of how all the games went before I got home? And if you're mad because I immediately assumed C9 was doing poorly (whether it was true or not), what exactly should lead me to believe that another NA team wasn't gonna make it, both from previous results this week and because of the teams in their group?

Besides, it's not like I was wrong since they went 1-2 an only advanced because FW didn't get a tiebreaker they may very well have won.
.
Regarding quarters, I seriously didn't think H2K was gonna get ANX, but it's just about the best they could hope for (other than possibly H2K vs. C9). Still probly gonna be a Korea vs. Korea finals, but idk how I feel about it not being SKT vs. Rox. I think I'd like a Rox vs. SSG, honestly.

[BROseidon]

Tbh.

I'm hoping for RNG vs. h2k.

[BROseidon]

Likkrit has chicken pox :/

[Voidedmafia]

Tbh.

I'm hoping for RNG vs. h2k.

I only wish H2K could beat SSG.

And RNG could beat SKT, for that matter.

[PJ.]

Hey guys, I found out why voided doesn't get invited to parties.