I feel performing well in regular season is a lot like performing well in scrims (like G2). Regular season has an impact on playoffs and internationals in the same way scrims does. Yes, you get teams that are good in both, but often times teams who perform best in regular season are those who just try hard when everyone else is trying to learn. The past 2 years taught me that regular season results are often used to overhype teams, and sometimes can be a disadvantage when you show your cards too early.
An example of overhyped teams were BLG and KT, who both got first all pro in their regions. Realistically BLG was the 4th best team and KT was the 3rd. A good example of showing your hand too early was T1. They showed how strong double adc bot lane was in regular season (23 Spring) so Riot had to patch it. The time they finally won worlds was when they didn’t give a shit about regular season. I’m pretty sure if T1 tryharded in 23 Summer, and revealed the double ad bot strats they could’ve gone 1st all pro, then proceed to lose playoffs and worlds after Riot patches it or when every other team is given months to test it out.
TLDR; Teams should treat regular season like practice. It’s the most exhausting part of pro league and reaps no rewards. Teams who get baited into doing well, end up revealing their hand or falling off because no one else was trying or because they lost their energy. Similarly, fans shouldn’t overreact and start making unrealistic power rankings based on regular season.
In what world was BLG the 4th best team in Summer when they placed above TES and WBG?
KT is one thing, BLG has results both domestically and internationally to show for it. No, WBG’s upset win doesn’t mean they were a better team than BLG this year, especially given they’re the only Worlds LPL team with 0 wins vs LCK teams this year.
BLG was clearly better than WBG in Spring, but in summer playoffs BLG was getting fisted by LNG and JDG (1-6 against them overall). Even WBG put a better fight against LNG. I don’t think BLG was better than WBG in playoffs, people push that narrative because of BLG’s performance in summer regular season and MSI, which is irrelevant. Even in regular split, WBG could’ve beaten BLG if they tryharded which they clearly weren’t.