Language Barriers in Esports
How important is the language for an esports team? After 2014 Worlds, there was a huge wave of Korean imports swarming the different regions in League of Legends. Many of them had difficulties communicating with their teammates, either in English (EU/NA) or in Chinese. In fact, rumours were that some teams based their ingame communication in pings and a few easy calls, something we would expect from soloq.
The language issues are more evident in Europe than in any other region. China and North America have imports, but it’s those imports who need to adapt to the new world they arrive to. In Europe each country has its own language, so either teams use English to communicate or they look for local players to keep their local language. In the LEC (and formerly, in the LCS), same-language teams are scarce. At the dawn of time Gambit, Giants, aAa and Copenhagen Wolves were these non-English teams. Later Roccat, MeetYourMakers and Splyce joined the club, but they’re all exceptions. The trend in League of Legends (and in most of the MOBAs) is to have English as a lingua franca.
Things may change in the future. European Regional Leagues (ERL) are allowing the different countries to develop their players, and through the academies system, they can “easily” join the LEC. In 2020 Team Vitality played some games with 4 French players in its roster: Cabochard, Skeanz, Saken and Steeelback. Schalke 04 will have 3 German players in their roster in 2021 (plus Limit and — possibly — Neon, who come from countries with a significant number of German speakers). Even if these rosters use English during most of the game, they can switch to the other language in clutch situations.
The trend in other games is quite different. In fps such as Counter-Strike or Rainbow 6, most of the European teams use their own national language. This probably happens because communication in these fast-paced games needs to be as fluent as possible. That’s why the newborn Valorant scene is so surprising. None of the teams in First Strike have a common language other than English (though most of the Liquid and SUMN players are British). We watched some “national” teams in the qualifiers, but none of them could earn a spot for First Strike. Will this change once the scene settles up or will Valorant break the language trend in shooters?