This October, the unfathomable finally happened: Korea’s League of Legends powerhouse SKT T1 was defeated by Samsung Galaxy in the finals at the World Championship. Wresting global dominance from the hands of SKT was an incredible feat, but it conjured more questions than it answered. For me, two major questions lingered: 1. For this young of a game, has SKT actually demonstrated an uncharacteristic dominance over the rest of the world? 2. What does that mean moving forward?
There is almost no doubt that SKT is the best organization to play League of Legends so far, and their dominance through massive roster and meta changes is awe-inspiring. They have been doing something special, but is it rare for a team to exert this much dominance over their competitors when the game or league is in its infancy? When we look at some of the major sports leagues in the United States, we see that SKT’s “early-league” (seven year time-span chosen for direct comparison with LoL) dominance may not be unique:
Of course, there is not a perfect comparison across these different leagues or even sports. Olympic Nordic skiing has very little in common with baseball in the MLB, but there remains a common trend nonetheless: when a new league or competition is created, one or two teams commonly dominate everyone else. In this way, League of Legends and many other e-sports are not abnormal, as Samsung, SKT and other Korean teams rule the arena, but what happens next? Will these teams keep winning forever?
This is a very important question, but there’s good news for those who think Korea will win the World Championship indefinitely: it probably will not happen. Looking around the four major sports leagues charted above, we see much more parody today than we did then. While teams can still exert dominance over a league, the dominant team often changes, and they do not win as consistently as one would expect.
Even Olympic Cross Country Skiing, which was compared in the chart because a Scandinavian country won the first 11 gold medals in a row (Spanning 48 years!), was eventually won by another region’s country. So yes, it is possible that Korean teams, and maybe even just SKT and Samsung will be your world champions for the foreseeable future. I also don’t want to downplay the incredible display of command by SKT and the other Korean teams. It is plainly incredible. But the scene will eventually change as the world scene develops and teams become more stable in other regions.
NA and EU fans can rejoice in the future, but maybe don’t hold your breath.