https://www.cybersport.ru/league-of-legends/articles/nash-region-nakonec-prosto-sdokh-fiasko-kibersportivnoi-league-of-legends-v-sng

On the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational team Unicorns of love has shown perhaps the worst result since the inception of the Continental League. Will the LCL be finally buried? Will we drown in a swamp of mediocre matches, or is there a ghostly chance of rebirth?

People’s love for Albus NoX Luna and hate for Unicorns of Love

The Continental League was founded in 2016, and the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational became the tenth international event attended by the champions of the main League of Legends tournament in the CIS. The fact that the peak of the region’s form was demonstrated by the team Albus NoX Lunaa in the summer of 2016, all viewers who follow the stage at least a little know know. What happened next?

In 2017, MSI went to the traditional spring international tournament Virtus.pro… From the Play-In group, then only one team passed on, and in the quartet of our team, the obvious leader was GAM Esports – they playfully dealt with all opponents, subsequently earning a slot in the main stage. VP played unbeaten against an outsider from Argentina (LAS), but lost to everyone else. This result remained “the worst for the CIS” for only half a year, because already in the summer they knocked from below.

She came to Worlds in 2017 Gambit Esports… Due to the rather tough format of international competitions, which never laughed at the “lagging” regions, the CIS champion was seeded into a group with teams from China and Latin America, which he could not resist. The result of the World Championship is absolutely inglorious 0: 4 and the first sighs that “it was better before”.

On the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational The honor of the region was once again defended by Gambit Esports, which coped with the task masterfully under the current conditions. The CIS representative ended up in the middle of the standings, finishing 7-8 out of 14. After the summer failure, it was a long-awaited success, and some fans even got a malevolent grin: “Likkrit said that the region will die, but no, we will fight again!” …

However, Worlds 2018 welcomed the LCL champion (it was Gambit Esports again) with a cold embrace. This time, the format became an insurmountable barrier – one of the toughest for the entire existence of the Play-In stage for developing (in our case, trying to lie in the direction of development) regions. Gambit finished the group stage with a score of 2: 2 and advanced to the qualifying match, where it fought Cloud9 to the last drop of blood. But in the complete best-of-5 series, the collective Sneaky turned out to be stronger.

In 2019, our region was again awaited by the traditional “change of kings of the CIS”, as usual, through turmoil in the form of a random team at MSI. That time, the stick of fate pointed to the composition Vega squadron, which unexpectedly for everyone set the heat in the Play-In of the spring international tournament. Shark teeth were broken again in the Play-In playoffs, but 5-1 in quartets is an excellent result that local teams can only dream of now. By the summer, the Unicorns of Love organization was on the horizon, left out of the European franchise, and at Worlds 2019, the Vega roster arrived in new pink jersey. It was not possible to repeat the trick with the exit from the group: a tie-break and a qualifying match against Splyce, like two peas in a pod, similar to the battle with C9 a year earlier. The result is the same – 17-20 place in the world standings.

In 2023, due to the MSI pandemic, there was no MSI, so teams from different regions met each other only once – at Worlds in Shanghai. The CIS was again represented by Unicorns of Love, which improved their result by one step, finishing the tournament on the 13th-16th line. The impression from the performance at the World Championship was slightly spoiled by the group stage, which UoL finished with a score of 0: 6, but we must not forget that this was not the worst result in the world – Team SoloMidfor example, she also did not win a single match.

The Mid-Season Invitational in Reykjavik, after which the “Internet” boomed again, did not bode well from the very beginning. Before the split, UoL decided on their own skin to check whether communication in English for Russian-speaking teams really has a devastating effect, and invited a Frenchman to join Frappiireplacing Gadget – he, in turn, left for mousesports…

UoL, who started the season as “space leaders on paper”, ended up losing to One Breath Gaming, CrowCrowd and a very comical loss in the match against CTRL PLAY – the first from the end of the league team. Yes, after stepping on a rake, UoL decided to end the season with a Russian-speaking shooter, turning to Lodik for help, and went to MSI with him, but did not have time to get in shape. Lodik was enough to win the LCL, but on the international stage, even the teams from the CIS, who came loaded and in peak shape, did not always go smoothly. As a result, the team, which was somehow cobbled together by the end of the playoffs and made a substitution in the second half of the short season, lost to the “outsider” – Pentanet.GG from Oceania.

