Tracing The Success Of The East In League of Legends Esports

League of Legends may have found its origins in North America but it has surely had a deeper cultural impact in South Korea and China, becoming a part and parcel of life. Esports players and personalities have become household names here. There have been instances of schools adopting esports into their curriculums in Korea to fans turning esports tournaments into festivals.

When the League of Legends Pro League’s (LPL) EDward Gaming (EDG) won the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, the fans of the team erupted in wild celebrations across China. They paraded and flooded the streets as the rest of the world watched their escapades in awe.

Well, this craze for League of Legends goes beyond just the esports scene of the game. There was even a sushi bar in China that specifically offered amazing meal deals to League of Legends players in 2014. As peculiar it might sound, the restaurant advertised that discounts would be offered to customers based on their League rank tiers.

People from all walks of life seem to love watching League of Legends esports and are able to truly understand the game and appreciate its nuances. Chinese pro player Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin’s dad narrated how he loved playing the game and how he would seek the help of his son sometimes to “1v4” his enemies. Likewise, when Korean bot- laner Gwon "Sangyoon" Sang-yun achieved a milestone of 1,000 kills in the Korean league in 2019, the world caught a surprising scene on the broadcast: a proud father holding a fan sign which congratulated his son along with a cheque for 10M Won ($8.3K USD).

The League of Champions Korea (LCK) is historically recognized as arguably the best league in League of Legends Esports and is known for its textbook plays. Clean teleports, coordinated team fights around objectives, and impeccable communication are the name of the game in LCK. On the other hand, we have the Chinese League of Legends Pro League (LPL), the other forerunner of the game, known for its aggression. Fuelled by the insane game mechanics and timed aggression, the Chinese league has also carved a name for itself.

The LPL and the LCK are now the heavyweights of the League of Legends esports scene. They have basically formed a duopoly in the esports scene of League of Legends, winning every single World Championship since 2013. South Korea has managed to etch its region’s name on the trophy six times while the Chinese teams have swept the board three times. The teams from other leagues have been left in the dust for quite some time now and need to go the extra mile to prep and dissect the way the game is played just to stand a chance when they go head-to-head against these mammoths.

The question that looms over our heads is how the LCK and the LPL constantly find success in international events. Sure, we’ve had EU and NA teams emerging victorious over these regions now and then. But how have the Eastern leagues almost perfected the way League of Legends is played?

Is culture the key difference?

Despite Korea having a rich history with strategy games and esports, when Riot Games launched League of Legends, the game was not available in the country. Only when Riot was looking for regions to expand into, Korea was explored as an option. Korea already had an esports culture ingrained, thanks to Starcraft, which even made its way into South Korean television way back in 2000. Also, who would want to pass on the rich “PC Bang” culture? Both Korea and China are known for their internet cafes where people swarm in to play the games of their choice.

Following the launch of a dedicated server for Korea in December 2011, cable broadcaster OnGameNet introduced the first major tournament in March 2012 - League of Legends Champions. The league underwent a major restructuring and rebranding in late 2014 and was called the LCK. It was franchised in 2021 and the promotion tournament system was discontinued. Today, the LCK sees the participation of ten teams and is held in cooperation between Riot and the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA).

Just like Korea, China also had a prebuilt setup for fostering esports thanks to the popularity of the Warcraft III version of DotA. League of Legends esports was quick to become mainstream, with a significant number of unique Chinese viewers tuning into the League of Legends Season 2 World Championships. It was only in 2013 that the LPL was created and since then the league has charted its own course with how the game should be played on and off the rift.

The LPL and the LCK can be called the creative minds of League of Legends Esports. They have pioneered strategies including creep wave management and synchronized team fighting, and introduced meta gameplay, while still having distinctive playstyles.

Playing League of Legends the Eastern way

One of the major regions why the LCK and the LPL find success is that the teams are willing to learn and adapt according to the meta despite having distinct playstyles in the game. Today, other leagues including North America’s League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and League of Legends European Championship (LEC) closely follow the Korean and Chinese teams like hawks to draw inspiration for playstyles and champion picks.

Both Korea and China have found their own ways of attaining success on the rift. While the LCK teams believe in taking up a defensive playstyle, the LPL teams are known for their aggression. In the LCK, it is all about taking one’s own sweet time to scale stronger in the game and fight around the neutral objectives and monsters on the map. They follow textbook gameplay techniques and strategies like they are recipes to a successful dish.

In contrast, the LPL teams have a history of proactively using their aggression to force fights for achieving objectives within the game. They always go for high-risk high rewards plays and try to gain an upper hand in the laning phase over their opponents.

