Boards›Esports

"The NA Effect" -- Phantom Sage

FrostyDog·9/6/2016, 12:51:55 PM·1 votes·858 views

Recently I was reading through the EUW boards page (I couldn't comment on it), so I figured I bring this over to NA to see what all you had to say about it.

"Huni and Reignover making money, but not worlds.

Selling out wont get you to worlds, why the hell did they even go to NA after such a dominant split? I understand the money is better, but if thats the only reason then we have a football culture growing in eSports, where playing the game becomes secondary to salary and that is toxic to both viewers and the tournaments.

This seems like a worrying trend. As much as I want pro players to make a decent living, they do work very hard after all, this whole NA poaching of EU players happens so much and kind of waters down the EU league. I have felt watching NA vs EU games EU feels much more stagnant in meta and game strategy. Possibly a result of this poaching?

This is my reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/51emwk/spoilers_the_na_effect/ [if you fancy a look]" This post comes from the EUW player Phantom Sage, none of those sentences are mine.

Here is my own response... First off Reignover and Huni aren't EU Talent they are from Korea so they are not proper examples of the "NA Effect" at all, so I wish that he would not have referenced them.

As far as salaries go, of course they are going to NA, if EU won't value their players by paying them as any other pro athlete would be paid don't be surprised they left EU. These players need to make a living, you can't expect someone to play when they are growing in debt because they can't pay it off. We aren't "poaching" them were are putting a higher value on them and they see it thats why they came to NA. As far as Huni and Reignover leaving after a winning split, I can infer that they left because even after winning their split nothing changed in their salary, and in NA Immortals just choked in the Playoffs for Worlds. EU's pro scene is becoming more stagnant because the teams aren't pouring enough money in their players to motivate them, the fact that EU players are leaving the EU is exclusively EU's fault and not NA. You have no right to complain about it.

5 Comments

LeDjent9/6/2016, 12:55:49 PM3 votes

Yeah that is a pretty funny post you reference there.

Moral of the story is, properly reward your assets and they will remain your assets. This (League) is the players way of living. Would you stay at your job if your management didn't properly reward you for your hard work or would you go to a work place that compensates you appropriately? It is no different for these players. They need to make a living too, they aren't here just for our entertainment.

Glaedr9/6/2016, 2:34:15 PM2 votes

Well first off, Riot recently added a change to where players have to play for specific region for 4 years before a team can import more, so maybe super successful teams will actually stick together rather than moving to whatever has the best pay. Also, NA pay is good mostly thanks to NBA multi-millionaires coming in to drive the prices for players up like crazy. Teams are willing to LOSE money because they think maybe if they become a successful team, then maybe a year or two down the road, Riot will begin helping teams with merchandise and sponsorships to finally allow teams to make a profit.

Maybe EU just isn't willing to dish out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single player because they understand how risky League is right now as an e-sport. I don't know much about the EU scene but I haven't heard much about multi-millionaire sports legends coming in to get some teams over there, so maybe the supply and demand just hasn't inflated prices that much yet.

So yeah in the end, I think it's mostly the fault of Riot, not the teams' willingness to pay players more and more. As we've heard from many, many team owners, they simply don't make money off League of Legends because Riot does not allow them to. If teams can't get money, then they can't justify spending absurd amounts of money to get star players, it just seems NA teams are more willing to take that risk than the EU ones if that's the case.

Takito9/6/2016, 4:50:36 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Recently I was reading through the EUW boards page (I couldn't comment on it), so I figured I bring this over to NA to see what all you had to say about it.

"Huni and Reignover making money, but not worlds.

Kinda funny because Fnatic isn't going to worlds either hahaha