In my honest opinion I understand why the new system was taken (aka money) for having NALCS teams but I mean really. A team that had a NEAR PERFECT first split going 17-1 and qualifying for worlds and riot does let them in? That's a joke. It completely ruins the competitiveness now IMO.
What are your thoughts on this?
Breaku3 votesIt isn't petty that IMT is broke.
BigBellBrute2 votesIt isn't petty that IMT is broke.
IMT is not broke. you're full of crap.
Breaku2 votesthey've been operating without profit and only two minor sponsors for over a year and are faced with $10mil LCS fee, $20mil OWL fee and construction costs for overwatch arena all funded by venture capitalist investments...
xJLx MCHammer1 votesthey've been operating without profit and only two minor sponsors for over a year and are faced with $10mil LCS fee, $20mil OWL fee and construction costs for overwatch arena all funded by venture capitalist investments...
$5million fee for LCS
Mazariamonti1 votes10 million, actually. Not all at once, but that's what they need to pay over a couple years with a initial buy in followed by payments.
SchmidttyGames6 votesImmortals is owned by people who don't need capital investments to make this work. They are far, far from broke. In fact, they were booted from the LCS for making a significant investment in their Overwatch portion. The owner of Immortals is beyond wealthy enough to afford all of this without any assistance, and the fact that he is so insanely in love with e-sports makes this decision by Riot utterly self-defeating.
Breaku1 votesImmortals is funded strictly by venture capitalists though and Noah is not independently wealthy.
LegendmakerGX1 votesIt isn't petty that IMT is broke.
Just giving you a heads up 90% of all league teams rarely to even no profit from LCS/EU LCS/LCK, they get the money from investor and advertisement but it has been proven and even called out by Regi/G2 that they make little to no profit from even taking part in these tournament unless they win worlds jackpot.
ModKnightsKemplar2 votesThe record is irrelevant.
For the LCS to continue to be successful, they need teams that have solid finances. If IMT doesn't have that, they should be out.
Those players can get picked up by another team. This isn't a penalty aimed at those players; in fact, this move will help players in the long run. So unless you have some kind of love for the IMT management, I don't see a reason to be upset.
ChompyWulf4 votesFacts are that management has been able to build a team up, then rebuild it when needed and was able to make Worlds. Same management has sufficient capital to make a large investment into Overwatch but somehow is suspect to be able to franchise in. The management has made IMT successful while TL is barely able to avoid getting relegated out and Fox is barely any better. They may have financial backing until they continue to suck so bad and have no fans that they lose their sponsors. It's bullhorn and fuck the LCS.
ModKnightsKemplar2 votesAgain, we don't have all the facts.
It's true that Liquid doesn't have as strong of a team, and IMT does, but that's not the most important thing for longevity of the League.
People act like it's easy to build up and maintain these sorts of things, but it isn't. There are many considerations, and it does a great disservice to the people involved to act like it's that simple.
ChompyWulf1 votesWe don't have all the facts, but we have more than enough to be able to tell this is a hatchet job and Riot has an axe to grind with some teams while others are given preferential treatment.
ModKnightsKemplar2 votes??
I just don't understand how you conclude that when you can't even see the resources they are dumping in.
I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong. But I am saying that it's equally likely that IMT's long-term strategy was half-baked, and that's a good reason not to include them in the future of the LCS. Without seeing their application, we can't know.
ChompyWulf2 votesMore like Riot is not looking long term. Teams have a four year period to do their total 10million buy in, 2.5 million a year if split up that way. Reportedly Immortals dumped ten times the yearly sum into expanding their organization to another rising game, while also their LoL team had a best year making LCS Finals and Worlds, pretty unheard of for a team only around two years and having done a roster overhaul already. The fans and sponsors would be there for a team which has been managed very well, and it is not uncommon for new companies and organizations to be at a fiscal loss for a couple years. Riot wants money now and is pushing out successful teams which have been LCS mainstays while allowing awful teams with deep pockets in which could very well flop with their continued failure competitively. It totally contradicts the claims of Bo1 move boosting viewers then cutting out favorite teams. It's a hatchet job to boost the favorite three, cut out rising competitive teams, and taking money from garbage teams to boost records for others.
ModKnightsKemplar2 votesThat just sounds like a conspiracy theory with no motive.
How does Riot possibly benefit from doing that? As you said, it has the potential to actually downgrade the competition and counts out a team with a strong record. It's actually bad for them to target IMT unless they have a good reason to.
I'm not putting more faith in them (at least in this argument) that you do. Riot is watching after their own skin, so the only reason they have to nix a team is if they have good reason to believe they would be a liability later. They have no investment in CLG, TSM, etc. It doesn't make a difference to them which teams do well and which don't, as long as the competition is good and entertaining.
ChompyWulf1 votesThey have made moves which have given competitive edge to TSM already. The change back to Bo1 while only justifying it by viewership while ignoring other reasons they abandoned it before suggests a lack of caring about competition. Riot franchising out teams gives bad teams an awful lot of room to keep failing while giving almost no way for outside teams to take over for bad ones and bring a good organization.
