The actual reason that the public won’t see: after SK Telecom trampled the competition, Riot Games is kind of tired of Korea owning the League scene, so they come up with alternate international events that mitigate the amount of domination that can be exhibited.
Introducing Rift Rivals: A League of Legends international event where Korea only gets to dominate (collectively) one other region, instead of all of them.
If anyone remembers, Riot tried a No Homers Club before in 2013, when the did the Battle of the Atlantic,* which pitted solely teams from North America versus teams from Europe. Obviously, this was arranged in a manner in which the two regions could compete against each other, without getting shit on by the superior level of competition from Korea, Taiwan and China but mostly Korea, and ultimately it was a fairly lackluster event, with a convoluted and lazy format that Europe ultimately won because their 3-4-5th place teams defeated NA’s 3-4-5, despite the fact that NA’s 1-2 defeated their 1-2.
*a stupid fucking name if I might add, because despite the fact that the Atlantic Ocean is indeed what separates North America from Europe, games would be held in Los Angeles . . . y’know, along the Pacific Ocean.
Regardless, Rito has tried to give it another college try, but this time with a different name, a more developed and engaged League fanbase, and to not shut everyone outside of North America and Europe out, although it’s abundantly clear it’s mostly an excuse to have more NA vs. EU matches.
So this July, League fans will get a week where NA teams will play a few games against some EU teams, while China and Taiwan will collectively be locked in a cage with the Korean juggernauts. And because it makes perfect sense, Australia will have to play against the remainder of Southeast Asia, and then an odd conglomeration of Brazil and Turkey will team up against the Commonwealth of Independent States, whatever that means.
Oh, and Latin America North will play against Latin America South, where Mordekaiser and Teemo will be the most hotly contested picks before the players quit mid-match to steal their physical hardware and run, pawning them off to earn money to pay off cartels.
Ultimately, this is all an elaborate shell scheme so that there can be some NA vs. EU matches, because Rito cares more about their English-speaking audiences and fans, since Asian countries don’t need any help, and because when it comes to actual levels of competition, they’re close enough for there to be legitimate want for bragging rights. As it was in 2013, Europe will probably win Rift Rivals because North America can’t compete with anyone in anything internationally, but there will always be the asterisk at the end that marks them as still being inferior to everyone’s collective Korean League Overlords.
