Source: https://twitter.com/Cubbyxx/status/1719266718999298241
Many are disappointed by this move.
I’m moreso disappointed by the community’s discussion around this move.
Many reactions to the 1st piece of the #LCS📷 offseason move is “why another import and why not NA talent.” A clear gut reaction that fans have felt for awhile fueled by NRG’s success at Worlds investing in local talent, something that played apart of the strategy of all 3 orgs at Worlds mind you as I outlined in a previously post of likely similar length when talking about T2 orgs.
I don’t think the discussion should be “why X import over Y native players.” Frankly when I look at NACL talent from this past year…I’d recommend orgs to import mid first of any role.
How I would challenge orgs is this: how are you going to give your import players the resources to be successful in a new country and culture compared to other options that are native and therefore don’t have those needs as high up on their list.
Can you get a VISA on time so the player has apt time to settle into the team and new country? This has been a huge challenge for orgs in the past.
Are they the type of person who is looking forward to adapting to a new environment and culture? Some come because it’s their best opportunity, there’s a big difference between embracing the opportunity and embracing where you’re going to be at in life.
When you’re coming to NA, you’re going to play in a worse soloq environment than other regions. Is this player equipped to deal with that? Are they reliant on solo queue to maintain their skills? This impacts some players differently than others, and is something I’ve heard scouts talk about and consider when talking about imports.
For me, these and so many other questions should be what orgs have to consider when they are going with an import. And in a year where ~half the league will be offering players LCS minimum contracts and money in the region is at an all time low, I’d challenge orgs on the capabilities of doing that and giving themselves more to balance while having the least amount of resources they’ve had to play with in the past. And to be fair to the community, even without knowing these pieces of information I can see why they’re skeptical. Every year we have players that are imported and go back. And that sucks, why?
Longevity. Every league, whether sports or esports, benefits from longevity. Of orgs, teams, coaches: they want to create the legends of their game, and the more people rotate in and out the harder it is to achieve that.
And when I look at LCS…a lot of the legends we have are imports. Impact, Ssumday, Bjergsen, CoreJJ just to scratch the surface, these are some of the greatest players the league has had. They were incredibly invested in LCS and had teams who invested into them as well. I want that opportunity for any player that comes to LCS, my hope is that WHEN teams decide to import players, they also commit to having the resources to make sure they’re successful. Because the more successful players are, the higher likelihood they stick around in the league, and the better it is for all of us.
If I wanted a tweet that got likes I’d just say “Why not Haeri?” There’s a lot more nuanced discussion to be had about the topic of imports that I think is worth having as it’s important to the league and growth of the league, nationally and globally.