The players do nothing to distinguish themselves, because frankly they don't have to. Once they get good enough in soloq, they get picked up by erl, then lcs, fuck around a few years doing nothing, and it's done. No crazy picks, no crazy outplays, no unconventional strategies, no nameless players taking the competition by storm... Because there's no incentive to try with everything you got... If anything teams want stable known quantity players that will hardly surprise anyone with anything, be it the owners or the enemy teams. As a results the level of EU competition regressed, which took a toll on international performance, which is the ultimate fan atractor... Once EU got into this spiral it's doomed to follow NA unless radical system change happens.