The last team to make the North American League Championship Series finals that wasn't named Team SoloMid, Cloud9 or Counter Logic Gaming was Good Game University, in the spring of 2013. Actually, that's the only time in NA LCS history when the final wasn't some combination of the Big Three.
Hear me out: I enjoy TSM vs. CLG as much as the next person. I love the rivalries. I love seeing the biggest brands in North America duke it out in front of sold-out crowds in sports arenas. The loudest crowd I've ever been in attendance for wasn't a Worlds final or some far-off international event -- it was last year for the summer final in Toronto. TSM and C9 played for another NA LCS title, and the Air Canada Centre shook when the teams were announced. Long-lasting narratives and rivalries are great for esports.
But we need change. We just do. It's been seven seasons since GGU shocked the League of Legends world, and we're in need of a new finalist in the NA LCS finals. Not only for parity's sake, but for North America as a whole; the last two years, NA has sent the same three teams to Worlds, and the region has zero game wins in the bracket stage to show for it. In 2015, none of the NA finals trio made it to the quarterfinals, and last year, C9 squeaked into the top eight before getting rolled over by eventual finalist Samsung Galaxy in Chicago.
Competition brings the best out of teams. Heading into the 2017 summer playoffs, we are in a similar position like every split: TSM, C9, and CLG are in the top 6, and there are three other clubs hoping to be the team that destroys the cycle of TSM vs. C9/CLG finals that make up almost the entirety of the NA LCS legacy.
When you think about the other teams outside of those three, almost everything in the playoffs is negative. Sure, Immortals came in C9-like as a rookie organization in its first year, but regular season-success in 2016 has been almost forgotten. Now, when you see the 2016 Immortals brought up, it's usually about how the club failed to live up to expectations. Immortals is not alone.
Dignitas? Throwing at Baron.
Team Envy? Cannon fodder.
Echo Fox? Four seasons, still no playoff appearances.
Team Liquid? Forever fourth, until it wasn't.
Phoenix1? Zero to hero before going back to a zero this split.
FlyQuest? That team Hai is on.
Every team outside of the top 3 is either irrelevant or has a negative, joking stigma to them. Immortals, the best out of the bunch, was questioned all season long by Riot commentators because the team failed to live up to expectations in the playoffs last season. How can any team in the top 3 be considered a serious threat when they haven't done anything to disrupt the status quo in three years?
The 2017 summer playoffs are a battle of six teams all vying for the domestic crown and a direct seed at Worlds, but it's more than that. It is the established trio of three clubs that want to be taken seriously. Instead of Immortals being brushed off, a finals appearance would change its identity in the eyes of fans, casters and press forever. Same with Dignitas, who has been in the NA LCS since the first season and has never gotten close to making a final. Team Envy, as the No. 6 seed, could gain the respect it's been searching for as a League organization if it can pull off the major upset and knock out CLG in the first round.
If the final is once again TSM, CLG, or C9, nothing will change in North America. Maybe Immortals or Dignitas will steal away the final Worlds spot from one of them, but the domestic scene will still be where it was back in the summer of 2013 when C9 first entered the scene. Dignitas will still be that team that throws at Baron, Immortals will still be that team that played Lucian top in a top lane tank meta, and the rest of the teams will be considered nothing more than background characters in the online television show about three video game teams living in Los Angeles who always end up facing each other in final round.
In South Korea, Incredible Miracle/Longzhu Gaming changed its identity forever by winning the LCK regular season and advancing directly to the league final. It might very well lose in said final to either KT Rolster or an angry SK Telecom T1, but by even making the final, its history as a team, once marred by losses and embarrassments, is now reborn.
TSM, C9, and CLG? They're just fine how things are.
Immortals, Dignitas, and Team Envy, on the other hand, want the NA LCS to change.
These next two weeks, we'll see who wins out in the end.