The North American League of Legends Championship Series is having a moment. Reading comments from fans, it seems the prevailing sentiment is not only that the NA LCS is now more entertaining to watch than the EU LCS, but the games have reached a higher level of quality.

To some extent, I've supported this view with my own commentary, but it's been several weeks since the first raw games of the split, when EU teams were hit hard by the meta and by major roster changes. Some teams in EU have made significant strides, and top NA teams have exposed weaknesses of their own. If there ever was a gap in the quality of NA and EU games, it's grown progressively narrower as teams like Fnatic have started to clean up their play (with the exception of their 80-minute game against Origen this week, though even that match showed that they've gotten better at coming back from an unfortunate mid game).

It begs the question: “What makes us decide a region is good or bad?” Usually, an entire region’s play isn’t demonstratively "better" as a whole. The top teams become competitive, but by virtue of the league format, even Korea will have questionable bottom-tier teams who won't be able to stand up to the top teams from other regions.

Knee-jerk responses to major international events are partly to blame here. It’s no coincidence that opinion has turned against EU so soon after G2 Esports was eliminated from the group stage of the Mid-Season Invitational, while NA's Counter Logic Gaming went to the Grand Finals — just as EU was seen as a much stronger region in the wake of last year's Worlds. And though there's no point arguing about which teams or regions are more entertaining, there's also no denying that enjoyment is an important metric for fans. Beyond that, however, beliefs about each region's overall quality seem to arise from common generalizations and biases — most notably, “only bad teams throw,” “faster games are better,” and, the most recent sentiment to flood Reddit, “lane swaps are boring” (which, ironically, often goes hand-in-hand with the belief that “macro play is the best way to win the game,” even though smart lane swaps are an important enabling factor for good macro play in the current meta).

If you've watched the EU LCS and NA LCS recently, you might have observed that EU games are longer, involve more lane swaps and tend to be more back-and-forth. Top teams in EU are regularly splitting their best-of-twos against lower-tier teams, or even going down 0-2 (see: H2k-Gaming vs. Unicorns of Love, Week 4). Some of these generalizations are based in fact, but the question is whether trends in EU actually represent "bad play," or whether there's a good reason they're happening.

Does EU really have less action?

League Game Length CKPM First Tower First Herald EU LCS 37:29 0.63 06:44 15:13 NA LCS 36:25 0.67 07:33 13:29

Note: These data do not include the last two days of NA LCS; data were acquired when 80 games had been played in EU and 79 in NA.

Despite the perception that EU games are slower, average game length has been virtually the same for EU and NA this split, and both regions see roughly the same pace of action, with near-identical numbers for average combined kills per minute. There's also no real difference when it comes to how long it takes for a team to acquire first dragon or Baron, or how many dragons are taken each game.

The biggest differences in objective timings between the two regions have to do with how they set up the early game, specifically when they take first tower and first Rift Herald. EU teams take first tower on average almost one minute earlier than NA, reflecting a slightly higher initial lane swap rate. NA teams put more emphasis on taking Herald early, which could suggest either that they put more emphasis on split-pushing top lane picks, or that they wait to take the Herald before opening the map more and taking down second-tier turrets.

We can look for more evidence for these hypotheses by comparing differences in the kinds of champions each region has prioritized. To highlight differences in pick priority between the regions, we'll look only at champions who have been picked in at least six games in total across both regions, and who have a pick-ban rate that is at least 15 percentage points higher in one of the two regions.

Role EU LCS specialty champions NA LCS specialty champions Top Gnar; Trundle; Olaf; Fizz; Gragas Jax; Fiora; Swain Jungle Elise; Gragas Kindred; Rek'Sai Mid Fizz Anivia; Karma; Swain ADC Caitlyn Ashe; Lucian Support Braum Zyra; Karma

Note: Champion pick and ban data do include all recent NA LCS games.

As expected, the biggest discrepancy is in top lane picks. Both regions have favored some of the same carry picks like Irelia, but NA has shown much more of a preference for top lane duelists like Jax and Fiora, while EU has developed an affinity for Gnar that NA hasn't shared. European teams still seem to prefer tanks and tank counters like Trundle, and Trundle and Gnar come as something of a pair, since Gnar's range allows him to play well into Trundle, while still serving a front-line role and split-pushing effectively.

Outside the top lane, EU has picked Elise and Gragas more often, while NA has favored Rek'Sai at the expense of most other picks. Rek'Sai has higher early lane presence than a pick like Gragas, who usually only looks to play more proactively upon hitting Level 6. Though Fizz has only been played twice more in mid lane in EU than NA (four and two times each), his higher presence in bans in Europe means he's been involved in 51.7% of drafts this season, as a flex pick with a tankier top lane build and assassin-oriented mid lane build.

