What do the team owners mean by 'franchising' the LCS?
I know what a franchise is, I work for a cough shitty coughcough franchise of Dunkin Donuts.
I'm curious as to how it could apply to the LCS, seeing as teams come and go every split.
6 Comments
Essentially, it's the debate of whether the Challenger Series and relegation should exist.
Many people say that there should be certain teams and certain franchises that are infinitely kept in the LCS, barring sold organizations. Conversation about this has been brought up now that NRG, one of the largest investments into esports (co-owned by Shaq and some of the Sacramento Kings owners), was knocked down to Challenger Series and is unlikely to come back. It's even worse because the team that got in over them, Cloud 9 Challenger, is basically a Challenger team full of LCS players that's pretty much made to be sold off for a high price. The same thing happened with FC Schalke 04 in Europe, except without losing to LCS players and a semi-boosted LCS spot. It creates a major barrier of entry to anyone who isn't an established esports organization. Heck, 5 out of the 6 NALCS playoff teams are established esports organizations. Half of them were around in the first split of LCS back in S3. Making it certain that your team will stay in LCS and have a chance (there are also whispers of an LCS draft, although that's even more unlikely) can keep prospective owners to keep investing. There's also the problem of fan investment. It's hard to find and keep a favorite team when organizations are flipped around and changed so often. Going with a franchise system preserves some level of teams staying around.
Now, on the flip side of the coin, a franchise system can reward mediocrity. Teams that don't try will still stay in LCS and players really don't need to care, especially if they're already at the bottom of the league. Additionally, it prevents actually new organizations with new talent, like Misfits or, to a lesser extent, Origen, from making their way into LCS legit. The Challenger Series is around for a reason, and whether that reason still applies today is what is at question here.
I interpreted that as making the teams and the spots they hold in the LCS permanent. The advantage would be that teams actually have the ability to build a truly great team with young talent without running the risk of being relegated and losing everything. The disadvantage obviously would be the risk of stagnation I'm the league. Of course they could be talking about something else entirely, but I figured they meant it like how leagues like the NFL and NBA have locked teams.
my guess would be, starting a team in different regions with the same owner. ex. TSM (NA), TSM (EU), TSM (KR) etc...
They are talking about going into other game, like TSM going into Counter-Strike