It's vividly clear that eSports is attracting millions of fans all over the world and that it keeps growing as time goes by. As the community grows even further, then so does the competition amongst professional players. One of the most renowned eSports competitions in the world is the World Championship, an annual event held by Riot for the RTS game League of Legends.
League of Legends is one of the most successful MOBA games alongside Dota 2 and Smite that reportedly has an astonishing 67 million monthly subscribers. With its community ballooning every single day, it's not rare to find new faces in the competitive scene every now and then. But it seems that despite the constant efforts from the professional talents all over the world, one country have stood atop the summit virtually unchallenged.
League of Legends World Championship 2016
The hottest eSports competition is currently taking place in four different locations across North America where the Madison Square Garden will then hold its finale. In this event, 16 teams all over the world compete against each other to become the world's best. For this year, 3 teams represent South Korea namely: SK Telecom T1, ROX Tigers, and Samsung Galaxy. After many matches later, the three Korean teams have quickly made it into the semifinals, dropping all 13 teams along their run.
Now, with just one foreign country down the line, it seems that once again, South Korea has set its mark onto the pinnacle of the League's summit that started way back in 2013 after SK Telecom T1 overpowered team Royal Club from China.
Why Is South Korean Teams Dominating League of Legends?
In an interview of The Score, Cho "Mata" Se-hyeon of team RNG said, "I think, with our team included, that the Chinese teams are not ready to win yet." During the interview, he pointed out the Achilles heel of most of the teams and that is their heavy focus of the bottom lane. Most of the plays revolve around their bottom lane -- the hard carry winning the farm and cs but in turn, sacrifices the remaining two particularly the hard lane (top lane). This "weak spot" was clearly exploited during their last fight against team ROX Tigers where their top lane vastly crumbled against the dominance of ROX's Song "Smeb" Khyung-Ho with the support of his teammate, "Peanut."
There must be more reasons behind South Korea's dominance in the pro scene. One of which could be, aside from their talents' skills particularly in the midlane, is their unpredictable plays and ganking methods which are timed perfectly that can easily turn any tide into their momentum.
The teams that will compete for the semifinals have just been completed upon the recent win of H2k-Gaming against Albus NoX Luna. With the finale coming to a climax, who do you think will reign supreme? Will South Korea's dominance prevail or will we be seeing a major upset? Share your thoughts in the comments section down below!
