LCK, LPL, LCS—EU and NA—are all well under way at this point, each with solid narratives running so far. Whether it be Forg1ven's dark and brooding drive to dominate Europe, or NA with… actually, NA's kind of embarrassing to look at right now. It took Piglet weeks to kick off a decent fantasy score, so that might mean I m slightly biased, but let s put that aside. In fact, let s put all the major circuits aside for a moment. It's easy to forget that the e-sports world isn't just NA, Europe, China, and Korea—that there are others elsewhere that seek the thrill of competition. And as promised at the end of Season 4, 2015's shaping up to be a major growth period for non-traditional regions.

Brazil and Oceania have recently started the officially supported CBLoL and OCE Pro League circuits respectively, with the former in particular proving to be an eager and quickly developing region. If you're a European fan, you would probably like nothing more than to forget that Kabum! exists, given their upset over last year's Alliance, but yes: they're still there, they picked up a sister team, and Tinowns still owns mid lane. Should Froggen be scared of meeting him again in Worlds or the Mid-Season Invitational?

Well, first Froggen needs to worry about the possibility of missing those events entirely, given that the former Alliance midlaner—now under Elements, which is basically the same team plus Rekkles—is looking at stiff competition from the likes of Fnatic, SK, and even the mid-tier threesome of Copenhagen Wolves, ROCCAT, and Unicorns of Love. Brazil's trending upward, if only out of enthusiasm, whereas the players of Elements have largely stagnated.

But before I praise the Wildcards too much, it's not just the premier circuits that are looking a little stale. Southeast Asia's Garena Premier League might no longer be under the oppressive rulership of their northern Taiwanese peers, but they lost more than their chance to finally take the GPL title off of the Taipei Assassins. In fact, losing the Worlds seed to Taiwan's new LoL Master Series might not be the worst thing about their structural change. Sure, the Bangkok Titans might actually look competent this year, in the context of the new Taiwan-less GPL, but then they actually had their first shot at an international competition and—predictably—got blown out of the water. Same with the Saigon Jokers, who used to at least put up a good fight against AHQ, 2013's GPL champions. After three months, it doesn't seem as if SEA's progressed at all.

Hearing thunder from Taipei

Alternatively, the LMS teams have progressed extremely far in that short amount of time, leaving SEA to eat their dust. I like this interruption, mostly because this is "my" scene—I've covered the Assassins in particular since their organization's birth in 2012, and the LMS is largely my beat this year when it comes to regional coverage. While technically not a Wildcard region—though we're uncertain how many seeds they're allotted at this year s Worlds—the LMS is by far the most easily overlooked of the Premier circuits. Furthermore, they might be on the chopping block, or at least Riot Magus suggested as much during the e-sports department's AMA session last month, putting pressure on the teams to perform well.

I ain't scared, though. Bring on the scrutiny. There's a reason why the LoLesports power rankings have three LMS teams in the top 20 list, and it isn't entirely because of my persuasive skills coupled with nobody else on the panel watching enough LMS to argue back. Not entirely, I swear. Those that have independently watched the LMS are forced to agree that its top half actually has legitimate talent, even in an international context.

Few remember Season 2's Taipei Assassins, and those that do tend to look back with rose-tinted glasses. Even I, a fan of the local Taiwanese teams, cringe a bit when some noisy stream monster rants about how Toyz was as good as Faker was in their relative primes. To that monster: Toyz had one breakout tournament (the most important tournament) where nobody banned or took away his Orianna, and then fell flat at IPL 5. While certainly impressive, that's not at the same level as Faker in 2013.

They're not wrong about him being good, and ever since he rejoined the pro scene, spearheading Hong Kong Esports, he's more than proven up to the task of handling the current meta and competitive environment—have you seen his Azir? Of course you haven't. But ban it anyhow, if you're a pro player meeting him at the LMS, or maybe even the MSI if HKES steps it up in the next couple months. The thing is, HKES is good and I really love their new Korean support—Olleh's roams are the stuff of nightmares for enemy teams, as his former opponents in Brazil's CBLoL are well aware—and they've won the approval of my fellow power ranking panelists, but even HKES isn't the best team in Taiwan, and Toyz isn't even the best mid laner.

