We're all familiar with the "NA > EU" meme, but Riot's behavior regarding the EU LCS of late has made some fans wonder whether or not it's a joke born more from the truth than anything else.
For the last couple of years, the European LCS has been subjected to substantial changes in how games are played. First came best-of-two matches - as if that wasn't going to lead to viewer dissatisfaction - and then came the transition to group play, which has its own host of problems. Not least among these is that teams are not guaranteed to play twice every weekend. This means that the EU LCS has to take a full extra week just to wrap up their regular season and reduces the amount of time that teams have to prepare for playoffs.
On top of that, the EU Promotion Tournament is being shoved into the same weekend as playoffs and has been split across two weeks. While this arguably means a higher quality of play between the Challenger and LCS teams, it also makes the viewing experience much worse for the average fan.
Meanwhile, the North American LCS has avoided all of these changes, save the switch from best-of-one matches to best-of-three. How they've managed to avoid Riot's experimentation is unclear, though it might have something to do with Riot's base of operations being in southern California.
The practical upshot of all of this is that the EU LCS viewing experience feels subpar when compared to its North American counterpart. It's subject to constant change and beholden to questionable experimentation, while the NA scene has continued to truck along as usual. At the end of the day, there's no reason this should be happening - both regions should be subject to the same experimental changes.
To be frank, the reason this might be happening is that Riot doesn't want to do games throughout the week. Keeping the casts centered on the weekend helps drive viewship and gives their shoutcasters and analysts some much-needed time off. However, it should be clear that the situation is untenable. No one wants to watch dual casts or have to do math to figure out which teams are playing when - we just want to watch professional League of Legends. If 1-2 matches were played each night throughout the week, it would give the viewship a chance to see every game without having to deal with any of the unpleasantness of the current system. Granted, it's more work for the casting team, but ultimately leads to a better experience for this viewer.
Even if Riot continue to center their games on the weekend, they need to improve the EU LCS viewing experience. Removing the group system and requiring every team to play twice a week is a good start - and honestly, if dual casts are required, then so be it. It also gives the EU Promotion Tournament as much time in the limelight as the NA tourney, and grants the pros a full two weeks to prepare for the playoffs. This just leads to better play overall, and a better viewing experience for the fans.
You can keep your memes - I just want "NA = EU" to be the reality of things.
