League of Legends in 500 Words or Less: All Stars, All Speculation

There has been a lot of talk about All Stars recently in the League community and I thought I would contribute some 500 words to this discussion. As the expected time for the All Stars tournament draws closer (2013 All Stars was held in April) discussions on who should be in the All Stars team for each region have started to crop up. These discussions are usually intended to be fun discussions about which pros everyone thinks are the best in their role and if they'd work well together as a team. 

However these discussions have spurred more serious discussion on how All Stars is essentially a popularity contest and if it is really in a region's best interest to let fans vote to decide who represents a region.  I have seen threads on reddit talking about giving prominent people in the League community more voting power to decide who goes, so that a vote by say a LCS shoutcaster or a popular freelancer would be worth more than from someone who is "just" a fan. The theory behind this is that these more prominent people know more about the game, the players and will provide a less “biased” view. While on the surface this makes sense, it runs into huge problems, most of them revolving around who gets how much more of a say and by how much. There are so many people who could be seen as prominent members of the community. How do we determine who should have more of a say? Can these VIPs vote for other regions, even if they are only involved in one? The amount of augmentation in pursuit of the “best” team in the All Stars voting system could be infinite. Attempting to inject “fairness” into the voting system is probably not going to work. 

In my mind the “best” 5 players to represent a region is probably the top team of that region. To objectively find a combination of pros that would be the best All Star team (team with a maximum of 3 members from one established team) is probably a near impossible task that cannot be achieved by mere voting regardless who gets more of a say or not. I like All Stars as a community event, where the most popular players that everyone voted for compete against each other. I think it’s a cool event for spectators but not a good gauge of a region’s strength or how they might do at Worlds. Inevitably this leads to the question then, is it fair that the prize for winning be an extra slot at Worlds? My internal jury is still out on this although I am inclined to think that it’s not that important in terms of the outcome or representation of regions at Worlds. What is more important is a good tournament structure for Worlds and how many slots regions get initially. See my thoughts on how the Worlds 2013 format was regionally biased. 

Words: 496

Thanks for reading! This post is part of my League of Legends in 500 Words or Less series, post #3, please read the intro for more information. Also follow me on twitter @gerarda, I love feedback! =)

League of Legends in 500 Words or Less: Wait for What? OGN Masters begins!

Yesterday was the first match of the SK Telecom LTE-A LoL Masters 2014, a new tournament run in Korea by OnGamenet. Similar to last year’s OGN Club Masters this tournament has a longer running format and revolves around the idea of the KeSPA organisations battling it out. The organisations in this tournament are SK Telecom T1, Samsung Galaxy Khan, Jin Air Green Wings, CJ Entus, Incredible Miracle, KT Rolster and Najin emFire. 

Unlike in other tournaments where the focus is on single teams, LoL Masters focuses on the organisations that own the teams. Each organisation has two LoL teams that will work together to bring glory to their organisation's name.  Every match day will pit one organisation against another with both teams taking to the rift to battle it out in three games. The first two games utilizes the traditional rosters of an organisation's teams while for the third game an organisation can field a team of any mix of players they decide on the day. For example yesterday the two organisations battling it out were CJ Entus and Jin Air GreenWings. The first game was Jin Air Stealths vs CJ Frost, the second; Jin Air Falcons vs CJ Blaze. In the final game both organisations chose to use their successful teams of the day; the Stealths for Jin Air and Blaze for CJ Entus. Points are earned or lost depending on the outcome of the three games, and presumably the teams with the most points at the end of the round of initial matches will go in to a playoff stage to determine who goes into the final.  

LoL Masters is a chance for the organisations to show off their teams and players in the quest to claim the prestigious title as well as the not insignificant prize money. This tournament is not about trying to be the single best team in Korea or trying to get to the World Championships (results in Masters have no effect on teams getting to Worlds), it's more a vehicle for the KeSPA organisations to show off their teams and get the opportunity to plaster their name and sponsors everywhere. This is obvious right down to the production of the show at Yongsan eSports stadium. The introduction sequence left no one in doubt which organisations were playing in the tournament, the broadcast hamming up the spectacle right down to lifting a curtain to reveal the players for each match.  

While the exclusiveness of this tournament could be seen to have kind of an old boys club vibe where they congratulate themselves on being rich while making more money, it does not mean that these games aren't worth watching.  In Korea, winning is of utmost importance, to fans and sponsors alike, so luckily for viewers the richest teams are usually also the best teams (in Korea and also the world) and their hunger for that first place will mean these matches are exciting matches for spectators. 

Useful links:  Tournament structure/schedule 

                    Leagupedia page 

                    English Stream

Words: 500

Thanks for reading! This post is part of my League of Legends in 500 Words or Less series, it's only the second one but I aim to get better at these over time for more interesting reading, please read the intro for more information. Also follow me on twitter @gerarda, I love feedback! =)

League of Legends in 500 Words or Less: Introduction

I have decided to start a series of posts which I am titling League of Legends in 500 Words or Less. This is mainly trying to establish something for me to do and also so I can put out content more regularly as well as to improve my writing.  I tend to mull on possible topic for way too long and never actually write anything. This short form type of post will force me to do something other than sit around all day.
I am going to pick a topic twice a week (probably Mondays and Thursdays) and write 500 words (maximum) on that topic. It could be about anything, an LCS game that just happened, about a piece of news that just broke, a champion I like, a pro player. Obviously the posts will always be League of Legends focused as this a League blog.
I know not many people (if any) actually read this blog but if there are people who might click on it more than once, there should be something new to read and it wont be a huge commitment. In fact I believe the average reading speed on a screen is ~200 words so it should take most people about two minutes each post. If people who did read these want to reply or do their own they should and then link me the results or you can tweet me @gerarda. Thanks for reading!

Word count: 239