Throughout the years in which competitive League of Legends has been a thing, there have always been two major regions vying for the throne: China and Korea. These two regions produce the best super teams in the world and have dominated the highlight reel since season one.
In several occasions, some of the best matches stem from Chinese teams versus Korean teams and there’s almost no exception to this. 2014 had China’s best team go up against Korea’s best team in the World Championship. This is just one of many examples of the many notorious matchups that China and Korea have participated in against each other. However, before 2018, it seemed as if Korea won most of the matchups.
Now, with China completing a historical run and Korea at an all-time low, the question is begging to be asked: has China finally caught up with Korea? If so, does this make China a viable betting option to choose? I’m going to answer these questions. Let’s get started!
Over the past ten years, Korea has proven to be a more than successful region for the League of Legends scene. From 2013 to 2017, they completely dominated the international stage, winning five World Championships and two Mid-Season Invitationals.
During that time, North America and Europe struggled to even make it to the Groups Stage and China failed to take down the competition most of the time. In the 2013 World Championship finals, the world saw Korea’s South Korea Telecom going up against China’s Royal Club. Royal Club’s team consisted of some of the strongest players at the time, especially Uzi whose mechanics and pure carry potential made him an unmatched AD Carry. Not even the Koreans could defeat him in that position.
Meanwhile, Korea’s South Korea Telecom had Faker, an upcoming rookie who was upsetting teams left and right with his raw skill and ability to perform jaw-dropping plays. China looked better on paper, though. Their strong performance allowed them to skip the Groups Stage and go straight into the Quarterfinals and their road to the finals was much more solid than SKT’s, dropping only one game. Meanwhile, South Korea Telecom had to battle through a lengthy Groups Stage and then proceed to have a scare with semifinalist NaJin Black Sword before finally making it to the finals to face off against China’s top team.
However, even though Korea looked like the lesser team throughout this entire tournament, South Korea Telecom destroyed Royal Club in the finals 3-0 to take their very first World Championship at the time. The same happened in 2014 when Korea’s new top dog, Samsung White, took on China’s Star Horn Royal Club—a renamed version of last year’s finalist. In this final, Korea took it yet again 3-1 despite the best efforts of China’s star players, Uzi and inSec.
Throughout the span of 2013 to 2017, Korea dominated almost every single matchup. Sure, there are times where China managed to edge out a win, the most notable one being when Edward Gaming took down South Korea Telecom at the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational finals.
However, in the end, Korea dominated almost every single aspect of League of Legends then. They were producing the best players, the best super teams, the new metas. They produced everything and controlled how League of Legends was played. It’s changed now.
The 2018 season has been a big indicator as to how we know that China and Korea are both starting to level out but the end of the 2017 season showed a large part of how Korea was developing. At that time, Samsung Galaxy had won the tournament, not the predicted South Korea Telecom.
South Korea Telecom was the reigning champion of the World Championship and they were the icon of Korea. For them to go out that way signified the departure of the old era of League of Legends and later ushered in a new playstyle. The old style of League of Legends—the one which SKT used—was formulated more around teamwork and winning by playing steady. Each kill was calculated to make sure that nothing went wrong in any form or fashion. It wasn’t about the flashy plays or the big adrenaline-pumping team fights.
It was about securing a kill or objective as efficiently as possible and this helped SKT win three World Championships. But after they were denied a fourth World Championship in 2017, the playstyle in Korea quickly began to evolve. Plays began getting flashier and the motto was “go big or go home.” While this did make League of Legends more exciting, it was high risk and that didn’t reward the Koreans. At the 2018 World Championship, there were three historically new contenders: KT Rolster, Gen.G, and Afreeca Freecs.
None of these teams made it past the quarterfinals. They were either ousted in the Groups Stage or were one-upped by some rogue team. In fact, Korea’s number one team, KT Rolster, was taken out by Invictus Gaming, the two seed from China, in the first round.
A significantly poor performance from Korea in this year’s World Championship accompanied by a historical run for China proves to be a significant indicator that there are big things to come for China this year. With such a bad year for Korea and such a good year for China, we know how the fields are changing but what about the explanation? Why are the fields leveling and most importantly, is China going to catch up with Korea?
Over the past few seasons, China has slowly been catching up to Korea in several aspects: players, skill, and gameplay. These three are the most important aspects to holding a strong game and from some perspectives, it could be said that China is better than Korea in some areas.
The mid laners of China are considered to be better than Korea’s, even with Faker on board. Names like Xiaohu, Rookie, and Scout all come from China’s teams and they’ve made themselves into international threats.
For example, Xiaohu’s time on Royal Never Give Up has helped them propel from just being a number one team in China to becoming a top three team in the world. He even went head-to-head with SKT’s Faker in the 2017 World Championship and in 2018, he helped them win a Mid-Season Invitational title over their Korean rivals, Kingzone Dragonx.
Rookie was the main star behind Invictus Gaming’s recent World Championship run and he took on the likes of KT Rolster’s Ucal and G2 Esports’ Perkz and beat them both quite easily. Meanwhile, Scout’s former time on SKT was one-upped by his performance on Edward Gaming as he quickly became the backbone for the team, hosting several strong wins over world-class teams thanks to his mechanics and gameplay.
Overall, China has proven to have better mid laners. Koreans tend to play more calculated League of Legends when it comes to the mid lane and focus down on specific things such as lane pressure and control of vision but China does this even better. They don’t just do that better. They know every single detail of the mid lane. They know where to push minions, when to hold back, and most importantly, when to go all-in and look for the kill. The Chinese know how to do it all when it comes to the mid lane.
