Why can't China beat Korea at League of Legends?

In the wake of All-Star 2014, Chinese fans are once again asking themselves why the best team in China still doesn’t seem to be able to compete with Korean teams. Of course, some Chinese fans have already chosen a scapegoat for China’s failure this time around, but many realize that the problem runs deeper.

(See: Chinese LOL fans respond to OMG’s crushing defeat in the All-Star 2014 finals)

This Duowan forum thread about why China can’t beat Korea already has more than 50 pages of responses. And while plenty of the respondents simply said “I don’t know” or blamed Pomelo, when reading through the pages of comments, a few major themes emerge:

1. There’s too much pressure

When Chinese teams play international tournaments, there is a massive amount of pressure heaped on them by domestic fans to beat Korean teams. And when they fail to do so, as Royal Club did last year or OMG did at All-Star, the result is often a massive outpouring of vitriol from their own fans that has the potential to shatter players’ confidence and even pull apart entire teams. This makes it difficult for teams to develop, as they rarely get a second chance to face Korean teams in major tournaments before the fan outrage has led to roster changes.

Why do Chinese fans care so much? It actually goes far deeper than League of Legends. As a smaller nation with a culture that many Chinese see as derivative of Chinese culture, South Korea’s ability to beat China in various ways has long been seen as an embarrassment by many Chinese. Since the ’70s, for example, China’s national soccer team has played Korea’s team dozens of times, but never once won. There’s even a name for the phenomenon of Chinese players being unable to beat Koreans: 恐韩症, “Koreaphobia”. Each additional loss is taken by some Chinese fans as an additional black mark on China’s record, so there is immense pressure on Chinese League of Legends players to win, and immense displeasure when they don’t.

2. Korea’s eSports environment

There’s no denying that the eSports industry is more developed in South Korea than pretty much anywhere else on earth. And while China’s eSports industry is quite massive and growing quickly, it’s definitely not as mature as Korea’s. Does having better infrastructure make for better teams? It’s hard to say, but it certainly can’t hurt. There is also a feeling among Chinese commenters that Korean players are generally treated better, although that sort of thing is very difficult to measure conclusively.

In their comments, many Chinese fans mentioned a difference in “mentality” between Chinese players and Korean players, which is probably in part due to the immense pressure on Chinese players and in part due to the less-developed eSports environment they’re coming out of. They are not paid the way Korean players are, and they certainly aren’t idolized the way some Korean players are. Is it really any surprise that they don’t perform at the same level?

3. Tactical and team errors

Many commenters felt that Chinese teams’ tactics and their overall team chemistry simply is not on the level of Korean teams. Several commenters criticized OMG as seeming too rigidly focused on one tactical approach and being unable to adapt fast enough when the situation changed. Many commenters also pointed out that it will be very tough for Chinese teams to win until they can break Korean teams’s impeccable control of the dragon, which makes it almost impossible for Chinese teams to build up a significant gold lead even when they’re getting more kills.

4. Individual player shortcomings

It’s probably obvious that many commenters called out Pomelo for his sub-par play in the jungle, but many went much further than that. Some said that Chinese players simply lacked the mechanics to keep up with Korea’s best, but many also pointed out that Chinese teams, and this OMG team in particular, was pretty reliant on getting particular champions to do well.

Everyone has their favorite champions, of course, but there’s no denying that Allen played significantly better on Thresh, and xiyang was at his most dangerous while playing Syndra. Many members of OMG have been accused of having shallow champion pools, but Korea’s best teams really don’t. Faker is terrifying on almost any champion, and with Chinese players coming into games so limited, it’s easy for Korean teams to win either by banning or counter-picking the few champs China’s pros are capable of dominating with.

So, what’s to be done? In the comments I read, there’s no clear consensus. There is certainly a feeling that things will get better as the Chinese eSports scene continues to grow and develop, but I think there is also quite a bit of fear that things could go the way they have in soccer, and that years down the line China’s League of Legends teams might still be winless.