"Franchising" deal is an absolute disaster for players

Crysillion·Jun 6, 2017·2 votes·552 views

The entire deal puts organizations and riot profit before players.

First off - it secures spots for the "top teams" sure. Fun cool, I get the business side of it.

However - you're simply shying players away from making an attempt to become professionals - if you have 10-16 teams in the LCS permenantly, they're going to cycle through players a whole lot less than they do now.

Currentt relegation keeps things exciting, it gives challenger series much clearer incentives. And it gives professional teams more incentive to suck.

Say you're TL right now - as an organization you're still popular, you're still big, people are still watching you, people are still buying your stuff - your league team is very bad right now. Large organizations that are successful in other games will have indcengive to partially ignore their league team and know they will not be relegated.

Now.... the bigger problem, the money, and the players.

Though we haven't been clear on where the money will come from, it simply doesn't add up from what we do know. Their merchandising plan is trash, riot wants to design all merchandise (IE LPL).

Now - the biggest problem.... the players association.

THE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION IS BEING SET UP BY RIOT. That is absolute nonsense and NO player should agree to that unless they're content being tak n advantage of, and abused by riot and their teams.

Players need a strong independent, non bias union in order to have fair negotiating rights for themselves. They need to have a group that will put what is right for them first, with one "organized" by their employer the cannot be the case. Between their unfair pay and rights. It would be a disaster.

12 Comments

Miror BJun 6, 20173 votes

Probably not the best idea to use TL as an example (as the idea that people "watch" their games and "enjoy" their games is a bit weird, due to the fact that unless you're a massochist like me then it's kinda hard to watch a repeated car-crash in slow motion). If we're looking at franchises who could theoretically leave and have more success without league, then TL also becomes an obvious one due to how much better their other games/streamers are doing (let's not forget that Dom/their HS players are pulling in constant 8k viewership, in addition to their CSGO team which is always fun to watch).

I really wish I could seperate the rito-run player's union idea and make it a seperate post from the top part, as that's probably the biggest issue with this whole franchising thing and is a bit like the giant steaming turd on top of the decadent sundae. Instead of having their player's union run/set up by a third party (like what they plan on doing when it comes to the background/credit checks for the franchisee teams), they're setting it up themselves and from what I can understand will be the "final barrier" for who ends up being voted in/out of it (the players will consensus-vote who they want in, with rito then approving/denying those selections afterward). Now, unless rito is dumb, couldn't they theoretically stack the union full of pro-owner/rito players thus both giving and denying what they want at the same time?

Pippen The ShortJun 8, 20171 votes

No, Riot has essentially stated they will only veto a voted rep if the rep doesn't pass an ethics test established by the company.

IE, it can't be someone that's had an account banned by Riot before, it can't be someone caught cheating, had to punish multiple times, had any kind of ethical falling out elsewhere in their professional career, etc. Because after all, it is expected that the reps will either be current or former players of the NA LCS.

Miror BJun 8, 20171 votes

That being said, what they say doesn't always equal what happens (let's not forget that there were dozens of scandals last year involving them). Your idea of "ethics" in all of this is slightly off as it doesn't really add to what I was suggesting. I'm not proposing that they'll bring in guys like Tyler-Juan/Apdo to run it (although the idea of the former being forced to wear a suit and talk about finances does make me laugh a little inside), I'm proposing that they could potentially bring in moles so to speak.

Pippen The ShortJun 8, 20171 votes

It's not my idea of ethics. It's what Riot told DotEsports. I'm simply relaying what I've read elsewhere.

I totally get what you're saying though, but from my understanding of what I've read elsewhere Riot will simply fund and provide some guidance and structure, but outside of that Riot doesn't intend to interfere with the player association.

Kal Vas FlamJun 7, 20172 votes

Most if it should be a win for everyone. The farm teams should develop pro level talent much faster than the current system does. The pay for players will probably rise as well. Keep in mind that there is no player's union right now. Riot is actually a pretty liberal company and while there is room for conspiring with this set up, I believe Riot has the intention of giving players real representation. Also, the current management for most of these teams is trash. Bunch of a kids with no business running anything. This should make everything more professional.

Miror BJun 7, 20173 votes

Have an article if you wanted the link to it, but player salary is indeed rising (the min salary going to 75k per year, up from somewhere like 25). Your logic is also a bit weird as you say that the management is trash yet thanks to franchising they're literally getting a ton of extra power (will theoretically have the ability to pull their teams from competitions at will now with little to no repercussions).

