In Pictures: The Spiciest Trash Talk From Rift Rivals

The creation of Rift Rivals provided Riot Games with the perfect opportunity to kick regional rivalries up a notch. For North America and Europe, it was an opportunity to declared superiority over the other, both on the rift and with the microphone.

Leading up to the Rift Rivals event, the European squads entered as clear favorites and made sure their American counterparts knew about it.

Players such as G2 eSports mid laner Luka “PerkZ” Perković even questioned whether the NA squads would win a game, and many felt that the EU’s game understanding and macro sense were far ahead of their competition. The apparent struggles in NA only elevated their trash talk, and the EU teams would cruise into Rift Rivals riding high.

When the time for talk was over however, things quickly took a dramatic turn. As NA slowly began to pull away from their EU Rivals, the region’s stars (namely TSM AD Carry Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng) were quick to twist the knife. With little ammunition to defend themselves, EU players were forced to sit and be smashed both on and off the rift.

Of course, the EU vs NA rivalry is far from dead and has only been heightened by Rift Rivals. As Worlds approaches, we should once again expect more trash talk to appear as the groups are close to being announced. CLICKON eSports looks back on some of the spiciest trash talk Rift Rivals offered, both before and during the event: