OCE Decrease in Player Count Affects LOL Community

Oceania houses one of the many minor regions in competitive League of Legends, the Oceanic Pro League. Despite the region showing great results in improving for the past years, there seems to be a report that the number of players in the OCE decreased over the past few weeks. However, what is causing the decrease in player count in the region despite having more playtime due to the pandemic situation insolating everybody in the comfort of their homes where they are free to play video games?

Sad amumu fan art sitting alone because of OCE decrease in players
OCE Decrease hits the OPL really hard!

Riot OCE Server Change

Back in April, a change in Riot’s OCE servers has caused a wide array of complaints coming from players and even some Riot Games’ staff. The players are reportedly getting extremely high pings ranging from 80ms to 360ms compared to the normal 8ms to 20ms they are used to having in the region. This might be one of the many reason why the player count in the OCE decreased over the past few weeks.

Despite this, the OPL itself is looking healthy and is improving indefinitely with the teams showing up in recent games. Pentanet.GG’s win over the favorite team in Legacy Esports showed that the region is definitely on the higher bracket among the wildcard teams. The presence of competition through teams who are always neck and neck assures that there is always something interesting to look forward to in the OPL.

May 2020 server maintenance announcement
Riot please fix our OCE servers!

Will the OCE decrease permanently affect the region?

No. The decrease in players comes from the inactivity due to the recent troubles with the region’s servers. After Riot Games tackles this issue, the players will most like come back. Especially since the pandemic is still affecting numerous parts of the world, confining people to their homes with nothing much to do. Eventually, a lot of players will be going back to the game with a renewed sense of wanting to play it.

Remedy to the OCE Decrease in Player Count

With the OCE decrease in player count, now is the best time to play in the region if you’re an aspiring League of Legends pro. The lessening of players means that there will be a huge gap in scouting for talented players. As the season is nearing halfway through its end, it won’t be long until esports organizations start looking towards the Challenger Series where players are competing for the top spot to reap the end of season rewards.

OPL pro players in playing on stage
Show your support the OPL now

If you want to take advantage of this situation, it’s best that you buy an Level 30 unranked OCE smurf to jumpstart your career in playing for the region. Every second counts when climbing, so it’s a good idea not to go through the horrible grind to level 30 by playing a lot of normal and AI games in the process. With the amount of freebies included with the account, it’s no doubt that your time climbing the ladder is made easier.

What are affected by the player count decrease?

You can expect that queue timers in your games will be a bit longer than it usually is. The server’s ping will be unstable at times but you won’t be alone in suffering this fate as it will be server-wide dilemma. In Riot’s efforts to fix these problems, there will be a lot of downtime between patch fixes and maintenance issues which will take somewhere from an hour to an entire day.

The State of League of Legend’s Oceanic Pro League

As the OPL is nearing the end of its 2nd round robin, Legacy Esports still remain at the top spot with a record of 9W-3L followed by long time rivals in the Dire Wolves at 8W-4L. With the stake of the games getting higher as the World Championships is seen on the horizon, each team is trying their best to get a shot in qualifying for the Play-In stage and represent their region in the biggest esports tournament of all time.

Champion select of Dire Wolves vs Legacy in the OPL
The OPL shows competitiveness as Dire Wolves defeat Legacy

As a lot of fans around the world watch the major regions battle it out for supremacy, there is a lot of them that miss out on the exciting games happening across the world. Each region has become a lot stronger since they’ve clashed back in Worlds 2019 so there is definitely some stuff to look forward to. It is always a great idea not to count out the up and coming professional challengers from the Oceanic Pro League.

Showing Support to the OCE Community

The OCE players have always been passionate about playing League of Legends. This is why they have dedicated a lot of their time in the creation of their League of Legends pro series in the OPL and OCS. New players are being incorporated in the different organizations present in the league but only few remain each year. Everybody has a chance to become a pro but it becomes quite difficult to remain relevant as a minor region.

To support the OCE Community, being able to acknowledge their presence and achievements in international tournaments definitely give them a boost of confidence. After all, pro players and organizations have made significant achievements such as one of the region’s star player, Pabu, getting invited to several all-star events and even taking 2nd place in the All-Star 1v1 tournament beating Doublelift, Rookie, and Faker.

When will the OCE Decrease go back to Normal?

You can expect that the decrease in OCE players will go back to normal sometime in August. The surge of players will create more opportunity for players to create a competitive environment where everyone is increasingly eager to player against one another. However, as the season draws closer towards the end, people will be trying to rush end of season rewards by trying to climb up the top. Now, the only question that remains is if you are ready to take on the OCE with players waiting for a challenge?

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