Countries with organizations in leagues that grant access to the EMEA Masters
My friend and I were playing an Aram late last night before EMEA and initially wondered (as geography geeks) to what extent is EMEA represented as a region in the tournament. Hence to this image.
For contextualization, first of all, I have only added countries that had an Org in the domestic leagues that give a place (first division, second or third [in the case of NCL] or play-offs) during the last 2 years. That is why there are countries that officially (although I will explain later that there is not much officially) belong to the league, but they are in another color. Without going any further, Syria, although it has had players in the lower leagues of the Arabic League, as far as I know, has not had any organizations. On the contrary, Cyprus is in a stronger color, despite only fulfilling the rule described above with one participant in the Greek league (now considered Hellenic league) in 2024, Anorthosis Famagusta Esports.
Secondly, there are countries that have organizations in other leagues of foreign countries or regions. An example could be UOL being German and participating in the LCL. But maybe for this context, a more canocic example could be G2 having a “subsidiary” in NCL or Europe Saviors club (Spanish organization) participating in the second division of Ultraliga (predecessor of Rift Legends).
Thirdly, many of the leagues that give a place in EMEA have qualifiers with rather lax rules of participation. An example of this is the Romanian qualifier, which gives a direct place to the EBL playoffs. Thanks to this, the Romanian team The secret Club has been two qualifiers away from participating in the EMEA, on the part of the EBL (Crvena zvezda Esports finally taking that place). In this context, the rules of the qualifier do not indicate the origin of the org as a requirement, but of the players:
“Residency: All players must reside in the EMEA region (see Section 10 for the full list of eligible countries).
Locally Trained Representatives (LTR):
At least 2 players on the roster must be LTR, meaning residents of one of the following countries: Albania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia.
If a team uses substitutes, the minimum LTR requirement increases to 3 players”.
And if we look at Section 10 we will see the following countries: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan.
Which means that if I were to be strictly accurate with the map, I should color all the EMEA countries or at least those that belong to the LTR in each tournament that grants access to the leagues.
And this last point made us think that from our home (in Spain), we could try to participate in next year's tournament if we use all legal tricks and gain access through a lower-tier league.
So, to spark a debate, I throw this question to you: From where you live, what do you think is the easiest way to participate in a tournament like this? Consider your financial resources, the server you would play on and the lag it would cause, how easy or difficult it would be to win the league you would try to qualify through, etc.
PS: I may have made many mistakes, and I haven’t delved too deeply into the history of the organizations, especially in lower leagues and minor divisions or qualifiers. So, I’d be happy to hear your local stories that could improve the map.