Although the 2021 LCS Spring Split playoffs are well underway, there are still a few hiccups that are bothering some of the league’s players. Cloud9’s new superstar mid laner Perkz, for example, recently raised complaints around the fact that North America is the only region in the world where the playoffs are being played on League of Legends Patch 11.5 instead of 11.6.
In an interview with Travis Gafford, the 22-year-old phenom said “it doesn’t make a lot of sense” that the league is playing a patch behind since this will delay their ability to improve and prepare for the upcoming 2021 Mid-Season Invitational.
A plethora of changes hit the live servers in Patch 11.6, especially to the mid lane with adjustments to Akali, Sylas, LeBlanc, and a handful of items. Other regions—like the LEC, for example—were given an extra week of downtime before the start of the playoffs so they could play and plan on the new patch.
In North America, however, the playoffs started right after the last weekend of the regular season. As a result, the whole postseason is being played on Patch 11.5, which means that the LCS team that wins the Mid-Season Showdown will now have to go to MSI with limited preparation for the new patch.
Perkz continued to say that “as a pro player, this is a horrible experience,” because instead of being given time to train on the new patch in solo queue and in scrims, they have to continue preparing themselves to compete on an update that’s already outdated. But he also said that he must deal with it because there’s nothing else that can be done.
As a temporary solution, Perkz said it might be more beneficial to avoid spamming too many solo queue games so he can stay focused on the current playoff patch. It’s still an unenviable position for any player to be in, though.
Ultimately, these next couple of months will be a great test of flexibility for whichever team wins the LCS championship since they’ll need to quickly study and practice on a patch that other MSI teams will have had a whole month of extra playing time on.
The 2021 LCS Mid-Season Showdown will continue on Saturday, March 27 with TSM vs. Evil Geniuses.
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Published: Mar 24, 2021 01:08 pm