The community, seemingly accustomed to defeat, greeted Unicorns of Love with sharply sharpened spears and chased players across social networks with offensive memes. A shame? Perhaps there is some truth in this, because the team was not prepared for the championship. The players screwed up or, as one of the coaches put it, “nakoseporili”. The group stage for three teams, from which two went further, turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle for UoL.

The Nomanz team finished the stage with a 2: 6 statistics, and after that they were defeated in a tie-break. Should you be assholes and hate UoL for the “worst” result ever for LCL? I think not – historically, we have walked too often at the edge of the abyss to never fall. We’re just bad at LoL.

What went wrong with League of Legends esports in the CIS?

In 2017, Riot Games made one of the main, in my opinion, strategic mistakes – it abolished the Challenger League. The boring shooting gallery-2 scene, the matches of which no one watched, turned out to be not so useless in the long run. Therefore, when Dota 2 players ask to give more opportunities to conditionally weak teams, I understand them perfectly well – the second divisions should be in sports, although it is obvious that they are less spectacular and profitable. The Russian branch of Riot Games ditched the LC and, in fact, made an unofficial Candidates Tournament in the lower half of the LCL table. Was that your plan – so that no one in their right mind would think that the underdog teams would show something?

Riot Games abolished LP, among other things, due to the fact that it did not provide the flow of new blood in the volume that the organizers would like to see. Time has put everything in its place – admit it, now it is clear that the donor point worked as it should. In the spring split of 2023, 28 out of 57 participants (including coaches) of the Challengers League played in the LCL, and in the grand final of the regional championship there were 7 out of 10 esportsmen, whose steel was hardened in the abolished tier-2 tournament. It’s a good forge of talent, isn’t it?

By the way, there are only three players left in the Continental League: Smurf, PvPStejos (who returned to the role of a coach during the season) and Dimonko, who is in the superposition of a playing manager / coach. Many players who are not marked in green are legionnaires – they started from the regional leagues of the second shooting range at their place of residence.

In any case, all organizations are mixing slightly mossy and constantly eager to sit down on the salary of players who in the past honed their talent in the Challenger League – the most important (and canceled) tournament in the history of the CIS, in my opinion. Or they sign two legionnaires who are ready to play in the Wildcard, since they did not find a place in the EU Masters.

Banning Likkrita – Another Riot Games Mistake?

Only psychics can predict exactly how the fate of the region would have developed in a competitive plan if Likkrit continued to play. I think that even a potential dream-team could hardly surpass the result of ANOX (and there were prerequisites for its formation at that time). To repeat – perhaps I don’t see the point of guessing. One thing can be definitely noted: Likkrit’s departure was a turning point for League of Legends in the CIS. Perhaps it’s not even a bright personality and not the information he made public, but the fact that the respect of a key part of the community for the organizers of the LCL was smashed to smithereens. It was in that ill-fated 2017 that the Russian office of Riot Games effectively dived into a barrel, where there was only one spoonful of honey – chests.

Likcrete himself is an interesting character: in this story, he is both the hero-savior, the victim and the scapegoat. At the same time, it is no less interesting that “on paper” Riot Games did everything right. The methods of interaction of an American company with subordinates are quite transparent: everyone must be held accountable for misconduct in accordance with the protocol. Likkrit himself admitted that he had said too much, he should have been punished. I think this realization came to him even before he finished the stream, but you know how it happens when it “burst” and it is difficult to stop.

The Russian-speaking office had to choose exactly how to punish Likkrit. At this moment everything went to hell – the one who “signed the decree” turned out to be too short-sighted person. It is a pity that on the ashes of dying out financing we have to think, “what would happen if …”.

However, now it’s even a little funny that the turning point for League of Legends in the CIS was a simple ban – yes, the best player at that time in his position in the opinion of the majority, but still an ordinary cybersports player. The area damage was so powerful that it even affected my career: not long before that the unsurpassed coach Ansva invited me to the Likkrit team as an assistant for organizational issues and game analytics (I worked in a similar position at the ANOX academy before that). Surprisingly, after a scandal, literally everything had to be reconsidered, including future appointments – the organization took on a different staff, and I dived into journalism. Ce la vie.

Is there a chance for improvement in the LCL Summer Split 2023?

