For Golden Guardians support Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, LCS pros just aren't working hard enough to get better at League of Legends. The Korean player, who's played in NA for several seasons now, has called out fellow LCS players, saying that “only a few people are playing Champion's Queue,” the new high-elo server that Riot implemented to give pros a better solo queue experience. They should be “spamming the game,” Olleh argued in a rant on his Twitch stream on Tuesday, March 15. He went on to say that he just doesn't understand why not everyone is making the most of the exclusive server.

Champion's Queue takes off, then flops quickly

Initially, Champion's Queue was Riot's response to the LCS pros' complaints about the state of NA solo queue. As a practice environment, the high elos are just terrible, with many players not taking it seriously (compared to the likes of LPL and LCK, for example) and queue times being disastrously long sometimes. Those complaints have been going on for years, with analysts and figures around the scene like MonteCristo often attributing this poor environment as one of the reasons contributing to NA's lackluster performances at international showings.

With Champion's Queue implemented this season as an invite-only server for LCS pros and players in the amateur scene, NA hopefuls thought we might now see an improvement in the region and get to see higher quality games as well. However, while there was definitely initial hype in the server, that interest has quickly died off.

According to Olleh, more LCS pros have stopped logging on to play, particularly when it became clear that it would be hard to reach the top of the leaderboard. Riot had implemented a decent sized prize pool for the top 10 per split, running a month long, with three splits per season. In total, that would be six splits over two seasons alongside the LCS Spring and Summer schedules, for a whopping $400,000 over the calendar year. The top player per split would earn themself US$12,000, plus bonuses for consistent players atop the leaderboard.

But as early as the first split, “literally only 20, 30 people [were] playing,” Olleh lamented. “The same people only.” Olleh himself had finished second in the leaderboard for the first split with 800 LP, earning $8,000 behind Evil Geniuses mid laner Jojopyun. There were only three LCS pros in the top 10 for that split (see the full list here).

GG Olleh questions LCS pros' drive to practice, get better

The support player went on to say that the cash prize shouldn't even be the deciding factor or biggest motivator to join Champion's Queue. Olleh said that the pros should still play “for practice” and to “get better” — otherwise, Champion's Queue would be pointless.

“I want everyone in Champions Queue spamming the game. 12pm to 5pm is scrims, after 5pm you are free to do whatever. What are you guys doing after 5pm, 6pm?” he called out.

The Golden Guardians star also questioned the work ethic of other players, wondering why no one was grinding as hard and trying to create an optimal practice environment. Olleh compared the scenario to the LCK and their longstanding success in the scene, citing how “grinding hard is normal in Korea” but it was “so weird” in NA—like the concept was foreign here.

Of course, that sentiment isn't anything new. The League community has known for a long time that the esports culture or solo queue environment in KR and NA are just two different beasts altogether. NA definitely values having free time to do other stuff more, while players have very strict schedules in KR and everyone's playing solo queue even after scrims or stage games. Newer pros who have just arrived in the region, like Cloud9's Berserker who was on T1's Challengers team, also previously shared he was surprised about how different practice went, in terms of hours spent.

For Olleh who's been in the region for a long time, this shouldn't be anything surprising, although perhaps still disappointing. Before Champion's Queue came around, you might be able to chalk it off to other players in high elos making the solo queue experience a disaster. But as it's turning out, even Champion's Queue isn't providing the practice environment that they need because not enough people are participating in it.

What is the value of Champion's Queue?

Olleh also compared the situation to studying hard in a good or bad school. “If you are studying in really good school, they study all the time. Studying a lot is normal thing in good schools,” he explained, implying that the good environment was in Korea. But then if you are “studying hard in a shitty school”, meaning grinding hard in NA, “they (other LCS pros) [would] see you [as if you are] stupid.”

“To have better environment for practice in North America, everyone should work harder,” Olleh asserted.

But while Champion's Queue was clearly founded to help NA pros get better, is it actually delivering what is needed? Even at the start of the server, it was clear that not everyone would put in the same amount of time — it's been true since time immemorial, and solo queue has rarely had anything to do with results on stage.

Cloud9, currently the top team in the standings, had the lowest combined practice in CQ from their main roster players a few weeks ago. It probably also helps that they have an internal scrim practice environment with their Academy squad (plus Zven and now Sven), making solo queue less of a big deal for them to keep their mechanics in check or to try out different matchups and builds.

Fans who have been watching pros stream Champion's Queue have also witnessed the many hurdles involved in queueing up. The process just isn't streamlined — it's tedious to queue up on Discord and wait for everybody to load into the custom game lobby in the right order. C9 top lane star Summit, in his first and only stream so far, had to wait over 30 minutes to get into a game.

It's an unfortunate cycle: the lack of people playing means there'll probably be long queue times for certain roles, the long queue times dissuade pros from playing, pros don't want to play or don't see the value in it and so the queue times stay long. Evidently, Riot or the LCS teams will have to move now to encourage better participation rates or try to fix up the system.