100 Thieves Worlds 2024 loss to Rainbow7 proves the LCS needed to die

100 Thieves lost their first match of Worlds 2024 against Movistar R7, likely one of the only LLA teams that will survive LoL’s Americas restructuring. This loss, among other factors, effectively proves that Riot Games made the right decision to kill off the LCS despite all of the potential downsides.

To preface, the job losses related to teams that have been cut, especially when it comes to how many teams will be left out between CBLOL and the LLA, aren’t good. Esports is a tough industry to make a living in, and Riot cutting both leagues down so heavily will make things that much more difficult.

It’s a shame that it got to this point, and South American fans’ sentiment that their leagues have been killed due to the sins of the LCS is valid.

However, it’s also true that fusing the three leagues into a larger North and South American conference stands to provide a massive boom in viewership and a higher level of competition. While it’s very likely most teams from South America won’t hold a candle to Team Liquid and FlyQuest, the LCS was realistically a two-team region in its last leg.

Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Immortals won’t be missed. They hovered near the bottom for most of their tenure in the LCS. Dignitas and Cloud9 both had stacked rosters that just never came together. Shopify Rebellion’s debut has been endlessly disappointing, and NRG’s exit isn’t a surprise considering it was reportedly always the plan despite their 2023 miracle run.

As for 100 Thieves, they’re a young team. Other than River, none of these players have played in an international tournament. It’ll take time for them to develop, but 100 Thieves is building their roster the right way. They’re not bad, they just need experience.

Rainbow7, meanwhile, is a roster stacked with veterans. Summit, unsurprisingly, is still one of the best top laners in the world in terms of laning. Ceo and Lyonz in the bot lane are one of the most dominant duos the LLA has ever had, and they both have been absolutely crushing since the start of 2023.

Oddie, who started his career in 2013, is up there with Faker in terms of longevity and his veteran leadership is what you want in a role like jungle.

While mid laner Keine may have looked like a weak spot considering he didn’t even have a team for the first portion of 2024, he’s been an absolute star for R7 since he replaced Lava. And, just like is common in the LCS, both Summit and Keine are Korean import players. Lava was also an import before he was replaced.

The LCS isn’t the only League that relies a bit too much on imports.

If you were to take off the label of LCS and LLA between these two teams, 100 Thieves getting crushed by Movistar R7 wouldn’t seem like an upset. It’s a team of fresh talent that got bested by veteran players at the top of their region. Why are we treating it like some big, unpredictable result?

The broadcast, a large portion of creators, professional analysts, and likely even you, the person who’s reading this, had 100T taking it. Not because of what Rainbow7 is as a team compared to 100 Thieves, but because it’s easy to look at a major region and expect them to be better by default.

The death of the LCS has been a long time coming

The reality is the LCS has been dying for a while. If Srtty rotting in free agency despite running the entire region in solo queue for years straight while Cloud9 overspends on a roster that had little to no synergy didn’t show that the LCS has deep-seated issues, nothing will. You could have built a top four LCS roster at the start of 2024 by spending less than half of what C9 likely dished out for Jojo alone, and a culture of perpetual overspending has the league’s biggest teams eating themselves alive.

For the record, I believe 100 Thieves’ approach to building around future talents is the right one. Every team playing to win it all is how esports got into this mess in the first place. If four orgs overspend to win and only one trophy exists, then how in the hell are you supposed to sustain a league?

What Disguised Toast told me over a year ago still rings true; LCS teams have absolutely no clue how to make content and market their players for the most part. Winning isn’t the only way to make money and build a fandom in esports.

South American fans have a level of passion for the esport that most people in North America just don’t. Their teams know it, too, and some of the biggest orgs in South America have followings that dwarf NA orgs. The region generally has a much better understanding of how to use their passionate fandom to not only stay alive, but to thrive. Rain or shine, viewers tune in to root for their countrymen. The same can’t be said of the LCS.

That said, one of the biggest concerns in transitioning to this structure was that NA would trounce South America and the competition between both regions would be one-sided. However, those who watched Americas Challengers 2024 would know that Tier 2 teams from the LLA and CBLOL were on par with or better than NA teams, with paiN Gaming’s academy team taking it all over the NA rep in Fear x Starforge.

What’s more, the match between Rainbow7 and 100 Thieves at Worlds was not clean League of Legends. Both teams made a ton of mistakes. But it was also incredibly entertaining. Whether you’re watching the broadcast on its own or you’re watching a co-streamer like IWDominate break down in real time watching the match, it’s a great viewing experience. “Good” League of Legends isn’t always fun to watch, and the level of competition, to some extent, only matters as long as every game isn’t a one-sided stomp.

The LCS had a lot of positive change through 2024, and it’s sad to see it go. But this transition has the potential to be a step in the right direction for competitive League of Legends. By lighting a fire under the remaining teams and giving them a regional rivalry to contend with, there’s potential for the Americas to come back better than ever both in viewership and the level of competition.

Where many LCS fans felt despair at seeing 100 Thieves lose, I felt hope.

Hope that Mark Zimmerman and the rest of the folks at Riot can follow through and make this a change for the better. Creating a more sustainable ecosystem for the teams that are still around can serve as a solid foundation, one that can build both regions into something better than what we had before.

But, to move on to something new, the LCS had to die.