Worlds 2022: An LCS Reflection
Did the biggest LoL Esports event in the world live up to its host country's expectations?
Editor’s Note: This ScuttleStack will not follow our traditional format, instead reading as a reflective essay. Once LCS play returns, expect our usual format to return.
Happy Sunday Scuttlers,
The 2022 League of Legends season is officially behind us, and champions DRX are returning to the LCK with some new hardware in tote. The team rode the ultimate Cinderella story — an inspiring grind from Play Ins to facing off against the Unkillable Demon King himself in the finals. As a whole, the weekend represented some of the best the international League of Legends ecosystem has to offer narratively and competitively. But despite this, as a North American follower, I’m left feeling deflated. Let’s unpack why.
Expectations and Subversions
From an LCS perspective, I had mixed expectations between LCS Finals in Chicago and the road to Worlds. My expected frontrunners in Evil Geniuses made the difficult decision to bench Danny, forcing the team to reinvent its playstyle during playoffs and into Worlds. 100 Thieves finally showed some growth during playoffs, but failed to carry that momentum beyond group play. And Cloud 9, on the heels of their decisive win during Finals, came up short on the world stage. Throughout it all, I carried hesitant optimism that the pivot from a competitive LCS playoffs would give North American teams a fighting chance in Worlds. Instead, we saw one of the worst international performances from the LCS to date.
It’s not to say the home-field cheers from the crowd and some exciting matchups didn’t leave me engaged when Worlds came around. In fact, the combinations of solid Playoff performances and North America hosting Worlds made me watch more games than ever before. Even as Western teams fell short, I continued to watch them scrap through the Group Stage. But moving into brackets with Rogue as the only Western representative, my interest in the competition plummeted.
Undying Fandom?
Whether it be traditional sports or esports, everyone has “their team.” If you’ve read ScuttleStack for a while, you’ve known I’ve been a hopeless Dignitas fan since Season 3, and while there have been few high points to hang my hat on, this relentless hope makes even horrible defeats exciting to watch. In a way, fandom is the ultimate fuel for engagement. As my favorite teams slowly started to fall out of LCS Playoff contention, my fandom broadened — I wanted to be proud of my LCS representatives, and the top 3 teams earned that. I cheered for the LCS holistically at Worlds, and when they fell off, I broadened to cheer for any Western team to challenge the historic dominance of LPL and LCK teams, but even this felt like a stretch. As we reached semifinals, I felt little to cheer for outside of “watching good League of Legends” with my representatives removed from play.
Looking back, it was great to see a strong narrative build up between DRX and T1 in the finals, but I still lacked that “undying fandom” that made me cheer for Western representatives throughout the tournament. Yes, viewership looked strong. Yes, the broadcast and five-game series was spectacular. But did I wish it could have been a strong Western representative taking on either of those teams at Chase Center in front of a roaring North American crowd? Yes.
So Now What?
There’s no magic word that will fix these feelings for me or any other fans that feel the same way. Even Faker can say North America has plenty of promising talent, but without seeing it when it matters most, I won’t bet on anything. At it’s core, this year has demonstrated that Western League fans have been given little to cheer for on the international stage recently, and while that doesn’t mean the ecosystem has a competition problem (as we still see Eastern teams continue to innovate and redefine the game), we do have a domestic fandom problem. We have all of the great teams, but little to organically cheer for.
It’s important is that we allow ourselves to be disappointed. There is going to be an ocean of celebration this week, and rightfully so for most of League of Legends’ fanbase. I’m not here to rain on their parade, but I hope that the pool of disappointed LCS fans like yours truly channel these subverted expectations and push our region to do better. As such, I hope that the powers that rule over the LCS — both from Riot and team leadership — use this lackluster postseason to reignite some passion. Moments like these don’t dissuade me from being an LCS fan. In fact, they make me want to continue to push our representatives even more to be their best selves so I can bring that pride from NA to the world stage. Let’s not let our disappointment slip into hopelessness. The undying fandom of the LCS may fuel our valleys, but let’s make sure it also moves us to our peaks.
Until next time, Scuttlers.
Unironically writing this in LCS merch,
Nick Mo.