Yoe Flash Wolves' Maple might claim that title, as does his team. It doesn't matter to them if everybody's ignored them since their abortive World Championship run in 2013, under the now-defunct Gamania Bears. True winners don't dig popularity contests. TPA might have had the crowd's backing during the recent IEM Taipei Grand Finals, but it was the Wolves that adapted and swung back incredibly hard from a 0-2 deficit to take the title and tickets to Katowice in March. Their former Season 3 jungler, Winds, is now on the opposing team and undefeated in the LMS. Yet Winds found his match against his old team and a new rival in rookie jungler Karsa, who's stepped in to successfully plug the gaping weaknesses in the Wolves' strategy that bedeviled them through all of 2014.

Getting hot-blooded

Am I spending too much time gushing about the LMS in particular? Forgive me if I am. I haven't been this excited about my birth island's prospects since their miracle run in 2012, and two years of suffering is a very long time. On one hand, I want them to stay sleepers as we steadily creep our way to October—while China's squabbling with communication issues, Korea's struggling with an identity crisis, and the western scene's angstfully trying to make themselves relevant in the face of Eastern hemisphere tournament monopolies, maybe we can thread our way to victory.

On the other hand, I want you to appreciate these kids as much as I do. I want them to have the respect I think they deserve, and which they're simply not getting. I don't make apologies for advocating for what I think are tremendous players and stellar team play. If Taiwan—technically a premier region—has such difficulty getting a deserved spotlight, imagine how the actual wildcard players feel, or even those outside of them. Give them a chance. TSM will always be there, but if you don't look abroad, you're gonna miss out on some truly great entertainment.

At the very least, you gotta appreciate the sheer Shonen Jump enthusiasm of Japan's LJL.

League of Legends pro team Meet Your Maker found itself at the center of unwanted attention earlier this week when it came to light that team manager Sebastian "Falli" Rotterdam had threatened legal action against the mother of player Marcin "Kori" Wolski that he said would result in the loss of her house. As a result of Rotterdam's "unprofessional behavior," the team has been slapped with a fairly stiff fine, but it won't lose its slot in LCS competition.

Riot Games said in a lengthy statement that its investigation into the conflict between Wolski and MYM ultimately found fault on both sides. Wolski's claims of withheld payments related only to the Super Hot Crew he'd played for in 2014 and not MYM, which provided proof that its players had been paid; because of this, Riot said it appeared that Wolski was "breaking an active contract and commitment to MYM."

But while it doesn't want to "create a precedent that discourages teams from discussing legal issues or informing players of their liabilities should they seek to disavow an existing contract," Riot said LCS teams have a "moral commitment" to treat players with "dignity and respect," something Rotterdam obviously failed to do.

"An entire LCS organization shoulders the responsibility for the behavior of their team members and ensuring their players have a safe and professional environment," Riot wrote. "MYM will be held accountable for Rotterdam s actions towards Wolski and for failing to protect their team members from his unacceptable and bullying behavior. As such, Riot will be issuing MYM with a fine of 5,000 for unprofessional behavior." Rotterdam, who is no longer with MYM, has been indefinitely banned from LCS competition in any capacity.

Riot acknowledged that some people were hoping for a harsher punishment but said that its decision was mitigated by MYM's quick dismissal of Rotterdam once the full facts of the case became clear, and also because Wolski wasn't entirely blameless either. "We feel that MYM has taken significant steps to remove toxic influence from within their organization and is prepared to move forward in the best interests of their players and their competitive careers," Riot wrote. "We believe that forfeiting the slot would unnecessarily penalize players and interrupt their pro careers through no fault of their own." Any further incidents, however, will put the team "on a path to suspension from the LCS."

"For Riot, cases like this tread a difficult balance between relying on the contractual relationships negotiated between teams and players to appropriately guide their behavior, and using our influence to try and ensure a professional and ethical environment for those parties operating within the LCS ecosystem," Riot wrote. "Where we feel strongly that unprofessionalism is putting player security at risk, we can and will use our influence to try to ensure that the LCS pro experience is a positive one."

