The more you look at Western vs Korean training schedules , the more you ’ ll find that Korean teams carry the notion that the success of the team stands above the well-being of the players at all times . This of course has negative effects as well : More and more often allogations arise about organisations treating the players in very inhumane ways . Be it the huge Starcraft 2 matchfxing scandal of 2015 , the AHQ match fixing scandal , which led to the suicide attempt of their former ADC Promise , or the recent allogations of the Korean Overwatch team “ Mighty Storm ” treating their players in inhumane ways , the list of Korean eSport scandals goes on . The bigger the competition , the bigger the corruption . A sad rule of thumb , that eSports isn ’ t free of .
Lastly , let ’ s look at Football as another example of cultural differences having a massive impact : In the USA , Football ( or as they call it “ soccer ”) is viewed as a girls sport , whereas men are encouraged to play American Football or Basketball . Subsequently , the US ’ womens team is one of the , if not the best football team in the World , whereas the Men ’ s team is happy about making the Quarterfinals at best . All the previously mentioned factors , cultural influences and the subsequent amount or lack of monetary support in comparison to other sports have a huge impact on this . US citizens aren ’ t naturally worse at football than Brasilians , Germans or Italians , it ’ s their culture that rewards other areas of interest more , resulting in a huge discrepancy of skill level . The same applies for eSports and Korea vs the West .
I hope this article helped you to understand as to why South Korea in particular tends to outperform all other regions when it comes to most eSport disciplines . Simply put , the level of citizens playing , the monetary support and the amount of dedication is unmatched by the Western regions , and there is little to argue that this is about to change , unless Western players too are willing to train for 14-16 hours a day . What we as fans can do , is to support the growth of the professional scene whenever we can , by tuning in whenever there is an international tournament like IEM , MSI or Worlds , and to voice our support during the regular splits as well . And maybe , just maybe , one day we ’ ll see another Western team lifting the Summoner ’ s Cup . A man can dream .