LoL: Olleh criticizes lack of playing time in Champions Queue games from North American players

Golden Guardians support Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung has criticised League of Legends Championship Series players for their lack of time in Champions Queue games.

The South Korean pro insisted that professional players, especially those who compete in the North American part of the league, should “spam the game till 1 a.m.” on the invite-only League of Legends lobby.

“Only a few people are playing Champions Queue,” he said on Twitch on Tuesday. “WTF are you guys doing… It’s my question for everyone.”

Ongoing issue

Olleh argued that Champions Queue numbers significantly decreased since the opening of the invite-only League lobbies earlier in February. The players did show a high interest but the number of players logging in plummeted as the prize of $12,000 per split and $25,000 per three-month season had been becoming harder to get. The trend, sadly, has continued, even accelerated, until today.

⁠The end of the closed League queue’s first split ended on March 8. Olleh complained that there were “literally only 20, 30 people playing. The same people only”.

The Champions Queue was established by Riot Games in order to help North American League of Legends professional players practice at a higher level of difficulty. The cash prizes offered by the West Coast-based server, spread across the year, amount to $400,000.

“Support was getting less games than other roles,” Olleh said in a VOD, available only to his subscribers on Twitch.

“So when I had 80 games, [Jojopyun] or Kumo had like 150 games. but as you know the point system is win [equals to 10 points], lose [equals to minus five points]. If you have 50 percent win rate anyway, you are winning if you have more games. This was kinda unfair to me.”

Olleh, however, the players should not be motivated by the money to grind hard. He argued that professional players should play “for practice, to get better”.

“Why do you need money [or] rewards to be passionate or to practice?” Olleh said. “I want everyone in Champions Queue spamming the game. 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. is scrims, after 5 p.m. you are free to do whatever. What the fuck are you guys doing after fucking 5 p.m., 6 p.m.?

“To have better environment for practice in North America, everyone should work harder. If you are studying in really good school, they study all the time. Studying a lot is normal thing in good schools. [On the other hand], if you study hard in [a] shitty school, they see you like a stupid.”

He added that “Grinding hard is normal in Korea. Grinding hard is so special to NA. This is so weird”.

In the first Champions Queue split, Olleh himself came out second, earning him 800LP throughout the opening month. He bagged home $8,000 while Evil Geniuses’ Jojopyun came out first and brought home $12,000 with a 63 percent win rate for over 200 games.

The second split of the queues has recently started. Cloud9 jungler Malice is currently leading with 105LP, tying with Team Liquid’s CoreJJ.

Cloud9 is currently leading the standings. They, however, produced the owest combined practice from their roster for the past few weeks.