Why Rift Rivals is Important

By: John Jaskot (JazzEFiddle)

Rivals

Rift Rivals is a mid summer split tournament in which the top three teams of the spring split in each region face off against another region to determine none other then the best team/region in a rival battle. The North American region faces off against the European region and the Korean region vs the Chinese region vs the Taiwan region in a three way battle. The winner goes home with the glory of defeating their rivals. So why is this so important? 

International Play 

The reason this is so important is very simple and it is the title of this section..... International play. 

Winning the world tournament at the end of each season is every teams dream. So why is it so difficult for teams that seem to dominate the regular season to do well at worlds every year? The answer is simple..... you go in blind. During the regular season a team will face off against any individual team in their region 4-6 times in league play. That is only in league play. Aka the games that matter. What some followers or fans might not understand is that every team is playing the counterparts of their region way more then that..... League players are putting hours upon hours of time and training in playing the game in order to perfect their play, or strategy or just a specific champion. So as a team trains they scrimmage each other over and over and over again. This allows for teams to really get to know the others in its region. So if a team is lucky enough to make it to the world stage at the end of the year they are playing a handful of teams that they have played very little or maybe even never at all. This is what makes Rift Rivals so important..... Sure it is super fun to watch teams battle it out for bragging rights as to who is the better Championship Series, but to the players and coaches this tournament means something completely different. It is a chance to play and practice against another regions teams to find out valuable information. What the META might be for that specific region, what champions they are using and banning, what teams are strong and or weak and the reasons why and what is the regions priorities. This information allows for teams to take a hard look into what they can do differently in their own region to prepare themselves for the end goal.... The World Championship!

As for this North American fan who am I rooting for and predicting to win this years Rift Rivals? For those that know me you shouldnt be suprised......