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esports
Worlds Collide at LCS All-Star 2014
For the first time in a long time, there's a glimmer of parity in the League of Legends scene.
League of Legends LCS All-Stars 2014
© Philippa Warr
At first glance, it might not look like much has changed in the year since the last LCS All-Star break. Korea still enjoys an easy dominance over its rivals in Asia and the west. The American and European standard-bearers were swept out of the semifinals by the Chinese and Korean teams, respectively. So far, so familiar.
But things have changed, and it was evident during the group stage of the All-Star Invitational this past weekend in Paris. While Korea's SK Telecom T1 retain their international dominance even as their grasp on Korea has slipped, the progress that Cloud 9 have made toward being an international powerhouse is undeniable. While last year's All-Star tournament all but assured viewers that the Season 3 World Championship would be a showdown between Korea and either China or Taiwan, this past tournament showed that the America's top squad can bring the heat.
SK Telecom
As the representative of KeSPA-managed eSports in Korea and the most elite League of Legends region in the world, SKT looked reliably dominant. But they are no longer playing a completely different game than the rest of Asia or the west. Rather, their focus on eliminating mistakes is what let them overrun their rivals at All-Star.
That's worrisome news for the rest of the world, considering that SKT have been knocked off their perch atop Korean eSports in this year's Champions Spring. The rest of the Korean pro-LoL scene has raised its game to their level, while SKT have not quite managed to recapture the awesome synergy they enjoyed last fall and winter.
Cloud 9 vs OMG
Still, it was Cloud 9's progress as a world championship contender that became one of the biggest stories of All-Star Paris. Cloud 9 emerged on the North American scene fairly late last year, and they were very inexperienced when they took the stage at Worlds last year.
That rawness is well and truly gone now. At All-Star they were disciplined, daring, and as mechanically sound as the world's best. In fact, they looked better than both OMG and Fnatic in the group stage. Their victory over OMG showed Cloud 9 at their coolest and most composed, as they turned engagements in their favor and built toward a clear, clean victory.
Cloud 9's progress was evident at All-Star, but their limitation were all to clear in the semifinal against OMG. Cloud 9 have always been a team that sometimes struggles with their mental game when things go wrong, and that cost them dearly against OMG in their 2-0 semifinals defeat. A setback at Dragon snowballed into an unravelling by Cloud 9, and they could not get back on their game for the second set. While Cloud 9 excel at one-off matches, their tendency to go "on-tilt" is their biggest weakness as they prepare for Worlds.
The Rest of the Best
The big losers at All-Star were the Taipei Assassins and Fnatic, both of whom came to the tournament with a lot to prove. Fnatic had an up-and-down LCS season, while Season 2 World Champions Taipei Assassins are trying to re-establish themselves as an elite League of Legends team. But against the best teams in China, Korea, and North America, the two legendary squads stumbled badly.
For TPA, the setback is particularly demoralizing. They've had a long road back to relevance following the wave of retirements that hit them in 2013 and left the team a shell of its championship-winning self. Coming off of two great seasons in the Garena Premier League, they looked like they'd solved their problems and recaptured some of their greatness. But All-Star gave them a reality check. As much as TPA have improved, they have a long way to go before they are ready to challenge for another world title.
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