Although no one is claiming that Korea doesn’t have the best League of Legends teams in the world, shockwaves went around the world after China ended up emerging victorious at Rift Rivals Red. China went just 2-6 in the Group Stage against Taiwan and South Korea, but battled back with a 3-2 win over Taiwan in the Semifinals before winning 3-1 in the Finals. Team WE was the primary catalyst behind the eventual victory, but this format still leaves a lot to be desired.
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Let’s Talk About the Format
We get what Rift was trying to do here and a lot of things worked. Only the top team from each region gets to go to the Mid-Season Invitational and Rift needed to come up with something to satisfy the demand for more international play. Worlds is now the only major international tournament that everyone plays in which features multiple international teams and Rift wanted to change that.
However, the three-way competitive format has to go. There is a lot of variance involved, especially with four teams representing each region. Yes, Rift has to make these rivalries regional and both travel and level of play are major factors, but this isn’t the way to go about it.
With this tournament taking place in the middle of the Summer Split, everything is rushed and there is only a short window to be able to pull something like this off. Doing it in this format is rushed though and while the Chinese teams each played a slew of games, the Korean sides just got three games each.
It would be much better to copy the model from Rift Rivals Blue between North American and Europe. Top three teams in each region and a double round robin with every team playing the other once. That gives each team plenty of action and you have a better feel about who is really the best.
What Happened to SK Telecom T1?
SKT rarely makes mistakes, but must not have been paying attention to what was going on across the pond. In the first day of action in Rift Rivals Blue, the combination of Jarvan and Galio was used to tremendous effect and subsequently no team let the other have both champions together afterwards.
Team WE were able to land both of the champions, as well as Kha’Zix and Kog’Maw and it was all said and done after that. That’s a terrifying team composition in this version and allows you to do whatever you want as a team. Having Jarvan and Galio gives you two tank champions that are both great in team fights and makes it easy to focus on one or two members of the other team. Both have knock ups which helps damage dealers, particularly one like Kog’Maw.
It was no surprise to see WE wipe the floor with SKT after a draft like that.
Aftermath
China ended up going 8-9 at Rift Rivals Red and still won it all. If that’s not indicative of the format needing to be changed, we don’t know what is.
The Koreans will have definitely learned something from the Chinese teams after the Finals. If there’s one thing we know about Korea, it’s that the teams there are quick to adapt, so you should expect to see teams incorporating some of those strategies as early as this week.
At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!
