8 Changes LCS Teams Can Make to Improve the League in 2021

After another failure on the international stage, LCS organizations need to make some changes if they hope to improve in 2021.

6. Develop Scouting Infrastructure (and Use it Properly)

This would go hand-in-hand with the amateur improvements I just described, but it’s really high time that orgs begin to use knowledgeable players as scouts. As was described in Thorin’s video, the ideal candidates would be those former and fringe players who would move on from their playing career to the next phase of their career.

These new scouts would be able to not only find undiscovered domestic talent but ideally they would also be able to find young international talent. Imagine NA organizations learning about the next Chovy, Ruler, or Kanavi before they’ve been signed to one of those powerhouse teams in China or Korea? That could be the future of North America if everything breaks right.

Scouts could also be integral in identifying coaching talent in the amateur scene. This would be the start of developing an honest-to-gosh management department, with the development of up-and-coming GMs and assistant GMs.

But the biggest new use of scouts, in my opinion, would be as advance scouts in preparation for coming matches.

For a game that is so strategically deep as League of Legends, it’s ridiculous to me that coaching staffs do not have people whose entire job is to scout their next opponents. Whether it’s their draft tendencies, the jungler’s early pathing, how the team positions for key fights, or their warding tendencies. There should be someone who is analyzing these tendencies and bringing them to the practice.