I mentioned esports specifically because it is often the case that a Japanese player must play a European player in an online tournament where low latency is cr

I mentioned esports specifically because it is often the case that a Japanese player must play a European player in an online tournament where low latency is crucial. However, in a non-esports multiplayer context the specific opponent and therefore their location is not as important. The matchmaking systems are able to randomly pick nearby (read: low latency) opponents, and games like WoW are regioned simply because of their immense scale.