Views: 782 My View on Why Korean (and Asian) Players are Superior...But not Unbeatable
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Greetings and Salutations to everyone who is about to read my blog, I would like to point out that this is indeed a personal view and although it may not be right to some of you and I am expecting the usual comments from Mobafire telling me why certain views I had were wrong (and that is cool) please bare in mind that just because my view is different does not make me an "Idiot" for believing this.
Since I started playing League I have heard about the incredible skills of the Korean players, How they are so good that their Bronze players could outplay a NA Challenger player but it wasn't until last years Worlds that I finally got to see for myself what the hype was all about and to give them credit the hype was pretty much well deserved for the majority of the tournament.
You could not watch a team like Samsung Galaxy White (the 2015 world champions) and not be in awe of their skills not just individually but more so as a unit - Their team work was, without doubt, the best I had seen all year and when they finally lifted the trophy there was no doubt in anyone mind that SSW had earnt that title...But how could they had won so convincingly?
Well first off lets look at their training schedule to start off with - According to them in the months leading up to the tournament the entire team was practising an incredible 18 HOURS A DAY... Can you imagine sitting down at a computer to play 1 video game for 18 hours a day for a month only to stop for food, toilet and sleep? that my friends is dedication to the cause right there because I love this game as much as anyone including pros but I don't believe I can get 18 hours in a week yet alone a day.
Another thing I find that SSW (and other Asian players in that area) have is confidence, they have a belief in their own skills and are not afraid of any lane match up that may come along to the point that they could literally have Morgana against Vi, Katarina against Brand and practically any match up that they are severely countered in and I would still put my money on the Korean team because I know they have practiced for this sort of situation.
A good example of this was when SSW took on TSM in the quarter finals and TSM managed to get a team that perfectly countered their opponents all the way down yet throughout that match I felt that SSW had the aura about them that said "We could easily make a move and embarrass you guys" but they almost willing let themselves lose a match because they wanted to know if they could recover from a winning streak being ended...and of course the next game SSW crushed TSM to make it to the semi final.
Another Aspect of the Korean play style is that they do not respect their opponents as much as the rest of the world - I am not saying though that they don't respect their opponents but whilst NA (for example) respects their opponents to the point they are willing to believe their opponent is better and if they try a 1v1 they could lose so they will wait the korean player respect their opponents skill level but respect their own skill level more and believes that if they go in 1v1 that they will be the ones who come out victorious 100%.
Again a good example of this came in match 4 of Cloud 9 vs Samsung Blue (and in honesty most of the other matches too) where C9 were so worried about engaging them that SSB were able to take potential loses in team fights and turn them into wins or at least stalemates and in the end C9 were so indecisive that when they had the chance to win they took so long to decide that SSB was able to get back into the fight, stop C9 taking the Nexus and push right down the mid lane to victory.
But this brings up the second point, Cloud 9 in that game proved that a Korean team is actually beatable despite their superiority in that one moment, that 3 seconds they took to decide "Yes we go for the nexus" was the biggest reason that Cloud 9 lost that game but what if they hadn't pondered it and just went for it like the Koreans would have? well those 3 seconds on damage would have EASILY taken that nexus down and put it into game 5 definitely and maybe we would have seen one of the best NA teams taking on Samsung White in the Semi instead.
I suppose at the end of the day the Korean players have the advantage over the rest of the world merely because of their belief in themselves, they have the confidence that they could pick any champion they desire for any role and turn them into the new meta over night (e.g. Sejuani Support) and of course the belief that they could go on into a fight and win it every single time in their mind.
But as proven by C9 and Fnatic (im not counting TSM victory because I will always believe SSW gave it to them) they are not unbeatable, once a team has the confidence in themselves too and do not view the Koreans as someone that can not be beat then the game is instantly levelled out and the game literally comes down to skill and who is the most determined.
This is my view and opinion, Please share your opinions on my opinion in the comments below and I wish you all a good time until my next blog :)
Since I started playing League I have heard about the incredible skills of the Korean players, How they are so good that their Bronze players could outplay a NA Challenger player but it wasn't until last years Worlds that I finally got to see for myself what the hype was all about and to give them credit the hype was pretty much well deserved for the majority of the tournament.