In the spring, the LCL left one of the absentee favorites of each Continental League season – Gambit Esports. The club, whose history began with a legendary lineup with Darien, Diamondprox, Alex Ich, Genja and Edward, chose not to torture fans anymore. This is a tough, but to some extent expected decision for an organization that has finally ascended the throne of tier-1 clubs from the CIS, having gotten rid of the tired label “tier-1.5”. In the top, the roster in the dead discipline is no longer useful, for this money it is much more profitable to sign mobile gamers.

Back in 2017, Likkrit said that only six teams could remain in the LCL. We may be close to downsizing again now, but rumor has it that Riot Games has no plans to cut the number of teams in the LCL Summer Split just yet. At a minimum, the company accepts applications from interested organizations that are ready to take a not so warm, but vacant place under the setting sun. Gambit did not disclose the reasons for leaving the Continental League, and I still doubt that it was solely about finances. Even bankrupt organizations and those who do not have more profitable rosters can afford to maintain a LoL roster. Naturally, the Gambit players demanded a higher salary than the one that would be enough to pay for the Internet and food, but the club also has solid funding. Apparently, the tier-1 teams of the CIS have such a tradition – to abandon their LoL lineups on the verge of death of the region. Let me remind you that both Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere did it some time after Likkrit’s match.

Likkrit never returned to the esports arena as a player, despite many rumors that the support himself spiced up with various votes like “If this post gets ten thousand likes …”. However, he managed to stir up the LCL in a different role: at the time of publication of the article, he is the owner and strategic director of the CrowCrowd team, which has a slot in the Continental League. It cannot be said that in the current competitive environment of the LCL it is difficult to bring a team with a good roster to the playoffs, but in the spring, Lykkrit’s roster gave heat and almost broke through to the championship, having run into the rainbow horn only in the grand final.

So who can qualify for the LCL? Another new, kneeling organization? Small associations with registered legal entities even in the CIS are enough, and if Riot Games does not demand a gigantic membership fee, then the conditional Future Perfect, which is trying to revive Moscow Five for a year or even Lasagna with new “Dead Dolphins”, will be able to claim the slot.

However, a serious obstacle for teams from the CIS is the policy of Riot Games, from which the studio has not yet retreated, despite the tight pressure from China. Everything is tough: a LoL team cannot be sponsored by a betting company. And this is, perhaps, the key problem of the lack of funding for the teams, all other sponsors also do not look towards this discipline because of the tiny audience indicators.

What will happen to the LCL next?

Let’s face it: the situation for the CIS is not pleasant. Before the start of MSI, Riot Games noted that the performance of the teams will affect the reallocation of slots at international events. Probably, the developers will reform the baskets of the regions, shifting the CIS from tier-1 to tier-2 pool. It will be humiliating, but deserved.

Of course, the results on the international scene are important, but not every region gets the taste of victory. There are two excellent examples: Oceania, to which the CIS lost a slot in the second group stage this year, and Japan, which has never smelled serious victories, floundering at the bottom of the standings from year to year. The latter this time will take with it several cards won against top opponents.

From a global perspective, we should take a closer look at how Riot Games dealt with Oceania, the new “principal rival” for our region. On October 7, 2023, it became known about the dissolution of OPL and the closure of the Riot office in Sydney. The region was literally excluded from the ecosystem and handed over to an independent tournament operator – ESL. Conventionally (and for other reasons), the Chinese League of Legends has long felt like an adult and separated from the rest of the world, but this does not surprise anyone, unlike a tiny region, which was also given freedom. The CIS can split off from the entire ecosystem and fall into the hands of talented businessmen. I think this would be the best scenario of the “continuation of the banquet” available if we were not living in the CIS. But in our reality, it is difficult to find a suitable tournament operator who would pull and, most importantly, want to tinker with League of Legends.

But this prospect is real. You always need to have escape routes, all with our results and close to clinical death. As the players from Oceania were allowed to go to NA after the reform, so we will get a ticket to Europe. Obviously, our teams are simply not needed at the LEC. Abroad for us there are only EU Masters, and even there our voyage is also hardly expected with open arms – there are enough of their “mediocrities”.

There was no official information yet. It may not be in the near future, because key decisions are usually made by Riot Games in the fall, and until then it can still change – ahead of Worlds 2023. Teams that want to continue playing in the Continental League should look to the future and prepare first. to international battles, and not to fights in our swamp – and be in shape by the X-hour.