NA has only had 2 organizations make it out of group stages from seasons 3 through season 7, which are frankly the only seasons that matter from a competitive standpoint imo since that's when LoL esports really took off internationally. That's like 15 opportunities for NA to make it out of groups and in those 15 chances there were only 3 successes.

Or, putting it another way, 16 teams go into groups each year and 8 make it out. By logic, an average region should have expected to get out of groups about 7 times from season 3 through season 7. But NA got out of groups only 3 times.

You're asking what the alternative is? The alternative is that NA gets a team out of groups every year. When that starts happening, then I'll start to consider them a good region. This year is a damn good start.