E-sports has provided no shortage of controversy of late, most notably with CS:GO's match-fixing scandals and one League of Legends tournament's bizarre attempt at equality. League of Legends pro team Meet Your Makers is now under the spotlight, thanks to the revelations of LCS player Marcin "Kori" Wolski—who recently returned to the team after a mysterious two-week departure.

The Daily Dot report that Wolski left the team due to a dispute involving months of pay owed by his former team Supa Hot Crew—a team linked to MYM through the company AK3 GmbH. A number of current and former MYM staff are employees of AK3, and Wolski said he was worried about similar issues with his new team.

More dramatic is what happened afterwards. Wolski recorded a call between himself and MYM manager Sebastian "Falli" Rotterdam. During the call—published by The Daily Dot's Richard Lewis—Rotterdam pleads with Wolski. Later in the call, Rotterdam threatens Wolski's mother—saying that, because she signed Wolski's contract, he would ensure that she lost her house.

Following the call, Wolski contacted Riot, and Rotterdam issued the following statement to TDD:

"I admit I made a big mistake with saying this to kori. This Situation was crazy. A Player is leaving the Team one day before LCS starts. I was stressed in this situation and i agree i should not say something like this. I never said such stuff before to a player. I will offer MYM to leave the Organisation and step down from my job. The MYM Management was not aware of me saying this. I wanted to protect the other players cause the situation was looking bad for them and i made a huge mistake. MYM is not working like that it was me making a big mistake! I would like to Apologize to Kori and his mother at this point. Big Sorry!

As for Wolski's return, the player learned that if he left, he would be unable to play for any other team for the duration of his contract—essentially removing him from the scene until January 2016. As such, he re-appeared as part of MYM's starting line-up last week.

You can see more statements from all parties over at The Daily Dot's full report.

Riot has today announced Oceania's first League of Legends eSports league. Appropriately titled the Oceanic Pro League (OPL), the seven week league will pit eight teams against one another for the hefty sum of $64,000, or $32,000 per split. Five teams will emerge victorious, with the remaining three facing relegation.

It's good news for Southern Hemisphere dwellers, and you won't have to wait: the first round kicks off tonight at 6pm AEST, with a stream running on Riot's dedicated Oceania channel. Tonight's round will feature Legacy, Chiefs, 4Not and Sudden Fear. Here's the full round schedule:

ROUND 1 SCHEDULE

Riot Oceania eSports Co-ordinator Ben de Rider said he hopes Australia and New Zealand will compete next to some of the world's biggest League of Legends regions eventually. Whatever the case, the winners of the OPL split 1 will head to Turkey for the International Wildcard Invitation this April. 

Update: Garena has issued a statement reversing, and apologizing for, the rule limiting LGBT players in its Iron Solari tournaments. "Our initial ruling on LGBT player restrictions within the Iron Solari League has created a lot of good discussion and debate over the past 24 hours. After discussing the ruling with our partners and re-examining our approach, we have decided to remove these restrictions completely. This means that any player who self-identifies as female will be allowed to participate. We sincerely apologize for any offense we caused to the LGBT and gaming communities," it said.

"Our original intent when we put together this tournament was to promote diversity in the competitive gaming community. Hence, we are grateful to our players who have consistently provided their feedback to help us learn and improve as we strive to develop an inclusive gaming environment for all. We ll also be keeping our promise of having an open dialogue with all parties as we plan this and future events," it continued. "We hope you will tune in to support these awesome teams and players in this upcoming tournament."

Original: In the wake of a bizarre ruling by e-sports league Garena Philippines limiting the number of LGBT players who can take part in its all-women Iron Solari tournament, League of Legends studio Riot Games has issued a statement saying all players are welcome at its tournaments, and that it is working with its partners to "ensure consistency with our values across all regions."

