Column: The regional gap is rapidly closing, and good teams playing good Siege is better for the esport

_{Image via Ubisoft}

No one likes to watch a competition when they already know the victor. 

Everyone likes to watch a hotly contested match. Unless you’re some kind of Siege sadist, blowouts are mostly dull, and have to have some kind of narrative or joy wrung out to be enjoyable. 

The past three tier-one competitions have felt mostly done and dusted, at least regionally. A LATAM team was by far and away the favorite to win the competition, there were maybe two or three reasonable choices to take home the titles, and they were nearly always from LATAM. 

Before the LATAM era, there was the G2 era – which was dominated by G2, and if it wasn’t, it was dominated by a team from EU. 

SI 2022 has seen teams from all regions excel and have stellar performances, and teams from all regions choke and fall short. The gap between the regions has never been smaller, and it’s better this way. 

Consider, for example: APAC. APAC has DWG KIA, who are by far and away the favorite to win the event. They’ve played stellar Siege thus far – they haven’t dropped a single map yet. On the other end of the spectrum, Elevate are in the middle of their group, and SANDBOX and CAG are facing group stage elimination. This is balance. There is hope, there are underdogs, there's something for everyone to pull for. 

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, though. LATAM is still very likely the best region – NiP and Team Liquid currently top their groups. But they’ve been pushed to the brink, they’ve lost key maps, they’ve been forced into clutch overtime situations. 

By feel, this is the closest SI ever as the group stage draws to a close. There are a number of teams from various regions that could reasonably lift the hammer – there’s no room to have a bad day against the caliber of this field. 

Siege is better when the options are laid out like a buffet, when there are many options the attackers have to take a site, when the defenders have a lot of strong options to defend. It’s the same with the esport too – fans of all nationalities are invested.