EU still gravitates toward play-making mid lane picks to counter Azir, while NA looks at more stable counters to channel confrontation into side lanes. Vladimir, who is popular in both regions, has a slightly lower win rate in NA, which may be the result of NA being more willing to pick champions like Anivia that counter him, while EU is comfortable picking Vladimir earlier in draft rotation. EU also has more of a distaste for Swain, preferring to pick Viktor or lane swap on him if he goes top lane.

Lucian has maintained a foothold in NA while EU has largely moved on. Caitlyn enters EU drafts significantly more than NA drafts, with their preference for pushing down turrets and trading them early. NA has shown more of a preference for Ashe, who works well in lane especially with a strong support, and NA teams often look to match her with a 2v2 to keep her ultimates in lane, rather than risk her taking them off-guard in other parts of the map. In the support role, Zyra and Karma have burst that makes them strong in lane trades, but Braum specializes better in stalling wave clear and pushes.

Bottom lane and top lane pick differences especially reflect a stronger emphasis on the laning phase in NA. From this analysis, it's clear NA teams put more emphasis on standard lanes, and look to snowball off leads with their different pick priorities. Meanwhile, EU teams try to take down and trade turrets earlier. In series like G2 Esports vs. Team Vitality, one can see EU teams agreeing to opt into these trades early on to open the map, while focusing more on getting farm on AD carries for later Baron or dragon fights.

EU's open map meta

A preference for opening the map earlier has a lot of implications for Europe, in terms of compositions and tactical focus, and ultimately, in terms of how decisively EU teams can close games.

For one thing, an early open map means pick comps become much more effective. H2k-Gaming didn't debut Ashe and Zyra in EU because it's become a strong, popular combination in the NA LCS; they did so because of the duo's power to get catches. Likewise, Elise has swung radically into favor in EU because of her single-target crowd control. Gragas' power as a disengage tool also demonstrates EU's slight aversion to full 5v5 team fights — they'd rather pick off a single target for elimination, then rotate toward an objective.

Another consequence of EU's early turret trades is that they've had to invest more in maintaining vision control. Ward placement and ward clearing have proven significantly more important to European teams, and H2K, Vitality, Giants and Fnatic all place more wards per minute on average than any team in North America. Meanwhile six teams in Europe all clear more wards per minute than Echo Fox, the team in North America with the highest average WCPM.

As the map opens up more and teams lose more passive vision, it's easy to see how individual players may get caught out more often. While EU carries freeze in side waves after turrets have been taken, a jungler or support will find himself caught out while warding a less tightly controlled map. In NA, stronger dueling champion picks keep to the lanes and keep their jungler close by or grouped with the rest of the team.

Do-or-die duelist picks like Swain and Fiora also make the early game much more important for NA teams. Choosing a carry scaling pick like Swain makes it much harder for a team to come back from a deficit. Meanwhile, lane bullies like Lucian will have less usefulness later on than a pick like Caitlyn, who has a mid game trough, but is good during early and late game — making her a prime perpetrator of both throws and comebacks.

For EU, important picks can lead to swings in games, especially later on. As the stats show, EU games tend to be much more highly contested after the 25-minute mark than NA games:

Parameter EU LCS NA LCS %Games won by team w/ Gold lead@15 min 76% 81% %Games won by team w/ Gold lead@25 min 76% 90%

Note: These data do not include the last two days of NA LCS. Data were acquired when 80 games had been played in EU LCS and 79 in NA LCS.

While the chance of an NA team winning increases the longer they have a gold lead, EU teams are just as vulnerable to being overtaken by an opponent at the 15-minute mark as they are at the 25-minute mark. Comeback victories are indeed more common in EU this split, which is a natural result of EU's pick-heavy meta and less passive vision.

RELATED: Kelsey Moser's EU LCS Review: Caitlyn's side lane niche

Cloud9 have benefited a lot from NA's current focus on the laning phase, especially with their mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, but have looked less convincing or fallen behind in lane swap scenarios. Meanwhile in Europe, with teams opting into side lane trades willingly, jungle contests are more frequent. Despite H2K's love of lane swaps, G2 and Fnatic have benefited most from open map scenarios. Both teams have jungle minion kill rates over 56%, higher than anyone else in EU or NA. G2's Kim "Trick" Gangyun and Fnatic's Lee "Spirit" Dayun have shown the best control and invades in open map scenarios, leading in part to their teams' ascent through the EU standings. H2K have gotten caught out more often, leading to some of their more egregious losses.

Picks like Gragas and Trundle, favored more by Europe, also don't necessarily need a lot of itemization to create comeback opportunities. With Trundle's ult, he can counter tanks effectively with few items, and Gragas can separate targets for picks even if he doesn't necessarily get an extensive lead himself. Again, this contributes to EU's tendency to capitalize on picks to change the tide of the game, leading to more back-and-forth games throughout the season.

