Why We’re Going to Korea—and Japan‍

We shared today that USA Esports will travel to Korea to compete against the best League of Legends players from Korea and Vietnam. It’s a rare opportunity to observe esports royalty, work closely with and learn from our partner KeSPA (Korea e-Sports Association), provide a once-in-a-lifetime competitive opportunity for developing players, and pilot the USA Esports National Team Development Program (NTDP).

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The NTDP is our pipeline for turning young (and importantly in this case, available) American players into national team players, modeled on USA Hockey’s Version, though the NTDP hasn't officially launched yet. We have been contemplating the rollout, but when Faker calls, what are you going to say? But seriously, that’s what makes this trip fun and interesting to me and USA Esports leadership since it’s a first rep, or pilot, for a program that our President of Esports Operations, Daniel Clerke, has been dreaming about for years. He’ll provide more information about the NTDP at a later date.  

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Needless to say, when this opportunity surfaced recently, we knew we weren’t going to be able to bring the quality of players that we had originally had in place for the Esports Nations Cup, now postponed until 2027. Those players are understandably focused on the League of Legends LCS weekly competitions leading into the LCS playoffs and Worlds qualifications. But Team Korea and Team Vietnam need to prepare for the upcoming Asian Games, where League of Legends shares the spotlight with traditional sports, and they were eager to train and compete against others besides themselves.  

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For U.S. players and coaches, it will be an incredible experience. They are going to play stage matches against the best rosters that Korea and Vietnam can put together, appear on a global broadcast (Disney+), and fly home with film of themselves doing it. A few months ago, some of these players were competing in collegiate matches and now one of them is going to look down the mid lane to see Faker. The others will be battling against Gumayusi, Keria, Zeus, and Canyon. That experience jump doesn't really exist anywhere else in the American system right now, which is kind of the point of the NTDP.  

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We're not alone in seeing the value of providing opportunities for developing players to compete internationally. In fact, Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends, just announced their World Star Challengers Invitational, a first-of-its-kind global Tier 2 tournament, which includes sixteen teams from five regions.  

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So we’re making the trip and many of us will remain in Asia to attend the Asian Games and observe the best example of an esports country-versus-country esports competition that exists today. In our first year of existence, when one door closed (ENC’s one-year postponement), another opened for us. We’ll aim to build something substantial and long-lasting for developing players with this kick-start to our NTDP ambitions.

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- Jesse Bodony, President and CEO USA Esports

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