EDG takes 2015 Mid-Season Invitational - Page 414

On May 12 2015 06:39 Saradin wrote:
I think that the underlying premise of the framework you're working with is missing one aspect, which is rather important for the LCS regions. The quality of play that a player is regularly exposed to. The quality of his experience, so to speak.

There's raw talent, which is the innate aptitude for something that a person is born with. There's coaching/teaching done outside of playing the game. And then there's personal experience; playing the game, expanding and refining one's game sense and knowledge through both doing and through encountering firsthand. Higher level training produces stronger players, basically (and attitude is certainly a factor in this).

So how is knowledge expanded? Organically through 'eureka' moments and experimentation, or learning from others. One is faster than the other. Next, I would put forth that the NA LCS is behind on game sense/knowledge (I think back to interviews with TiP Apollo and Adrian about how Impact has so much game knowledge to impart from his wealth of higher level experience).

For a crude analogy, NA can be likened to be at the stage of inventing the wheel while Korea's already moved on ahead to... steam engine, or something. The exact difference isn't important; the important thing is that NA is at one stage of knowledge, Korea's at a higher stage. Can NA organically develop to wherever Korea is at the present? Sure, but in the time that has taken, a region like Korea's already moving on to a further higher stage. It's the trap that 'reinventing the wheel' leads to.

So the sticky thing here is, NA is effectively an isolated environment, thanks to the topology of this wonderful planet. You're essentially stuck with the organic growth option, with hilariously god awful performances at S2 and S3 worlds as examples of outcomes of pure isolation. The limited number of imports does help somewhat by bringing in players with more skill/knowledge for the region to come into contact with. But it's not enough compared to, say...
Korea - Already have high level players; can play against themselves to improve, akin to a positive feedback loop
China - Imported a lot of high level players, can play on Korean solo queue to play against the players still in Korea anyway, and can still scrim against LCK teams. Not as difficult to be exposed to new things as NA is.
Taiwan - Like a lesser version of China's situation. Couple of imports, can play on KR solo queue, can scrim with LPL and LCK teams (although I'm only positive on something like TPA having Najin connections through their coach)

On May 12 2015 07:22 Caiada wrote:
Future Fnatic with Rekkles will probably look a lot like this SKT team.

On May 12 2015 07:32 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:


Yellowstar wasn't at IPL 5, lol.
He joined after it.

On May 12 2015 07:22 Caiada wrote:
Future Fnatic with Rekkles will probably look a lot like this SKT team.

On May 12 2015 07:47 orzeu wrote:

What? Rekkles and Bang have nothing in common. Rekkles is supportish adc that goes even in laning phase and play cleaning up role in team fights. He is team dependant adc. Bang either solo carry game or is trash.

On May 12 2015 07:48 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:


nRated played 1,5 splits more before Yellowstar switched to support.
And Caomei played until LPL Summer 2014 as WE's toplane.

That's why Cheep is right when he says that Worlds is only tournament people remember anyway. :>

On May 12 2015 08:01 Caiada wrote:
Yellowstar went off this tournament, but it's not a regular thing for him by any stretch. Maybe more like Piccaboo in that case.

On May 12 2015 08:14 Majax wrote:


Well, considering he had to lane with bottom 3 EU LCS ADC all split long... But he did went totally crazy mad in some games VS SKT, that was an incredible display of skills. Maybe he still have a part of him that still belongs to the old Fnatic : meh during spling, becoming cluth when it matters (now that I think of it, old Fnatic was kind of a reverse CLG :D).

On May 12 2015 08:31 orzeu wrote:
Yellowstar is bad laner too, so you should give 'all credit' to Steelback for that.

On May 12 2015 09:39 niukasu1990 wrote:
When is the next summoning insight, I cannot wait

On May 12 2015 09:57 red_ wrote:
I just want to note that we can't just write Korea's infrastructural advantage off just yet. It's been what like 5 months since the exodus? Even given their infrastructure is far superior, is that really enough time? I would even say a 'failure' at Worlds is still not long enough. If there isn't another exodus this year, and they have had ample time to really just sit and redevelop, I'd wager that Korea will roar back in S6. There were a few blips in SC2 where "Korea"(different from 'Korean players') appeared to be weakening, and then they reminded everyone that they were still well beyond compare for basically everyone but Taeja(who is a weird outlier, and also muddies the decision whether you count him as a foreigner who is Korean or just full blown Korean given his tournament choices over the years).