Despite high hopes, Team Liquid failed North American fans in their opening game of the Mid-Season Invitational. After losing the series against Top Esports by a 0-3 score, the LCS’ record against LPL and LCK teams in the last two years hit a new low.
Since the beginning of 2022, North American teams have participated in five international tournaments: three editions of MSI and two World Championships. In these five events, they currently sit on a 2-41 record against Chinese and Korean squads, with Liquid’s latest 0-3 against TES adding three defeats to the tally.
The two wins were achieved at MSI 2023 and MSI 2022. In the former, Golden Guardians faced Bilibili Gaming in the Qualification Match of Group A, and lost by a 1-2 score. In the 2022 edition of the tournament, Evil Geniuses managed to steal one game from T1 in the Rumble Stage. Nevertheless, both series had little to no impact on NA teams’ final standings. At MSI 2022, T1 lost the final 3-2, while EG got smashed 3-0 in the semifinals. A year later, Golden Guardians went 1-6 in the Bracket Stage (the single win being against Cloud9) and went home.
If there is anything that can be said about the record, it’s that the gap between Eastern and Western teams is unfortunately widening. Before Liquid’s match against TES on May 7, experts and fans from League of Legends community said the NA side could take this game home, since the Chinese representatives weren’t playing well in the tournament. We now know how that turned out.
In NA’s defense, Europe isn’t much better. Their teams have only taken single games off LPL and LCK teams in the last two years, with Fnatic recently doing so at MSI 2024’s play-ins. Other squads, like G2 Esports, MAD Lions, and Rogue have won individual matches against Asian rivals, but haven’t secured a single Bo3 or Bo5 series in that same timeframe.
