For two years in a row, the major regions and a special representative from the Wildcard regions have taken their rightful places to earn glory for their home regions.

North America shows up as the weakest of the major regions, beaten up by their western compatriots in Europe. Europe, of course, has always been stronger at Worlds (save for the results in 2014) than North America and stood as the best chance in the West to topple the ever-dominant Korea. China’s position has always been one of strength despite their poor showing at the 2015 Worlds tournament. Taiwan continues to grow stronger and stronger while only getting a bit  more attention than the army of Wildcard teams, who can only afford to send one team to speak for a number of regions most viewers can’t be bothered to remember. And why would they, if their representatives thus far have all been officially labeled as farces whose only purposes are to upset cocky teams from major regions?

The narratives and perspective of each of these regions have shifted dramatically in 2016. For far too long have region narratives been stale, blunt and straightforward. This year’s Mid-Season Invitational group stages serve as precedent to smash the previous static perceptions of the international narratives moving forward.

Even Papercuts can Kill: International Wildcard

Looking at only the scoreboard, many viewers can look and say, “Who was the sucker who lost to the Wildcard team?” Ever since 2013’s Worlds when Mineski looked overjoyed to be there, it became the western fan mantra to label every Wildcard team as, “oh they’re just happy to be there for the ride. Can’t we keep Worlds strictly competitive?”

Sure, Supermassive went 1-9, but critiques on the analyst desk admitted how close several of these games went. Taking a game off of CLG, almost beating G2 twice (one game where G2 was losing to Supermassive was remade due to a bug) and showing that they were more than just a pushover to the major regions just shows how far they’ve come. Wildcard regions -- such as Japan -- are taking steps to further their overall level by hiring Korean coaches and players to elevate their region. Brazil, Oceania, Turkey — all of these regions have had time to study the big regions, and the games themselves show this. The content of the games themselves, not the scores, show this. As time goes on, major regions will learn to look at the ground now and then and realize that they’re not the only competitors.

No Longer Flypaper on the Wall: Taiwan

Despite Taiwan’s involvement in the international League scene since 2011, most fans only ever knew of Taipei Assassins’ Season 2 Championship victory as well as mid-lane extraordinaire Westdoor. Riot’s advertisement for the region often boiled down to how much they really liked Westdoor. In fact, Taiwan has been as poorly treated as Wildcard regions are in terms of exposure in the West. They’re not competitors for the championship cup and major regions think that those who lose to Taiwan were just caught off-guard. People aimless enough to walk into the flypaper.  The Flash Wolves in the 2015 and the 2016 seasons look to destroy this train of thought.

Incorporating newer players to the team such as MMD filling in for the top lane for Steak, it was a long and hard fought battle to eventually dethrone ahq e-Sports Club this year in the LoL Masters Series. After their performances in the MSI group stages, it’s impossible to deny that FW are a great team. They’re the only ones who have beaten SK Telecom T1 both times during the round robin. It is true that FW tend to play to the level of their opponent, but with great players like Maple and SwordArT present in the LMS, it’s difficult for anyone to say that the flagship team from the LMS is weak.

Apollo 11 Redux: North America

With the exception of the 2011 Worlds, North America has been ridiculed at almost every major international tournament with the exception of some IEMs sprinkled amongst the timeline. Specifically, American squads are usually embarrassed with continued defeats against the top Korean teams and difficulty escaping the group stages at Worlds. This was felt most recently in the 2015 World Championship where, for the first time in League history, NA was completely absent from the bracket stage. Prior to this embarrassment was TSM’s shocking collapse at 2015 MSI, where their only win was against Turkey’s Be?ikta? e-Sports Club.

Hopes were only hopes -- or as the broadcast crew adopted as their mantra ,”The Faithful Shall Be Rewarded” in regards to Counter Logic Gaming taking the first place finish over Team SoloMid in the 2016 NA LCS Spring. AD carry Stixxay in particular was both hyped forwards and backwards from people amazed by his performance, and others who believed that his team made it incredibly easy for him to shine through for his team. Coupled with a doubt in Huhi’s ability to play mechanically up to par with international mids, fans were half in and out about CLG’s prospects for MSI. Not only were spectators shocked, but the fans were rewarded in the best possible way.