The trouble started earlier today when Garena Esports issued new rules for the second segment of its "all-feminine" Iron Solari tournament, which will now run on a monthly basis. It said that after discussions with various parties including members of teams who played in the first Iron Solari tournament, as well as "LoL players belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women community," it has decided to place limits on the number of LGBT players who can take part.

"Each team will be allowed to have a maximum of one (1) Gay/Transgendered woman for the entirety of the tournament day. Therefore, teams cannot do the following: Team_A's first game will be 4 female members and 1 gay, then on Team_A's second game, they will have 4 female members and replace with another gay or transgender member," the new rules state. "Any team who has violated the above provision, regardless if intentional or otherwise, whether discovered during the day of the event or some time after, will have all their team members (the female members as well as the Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered women member) sanctioned with a 1-year ban on all Garena-organized events, including subsequent Iron Solari Tournaments."

Strangely, Garena said it had imposed the new rules to help ensure "a more inclusive environment where no one feels left out." But it also claimed an obligation to ensure a level playing field for all, adding, "There are arguments and concerns from other participants who disputes that Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered Women members may probably have some unfair advantage."

I cannot for the life of me imagine what those advantages might be, but the reaction was immediate and exactly as you'd expect: disbelief and, once it was confirmed as legit, strongly negative. That led Riot to issue its response on Twitter, affirming that all players are welcome at all times. "LGBT players are welcome at official LoL tourneys," the studio wrote. "We're working with partners to ensure consistency with our values across all regions."

As it should be. We've reached out to Garena Esports for further clarity and we'll report back once we've heard from them.

Back in 2012, Riot Games announced Pulsefire Ezreal as League of Legends first ultimate skin, the highest priced tier of skins they would offer at 3250 riot points—roughly $25. Ultimate skins are meant to be a much more extensive overhaul of a champion s animations, model, and sound effects than any other skin available. Pulsefire Ezreal blew me away two and a half years ago, and today Riot announced DJ Sona, an ultimate skin for support champion Sona that makes the Pulsefire skin look like a simple recolor.

Using the DJ sona skin not only changes your character, it also replaces League s in-game soundtrack with new music. Riot made three new songs for the skin, collaborating with popular artists Nosaj, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, Crystal Method, Dada Life, and Renholder to produce them. Other players won t hear the new music by default, but those on a team with DJ Sona will have the option to listen in on whichever track she s chosen to play, which can be toggled in-game. You can listen to a radio edit version of one of the songs below, and all three are available on the League of Legends youtube channel along with a large selection of other songs from the game.

In addition to the new soundtrack, the DJ Sona skin has drastically different models, animations, attack effects, and sounds depending on which song is being played. Basically, this means the ultimate skin is three different skins tied together with the DJ theme. Each of her abilities looks different during each of the three songs, with visuals that match the tone of each track. DJ Sona is more than just an overhaul; it s probably the coolest skin Riot has or ever will make.

Whether or not you think a cosmetic skin for a free to play game is worth $25 is a deeply personal decision, but this is by far the most comprehensive skin Riot has announced yet. There's no word on when DJ Sona will be available to purchase in-game, but it will cost 3250 riot points. You can find more info on DJ Sona on the skin s official page.

A League of Legends exploit allowing browser access to the game's store as a means to hacking other player accounts, is being addressed by Riot. 

According to witness reports on Reddit, the exploit allows users to access the League of Legends store from a web browser rather than the game client. With access to a user's Summoner ID and a session token, the perpetrator is able to make RP and IP transactions on that user's behalf.

A Riot spokesperson acknowledged and addressed the issue in the League of Legends Reddit. 

"We're getting this fixed right now, though we can't speak to the specifics of the exploit or the explanations fellow Redditors have been offering," the spokesperson said. "What we can say is that we can see everyone who was hit by an attack, and we'll be returning all RP/IP that was lost.

"Since the store was involved, we also want to reassure you that this didn't expose any personal information like credit card numbers. Your data is safe."

