LEC Versus, for all intents and purposes, was a pretty strong fan fair. Largely thanks to the French fans getting a second Karmine Corp team in the LEC, Los Ratones, and the drama surrounding their run.
Yet, with Los Ratones’ exit, many claimed to quit the LEC, citing franchising killed the game, among other tediums that have built up over the years.
But, after First Stand, the EU might finally be back on the scene thanks to G2‘s run. You might want to second-guess your quitting EU, as we might be in for a bit of a revival, like what happened around 2018-2020 among EU hopefuls.
Why you should care about the LEC Spring Split
The good news is about the scheduling for a change. It’s still not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we are finally getting rid of Best of 1. The fraudmaxxing rules created never-ending upsets and stomps, left players without key practice ahead of majors, completely ignored the new Fearless Draft rules, and also gave fraudulent playoff runs.
Now we have some new storylines like, how good are GX and NAVI who coped up with Bo1 wins. Can Vitality actually be consistent, too, rather than extreme swinging from game to game? It also gives players so much more experience with Fearless than in the regular split, not just in the playoffs for the six teams that typically make it.
All in all, it’s a good change, making it more like the LCK in that sense. Something the EU has long demanded.
The downside is that the scheduling is a bit messed up. G2 doesn’t start till Week 2, and due to the roadshows and trying to pack stadiums out, they end up playing 3 Best of 3’s in the final week against, theoretically, their main regional rivals.
So, it’s not perfect, but it will do.
First Stand is an EU event
As it stands, the most consistent region for First Stand is the EU. Karmine Corp attended last year in Europe, reaching the finals. This year, G2 managed to enter it and faced BLG. Both teams managed to get some key wins against teams that looked good or fantastic at times. So, it’s a strong sign that the winter depression that hits the EU isn’t as severe as we make out in the West.
Now, to more recent news. G2 did get banged by BLG, a tale as old as time, now taking the rivalry that G2 daemon has and spun it into a Chinese rivalry instead.
That level of experience, improvement, and coming back to Europe should hopefully rekindle some fire under the EU’s less performing teams. You saw what they did when they decided not to int and draft like maniacs. If you can get a consistent and as strong an identity as G2 had that tournament (and key players popping off in series), then EU might actually elevate.
It should be interesting to see if G2 choke it regionally or come out swinging, and whether teams are forced to take the lessons from First Stand personally and adapt, as G2 did, and rise to the challenge. Hopefully, that success carries over and infects other teams and players, too.
Stable rosters
The EU has a rookie problem and a general manager problem. We talk about the EU’s deep talent pool, with the EUW solo queue ladder having as many ranked accounts as the Korean server does, around 1.7 million. Throw in our deep ERL system, and rookies are everywhere. We do get bangers come through from time to time, like Skewmond, Caliste, and new hopefuls like Yopa, Naak, Nakko, and other names to boot.
But, we churn a lot of players to get those players. EU teams often bin their rookies off after a split, maybe 2. And the cycle is endless. This split, however, we have one roster move, with Stend out of Heretics’ support position. Rosters sticking together like this is a good sign that there’s hope for rosters and that projects are building and working on them.
Maybe teams can actually improve and keep a forward trajectory form and compete against each other more cleanly.