North American esports just earned an important W over Europe

This story about global esports rivalries, boiled down, in 2:27 minutes.

What’s the fuss?

An international esports tournament saw a major victory from a North American team over Europe, igniting a years-long debate of which country is better at esports. North America might have won the battle, but the war isn’t over yet.

The situation

Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, is known for its natural beauty and a bustling nightlife scene.

• From May 24th to May 30th however, Reykjavik is known for hosting Valorant Masters, a global tournament that sees the best Valorant teams from around the world brawl over a $600,000 prize pool and a chance to compete in an even bigger tournament later in the year that will crown the best Valorant team in the world.
• With concurrent viewership crossing half a million worldwide, the level of hype here even rivals traditional sporting events.

Undoubtedly the biggest match so far had been North America’s Sentinels versus Europe’s Fnatic — not only because both these teams are fan favourites, but it represented a testament of which country was better at the competitive shooter.

• In the end, Sentinels managed to pull out the win with a 2 game lead over their European rival.
• What followed was an outpouring of celebration (and trash talk) all across the Internet, but it may be too early for North America to rejoice just yet.

Boiling it down

Although many rightly believe that Asia is the mecca of esports, the industry is also very strong in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

• The major esports presence of both regions has resulted in a seemingly life-long debate between fans of which country is better at esports.
• Although the answer is different between games and is somewhat opinionated in nature, the general consensus is that Europe is the more dominant force, especially considering many staple esports titles such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
• European esports fans and players haven’t been so mute about their successes, which is why many have called this North American victory long overdue.

This tournament is also a big deal because it is a LAN (offline) event, meaning that opposing teams are competing in the same venue socially distanced.

• Due to the pandemic, previous esports tournaments have been done remotely with matches being played over the Internet.
• As you can imagine, technical issues have arisen, which has led to botched matches and excuses for losing teams.
• With offline events, many of these issues are eradicated, meaning that Sentinels’ victory was no fluke and almost impossible to dispute by any non-believer.

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Originally published at https://www.boilitdownnews.com.