8 Changes LCS Teams Can Make to Improve the League in 2021
By Josh Tyler
After another failure on the international stage, LCS organizations need to make some changes if they hope to improve in 2021.
It’s that time again for fans of the LCS. After yet another failed run at the biggest tournament of the year, the League of Legends World Championship, teams and fans are left asking (again) what went wrong and how to fix it.
It’s a rehashing of the same old excuses that we hear about every year after Worlds concludes for LCS teams. A small player base, high ping, low-quality solo queue gameplay, lack of infrastructure, yada yada yada. This year, at least, some of the discussion is beginning to turn inward at the organizations themselves.
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Commentators like LS have taken aim at the organizations that are promising change, questioning if qualified people are even in the building to properly evaluate these systemic changes. There are discussions on Twitter and Reddit regarding the competence, role, and evaluation of coaches and general managers in NA. This was a big portion of the discussion between Thorin, Amazing, and IMT coach Malaclypse on why the region continues to fail internationally.
At this point, it should be clear to most viewers that change is not going to come externally. While Riot is making efforts to improve the quality of solo queue, the high ping is probably not going to change, a proposed “super server” for high-elo players in California is likely a pipe dream, and there’s no real way to address the player population.
From Riot’s side, it appears to be doing more to invest into the amateur scene and even recently gave LCS teams a boost of talent by declaring Oceania players, displaced by the dissolution of the OPL, residents of North America not subject to the import rule. Year after year, Riot appears to give LCS teams more opportunities to improve, beginning with the financial stability of franchising beginning in 2018.
But after years of continued failure and regression, LCS teams need to start looking inward at how they can effect change in the North American landscape. While some of the biggest issues plaguing the LCS will take years to remedy, here are eight changes LCS teams could make as early as next year that would have an immediate and significant improvement to the quality of play in the region.