Because of their control over the mid lane, the Chinese can be bigger influences over the map since out of the three lanes in the game, the mid lane is the most important. This can make them even bigger of a threat if they manage to snowball in that specific lane and that’s what players like Xiaohu and Rookie did to achieve their success.
The Koreans have always been a big competitor in League of Legends. They’re regarded as the best region to go to when it comes to training and at one point, the game of League of Legends became a cultural part of Korea.
However, over the years, League of Legends’ influence in Korea has slowly diminished while China’s has been building itself up. We’ve seen more mediocre performances from veterans teams like SKT and KT Rolster while China’s highlight reel is stacking up day by day.
In the 2018 Summer Split, fourteen teams competed in the LPL Regular Season while only ten competed in the LCK Regular Season. This goes to show the competitive gap between the two regions right now. More teams are registering to play on China’s stage while Korea’s has been dormant.
This higher level of competition from China will be a major influencer to bringing bigger and better Chinese players to the stage and if Korea doesn’t do something about it, soon, people are going to be talking about China’s next superstar, not Korea.
League of Legends is such a complex game that one carefree decision that may seem smart in the short run could be detrimental in the long run. An example of this is using your flash early to secure a kill but because of this, you won’t have your flash in a team fight that will cost your team everything.
Because of this, a strong professional player needs to think long-term while having the discipline to execute this. Right now, the Chinese are doing it much better than the Koreans are. As I’ve said before, the Koreans are playing a new playstyle: one that’s faster and more vibrant than before.
This new playstyle includes the chance to outplay and beat your opponent in a fast-paced duel as well as be the center of attention in a team fight. However, with this comes the ability to be undisciplined and players have become undisciplined by doing this.
Koreans used to be the most disciplined of players but now, they’re only known as the ones who can perform jaw-dropping plays. The Chinese have taken that spot now. If you watch the Chinese play, they don’t go for the big plays. The big plays are a by-product of their ability to stay focused and disciplined and since the Chinese were overall more disciplined this year, they were able to take down Korea.
What I mean by “not like old times” is that in today’s League of Legends scene, you don’t see the formal Korean powerhouses like before. It’s not the five man super team that once dominated the stage like in 2015 when the KOO Tigers had a top three player at every single part of the roster or South Korea Telecom whose entire roster was MVP-worthy. (spoiler alert: their top laner ended up getting the MVP award in 2015)
Then there was Samsung White’s roster of Looper, Dandy, PawN, imp, and Mata in 2014. This team alone changed the aspect of League of Legends in more ways than one. Imp was the only AD Carry who could actually take on Uzi and win.
PawN was the backbone of Korea at the time and Mata was a world-class support, second to none. These were the times when the top players combined together and took on China. The reason they were unbeatable was because each player on the team was unbeatable.
Nowadays, each team is comprised of young talents who can either be the maker of the team or they’re the reason that team fails to meet its standards. Like I said before, it’s very high risk high reward in Korea right now and the results haven’t shown on the big stage.
This year, China won both of the major international titles despite heavy Korean opposition. At the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational, Royal Never Give Up dismantled super team Kingzone Dragonx with an easy 3-1 victory in the finals.
At the World Championship, Invictus Gaming took out Korea’s one seed 3-2 to push out the last standing team from Korea and gave way to an all-Chinese year. The results are there. It just depends on whether Korea listens and adjusts to their mistakes.
It all comes down to this big question. Has China caught up with Korea? My answer is yes. This year was full-on Chinese. There was never one point on the international stage where Korea took the cake. It was all China this year and there was nothing Korea could do about it.
China won both the Mid-Season Invitational as well as the World Championship and their run to these titles were extremely dominant. They faced little to no opposition from the West and the little opposition they faced from Korea was matched twofold.
That being said, the region has upgraded their players to such a caliber that even Koreans have struggled to match playstyles. So, in my opinion, I would say that China has actually gotten slightly better than Korea and if Korea wants to get back on top, they’re going to have to work harder than they ever have to truly take down China once again.
Since China has become a household name once again, China is definitely the way to go. Since their arrival in to the League of Legends competitive scene, they’ve always been overshadowed by Korea but they’ve consistently put up good numbers for bettors who put their money on them. Names like Royal Never Give Up, Edward Gaming, and Invictus Gaming have had experience on the Worlds stage and have world-class players who will return for next year’s MSI and next year’s World Championship.
They’ve shown they can replicate results so who’s to say they won’t do it again next year? Almost no one. No one doubts that they’re going to have another strong run next year. Now will the Koreans be a threat? Most likely, but China has shown that their teams can now match Korea’s, especially considering the fact that Korea’s major China-killer, South Korea Telecom, has been having one of the biggest slumps of their career.
If SKT continues their slump and Korea fails to provide some type of strong Korean roster to face off against China’s best, then 2019 could very well be yet another China-dominated year and while that may be bad for people betting Korea, it will be extremely profitable for those who put their money on China.
In 2014, China’s Star Horn Royal Club took on Korea’s Samsung White in the World Championship finals and Samsung White dominated. In 2015, South Korea Telecom dominated the MSI Groups Stage against China’s Edward Gaming.
2016 saw SKT dismantling Royal Never Give Up—a renamed Royal Club—and ROX Tigers taking down Edward Gaming. Finally, 2017 had Samsung White taking out China’s Team WE and South Korea Telecom yet again dismantling China’s super team, Royal Never Give Up.
However, 2018 has been different. Not only did China completely win over every dominant competition, Korea had little to no ground on China. They lost most of the matchups and only had two teams make it to the Knockout Rounds compared to China’s three.
China’s slowly turning over and new leaf and this could make them a major betting choice for the upcoming years. With new superpowers rising such as Invictus Gaming and Edward Gaming, we could see a new era start in League of Legends: an era where China is dominant.
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