League Of Legends

I knew Krepo was good on the desk from his time commenting EU but I'm surprised how much I like Doublelift in the panel.

Why is that? You figure he is some asshole guy that would just put everybody down? He just likes to have fun and troll at times. I enjoy krepo/dlift but I am unsure how I feel about montecristo.

My introduction to Dlift was mostly him shit talking other players/teams. Monte doesn't seem as personable I guess, but his knowledge of the Asian scene is helpful.

Epic Game 4 Royal vs Fnatic right now. Fnatic up 14 kills, gold even. Maybe the best game I've seen of pro LoL.

Such an amazing game played.

Fnatic certainly disappointed me, I really didn't want to see a double asian final.

Insane, fnatic had such good games 2, 3, and 4.. really that flash annie tibbers stun on Cyanide turned it around. Wish Soaz had built a zhonya's on rumble instead, he was focused on a lot and had no defensive options available when he got bursted, just simply flashing away or trying to pop his ult before dying. I really feel like in game 5 Fnatic could have won that too, since they wouldn't have had to ban Orianna and could've First picked it or made RYL ban it instead.

buffylol_sl said:

Faker on Ori is scary.

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yeah Faker knows how to pick

Royal is so good at protecting Uzi it's ridiculous. The final is gonna be retardedly good.

I'm still doing elo boosting btw and will also accept P1999 plat/items if anyone is still interested in getting their elise skins etc before the season ends.

sebur_sl said:

Fnatic certainly disappointed me, I really didn't want to see a double asian final.

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Disappointed how? I don't think they threw by any normal sense of the term. They lost lanes and still had big chances to win those games via great team fighting ability.

I'll take double asian finals forever if the games are that fun to watch.

For me, any series that didn't play out in 5 games is a disappointment as to me it means one team is clearly superior. I guess I am just mad at Fnatic for not running at least 1 teleport game.

I just didn't want double asian finals for the sheer fact that I am sick of hearing about korea/china teams being far superior to everybody (which I don't believe)...and by that point Fnatic was my only hope of squashing that.

What's not to believe? Aside from Gambit more then half a year ago and the rare one game in a set here and there the NA and EU teams just don't beat Korea/China. Ozone was the only Korean/Chinese team that looked at all weak in this tournament and they have gone through coaching changes since they qualified and replaced their top laner who was considered the emotional balance of the team. KTB who is currently at about SK T1 levels of play barely lost out on coming to worlds instead of Ozone, it was like fifty points in the OGN standings. If they had been here instead of Ozone then it most likely would have been 1 EU team, 1 NA team (only there on a bye), 1 SEA team, 2 Chinese teams, and 3 Korean teams once you got past groups. That shows a pretty big disparity in talent levels between east and west.

Ya, I suppose I just feel the NA teams aren't as good because it seems there is no complete teams, there are no NA teams that have an amazing person at every position (which the korea/china teams do).

sebur_sl said:

Ya, I suppose I just feel the NA teams aren't as good because it seems there is no complete teams, there are no NA teams that have an amazing person at every position (which the korea/china teams do).

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Two major things lead to the disparity. The first is that e-sports is actually viewed as a viable career opportunity in Korea. They as a culture already (for the most part) got over the "stop playing that game and start looking for a real job/education" mentality, and for those that have the skill they can dedicate their time to it and see really nice results from a money perspective. The current Korean LoL players can thank SC and Broodwar for this. Sadly in NA LoL is our Broodwar in terms of moving e-sports in to the public consciousness as a viable career choice. So its going to be a while before NA in any big e-sport will see the volume of highly skilled players who are allowed by their parents and our society to pursue gaming as a career. This explains the talent gap on a role by role basis per team. Honestly if we treated e-sports as the career it is as a nation then we would absolutely destroy the Korean overlords from a sheer talent pool perspective.

The second big thing kind of follows along after the first. Because Korea has organizations that see the value of esports (sponsors/Kespa/etc) and ex-pro players in abundance already they have the infrastructure in place to get the most out of their players. They know what works and what doesn't and how to extract the best results from their players. All of their teams have gaming houses. They have sister teams which either live in the same house with them or in another close by. Their day is scheduled from waking up to lights out during the week. Communal exercise, communal meals, VoD review with multiple coaches, laning practice, scrims, solo queue and then lights out. Every day they are living and breathing the game in a structured fashion, and this is year round. I'm sure you've watched game cribs or seen game spot interviews/streams with C9. Do their daily lives look like any of what I just described? Its basically like having some talented guys that play a lot of rec center basketball with some practice time going up against an NBA team thats in mid season form from a regimen and training perspective.

Ya, it seems more like NA is like you said, a whole bunch of friends who are "good" come together and play a game once a week. Maybe they live together maybe they don't but they don't really have the "it is a job" mentality. I suppose a good example of this would be the Royal interview with Tabe after their win. They are now in finals and yet the first thing in his mind are all the bad plays they did and how they fucked up and need to do better.

I see your point and I agree. I think it would be the same thing if korea/china tried to put together a football team and come compete (or something similiar). They would get smashed until it is seen as a viable career and the talent pool gets larger and movement more organized. Makes sense, good points you brought up.

Commander Vimeseh_sl said:

Two major things lead to the disparity. The first is that e-sports is actually viewed as a viable career opportunity in Korea.

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I agree with you on your second point that the infrastructure with the coaches and sponsors are alot better in Korea. However, this notion that pro-gamer is a viable career is way off base. For most of these players, they pretty much go all in on pro-gaming at a very early age, and pro gaming is their only option for a successful career, albeit very short. Also, don't forget that the mandatory 2years (might be 20months) military service for them is like a ticking time bomb on their e-sports careers as well. You tried to be a pro-gamer, didn't hit it big like MadLife and Faker, then had to go server your military service? Now your 24-26 trying to enter uni? good luck on a successful follow up career. Korea is probably one of the most cut-throat academic countries in the world. I think this is one of the big reasons why they're so focused even at a very early age when they do get a chance to be a pro-gamer (Faker is only 17-18 IIRC). I think comparing pro-gaming in Korea to pro-athletes in the states is more accurate. It sounds like a great life from the outside, but there is so much commitment and sacrifice required, and only a very very few percentage of them hit it big. With the exception that if you're a good enough athlete in the states, at least you can come out with a good college education. In Korea for most of the players, they have to start from fresh all over again after their e-sports careers.

Comparing that to the US players (don't know about the EU), if you don't make it as a e-sports player, it's far easier to follow up with a more "normal" career path. Most of these players can still quit in their early 20s, enter uni, and get a decent, middle class office gig.

Sorry for the rambling, but I always get a little upset when someone says "being a pro-gamer in Korea is like being a doctor". Almost no parent in Korea will support their kids if they wanna be a pro-gamer.

I didn't say it was like being a doctor, I said it was viewed as viable, instead of a waste of time for the most part. Which it is, especially in comparison with the US. The rest of your point is valid though.

Commander Vimeseh_sl said:

I didn't say it was like being a doctor, I said it was viewed as viable, instead of a waste of time for the most part. Which it is, especially in comparison with the US. The rest of your point is valid though.

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Sorry, I was reminded of an article a someone wrote after spending a few months in Korea where he basically said that pro-gaming is like being a doctor in the Korean society.

Going full tilt is really fucking annoying when your teams just have no brains nonstop. I have not had a game in the last few days where I was ahead or dead even in my lane and then won... all hard losses

I bought Creator Viktor last night on a whim and now I will play Viktor all day in every lane, forever. Support Viktor ftw.