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Competative League Cannot Sustain Itself.

Turtle Move Slow·10/27/2014, 8:09:06 PM·3 votes·1,198 views

people say the average career span for these pro gamers is around 2 years. but what is happening already is that there is almost 0 new talent breaking into the scene. look at the amount of players being dropped or not resigning with teams this year. how many teams are going to be using new talent? almost all of these unsigned pro players will just be recycled and will end up on a different team where they will still under perform, but the teams hope said player will rejuvenate on the new team to play like they are in there prime again. the problem is almost EVERYBODY agrees that there pro careers only last 2 years.

for instance, ryu, and horo are going to play in EU. rather then pick up new talent, this EU team would rather use 2 recycled korean players to try and make there team better. If anything was proven at worlds it was that Koreans are not mechanically better than any other region. so why import 2 mediocre players from Korea, who do not even speak the same language as the rest of your team? is it because there is literally no other talent being produced from that region? or because nobody want's to take a risk with a new player? either way the LCS cannot sustain itself if either of those questions are true.

Now these players know they only have 1 or 2 shots to even make it to worlds. so they want to be on the best team possible. Look at the situation with Rekkles. He knows his time is short as a pro gamer. so he wants to be on the best team possible. even saying he will buy himself out of his contract with fnatic. THIS DOES NOT create a good team environment. there is so little time to build up good chemistry / teamwork / relationships with you're teamates as a pro gamer. proffesional sports team can take YEARS of hard work and dedication to reach the top. that is usually with a core group of players to build a team around. You cannot build a team around a core group of players in league. there are so many roster swaps in the off season, combined with such a short career it just won't happen, there won't ever be a well constructed team. The only team I can think of that has not roster swapped the last 4 splits is C9.

the management of these pro teams, is also garbage. so many players this off season getting dropped for shady reasons. management has not even told the player, the players found out about being released on social media. really? how many new players will want to drop college to become a pro gamer, when the management on some teams is so scummy? how can people take it seriously?

I think season 5 will have awesome moments. world (semi)finals will be epic. some nice new memes will be born. But I think this will be the most disappointing season at the same time.

2 Comments

Maximum Can10/28/2014, 8:25:54 AM2 votes

well what do you expect? riot drastically alters the game with each new season.

how fun is it for a pro player to have to re-learn the intricacies of the champs they knew so well, and the balance between it and other champs? and there's always the off chance that the new changes will mean nerfs for your favorite handful of champs, or else will mean they're significantly weaker than they were before.

all of these on top of the stress of having to play professionally.

imagine how vastly different chess would be if RiotChess decided to give knights an extra square of movement and reduce queens' movement to four tiles in any direction. for no reason really, just to change things up, you know?

JevelFaithful10/29/2014, 4:09:18 AM1 votes

the problem is almost EVERYBODY agrees that there pro careers only last 2 years.

Now these players know they only have 1 or 2 shots to even make it to worlds. so they want to be on the best team possible. Look at the situation with Rekkles. He knows his time is short as a pro gamer. so he wants to be on the best team possible. even saying he will buy himself out of his contract with fnatic. THIS DOES NOT create a good team environment. there is so little time to build up good chemistry / teamwork / relationships with you're teamates as a pro gamer. proffesional sports team can take YEARS of hard work and dedication to reach the top. that is usually with a core group of players to build a team around. You cannot build a team around a core group of players in league. there are so many roster swaps in the off season, combined with such a short career it just won't happen, there won't ever be a well constructed team. The only team I can think of that has not roster swapped the last 4 splits is C9.

the management of these pro teams, is also garbage. so many players this off season getting dropped for shady reasons. management has not even told the player, the players found out about being released on social media. really? how many new players will want to drop college to become a pro gamer, when the management on some teams is so scummy? how can people take it seriously?

Overall agree on the bolded part.

But the 2 other parts... Who is that "everybody" that say pros only last 2 years? I don't remember reading it about lol (mostly listening to commentators). But I see quite a few pro-gramers on starcraft/fightingGames that have been high in the game for 4+ years. I was under the impression it's mostly about playstyle more than time. A few are stil here after 10 years (daigo, I'm looking at you) and are only just loosing steam.

Do you have any examples of players that learned of being fired from social media? Are those exceptions or the norm? SOrry I doubt that most team managments are that way. Maybe I have too much faith in humanity.