The exploit can be seen from the victim's point of view in the video below:

It makes sense that, as e-sports becomes increasingly popular, e-sports fantasy leagues would begin to crop up, just as they do for football, baseball, hockeyball, and all the other -balls out there. Even so, the $1 million prize pool being offered by League of Legends fantasy website Vulcun for the 2015 LCS season is kind of astounding, especially since the site launch less than a month ago with an initial prize pool of just—"just"—$250,000.

Details on how to play can be found on Vulcun's Rules and Scoring page, but the short version is that players create a fantasy LCS team by assembling a roster of players within a limited team budget, then pit their team against lineups created by other fans. There are various types of daily contests, ranging from "standard" contests with entry fees ranging from $1 to $100, to 50/50 (half the players win), Double-Up, which doubles your money if you win, and Winner Takes All, which seems fairly self-explanatory.

"We expected this milestone to take us a year to get when we launched just three weeks ago. But the response from the LoL community has been so tremendous that it has us away," Vulcun founder Ali Moiz said in a statement. "I am deeply humbled and grateful to the community for making Vulcun the the number one place where they choose to play Fantasy League of Legends. We re growing 30 percent each week.  

Fortunately for LoL fans who want to get in on the fun without losing their shirts, Vulcun also offers free games, some of which may offer cash prizes of their own, although the focus is clearly on paid games. "Free games are a great way to learn how the system works and try it risk-free," the Vulcun site states. "Most of our games however are paid, and have much larger prize pools." 

We promise to re-invest every single dollar we make into giving back to the eSports community," Moiz said. "Three weeks ago we promised you we d get you to $1 million in prizes. Today, we ve kept that promise. What s next? With your support, $10 million.

And since the question is bound to come up, the site also notes that it is entirely legal under the 2006 UIGEA act, which "specifically allows for fantasy sports since it is a game of skill." As conventional sports betting itself is currently under scrutiny by the US government, that distinction may protect e-sports betting from further regulation.

Vulcun itself is but one service within a growing sub-industry of e-sports. Tens of thousands of people wager on CSGO Lounge and Dota 2 Lounge, which use in-game items (which have monetary value in Steam Market), not money, for betting.  Egamingbets, whose About Us page assures that its "activities are performed in accordance with laws of Costa Rica," offers betting on StarCraft 2, LoL, CS:GO, and Dota 2.

But it's the sheer value of Vulcun's prize pool that makes it noteworthy, not because, as it says, LoL fans can actually make more money through its fantasy league than the players themselves, but because of what its rapid growth suggests about the future. Vulcun has raised $1.3 million in funding from "top-tier Silicon Valley investors," indicating a very clear belief in the potential of e-sports fantasy leagues as a money-making opportunity—and, no doubt, even bigger prize pools to come.

I get irate when watching a bad pickban phase.

League's is simplistic compared to Dota 2's: for LoL, each side takes turns banning champions one at a time until six are banned away. Then they take turns picking champions in a 1-2-2-2-2-1 pattern (blue side picks one, red side picks two, blue picks two, etc). Then they swap the champions onto the players that are supposed to play them and hash out their strategies in the game. Dota 2's competitive system has bans and picks interweaved with each other, making for an involved game of what David Sirlin of "Play to Win" fame would describe as "yomi," or a form of mind-reading. But where Dota 2's is something akin to a game unto itself, League's much simpler approach only qualifies as a diversionary minigame.

Theoretically, it should also be a minigame long solved. High-priority or flexible first picks and the core-structuring red-side 2/3 aren't complex concepts, and even a pro player distracted with thoughts of their rival's reputations and known specializations can kick out a decent team half the time. The fact that it's now global standard for coaches to assist their team in picks and bans, as has been recently formalized in both NA and EU LCS, should by and large make all team compositions and pick processes go like clockwork, or at least fail to make the audience smack their foreheads.

Forget about slapping foreheads. I'm putting a dent into my desk. In North America, especially, the picks are so incredibly bad as to be stunning. But NA might as well be fielded by ten teams of utter geniuses compared to what happened over IEM Taipei, when defending GPL champions and LMS leaders Taipei Assassins got literally everything they could have wished for from the Saigon Jokers.

