Room for growth: Bwipo believes North American League of Legends is held back by individual mindsets

After veteran support player CoreJJ offered his thoughts on the potential of North American teams in professional League of Legends, another member of Team Liquid has provided his own insight.

In a recent stream, Team Liquid top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau added his personal sentiments to the ongoing conversation regarding the international performance of Western teams compared to Eastern teams in League. Bwipo pinpointed much of this struggle to players as individuals, saying that many of them are missing key components that help them coordinate with a team.

“I feel like what is missing in NA culture is personal accountability…and that people struggle envisioning what their role is responsible for doing in the game,” Bwipo explained on stream. “Personally, I think that the way a great League of Legends team works is by having five individual players that play their roles very well, and play their part in the game. What that part exactly is depends on the draft and the players you have.”

The top laner continued to discuss the impact of individual influence in League, pointing out that when players feel they can do more than they actually can, it often backfires and becomes detrimental to the team. Yet Bwipo took the time to acknowledge that many players flourish offstage; he believes that focusing on the bad points takes away from highlighting great plays, thus making players feel that they haven’t improved.

“Players, when they are playing poorly and getting carried, they don’t spend enough effort to make the people that are carrying feel good about that,” Bwipo said. “I also don’t think there’s enough focus on that from a staff perspective—though that’s just speculation.”

Bwipo acknowledged that these issues plagued Team Liquid throughout most of this year, despite the team appearing to be one of the strongest in the LCS on paper. Fans expressed disappointment at the team’s performance during various parts of the year due to the caliber of the players on the roster, many of whom were veterans with experience across multiple regions.

Liquid ended both the Spring and Summer Splits at the top of the standings, though they were ultimately unable to win a playoff or qualify for this year’s World Championship. Since not qualifying, the team has undergone massive structural changes, announcing the departure of mid laner Bjergsen and ADC Hans sama. The future of Bwipo, Santorin, and CoreJJ remains uncertain.