GhostOfTsushimaJun 7, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Have an article if you wanted the link to it, but player salary is indeed rising (the min salary going to 75k per year, up from somewhere like 25). Your logic is also a bit weird as you say that the management is trash yet thanks to franchising they're literally getting a ton of extra power (will theoretically have the ability to pull their teams from competitions at will now with little to no repercussions).

When they said 75k per year, they're splitting that shit between the 5 players so you know

Each players prolly making like 15k each, but player like Bjergsen and DoubleLift might be making more than that

Pippen The ShortJun 8, 20171 votes

The average contract right now in the LCS is $120,000 a year, roughly.

Riot currently grants teams $25,000 per starting position, and $25,000 for a coach position as part of a "team allowance". They're going to up this allowance to $75,000 per roster member up to 9 members and the coach will get $55,000, starting 2018 when the new system goes into full effect.

Kal Vas FlamJun 8, 20171 votes

Franchising is going to bring more money to the teams, that's the long short of it. With more money will come better management. I'm not saying ALL management in the NA LCS is crap, but a lot of it is either inexperienced or too resource starved to be effective. From an investor's perspective, the current system is very much high risk and I'm actually surprised these teams have attracted as much funding as they have given the lack of guarantees on the investment. Investors aren't donors, they expect something in return, and in a franchised system their chances of a return will be much higher and thus they will be more willing to put money into the league/teams.

Pippen The ShortJun 8, 20171 votes

There is going to be a player's Union, players are set to vote on their reps in November once all the details for the union gets ironed out.

BigBellBruteJun 6, 20171 votes

{quoted}

The entire deal puts organizations and riot profit before players.

First off - it secures spots for the "top teams" sure. Fun cool, I get the business side of it.

However - you're simply shying players away from making an attempt to become professionals - if you have 10-16 teams in the LCS permenantly, they're going to cycle through players a whole lot less than they do now.

They may cycle through players quite a bit. But it's the same old retreads being recycled. At least with the academies, a team might have incentive to mentor and develop that new player.

Currentt relegation keeps things exciting, it gives challenger series much clearer incentives. And it gives professional teams more incentive to suck.

Say you're TL right now - as an organization you're still popular, you're still big, people are still watching you, people are still buying your stuff - your league team is very bad right now. Large organizations that are successful in other games will have indcengive to partially ignore their league team and know they will not be relegated.

As things stand now, TL knows they can just rent a player and not get relegated anyway. And that's exactly what they did. And what did they do after they stayed in? Why they started with the exact same roster that got them to potential relegation in the first place. They have no incentive under this system either.

Now.... the bigger problem, the money, and the players.

Though we haven't been clear on where the money will come from, it simply doesn't add up from what we do know. Their merchandising plan is trash, riot wants to design all merchandise (IE LPL).

Now - the biggest problem.... the players association.

THE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION IS BEING SET UP BY RIOT. That is absolute nonsense and NO player should agree to that unless they're content being tak n advantage of, and abused by riot and their teams.

Players need a strong independent, non bias union in order to have fair negotiating rights for themselves. They need to have a group that will put what is right for them first, with one "organized" by their employer the cannot be the case. Between their unfair pay and rights. It would be a disaster.

Unfortunately a players associating set up by the very organizations they're supposed to be negotiating against is a recipe for abuse of players.

Pippen The ShortJun 8, 20171 votes

Details have been super slim about how the Riots players association is going to be set up, besides being "funded by Riot". Which that could end up like what the NBA or NFL has. Which for those sports have been extremely effective systems and represented the players well. The vote on the representatives may be vetoed by Riot, but only if the person is known to violate Summoners code and some other ethical standards. IE, they wouldn't be able to vote in Tyler1 because he's had accounts banned at least a dozen times by now, if not more.

The new system offers enough protection for teams to implode a bad team one split and rebuild for the next split. The rewards system, which pays out better to teams that do better, is also an incentive for teams to perform well. So your worries about the league becoming less competitive isn't very well founded.

The money is going to come from the $400 million deal with BAMTech, merchandising efforts, and a percentage of any revenue from advertising and sponsors signed by BAMTech over a certain amount.

Did you see some bullet points and decide to blurt out your, uninformed, opinion on the matter? [zombie-brand-clap]