It can't be the coaches, at least not entirely. TPA's process brightened the hell up once they got external aid. Are they simply not aware of how badly they've messed up their research and preparations?

Winning recipes

The more complex a game, the harder it is to balance it well. Sure, there is such thing as a competitive rock/paper/scissors scene, but is it going to get 150,000 Twitch viewers per broadcast? For various reasons, no: we prefer myriad and unpredictable outcomes that not only summarizes but demonstrates a player or team's cleverness. We also prefer it to be immediately understandable, which is tension in another direction and why watching Dota 2 pickbans put me to sleep—I'm not so nearly invested in their scene as to understand the nuances, so I lose interest quickly.

But here in January 2015, the big priorities of League of Legends' pick/ban strategies should, by all means, be self-evident. And I feel that if it is evident even to me, there's no excuses for coaches and teams to be dropping the ball. They have to at least know what they're likely going to run into—there aren't that many different strategies to memorize, early into the 2015 season!

Gnarvan

If you aren't ready to deal with Gnar and Jarvan, ban one or both—and, honestly, if you're that badly prepped, ban both immediately. The "Gnarvan" combo is easy to understand: Jarvan creates a ring of walls around his target, and Gnar stuns anybody he slams into walls. The natural synergy, especially given that Gnar is blatantly overpowered at the moment with way too many free stats as Mega-Gnar, is usually enough to wreck any team they encounter.

The funny thing is, this wasn't supposed to be possible. Gnar was explicitly designed to be hard to control: the forced transformation at full rage is meant to be difficult to handle, and hard to combo with. Difficult, but not impossible—and he was designed prior to Riot re-coding wall-creating abilities to interact exactly like their permanent environmental counterparts, enabling current top laners to figure out absolutely sickening synergies with their junglers. You know a team's gone when the combo hits—you know it because Gnar's so aggressively overtuned that the wide and heavy hit melts even the tankiest health bars, tipping the balance in his team's favor.

But note that I'm stressing Gnar's involvement, and not Jarvan IV's. Though Jarvan has been an incredibly popular jungler, his individual contribution mainly counters no-dash champions like Xerath or Sivir, who needs Flash up to escape his attention. Other popular picks are less vulnerable to him—but all are vulnerable to Gnar, whose conditionally long-range jumps can ruin the day for even the most mobile champions. Fights are slightly less effective without a summonable wall for him to interact with, but junglers like Lee Sin, Rek'Sai or Rengar still work just fine setting up for his rampage.

Kassandra

If teams are smart enough to ban out Jarvan and Gnar together, they haven't quite caught on that it isn't safe to relax yet. As mentioned: part of the reason to pick Jarvan in the first place is to have a hard answer to Sivir. So why pick Sivir? Because Kassadin, Lissandra and LeBlanc are in the game, and good luck surviving encounters without a Spell Shield to negate a double AP assassins initiation! Setting up the strategy core is also deceptively easy: all three are great midlaners right now, but Kassadin and Lissandra are also highly effective top laners, making it difficult to know if a team's going for this specific strategy until it's too late and one side's already locked into their strategy.

This is the one composition that maybe gives the Gnarvan combo problems. Due to the immediate blink abilities, Jarvan's Cataclysms are less reliable set-ups for Gnar's wall-slams, allowing a team to swiftly reposition and take advantage of their ability cooldowns to destroy the back line. But assassins are decidedly early and mid-game oriented strategies, and bypassing the threat wall imposed by Jarvan and Gnar is a very skill-intensive deed, turning considerably harder the later the game goes on (and very hard if the Gnar player has above-caliber rage management).

Fast Cat

If you don't need to worry about Gnar and Jarvan and are expecting your opponent to dip into their assassins pool, you're going to be running Sivir and Morgana. Possibly Sivir and Janna, if the threat is more from hard damage than crowd control abilities. Sivir and Morgana, in particular, are nearly impossible for the current crop of close-range assassins to sink their fangs into: both have Spell Shields to deter attempts to pin them down, and the mobility offered from Sivir's On The Hunt lets them slip away long before even Kassadin can Riftwalk after them.

