Current Team Liquid head coach and former NaJin Sword support Jang "Cain" Nu-ri sees the potential in North America, albeit with its drawbacks.

"There is plenty [of talent in NA]," Cain said. "Macro play in North America is improving a lot. I think there will be teams and players that can be a force on the international level."

As a former South Korean player in the early days of the professional League of Legends scene, Cain knows the ins and outs of the game, having even played at the World Championships in 2012 and 2013, where he would advance to the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. And while he sees potential in North America and some of its teams, when asked what the NA region could do as a whole to catch up to South Korea in three years' time, it took effort to find an answer.

"Even if you [disregard] the skill between [South] Korea and NA solo queue, just the player base -- there are more players in Korea," he said. "Just with things like that, I ponder wouldn't it be pretty hard? When you look at how many players are in Master tier and Challenger tier in America compared to [South] Korea, they're just not as many players to begin with, so people learning from them or the skill trickling down to newer players is much harder. There is just less improvement all around."

Looking at the numbers, while Brazil and other fledgling regions are growing in ranked player count, North America has stagnated. North America has now become a region, especially in the professional ranks, full of veterans and players who've been around for years at this point. For every Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham who comes out of nowhere to establish himself as a talented pro, you have dozens of players giving up, seeking other options in life, or picking up a new game like Overwatch.

"NA has very good structure, [though]," Cain said, looking at the optimistic side for North American fans. "I still think there are ways where [NA] can succeed."

On the topic of the differences between North America and South Korea, Cain explained that in NA teams behave much more as a team, like in traditional sports. The atmosphere, although more lax and carefree than it is in South Korea, also cultivates more of a "team feeling," with players watching out for one another. Also, the addition of traditional sports owners taking over clubs like Dignitas and Team Liquid has given those teams a different structure than the ones in South Korea.

Where in South Korea things can be very direct and cutthroat at times, North America has more of a communal vibe where everyone is striving for a singular goal.

"There's a lot of outside resources," Cain said. "Sports psychologists, good analyst culture, all of this structure. I feel like they have more of a relationship with Riot, similar to pro sports."

Leaping from the topic of North America, Cain discussed his days in South Korea on NaJin. Back then, he was under the same roof as two future coaches, one who directly opposes Cain in the NA LCS in Kim "SSONG" Sang-soo, and the other being Jeong "NoFe" No-chul, formerly of the ROX Tigers and now head coach of EDward Gaming in China. Instead of seeing SSONG as a rival, he sees his former teammate as more of a confidant, someone he can talk with and relate to with his move to a new country.

On the reason why he believes so many NaJin players went on to be coaches, Cain thought it was due to the team's cerebral nature back in the early days of League of Legends, when the team implemented innovative strategies to best its rivals Blaze and Frost in Champions. He also mentioned the fact that the three of them were older when they started playing professionally, so the transition from player to coach was easier than if it was someone younger attempting to garner respect as a coach.

One of those young players he now coaches, Matt "Matt" Elento, is someone Cain sees great upside in, even though the Hawaiian-born player was benched last week in the team's second win of the split.

"He's definitely young [but] has top-tier mechanics," Cain said. "He has potential, but I feel like the things he is lacking are consistency -- when he's on, he's good, but there are times when he's off -- and if he put less burden on his heart when he played, it would be better for him."

Five years ago, Cain, eager and willing to take on the world as a player, had to learn how to be consistent and lift that burden from his shoulders.

In the present, it's his job to guide his players down the path he once took. There aren't too many NA talents with top-tier mechanics arriving on the scene, and that's why Cain's job from this point forward could be the most important task he takes up in his career.