Should League of Legends have a World Cup?

With the success of the Overwatch and Fortnite World Cups, should League of Legends introduce their own?

This is a question that has been asked many times before but it is a question that is more relevant than ever with the success of Fortnite and Overwatch World Cups. Should League of Legends introduce a World Cup?

This would be a competition where each country that wants to participate can apply a squad to enter the online qualifiers. The qualifiers decide the top eight national teams in the world to enter a quarter-final stage. In Overwatch, this happens every year at Blizzard Games convention, Blizzcon, over two days but a League of Legends version would seemingly take longer.

A World Cup would illustrate to us which countries produce the best talent. How many European and Asian countries would make the top eight? Would Canada be able to assemble a force to take down giants? Would Korea and China live up to all the hype?

While a World Cup seems like a great idea, there are pros and cons to having such a competition, which I will discuss today. Make sure to let us know what you think about the prospect of a LoL World Cup!

Pro: countries, not organizations

The main reason a World Cup would be held would be to decide which country is the strongest at playing League of Legends, rather than deciding what teams are the best, a job fulfilled by the World Championships every year. It would be interesting to see what countries rank the highest.

We would be able to see how many European countries get into the top eight, where Canada lies in the rankings, and if China and Korea can live up to their hype. However, there will be some obstacles to setting up a World Cup in an already hectic League schedule year-round.

Con: scheduling

The calendar year is already jam-packed with League of Legends splits and tournaments, do they have space for another International tournament in the year? With the Mid Season Invitational taking place after Spring Split, and Worlds after Summer, where would a World Cup fit?

Would players like having their off-season cut into for yet another long tournament? How long would the tournament take, and would qualifiers be similar to those in Overwatch? The success of the tournament entirely depends on Riot’s decisions on how to organize it. However it is organized, some sacrifices will have to be made for the players in order to run a World Cup.

Pro: talent on display

With any country having the ability to enter a World Cup, every country would have to form a team. This gets the names of many unsigned players onto the scouting lists of professional LEC, LCS and TCL teams looking for new upcoming talent.

The prospect for a player of representing your country and getting your name out there to professional teams is one that can not be passed by. People dream of representing their country in other sports, and with the added effect of being scouted, it is the perfect opportunity for any player, and why a World Cup in League of Legends would be a great idea!