I suspect Riot believes as long as they have TSM, CLG, and C9 they have all the fanbase they need going forward.
Guy From Twitter1 votesThe record is irrelevant.
For the LCS to continue to be successful, they need teams that have solid finances. If IMT doesn't have that, they should be out.
Those players can get picked up by another team. This isn't a penalty aimed at those players; in fact, this move will help players in the long run. So unless you have some kind of love for the IMT management, I don't see a reason to be upset.
First off no I'm a C9 fan but I love competition and with a competitive team leaving it well then it just leaves it to the point of a one sided league with TSM and C9. No one will be able to challenge the top teams but IMT was one of those. So with them gone its a league of teams with no fans and thus they'll lose sponsors then lose their finances.
There was a rumor that misfits was trying to move to NA considering the Miami Heat own them which would be nice and add another good team to be able to balance NA out.
Late For Tea1 votesFirst of all, the competitiveness of a team highly varies from split to split. There have been plenty of teams that perform well for a split or two, then end up at the bottom of the standings next season. Therefore, the recent performances of a team weigh very little when considering them for a permanent LCS spot.
What's to say that one of the new NALCS teams won't buy all/most of the IMT rooster, practically keeping it intact and only changing the staff around it. The players will not be gone, they will likely just move to different teams. You make assumptions on the competitiveness of the region based on 0 information, as there is no information about the new teams yet.
Also Misfits moving to the NALCS would have done little for the competitiveness, because of the import limit on teams. They would have to play with practically an entirely new rooster. Who's to say this rooster would be as competitive as the current Misfits? I'm glad non of the EU teams got accepted into the NALCS. NA should concern themselves with growing talent within their region, instead of just importing everything from better regions.
Maszii1 votesGet money or die trying make LCS
BigBellBrute2 votesGet money or die trying make LCS
It wasn't money with imt. they had their ducks in a row early and really carried much of Riot's water on the franchising thing. Riot is mad IMT is doing the streaming thing for their overwatch.
Riot's shooting themselves in the foot. IMt's owner is ga ga over e sports He would be as big of an asset to have in lol as he would be in overwatch.
anonymous1193 votesIt wasn't money with imt. they had their ducks in a row early and really carried much of Riot's water on the franchising thing. Riot is mad IMT is doing the streaming thing for their overwatch.
Riot's shooting themselves in the foot. IMt's owner is ga ga over e sports He would be as big of an asset to have in lol as he would be in overwatch.
I don't think riot liked the idea of cross esports advertising for lol and overwatch at the same time in the LA area. It's different for a team like c9 who's OWL team is in london. They wanted to build brands for each of the teams with out helping to build a brand for a competitors esport.
I understand what riot did from a business point of view. It was a smart move. I dislike it immensely as an esport fan. NA was stale when too few teams were challenging that #1 spot and to lose the #2 team in NA is going to hurt. I'm still hopeful that one of the new organizations pick up the entire imt roster.
BigBellBrute2 votesI don't think riot liked the idea of cross esports advertising for lol and overwatch at the same time in the LA area. It's different for a team like c9 who's OWL team is in london. They wanted to build brands for each of the teams with out helping to build a brand for a competitors esport.
I understand what riot did from a business point of view. It was a smart move. I dislike it immensely as an esport fan. NA was stale when too few teams were challenging that #1 spot and to lose the #2 team in NA is going to hurt. I'm still hopeful that one of the new organizations pick up the entire imt roster.
From a business view, I look at it this way. LA has how many millions of people? Riot's studio holds how many people? I guess Overwatch is going to have a studio. How big will that be? Neither will make a dent in each other. There are enough people in LA for both. And when someone who is as ga ga as that guy is and clearly would be an asset, you don't let the fact he's also ga ga over other e sports too get in your way. Riot got snotty once before over certain streamers. They took it on the chin for that one and changed their minds. Let's hope they'll do the same.
anonymous1192 votesFrom a business view, I look at it this way. LA has how many millions of people? Riot's studio holds how many people? I guess Overwatch is going to have a studio. How big will that be? Neither will make a dent in each other. There are enough people in LA for both. And when someone who is as ga ga as that guy is and clearly would be an asset, you don't let the fact he's also ga ga over other e sports too get in your way. Riot got snotty once before over certain streamers. They took it on the chin for that one and changed their minds. Let's hope they'll do the same.
The esport fandom group is far smaller than the population of LA especially when you consider how small of a fraction of the player base of both lol and ow follow esports. I'd also assume the number of sponsors interested in esports is fairly small so both lol and ow are competing for them. I don't think you're taking OW seriously enough for how much it sees itself as the main competitor with lol for esports.
It's up to individual teams to build their own brands right now. I'd assume in the franchised lol world of 2018 then riot is going to be much more active in trying to get people interested in the various teams. To me it makes perfect sense that they don't want to do a massive spot light on imt who by the way also happens to have an OW team a couple miles from riot's studios.
xJLx MCHammer1 votesI want to hear why