In the aftermath of Extreme Masters certain websites claimed that RMP was an outdated comp and that the only reason it won was because er… it was outdated. I never really understood what Ming and co were getting at if I’m honest.

Ignoring that flawed logic for a moment, the evidence in favour of RMP being alive and well is clear. Of the top five teams on the European tournament realm, rogue/mage/priest accounts for three places, including first.

Yet in America, there isn’t a single RMP in the top ten, let alone top five. This week I want to look at why that is. Why is RMP so strong and why do Americans ignore it?

Since EM III finished, the continental food chain has never been clearer: Korea first, Europe second, America a distant third. Nobody can reasonably argue that point after an event with a 100% Korean top two. If the best teams in the world are in Asia and Europe, and they are playing RMP, then surely RMP is the best comp by default.

The question that arose is whether American teams, playing comps like “shadowcleave” (paladin/warlock/deathknight) were “ahead of the curve” or not. I’m here to tell you, they aren’t.

But the point of this column is RMP and why it is so strong, even now. The obvious and popular answer is that the classes synergise incredibly well. It’s difficult to train the priest because rogues and mages both have great peels. If you train one of the other two the priest just stands and heals. It’s far from unbeatable, of course, but that brings us nicely on to my own belief about RMP.

Those three classes – in my honest opinion – have the highest skill caps in the game right now. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to play – on the contrary, they are much more difficult to play to a high level. But if you are capable of reaching that level you will be rewarded.

Certain classes that are seen as noob-friendly have done well on live servers in the past. The best example I can think of is season three’s warrior/druid comp in 2on2 (or throw in a warlock and make it 3v3). It was easy to play and I should know; it brought me my highest ever rating.

WLD even had some LAN success for a while last year, but RMP came back and is seemingly here to stay. For a comparison of the skill caps, even the number of buttons needed per class can help out. The mage can do (and has to do) far more than a warlock. Likewise, a good rogue has far more buttons to press than his warrior counterpart. As for priest vs druid – it isn’t even a contest in this specific sense.

Now if – and remember, this is purely speculation – RMP is the most skilled comp, and if Americans ignore it there is an obvious conclusion to be drawn from all this. It seems a little too obvious, in fact, so rather than spell it out I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide.

The world's first weekly esports column will return on the usual day next week - Tuesday, despite being late this week.