Inhouse Tournaments – Will They Save NA?
NA refers to the North American servers hosted by League of Legends. The popular team-based strategy game involves rival teams of five champions facing off to destroy one another’s base. The game is played internationally, and this is where some issues begin to arise. Slow server speeds and high ping can be devastating for players. Slight delays can give your opponents the edge they need to gain the upper hand and get the victory. This brings about the concept of inhouse tournaments and whether or not they can save NA?
In terms of ping, players from the North American region generally experience ping levels of around 70 or higher in comparison to Korean players who experience ping levels of 30 or lower. These levels are less than half the amount than those experienced by NA players. Lower levels of ping relate directly to faster game times. The lower the ping levels are, the quicker the game relates to your thoughts and actions. This can become a serious issue in a game like League of Legends, especially when you constantly come up against players experiencing a much more fluid and speedy game experience than you.
So, what are inhouse tournaments? Inhouse tournaments are tournaments that are conducted in a certain region or area. These tournaments could be organized in a way in which players could compete against one another through LAN cables or even having reduced ping due to them being close together. The benefit of this is that all players would be on an equal playing ground with no one team having an advantage due to better internet speeds. The hosting of inhouse tournaments could just be what is needed to get North America back into contention for the world’s best in terms of League of Legends.
So, to the question, could inhouse tournaments save North America? The answer would have to be a resounding, yes. The slower internet speeds experienced on NA servers are having detrimental effects on the players. The introduction of these competitions certainly solves the problem of competing against teams sharing a smoother experience and could also improve the overall mechanics for NA users. Inhouse tournaments are definitely something that League of Legends could use to NA and ensure that the player base from this region remains competitive. NA has struggled to compete internationally for a while now, and this could be the solution to all of their problems.