On the third day, CLG took down Korea’s flagship squad. For the first time in history, a North American team defeated SK Telecom. While SKT certainly had incredible struggles throughout the tournament, no one can really take away this victory from CLG -- especially when when paired with CLG’s subsequent victory over China’s Royal Never Give Up, who undoubtedly had the strongest showing at MSI this year thus far. These victories are no fluke, and it is the wish of every NA fan who has suffered for their belief in their home region that CLG can advance to the finals and show that they are a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the 2016 season.

One small step for CLG, one giant leap for NA.

Descent to Earthbound Humblings: Europe

Heading into MSI, G2 Esports had quite the legacy to live up to as the representative for the greater European region. Following the steps of the ever dominant 2015 Fnatic roster, it became more and more tragic as G2 racked up loss after loss and almost lost both of their games against Supermassive--the Turkish successor to last year’s Be?ikta?. Paralleling  these losses were more and more internal issues with G2. They admitted to the fact that didn’t practice before the tournament. Emperor got really bad news the day before MSI and he couldn’t keep composed for the entirety of the tournament.

We can dance around the issue but the bottom line rings true. There is no excuse for not preparing for a major international tournament that carries importance for your region. Instead of doing one of a handful of options such as scrimming challenger teams or go to Korea to scrim, they instead opted to lean back and play one of Styx’s greatest hits on loop: “Too Much Time On My Hands”.

The four teams who reach the bracket stage secure a first seeded spot for their region when Worlds comes around later this year. Failure to handle internal affairs properly and failure to prepare and practice for two and a half weeks led to this embarrassing 2-8 record. The only hope is that G2 and any team looking to slack off before a major tournament never repeat this sort of mistake again.

As for Europe, it would be dismissive to use G2 as the beacon to downplay the strength of the region as a whole. In fact one can’t use this performance as an indicator of Europe’s strength on an international level this season because it will always be tainted by these internal issues and lack of practice. At the most, Europe remains a mystery until the next major international showing.

Trouble in Paradise: Korea

After losing MSI to Edward Gaming last year, SK Telecom were determined to take the prize home this time. Tell anyone a day or two before MSI that SKT would be the fourth seed leaving the group stages and they’d tell you you’re living in a pipe dream. Tell them that they’d lose both games to Flash Wolves and a game apiece to RNG and CLG and they’ll show you the door. Unfortunately for them and for SKT, those are true statements.

SKT has never shown this level of weakness in an international competition in their lives. Faker played uncharacteristically foolishly, using incorrect runes and overextending in the majority of his games. There were also several instances where he’d go too aggressive without any wards in the river, and it’s very likely he’s still used to Bengi warding the river for him. Blank on the other hand is much more aggressive and the meta fits him. Blank’s performance is also a complete reversal of of his performance in the OGN finals, where he provided more vision and had Faker’s back whenever KurO tried to all-in Faker. He fills a much different role than Bengi does -- providing wards nonstop for Faker is not one of those duties.

Many called for Blank to be subbed out for Bengi but that would also be a heavy risk. While Bengi might being a more comfortable presence to the team, Bengi’s playstyle and champion pool is not strong in the current meta. Fortunately for SKT, they were able to squeeze by at the end with enough wins to enter the bracket stage but had G2 actually practiced and prepared for the tournament this could potentially have been a different story for the Korean flagship squad.

Redemption for the Battleworn: China

China every year has been incredibly strong internationally despite any jeering that western teams would like to shoot their way about macro play and otherwise. Last year was China’s lowest point as all three Chinese teams put up miserable performances at Worlds. It was clear that they had performed better during the LoL Pro League and players such as Imp had admitted to their lack of preparation pre-worlds due to arrogance.

In an interview with RNG’s Mata, he said that they were taking a much more humble approach toward international teams and wanted to avoid any trips based on their own ego. The team stayed true to those words as they went 8-2 throughout the entire group stages and even took down SKT in a very long, drawn out game; they came in with a plan and executed it very well. China is on the rise, and are looking to prove this during the bracket stage as they take on SKT again but in a best of five series.

In the coming week with the semifinals and finals remaining to be played, these narratives may shift a little, but these thirty games played are more than sufficient evidence to show that times are changing. NA, China, Korea and the Wildcard narratives even look flipped compared to last year, whereas Europe and Taiwan have an upward battle to fight from here on out. There needs to be a balance between using current games and prior performances to determine a region’s strength. More than just the result should be considered when looking at a region’s games encompassing both regional and international performances.

All Photos Credit to lolesports

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