Why Rift Rivals wasn’t a (complete) Failure for NA

North America has a habit of underperforming at international events, but the recent performances at Rift Rivals, while not Ideal, offer some hope for NA

Europe has taken the Rift Rivals trophy back across the pond, but with rosters changes and an unpredictable metagame, NA fans shouldn’t be too bummed out about the event overall.

For 100Thieves, the event was a testing ground for a new lineup, after recently trading away their jungler, long-time starter and NA LCS KDA record holder William “Meteos” Hartman, to Flyquest in return for Andy “AnDa” Hoang. 100Thieves, however, chose to bring Vietnamese import Levi, as well as starting Brandon “Brandini” Chen in top lane over Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho as to not run afoul of Riot’s import rule. The lineup desperately needed time to gel, though, as the team only picked up one victory over an equally struggling Splyce team.

Team Liquid and Echo Fox showed more promise, with both teams securing multiple victories over their European rivals. Echo Fox seems at home in this unpredictable meta, especially with top laner-turned-whatever-role-he-wants Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon getting to play all of his favorite champions, though the team’s organization and ability to come back from slower starts seems suspect. Team Liquid continues to look the strongest of the NA teams, though not indomitable, as their blowout loss against Splyce would confirm.

Next: NA and EU Power Rankings

All in all, NA put up some good performances at Rift Rivals, but Europe’s individual play were on full display last weekend. The current League of Legends metagame is decidedly more conducive to raw player mechanics, and Europe has almost always been ahead of NA in that department. However, NA is sure to put up a more competent fight at Worlds, especially when considering that Riot has historically made several big changes to the game just prior to the end-of-year championship tournament.