The Never Closing Gap: Why the West can’t win against the East at LoL Worlds

G2 lost against TES in the quarterfinals of the League of Legends World Championship 2025. With that, there were no Western teams remaining in the LoL Worlds Knockout stage. This means that by the time the next opportunity comes around, five entire years will have passed without a European or American team reaching the LoL Worlds semifinals. So, why is it that the West can never win?

G2 Esports and FlyQuest, the hopes of the West

The gap between the West and the East has been a notion since 2013. But over these years, that gap has changed. Europe and America have definitely improved in certain areas. So, to start off with the positive, let’s look at what they’ve done right.

Earlier in Worlds history, Western players were often outclassed mechanically. Korean players were seen as prodigies on the assassins, marksmen, and flashy fighters. And when Febiven managed to solo kill Faker twice at the 2015 MSI, it was an unthinkable feat.

Over time, the Koreans hit a ceiling on that front. Some of the long-time star players even started getting worse, while the best Western players caught up. And now, the West can rival them in lane, which allows them to… play the game properly. A good start.

G2, then FlyQuest, particularly, also broke the status quo by finding the metas and the strategies that work for them. A major point of inertia for the West was to always try to copy the Koreans. This means always being one step behind them. Now, these two teams have found their own way to play the game, one that suits them. This works well in some cases, but in others, it tends to backfire. Still, it’s always better than just following.

And unfortunately, G2 and FlyQuest are the standout Western teams in this aspect. Most of the other teams still do not dare to experiment and find their own strategies.

Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

The rise of the West

In 2018 through 2020, these improvements culminated in the West being able to really challenge the East. In fact, at Worlds 2018, MSI 2019, and Worlds 2019, Europe went further than Korea three times in a row. And so did NA in the mentioned 2018 Worlds and 2019 MSI.

In 2018, the West took the world by storm by eliminating Korea in quarterfinals, with GenG going out in groups and Cloud9 going 3-0 against Afreeca Freecs in quarterfinals. This opened the door to a brand new story, as for the first time since 2012, Korea wouldn’t win Worlds. And with three Western teams in the semifinals, hope was at an all-time high.

Team Liquid and G2 repeated this feat at the 2019 MSI. In the Knockout stage, G2 beat T1 and TL got rid of iG, and the finals was a Western-only clash. And at Worlds 2019, G2 faced T1 again, this time entering as the favorites, and the LEC representative beat them after having already taken out Damwon.

By that time, Fnatic and G2 had taken those learnings, and also started outperforming Korea in terms of teamfights, side lanes management, and mastery of the meta. They didn’t hesitate to punish the mistakes they spotted, they tried forcing them, and they played knowing that they could win and weren’t underdogs.

And yet, MSI 2019 was the only title that a Western team would claim. Worlds 2018 and Worlds 2019 still ended in tragedy for NA and EU. Why?

A matter of fundamentals

As of today, China and Korea seem to be on even footing with the best Western teams when it comes to laning and general mechanics.

But EU and NA have no clue what to do with objectives! And there, the LCP is no better, either. The 2025 Worlds were a good example: Getting an early lead wasn’t particularly troublesome for these teams. But, to convert it into a win? No, you could in fact reliably bet on them to throw it away.

Objectives setup

Western teams have a poor objective setup. They get caught while setting up vision, they don’t understand where the opponents are positioning and don’t make proper use of their flank or front to back. And, with the exception of FlyQuest, they don’t know which objectives to contest and which ones to graciously concede and trade.

Sometimes, the teams don’t even think about getting the objectives. They’ll get picks for the sake of picks, without transitioning them. That’s why the leads accrued are so fragile, and how Eastern teams so easily come back afterwards.

Image Source: Riot Games / LoL Esports via X (@LoLEsports)

A problem of competitivity

Besides the objectively weak objective plays, FlyQuest, G2, and CFO are facing weak competition in their regions. They’re playing against teams that aren’t as competent at upping the pace and at punishing mistakes. That’s in no small part thanks to the lovely owners or former owners of some Western organizations that tried to ensure the other teams in their regions would remain weaker.

After 2020, G2 prevented Perkz from going to other good European teams. Specifically, when they sold him off to Cloud9, the latter accepted a clause forbidding them from letting him join Fnatic afterwards. All of this was due to Ocelote not wanting FNC to be able to challenge them. They later pulled the same move for Rekkles – a clause in his contract allowed G2 to keep him benched for minimum wage, and they placed a buyout of 1.5 million euro on it. As such, he ended up not being able to play in the LEC for the next year, and went to play for KC in the LFL.

• See also: 2026 LEC format explained

This gets us teams that are used to playing with more leeway and less pressure, an environment Korea and China will not give them. And speaking of environment, the West is also known to have issues with coaches and analysts, and players who don’t know how to listen to them. Wadid, a former LEC support turned streamer and LCK analyst, explained that “too many coaches in Europe are just there for the sake of being there. They aren’t contributing that much.” A few former pro players became great, smart coaches, but they’re a minority – while in Korea, even coaches for the Challenger league need to be Grandmaster or higher.

He added that systemically speaking, European players had too much of an ego to genuinely listen to their coaches, something the East would never let slide. Which makes sense when many coaches aren’t up to the task, but creates a vicious circle where even the most qualified ones can’t make enough of an impact.

Last but not least… Atakhan. Where the Olympics have javelin throw as a main competition, Atakhan throw is the sport of choice for EU and NA. Regionally, we’ve seen game after game be passed along that way. But internationally, when the East doesn’t return the favor, then that’s just a one-sided disadvantage.

Western teams simply do not know when and how to take Atakhan.

Featured image source: Riot Games / LoL Esports via X (@LoLEsports)