North American Snap Shot of Worlds 2019 (LCS)

Team Liquid has won their 4th consecutive LCS Championship in a ferocious 5 game series with runner-up Cloud 9. With 4 out of the 5 players being First Team All Pro, it was almost expected, but Cloud 9 was hungry.  Cloud 9 fell behind after game 1 before turning it around and winning the next two to jump ahead 2-1. This was thanks in large part to Cloud 9's Mid laner Yasin "Nisqy" Dinçer and some crazy outplays. Cloud 9 has been to finals every year but has not been able to find a victory in the last 5 years. Game 5 felt underwhelming on the side of C9. Their draft felt a little all over the place and they weren't able to play to their win conditions. But with how dominant Team Liquid has seemed and how much praise they have received from the community, Cloud 9 has nothing to hang their heads about. Hope is not lost for C9. Team Liquid has solidified themselves as the most dominant team in North American LCS history. Both teams will represent North America this year at Worlds in hopes to bring the Summoner's Cup to North America for the first time ever.

Flip the script from domestic success and look at international. Until this most recent MSI (Mid Season Invitational), Cloud 9 had been the only North American Team to find success since Season 1.  Even the NA "Super Teams" have struggled to get out of the group stage. Last year at Worlds 2018, Cloud 9 defied expectations by starting Summer Split in 10th place before fighting their way all the way to the Semifinals at Worlds and escaping the Group of Death. C9 has been dubbed in the years past as the last hope for North America as they have seemed to be the only team to be able to succeed and make it out of the Group Stage. And they have been able to do so usually as the 3rd place seed from North America. The odds always seem stacked against them, but they find a way to redeem NA and ease the pain from the insults of their European counterparts.

A lot still needs to happen in NA before the Worlds this October. North America will have a Regional Qualifier, gauntlet style, winner stays, tournament to decide who will represent North America as the 3rd seed. The teams competing from lowest seed to highest are as follows; FlyQuest, Clutch Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, and Team Solomid. TSM, although looking very weak at the end of this split, only have to win one best of 5 series to qualify for Worlds this year. FlyQuest looks like the biggest underdog of the tournament qualifying only off of performance from Spring Split 2019. They likely will not make it to worlds this year but stranger things have happened. In 2015, Cloud 9 was in a similar situation as the lowest seed and was able to win 3 best of 5's in a row to represent NA at Worlds for the second year in a row.

This years Regional Qualifier is going to be interesting to say the least. TSM has been declining and seem to be in the worst state they've been in in a very long time. They dropped their playoff series to a Clutch Gaming squad that was overlooked and was almost able to beat out Team Liquid in the Semifinals. CLG has looked pretty steady throughout the split and after beating Clutch in the 3rd Place match, they are looking like the strongest team left in NA. Clutch Gaming has a very in your face type of play style and seem to be able to pick up wins through their Top and Mid lanes. If they can draft well, they are going to be hard to beat.

The winner of the Regional Qualifier will compete in the Worlds Play in Stage. The five main regions for League of Legends are North America (LCS), Europe (LEC), China (LPL), Korea (LCK), and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao (LMS). Each of these regions will have 3 teams at Worlds with the 3rd seed competing in the Play in stage. China is the exception to this as they won the World Championship last year. They therefor get 3 seeds automatically qualified for the Main Stage at Worlds 2019.

North America has struggled internationally and is looking to breakthrough this year. Team Liquid needs to continue their domestic dominance on the international stage this year to prove themselves. They have said on numerous occasions that they are focused on Worlds this year and LCS is just an avenue to get them there. Many of TL's members have found success with other teams at Worlds including Top Laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong, Mid Laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and Support Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in. With Team Liquid locked in as the first seed and Cloud 9 as the second, North America is looking as strong as they have in a while moving towards worlds.

Traditional Sports VS Esports Communities

“I am in fucking insane form…” a quote from Yilian “Doublelift” Peng in an interview with Travis Gafford. Doublelift is a professional League of Legends player currently playing for Team Liquid. If you follow the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), then this type of response from Doublelift is nothing out of the ordinary. Doublelift is no stranger to trash talk and often goes out of his way to do so to other players and teams. However, he pretty much has every right to say these things. He is easily the most dominant ADC/Bot Laner in the LCS and with 6 LCS Championships (7 pending this weekend’s outcome), how can you argue against that? As any player with what we’ll call a little bit of an ego, he receives some back lash from the community, but it doesn’t really compare to the way fans of Traditional Sports bite back.

When you look at 3 of the major traditional sports in North America; Football, Basketball, and Hockey, will probably notice a different pedigree of athlete between the three. You could venture to say that Tom Brady, Lebron James and Sidney Crosby are, or at least were, the best players in their respective sports for many years. Could you imagine one of those three saying something along those lines?

It is no secret to them that they dominate their craft. But when asked about being the best in an interview, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins replied, humbly, “I mean who decides that ya know? Everyone looks at a player’s game differently and what they bring. It’s a pretty general thing, right?” He went on to say “So, if I can be my best and we can win games, then I think that’s something I can feel good about. I don’t necessarily need a certain title…”

You will find similar responses to Crosby from players like Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, who has been called the best goal scorer of the modern era of hockey. His more eccentric personality, over the top goal celebrations, and over abundance of emotion make him, in some peoples eyes, look bad. Ovechkin has been leading the Capitals for many years in many stats and is probably receives more hate than any player in the NHL. Everyone loves to hate Ovi.

There seems to be a switch for fans of traditional sports that is flipped as soon as the an athlete says something controversial. They are more scrutinized for saying whats really on their mind.

While watching some post game interviews from the LCS, it occurred to me that the reason for this polarity could be that Esports athletes are just viewed as normal people or at least more so than traditional sports athletes. Esports athletes interview with media and they are joking around and having fun and don’t feel like they have a generic script forced on them. As a traditional sports fan, you can almost predict exactly what they are going to say after the game.

The community feels connected to Esports athletes and not as though they are beneath them as people. Esports athletes will often time stream themselves playing video games and interact with their audience in real time making them seem more approachable and down to earth. Maybe this has to do with exposure and that Esports is much less followed than traditional sports, therefore giving them less of a chance to receive scrutiny.

Whatever the reason is, there is no secret that the athletes are treated differently between platforms. Will Esports athletes fall victim to the same fate as traditional sports athletes as the community continues to grow? Or will traditional sports take a page out of  Esports' book and learn to embrace greatness from any team in any sport rather than tear athletes down for being the best?