LS on MSI 2022 being played on 35 ping: ‘This is putting basically almost all the regions at a disadvantage’

Last week, Riot Games revealed that the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, which is scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea, will be played on a server with approximately 35 ping due to Royal Never Give Up, the LPL representative, not being able to attend the event in person. LS, a former League of Legends coach and caster, strongly opposes the idea.

In his eyes, this requirement will be disadvantageous for every participant in the tournament, with the expectation of RNG, who are used to playing solo queue in an environment similar to this nature, he explained in a recent video on YouTube.

“This is putting basically almost all the regions at a disadvantage. A lot of Chinese players play on [the] Korean server,” LS said. “That is their solo queue, in addition to the fact that they play their scrims. And when they end up doing that, they are naturally having ping. The Korean server, as well as LCK tournament, is played on seven ping, which is effectively almost LAN.”

LS expressed that these conditions will be beneficial for RNG’s roster, who are used to playing both solo queue and scrims on around 35 ping, contrary to LCK teams or other squads traveling to South Korea to compete at MSI 2022.

T1, however, are at the biggest disadvantage, he said, due to the LCK team almost never playing with ping this high. LS also recalled that Riot did a similar thing in the Mid-Season Cup in 2020, and, as a result, “there were a lot of people who complained about the MS [ping] difference.”

Since Riot’s announcement, various comments have been made about the ping situation. “Some of the comments are saying that, well, if you make LPL forfeit their spot, that’s not really a tournament, I agree,” he explained. That being said, though, “In every single way, LCK is at a disadvantage, he added.

To prove his point about ping, LS showed a slowed-down video of Ezreal firing out some skill shots, highlighting the difference in animation time between nine ping and 35 ping. The difference was drastic.

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