Why did KR region and JP region separate?

BR and LATAM are also separated but they have very large territories
However Korea and Japan are not that big
KR and JP can also be integrated into East Asia
This seems a bit discrimination for SEA regions.
SEA regions are not separated by country like KR and JP

I'm gonna make a stupid guess...
Korea really has some good teams so its fair to keep Korea as a separate region
meanwhile Japan has a huge cultural influence to be kept as a separate region. ( I think JP=SEA in terms of teams).
I might be fully wrong or partially correct. Rest only Riot knows.

JAPAN is growing in esports while korea has industry in esports if both were merged japanese people wouldnt be able to root for their teams hence interest in game will die as japanese are predominantly mmorpg gamers and fps is new genre

language barrier

Psion [#4]

language barrier

There are language barriers in SEA and EMEA too

I think it has something to do with their history, those countries are not good friends

Most KR teams beat JP teams.
if Kr region and JP region merge, Jp teams so hard to survive.

KR has to be apart from JP, so many ppl in both regions playing on like 1 server would cause crashes daily

Maybe it has something to do with how esports culture are still accepted very differently in both region. KR is already an established region in terms of its esports industry while JP is still growing where the society is still very sceptical about having professional gaming as a Career in general.

According to Google:

Population of Japan: 126.3 million
Population of Korea: 51.71 million (hard to argue Japan is better than Korea skill wise)
Population of Brazil: 211 million
Population of the rest of South America: 211.5 million

My guess is that it's probably just in the best interest of Japan and Korea as they both get 2 slots as opposed to SA which only gets 3 total.

*Edited (originally said SA only gets 1 on accident thinking of LATAM only getting 1 team in)

Lop [#6]

I think it has something to do with their history, those countries are not good friends

That has nothing to do, otherwise a no JP team would sign KR players ever, it's more like they are big markets.

not about population, all about how competitive the country is

its more amazing how br has 2 spots cus they are noobs

Japan has shown large interest in the game. You can see this by the viewer numbers. It's just free money lmfao. And Korea just has always been a strong esports scene. So they are trying to make sure that Korea is a part of this game because Korea generates some of the strongest players in any game they are actively a part of.

That's the main reason. I guess it's slightly discrimination. But it's reasonable considering how interesting it can be if they tap into the japanese market because League has never really got into Japan. And Korea just is always a place where esports are mainstream.

Lop [#6]

I think it has something to do with their history, those countries are not good friends

India and Pakistan are in the south Asia region(VCC)...

Asphyxia [#13]

Japan has shown large interest in the game. You can see this by the viewer numbers. It's just free money lmfao. And Korea just has always been a strong esports scene. So they are trying to make sure that Korea is a part of this game because Korea generates some of the strongest players in any game they are actively a part of.

That's the main reason. I guess it's slightly discrimination. But it's reasonable considering how interesting it can be if they tap into the japanese market because League has never really got into Japan. And Korea just is always a place where esports are mainstream.

To sort of add on to this, Japan has had a very strong FGC scene, which has been helped by the fact that a lot of big fighting game esport titles are produced over there. I'm not that familiar with their history in FPS games, but I think the most recent attempt that was made (prior to the release of Valorant) at breaking into the Japanese market was Overwatch. It did okay but a lot of OW talents eventually left to play in other regions swapped games

People who are knowledgeable of Japanese presence in Crossfire (or another FPS title I didn't mention) may prove my point wrong, but I'm unfortunately not that familiar with Crossfire's history

It's not a language barrier, ping issue, or the history between the two countries
My guess would be Riot are trying to market Valorant in JP while not having Korea, a major region for Riot already (shown by lol), discourage the scene from developing

It's clear Riot are trying to grow the Asian Valorant scene this year by giving them 5 slots at Champs (too many imo) along with trying to add newer regions to the VCT such as SA and CN, so I think my assumption is fair

V0sotros [#5]

There are language barriers in SEA and EMEA too

People from EMEA and SEA can speak decent english

Sprouts [#16]

It's not a language barrier, ping issue, or the history between the two countries
My guess would be Riot are trying to market Valorant in JP while not having Korea, a major region for Riot already (shown by lol), discourage the scene from developing

It's clear Riot are trying to grow the Asian Valorant scene this year by giving them 5 slots at Champs (too many imo) along with trying to add newer regions to the VCT such as SA and CN, so I think my assumption is fair

How would korean and japanese players communicate with each other tho? Ppl from SEA and EMEA are somewhat fluent in english unlike east asians

kr would just sweep everyone so its to give everyone else a chance. also the viewership in jp is massive, they get 100k+ consistently. still giving jp 2 slots is just riot bias cause jp are not good enough for 2 slots. id much rather have south asia (vcc) get that slot or give the slot to sea cause sea have the most grueling quals ever, they have to fight like 50 teams just to reach playoffs.

whizmeister [#18]

How would korean and japanese players communicate with each other tho? Ppl from SEA and EMEA are somewhat fluent in english unlike east asians

True, for ranked the language barrier would be difficult, but I was thinking of it from more of a comp standpoint
I was imagining it as a LATAM situation, with two minor region, LAN and LAS, coming together to play for slot/s in majors

KR and JP don't, and shouldn't, share the same ranked servers

V0sotros [#5]

There are language barriers in SEA and EMEA too

only 20% of people in JP know english compared to 50% of South Korea. also in EMEA, turkey and CIS are their own regions before the regions come together for the final qualifier(Similiar to how JP, SEA, and SA come together for Asia LCQ, or how LATAM N and S are separate regions until challengers finals).

sea not getting seperate slots is nothing compared to SA- Population of ALMOST 2 Billion and a popular valorant scene but still getting only 1 slot in an lcq against good kr teams KEKW

MilanTheMyth [#22]

sea not getting seperate slots is nothing compared to SA- Population of ALMOST 2 Billion and a popular valorant scene but still getting only 1 slot in an lcq against good kr teams KEKW

if SA is really that good let them prove it.

Psion [#23]

if SA is really that good let them prove it.

I doubt them. they got just 1 slot and have almost never played against teams outside of sa. they won't prove themselfs and will never get a vct / even lcq spot again. did any other region have to prove themselfs? just curious.

weft [#10]

According to Google:

Population of Japan: 126.3 million
Population of Korea: 51.71 million (hard to argue Japan is better than Korea skill wise)
Population of Brazil: 211 million
Population of the rest of South America: 211.5 million

My guess is that it's probably just in the best interest of Japan and Korea as they both get 2 slots as opposed to SA which only gets 3 total.

*Edited (originally said SA only gets 1 on accident thinking of LATAM only getting 1 team in)

Population doesn't matter lol India has more population than NA and EU combined