A comparison of gold distribution in NA and EU lends more support to this characterization of the different regional metas. Three of the top four teams in the NA LCS allocate a large share of gold to their top laners (Team SoloMid, EnVyUs and Immortals), while Europe's top two teams have much more gold allocated to bottom lane and jungle. As picks like Ezreal or Caitlyn scale for late game, more opportunities for stalling games and turning will arise. In the 80-minute game between Fnatic and Origen, Fnatic's Ezreal and Viktor had a lot to do with Origen's inability to close efficiently.

While these trends don't characterize every team in NA or EU, they do help explain why EU games seem to swing more often, and why NA teams appear to close more efficiently. Teams who benefit a lot from snowball will be more likely to win in NA's current meta, but teams with aggressive junglers that coordinate invades well on open maps have risen to the top in Europe.

It's difficult to say definitively how well teams from one region would fare in the other, but one reasonable explanation for the divergence is that the meta in each region has developed as a result of its dominant teams' weaknesses. For example, TSM AD carry Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng seems to get caught out somewhat frequently for a North American ADC, with 20% of his team's deaths, a larger proportion than most of his peers in the league. His propensity to wander on his own might make him a target in an open European map, exacerbating this weakness — which pushes him and his team toward's NA's laning phase-focused style. Likewise, Fnatic and G2's top laners might struggle to lock heads with some of NA's top carries on a consistent basis and come out on the other side, potentially pushing them towards more consistent tower trades.

Who wins in a fight?

If you had asked me two weeks ago whether North America is stronger than Europe, I'd probably have said that, definitively, I believe Team SoloMid could top the EU LCS. Yet Fnatic's recent improvements, including the way they've consolidated around Spirit's aggressive style, their strengths in coordinating lane swaps and their ability to stall out a push, continue to make them a tough opponent. TSM is probably still better, though that's less clear after watching them struggle to react to Echo Fox's Shen this week. They make mistakes, just like Fnatic, and Fnatic feel like they're a team with many growing dimensions.

Given that NA teams like Immortals retained their full rosters this split while EU teams like G2 underwent massive changes, and given that H2K has taken to experimenting with a new style where they vary their carry from game to game, it does feel like North America has more depth in strong teams in the first four weeks. Yet in both regions, a gap is beginning to emerge between the top and the bottom rungs. At the moment, Fnatic and G2 sit near the top of EU, while North America's elite, for the time being, seats four.

This is subject to change as soon as this time next week. But even if the situation somehow remains static until the playoffs, it won't necessarily help either region perform better on the international stage. The famous "Jatt Dilemma" has stood as a symbol for the debate over whether more competition at the top of the league will yield better results. Teams like SK Telecom T1, EDward Gaming, and Fnatic have shown some of the best results for their respective regions despite a lack of steep competition domestically, yet in 2014, a war for the top spot in NA between Cloud9, Team SoloMid and LMQ allowed NA to put up a better fight at the World Championship than European teams. There doesn't seem to be any correlation one way or the other between a region having a crowded, competitive top tier and their performance at international events.

Forced to choose, I'd say NA is a slightly stronger region, but Europe's emerging playstyle isn't "bad" and actually has a lot of value to it. They're more likely to create opportunities for comebacks and find ways to balance out situations where their teams don't win lane. They contest dragons just as frequently as NA teams, and they aren't stalling games to an unbearable length of time (well, except that one time). In this environment, EU teams might prove more resourceful in the long run, and they'll come out learning a lot about efficient vision placement and jungle control.

There's still a lot for observers to learn from European games, including efficient minion control and how to counter dives, just as NA can teach us about transitioning leads and maintaining momentum. In the end, they'll probably both produce one or two good teams each that can make it out of the group stage — maybe even to semifinals — at the World Championship.

On Summoning Insight Episode 73, Team Vitality's coach, Kévin "Shaunz" Ghanbarzadeh, claimed it's hard to judge the relative strength of regions because you can't judge their thought processes until they reach the international stage. On the contrary, I do believe it's possible to judge teams' relative strength by watching them in their own region. But to do so, you have to actually watch them and assess why they make the decisions they make, whether they can execute well repeatedly, and how they might adapt in other circumstances. EU teams don't close on a lead as often as NA teams — but there are actually valid reasons that happens. It's not as simple as "they're not playing as well."

In sum: the EU LCS is worth watching this split. What a concept!

Data for this article come from Oracle's Elixir and Tim Sevenhuysen.

Kelsey Moser is a staff writer for theScore esports. You can follow her on Twitter.