Can the Season 2 prize money attract Korean teams?

Of all the things that have the greatest capacity to improve and increase the exposure of League of Legends in the eSports arena, the one thing that I feel may have the biggest eventual impact is the release of the game in Korea. As a country that has fully embraced eSports through the iterations of StarCraft, it has helped to bring eSports to mainstream media and games of StarCraft on television is a regular occurrence. Whilst non-Korean “foreigners” have begun to bridge the gap in StarCraft 2, Korean players continue to widely dominate.

From my interview with Atlanta from the US LoL team, APictureOfAGoose, he said that the new professional teams coming out of Korea “will prove that dedication and teamwork is more important than individual skill or solo queue rating”. Professional Korean StarCraft players bring a whole new level of dedication and I believe that if some of these players do decide to make the switch across to LoL, we could soon see the likes of big pro teams like oGs and StarTale competing alongside established LoL teams like Counter Logic Gaming and Team Dignitas.

Korean teams like oGs and StarTale could take an interest in competitive LoL

Whilst many people in eSports are sceptical of the growth of LoL in eSports, it would not be beyond the realms of possibility to see Korean teams and players embrace it. By releasing a promotional video starring NaDa to help promote the release of the game in Korea, this move (alongside their continued and sustained support) has shown that Riot Games understand the potential the game has to become a true eSport. I am sure that they are aware of the capacity for the competitive side of the game to help make their game more popular to the wider gaming audience, but I still genuinely feel like they do care about helping make eSports better with their game.

The prize money put forward by Riot Games for Season 2 will turn heads – if StarCraft pros are not getting enough money from their game, the potential for them to switch to LoL is there. Big money will pull in big players. If a Korean LoL team is put together and can apply similar levels of dedication to what we see from the top pros in StarCraft, they could well be a force to be reckoned with. EU and NA teams have the headstart in LoL, but the Korean release could upset the balance.