Those who follow competitive gaming might not be shocked to find out that, more often than not, the highest level of competitors tends to come out of the east…ern hemisphere. Asia. Specifically, depending on the game, between Korea, China or Japan. This isn’t to say there aren’t talented gamers in Europe, other parts of Asia, South America or North America, but it is safe to say that the upper echelon of gaming typically exists in southeast Asia, and this is punctuated by just how often times gamers or teams of gamers from this region win global tournaments and international competitions.
Although I’ll ultimately get back to primarily talking about League, this doesn’t apply to just League. Overwatch, Counterstrike, Street Fighter; anything that is played competitively, for legitimate prize money, notoriety and business advancement, usually the best players of these properties are coming out of Asian countries. Sure, there will occasionally be upstarts from different regions from time to time, but on the wider scale of the small competitive gaming history, it’s typically been some Asian guys hoisting trophies the vast majority of competitions.
One cliché that’s come into very popular fashion in the competitive gaming scene these days are the wide number of professional gamers from North America and/or Europe that flock to South Korea for weeks at a time to play the same game they play at home, but on the Korean servers, against Korean competition. The logic behind this stems from the notion that you’ll only be as good as the strength of your competition, and if Korea is where the strongest competition exists, then Korea is the place pro gamers need to go play.
The best part about it is that all these non-Asian professionals call these Korean excursions “bootcamping.”