You could not watch a team like Samsung Galaxy White (the 2015 world champions) and not be in awe of their skills not just individually but more so as a unit - Their team work was, without doubt, the best I had seen all year and when they finally lifted the trophy there was no doubt in anyone mind that SSW had earnt that title...But how could they had won so convincingly?
Well first off lets look at their training schedule to start off with - According to them in the months leading up to the tournament the entire team was practising an incredible 18 HOURS A DAY... Can you imagine sitting down at a computer to play 1 video game for 18 hours a day for a month only to stop for food, toilet and sleep? that my friends is dedication to the cause right there because I love this game as much as anyone including pros but I don't believe I can get 18 hours in a week yet alone a day.
Another thing I find that SSW (and other Asian players in that area) have is confidence, they have a belief in their own skills and are not afraid of any lane match up that may come along to the point that they could literally have Morgana against Vi, Katarina against Brand and practically any match up that they are severely countered in and I would still put my money on the Korean team because I know they have practiced for this sort of situation.
A good example of this was when SSW took on TSM in the quarter finals and TSM managed to get a team that perfectly countered their opponents all the way down yet throughout that match I felt that SSW had the aura about them that said "We could easily make a move and embarrass you guys" but they almost willing let themselves lose a match because they wanted to know if they could recover from a winning streak being ended...and of course the next game SSW crushed TSM to make it to the semi final.
Another Aspect of the Korean play style is that they do not respect their opponents as much as the rest of the world - I am not saying though that they don't respect their opponents but whilst NA (for example) respects their opponents to the point they are willing to believe their opponent is better and if they try a 1v1 they could lose so they will wait the korean player respect their opponents skill level but respect their own skill level more and believes that if they go in 1v1 that they will be the ones who come out victorious 100%.
Again a good example of this came in match 4 of Cloud 9 vs Samsung Blue (and in honesty most of the other matches too) where C9 were so worried about engaging them that SSB were able to take potential loses in team fights and turn them into wins or at least stalemates and in the end C9 were so indecisive that when they had the chance to win they took so long to decide that SSB was able to get back into the fight, stop C9 taking the Nexus and push right down the mid lane to victory.
But this brings up the second point, Cloud 9 in that game proved that a Korean team is actually beatable despite their superiority in that one moment, that 3 seconds they took to decide "Yes we go for the nexus" was the biggest reason that Cloud 9 lost that game but what if they hadn't pondered it and just went for it like the Koreans would have? well those 3 seconds on damage would have EASILY taken that nexus down and put it into game 5 definitely and maybe we would have seen one of the best NA teams taking on Samsung White in the Semi instead.
I suppose at the end of the day the Korean players have the advantage over the rest of the world merely because of their belief in themselves, they have the confidence that they could pick any champion they desire for any role and turn them into the new meta over night (e.g. Sejuani Support) and of course the belief that they could go on into a fight and win it every single time in their mind.
But as proven by C9 and Fnatic (im not counting TSM victory because I will always believe SSW gave it to them) they are not unbeatable, once a team has the confidence in themselves too and do not view the Koreans as someone that can not be beat then the game is instantly levelled out and the game literally comes down to skill and who is the most determined.
This is my view and opinion, Please share your opinions on my opinion in the comments below and I wish you all a good time until my next blog :)
I think the pro scenes in EU and NA just have started taking the gaming more as the job it is. "The Koreans did that, we should adapt" is probably not always the only way to improve your game but you can learn a lot from it.
I wouldn't just point out the disparities all the time. These are just people making mistakes from time to time. The tempo of a game can sometimes be too difficult to follow for you if you aren't on point - and that's the most crucial point about competetive League of Legends - you can easily lose. That's why every single team is beatable and that's why there is hardly any team dominating the game.
China's LPL teams decided to take a lot of the Korean veteran players to gain an overall stronger player basement. We will see if there will be a team from China winning the championship this year but I guess it all comes down to the team with the best strategic gameplay. Korean players' menatility is seemingly focused on these gameplay aspects such as rotations and team-outplay.