At least in the LEC there's only one Astralis.
We're a few days into MSI now and the number of memorable games is, erm, one or two?
If I wanted to watch unbalanced BO1's between two wildcard teams, I'd just watch TSM games. In fact, that's what gave me the idea for this article.
Bedge
Saturdays are a treat. I get to rock out of bed in the early afternoon, lose some ELO and then sit back and enjoy 10 BO1s with the LEC and LCS being back-to-back.
At MSI, I wake up to the shrill sound of the alarm, in the middle of the week, to watch six BO1s with only two being worth watching. That's fairly true in the regular season too, but it doesn't feel like a job. 8am!
Yes, grand finals are hype. Seeing G2 vs T1 at MSI 2019 was amazing, and TL beating IG was super cool too. Those BO5 moments, the big moments - they're fantastic, and better than anything regular season can bring.
But for those highs, you pay the price of having terrible lows. EU vs NA at 8am CET, watching OCE teams after all the good players moved to NA, watching the LPL seed mow down teams like that scene in The Expendables with the AA12.
They even took Sjokz from us.
The highs of regular season aren't anywhere near as good, but the overall level is much better. Every weekend you get three days worth of games, you can wake up early to watch LPL or LCK if you want more, there's loads of it.
MSI is just a whole lot less fun.
Not only that, the casters are on site during regular season. Watching casters try and bring hype from across the world when they've just woken up is painful; and it's not at all their fault.
I genuinely had more fun watching any random weekend of LEC/LCS than I've had in the whole of MSI so far. Yes, playoffs might make up for it - but if there's a single weird draw or upset, the whole tournament will come down to one BO5 that doesn't fix the problems of the event.
And please don't get me started on the f***ing ping.
