G2 Esports. SK Telecom T1. They are, respectively, the top dogs of Europe and Korea. If you ask anyone that follows the competitive scene in League of Legends, most fans would agree that these two teams are the two teams to take the trophy in the upcoming 2019 League of Legends World Championship. This is the first year that there's real hype behind Europe, as G2's narrow victory over SKT at MSI earlier this year made the fans hope for a top finish in the upcoming tournament. It also sparked a rivalry between the two regions, as Korea looks for revenge, and EU looking to continue the trend from MSI.  Leading up to Worlds, many fans tuned in to witness the 3rd seed team to qualify for both regions, with more fans tuning into the LEC Regional Finals compared to the LCK.

LEC had almost triple the amount of average viewers watching the Regional Finals. According to the Inven Global Esports Data Lab, the LEC Regional Finals had an average viewership of 103,000~ viewers, with viewers peaking at 175,000~ people. However, the LCK Regional Finals had 57,000~ viewers tuning in at average, with peak viewership of 120,000~ people. 

LCK has shown that it’s not a region that’s as dominant as before due to its recent poor international performances. During a recent interview with CoreJJ from Team Liquid, he states that one of the main reasons why Western teams are going to bootcamp in Europe instead of Korea is because “(scrimming) Korean teams weren’t always the answer.” With more eyes on the LEC to bring the championship trophy home, will they be able to live up to the hype, or will it be a stage for LCK’s redemption? 

※ Please keep in mind that the aforementioned data is only from Twitch.