But the threat isn't the bot lane pairing specifically, but what Sivir's presence enables. Like with Jarvan's interaction with Gnar, her ultimate supercharges a jungler from decent status to unholy terror. Though the western scene's infamously had a hard time utilizing Rengar in competitive play, literally everybody else in the League of Legends scene has long since treated him as a high priority. With Sivir, Janna or Orianna to help him close the distance on squishy targets—like other assassins—a Rengar-centric composition is like an anti-pick composition. His rooting crowd control and instantaneous burst out of stealth would normally be telegraphed by the Metal Gear Solid-esque exclamation marks over opponents' heads when he approaches, but the speed bursts provided by the rest of his team largely negates this deliberate weakness in his design. It also really helps that On The Hunt goes both ways: it lets Sivir and her support fall back as Rengar advances, rewriting the lines of the battlefield in favor of their team.

Queen Monster

So that's the current lopsided rock-paper-scissors situation for League of Legends, but there's one last thing to note: Rek'sai. Yes, like Gnar, another ridiculously overtuned champion to prioritize in bans or even first/second picks. League of Legends' answer to Dota 2's Sand King's an enormous destabilizing force, and I wholly recommend simply banning her outright at the start. Not only does she very easily bypass most barriers, not only does her ultimate effectively grant her total map control, but the damage she currently does is on the absurd end. Even if she builds full tank—especially if she builds full tank—the base values and true damage nuke makes her a fully independent threat, with any of the current team comps only amplifying her effectiveness.

Piece by piece

Though there are individual elements in the current metagame that I consider destablizing (Gnar and Rek'sai's lead designers need to spend a good long time contemplating their philosophies), I actually like this current metagame's three-way tension, as each has multiple variants and approaches within them, and each are centralized around teamfighting anyhow, producing spectator-friendly clashes. What I don't like is needless sloppiness, or evidence of lack of preparation from nominally professional teams and players. The data, nuances and success rates of all three current strategies should be very well known to them and their analysts, as well as the preference rates of their rival teams. Knowing how to prioritize the picks to obfuscate their intentions should also be clear, yet what we're seeing is not obfuscation but outright errors.

The difference between solo queue and ranked 5's play is building a coherent intention, not reactively cobbling responses, yet you see a lot of the latter at the bottom of the LCS ladders. Order of picks matter: whether you're blue side using a flex pick first to test enemy waters, or if you're red side nabbing priority picks before your opponent can dilute the field against you.

Bans matter especially so: blue side gets a significant advantage, being able to effectively four-ban against a single player, which is absolutely devastating against teams with a known specialist of limited breadth, though it's a strategy that falls out of favor against truly high-caliber players whose overall game mechanics are sound even without favorite picks. Yet even without locking out, hyper-focused bans do lock teams in on specific champion-oriented strategies, and can be used as a trap to draw them out of their comfort zones.

It would be a mistake to treat the initial strategy parts of a competition as less vital than overall skill. Everybody's putting in the hours now. Everybody's taking practice more seriously (or should be). Even in the western scene, where the grassroots histories of players and organizations are still peeping out in tufts from the roughly woven blankets of respectability and legitimacy, there's been an increasing equivalence in individual skill. The hierarchies are no longer so strict as Player A is guaranteed to beat B is guaranteed to beat C, but roughly estimated odds and percentages based on matchups and conditions.

So the teams, and especially the coaches, have to learn to create those conditions. Piece by piece. Champion by champion. And most importantly, pay attention to how their rivals are doing so, and what changes they are likely to make from week to week.

Don't think for a moment that they won't be scouting you in Shanghai or Seoul. If not now, then certainly over the summer. Plan accordingly.

Why have Dota 2 and League of Legends become the most popular PC games of the generation? Wes and Chris take a moment during their visit to the Smite World Championship to try and answer what it is about MOBAs that's elevated them above FPSes, RTSes, and RPGs as the most-played games in the world.

The PC Gamer Show appears every Friday. Hit us with PC gaming questions for us to answer at the end of next week's episode in the comments!