Opinion: Relegation needs to go
Opinion: Relegation Needs to Go
I wrote this piece to discuss why I feel that relegation is a flawed system that needs to change.
4 Comments
Your argument mainly revolves around team and sponsorship finances, and stability for the league and the players. Those are legitimate concerns, but relegation exists to keep the competition level as high as possible, which needs to be the primary focus for a relatively young sport. The money and stability you talk about comes from getting eyeballs on the matches, and viewership comes from maximizing the competitiveness of the league. Be honest, would you really be more interested in watching NRG try to not get flattened by TSM next spring, compared to seeing how C9C might do (or whoever buys their league slot)?
You talk about a reserve league that would develop without relegation, but if there were a place for such a league, how would abolishing relegation help make it a reality? If anything, relegation would be a benefit to a second-tier league, as teams that drop would bring some viewers curious to see if they could make it back to the LCS, and the top second-tier teams would draw attention from people discussing if they would be promoted to the LCS and how they might perform. Look at English soccer; relegation is core to the entire system for that exact reason. There's nothing interesting about a bottom-rank team unless they have something to lose. The LCS (and e-sports generally) benefit from giving as many teams as possible something to play for (or avoid, as the case may be) in order to create the maximum possible drama.
Take MMA as another, if less perfect, analogy. The UFC was the first American promotion, and for years upon years was the only non-Asian promotion where fighters could earn a semi-reasonable paycheck. The constant churn, however, has created a layer of fighters who can be advertised as "UFC veterans", and are being signed by Bellator, the WSOF, and to a lesser extent Invicta to build the attention on their product. Now Bellator is a legitimate, well-run, second-tier promotion, and more are finding their footing in the market. Being hired and fired by the UFC doesn't involve the kind of standardized promotion/relegation that exists in the LCS and other sports, but the long-term effect is what you're looking for in drawing fans to the sport overall.
All that being said, if I'm understanding correctly, it seems the LCS somewhat agrees with you since they created a promotional tournament instead of making relegation automatic. I think that's a good idea, as it gives any promoted team more automatic legitimacy.
Expansion is also not a good idea right now. With any sport, the initial issue with expansion is a dilution of talent, and that problem would be exacerbated in the LCS since players wouldn't move from strong teams to weaker ones to create balance. All you would do is add more teams who can't hang with the baddest, reducing competitiveness and possibly making the league go from two matches against each team to one, amplifying the problem further. Expansion should be considered when all ten teams have a reasonable chance of beating each other and more teams are knocking on the promotional door, not before.
Finally, let's not forget that these competitions exist to send teams to worlds, where NA squads get meat-grindered. Thus not only are we looking at competitiveness within the league, we're also looking for the setup best suited to putting an NA squad closer to the top of everything. That increases the benefits of relegation/promotion further.
If anything, this may have to be accepted as the norm. Unlike traditional sports, games that are the focus of the e-sports scene will fade in time. These issues of building a viewership will have to be revisited every time a new game starts pulling together an audience. As much as I enjoy watching LCS matches, I have a hard time envisioning LoL being the core of e-sports a decade from now. Whatever replaces it may be similar, perhaps even designed by Riot, but it will be a new game and not able to start with the bar as high as LoL eventually leaves it. Expect competitiveness to be of the utmost concern for the foreseeable future.
I like getting new blood into the LCS.. If you don't want to get relegated there is one sure fire way to make sure that does not happen.
I do think Riot should address the CNC "issue"... although I do admit that I am enjoying the anticipated drama for Spring 2017
See, I'd just like to see an expansion of the challenger series to the point in which it's considered a "viable league" instead of "where all those bad teams go and make zero profit". Also, may want to watch the video monty did on the whole subject. He kinda disagrees with your thing while also pointing out the bigger flaw in this massively corrupt system.
The first thing that needs to happen is They need to give the owners some kind of ownership in the league. With that they can be a part of making decisions, work out whether or not to lock the teams, figure out a system of revenue sharing and bargain for percentages of income from selling broadcasting rights. Besides presentation LCS works almost nothing like a professional sports league and in some ways this is a good thing, but as far as making money it's absolutely horrible. And while the money may not seem like a big deal to us, the fact of the matter is that with the more money the teams have, the more money the players have, then the stronger and more appealing the league is to big time investors which makes eSports as a whole more legitimate.
As far as relegation go, some times they keep the league fresh, a lot of times it's just a rotating door of mediocre teams, and I think overall the league would be a lot more stable and appealing to investors if they didn't have to run the risk of basically losing everything two times a year.