Other factors, such as the format of the regular splits, may also play a role in the growing strength of the Eastern region. Just like the LCS and the LEC, the LCK and the LPL also play the Spring and Summer split every year. But instead of best-of-one (BO1) matches, they play best-of-three matches during the regular splits. On the other hand, the other regions play the BO3/BO5 series only during the playoffs.

This BO3 format brings an entirely different dynamic to the leagues. While the BO1 format lets more teams play against each other in a shorter period of time, BO3s give teams time to adjust and adapt. This incentivizes teams to come up with different tactics and rely on outdrafting, outplaying and outstrategizing their opponents rather than just utilizing cheese picks.

Here’s where the coaching and the drafting styles of the LCK and the LPL truly shine. Playing an opponent in a series during the regular split helps the teams come up with better strategies and champion picks. This allows for coaches and analysts to make appropriate adjustments and redirect their priorities in the draft as the regular split evolves. With the BO3s in place, teams have the opportunity to play more games in the group stage and hence have to encounter more diverse strategies which in-turn helps the team evolve through the season Beyond all this, the BO3s help the players mentally prepare for when they are facing stiff competition in international events like the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and Worlds.

Right before these international tournaments, teams travel to other countries to get a taste of the Solo Queue environment in the respective regions and play alongside some of the greatest players. This sets up players to practice and play scrims in an even playground with lower ping.

Standard of play in the East is just miles better

It is no secret that quick reaction times and timely decision-making can be the keys to victory in a game like League of Legends and they are undoubtedly driven by the ping in which one plays in. Pro games usually provide players with the lowest ping possible for competitive integrity, but this is not the case for Solo Queue games, where the ping can differ from server to server.

The difference between the average ping for pros in different regions is quite outrageous: North America shuttles between 67 to 70 average ping while the pros in Korea, Europe, and China play on 8, 20, 6 ping, respectively.

You must have heard the term “boot camp” so many times while reading about international tournaments. Why do teams choose to go to another country to play the same game? Well, it is pretty straightforward. The regions that host these boot camps are known for their standard of Solo Queue and it is incentive enough for the teams to gravitate towards it. For ages now, it has been a tradition for pro teams to boot camp either in Korea or China right before international tournaments. They get to understand the meta better by climbing the ranked tiers against unfamiliar playstyles and better opponents.

Did you know that the Chinese League community is the only community to have 29 servers? This is in comparison to the two servers that Europe has and the one server present in North America. Two of the Chinese servers are specifically dedicated to those players holding the top ranks. During Worlds 2020, the pros boot camped in China and played on this server, dubbed the “Chinese Super Server”. It is reserved only for highly-skilled players and one can create an account for it if they have another account ranked Diamond 1 or above.

Given the extremely high standard of play in this competitive environment, it is only natural to see so many talented wonderkids emerge in the LPL and the LCK and this translates to a highly competitive environment. So it is only natural to see players from these leagues leave for other regions where the competition is less cutthroat. But whether they always find success in a different country setup is debatable.

It is also pretty evident that these Eastern leagues prefer nurturing rookie talent at home instead of importing them from the EU or NA. Korean and Chinese teams have multiple players in their rosters who are subbed in during the regular splits now and then to help them grow into esports personalities. This is rarely the case with the Western League of Legends pro scene.

Apart from all this, successful Eastern League of Legends pros rake in tons of money. Generally, Korean and Chinese players at the highest level get paid more than the pros in other leagues. According to a report by The Korean Herald, “An ESPN Esports writer tweeted Son “Lehends” Si-woo signed a contract last December (2019) with Hanwha Life Esports for over $700,000 a year.”

The report said that when Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok signed a multiyear contract in 2018 with T1, the CEO of the team said Faker had the highest salary of any professional player in Korea. “While Faker could not confirm the rumors that his salary could be as much as 5 Billion Won ($4.1M) a year during his many appearances on entertainment shows this year, he did confirm that he was offered a blank check at one point by a different team,” added The Korean Herald.

The esports culture is different in this region of the world. Society has not stigmatized esports culture and this allows for players to scale new heights and become the best. The fact teams and organizations are ready to support the players by providing them stable income helps the players have a telescopic vision of what they want to do next. Good infrastructure for Solo Queue practice, better incentives for winning, and a stable future after retiring as a pro could all be reasons for the success of the Eastern teams.

Esports has already achieved a new milestone in the East as it is all set to feature as a medal sport for the first time at the Asian Games in Hangzhou this year. Well, as far as League of Legends is concerned, the 2022 season has just begun and as a big fan of the esports scene, I can’t wait to see what the LCK and LPL teams have to bring to the table this year.