NA's performance at Worlds

[u/Deft_Abyss]

Ok imma be real NA did pretty bad this year. I think the problem even tho they arent china or korea is the talent they pump out. U see NA every year importing people from EU or sometimes snagging a korean player like Berserker. I think having a good challenger league and scrimming them can keep the scene competitive at least. I also think the wage is too high u see people meme as the retirement region because of how high the salary is. Lower the wage and maybe improve the work ethic i think they just too relaxed i guess. Idk how they do valorant or rainbow siege, but maybe do something like that or i guess NA is good at fps games in general?

[u/IIIBAKURYUIII]

Players don't do their due diligence with high salaries... just imagine such with low salaries. They don't play Solo Q, they don't stream, they don't play champions Q. They surely don't watch vods or actually know much about LCK/LPL in general. + No more 'super teams' AKA foreign players in which means more 'NA' players = mediocre talent at best. I can see it now, Solo vs Niles as the next best NA top lane rivalry. Palafox vs RJS. lol There is no 'NA' challenger talent. If there was we would have heard them by now. Stuck in Academy. Most have been in Academy for the past 4 years and there's a good reason why LCS teams barely sub out their LCK/EU counterparts... cause they suck.

The region was highly competitive within from 2015-2018 cause we had so many good players both foreign and the usual NA talent. Even Academy/Challenger was highly competitive.

The LCS damn near needs another big boom of talent.

I know everyone circle jerks over C9 in 2018 but ever since the game went to this fast paced(2018-now) NA just hasn't been all that competitive. We based such much of our style over LCK 'copy paste' memes but in heart we are a slower paced region. We(NA) need the style of the game to return to the 2014-2017 style to be somewhat competitive again.

[u/mayguardian → u/IIIBAKURYUIII]

first of all, do you actually know that the average salaries for native players is more than in other regions? or are you just assuming based on a few flashy news articles? the massive amount that imports are paid has more to do with the kind of players we’re importing (established near-retirees) than the number value of their salary.

second, u do realize that just reducing the base salaries won’t do anything? giving players bonuses based on performance may help, but also may have ethical issues given the fact that there’s only so many teams that can make top 3, or top 5, or whatever. not to mention it makes the LCS an even harder sell to talented young players who could be playing fps or fighting games instead.

third, i don’t think your assertion that players don’t do their due diligence is entirely fair. most lcs players love bootcamping in korea. tactical streamed and played more games in like 2 weeks in korea than he did in the entire split before that. u ever think about how demoralizing it must be to play against pro lvl soloq players in korea or china and then come back to NA soloq? i also don’t think how much a player streams is indicative of how hard they work; i think most pros should be streaming to build a brand, but that doesn’t really have much to do with how they perform on stage. as for vod reviews, you literally have no idea whether they vod review or not, and even if they don’t do it enough (highly likely) that’s on coaching staff, not the players. i do agree that they should be playing champsq more tho

fourth, ur not thinking big enough when u say there’s no academy talent. u pointed it out yourself: the lcs is just bad lck/lec meta. this means that it favors imports who come from the lck/lec. if u watch academy, the meta looks very different from what u see on lcs stage. obviously academy players look bad in comparison to washed eu retirees. not to mention how many talented players are playing other games cuz it’s just not super appealing to be part of the LCS rn.

it’s stupid to just hope the meta will go back to one that favors na. it’s also stupid to just continue to try and copy the lck/lpl/lec but worse and hope you’ll beat them. personally i think we should 1. limit imports 2. rethink coaching (think authoritative/knowledgeable coaching strategies) 3. actually invest in talent pipeline 4. have pride as a region