Massive Changes Coming To NA LCS In 2018

Randomonium·Jun 1, 2017·3 votes·813 views

http://www.lolesports.com/en_US/articles/evolution-of-the-na-lcs

Franchising Every LCS team has an Academy team Revenue Sharing Higher player salaries Player's Association

9 Comments

III BAKURYU III Jun 2, 20171 votes

Overall I like the changes and upgrades. One thing and it's not a dislike are the Player salaries, I thought the players were already getting decent amount like doubled what they were already getting before the 2016 season, now add in they will be getting even more money. Like I said not disliking it just something that has "annoyed" me. Another is the possible players that were once retired possibly coming back with the scene becoming more and more stable, we POSSIBLY could see the returns of Dyrus, Voyboy, QT etc etc and that would be something to look out for int the future also.

Miror BJun 2, 20171 votes

I'm actually very curious about this as apparently the "Buy in" for franchises is a set 10M per team. Because of this, we could potentially see some of the teams with focus in other esports (TL immediately springs to mind due to the fact that their CS:GO squad is basically 2015 TL only that they didn't completely die off at the end) not actually do this. I can see this being either a giant success or a giant failure depending on how popular the game remains, as noone knows yet whether this game will even have the same playerbase in the next 2-3 years.

III BAKURYU III Jun 2, 20171 votes

Very true, people often do say " I'm done with League" with either the game or from a LCS standpoint and you don't really think about it until you; yourself are one of those people. I personally haven't been as aw as I was 1-2 years ago with League, and the more I see people tuning out the more I think maybe League won't last for much longer, with the game popularity in the future. Wonder your insight on the salaries of the players? I'v read 12K per split per player and while 12K isn't like some GIANT number it can be in a economy that's struggling as such from what I'v heard over the years, sponsors etc. I don't know, I'm just thinking it's going to be some WCW days of paying the players way too much.
If the players are paying for their own food and medical care I can somewhat understand the 12K but like to get your opinion on the subject.

Miror BJun 2, 20171 votes

Yeah, I too am kinda in that "done with league" camp as other games/life issues (got a promotion at work, so I much of the free time I have now is spent sleeping with the other 4 hours usually having me play the likes of PUBG). I still occasionally play it, but compared to 6 months ago where I was doing 5-6 games a day the change is definitely noticable.

Not too sure where you got your facts, but from what I can understand they're trying to increase the minimum player salary to 75k per year and include a bunch of revenue sharing things. While that is theoretically good for the players (as now at least on the short-term being a player is equal to the salary of the average 10-year experienced teacher), I could entirely see this blowing up in their faces and more or less exaggerating regi's point about teams barely breaking even in LoL (as now they have to pay at the very least $375k in player salaries, which will be closer to $900k should they want "premier talent", plus an additional $150k for the required 2 subs, plus all the other team-related fees). Combined with the proposed "player's union", and I'd be surprised if the owners aren't the least bit terrified right now, as this medium-scale gamble could now potentially cost the franchises everything should they not have outside-investment or a secondary option.

In unrelated news that I'm not sure if you saw or not, the Overwatch League is sorta "floundering" right now as more and more teams (Rise Nation joining TSM and Splyce) drop out of this. From what I can understand, the entire thing was rushed through with no forethought/scouting (many of the people out there think that overwatch is one of those CoD-like games which'll have an active playerbase but ridiculously low viewership), to the point in which they were asking for upwards of $30m per team just to make sure it survives for the first year or two.

RandomoniumJun 2, 20171 votes

The owners being terrified is entirely dependent on how exactly the money is being split. The article isn't very clear about how much Riot gets in the deal. If the teams are getting 67.5% (35% going to players and 32.5% going to teams) then I'm sure the owners are extremely happy. However, if the teams are only getting 32.5% and they're expected to use that money to pay the players (whose salaries have to equal 35%) then I'm sure they are terrified. Its all a question of whether Riot is getting 32.5% of the money or 67.5% of the money, hence why I'd love to have Riot be a little bit more clear on how the money is going to be distributed.

III BAKURYU III Jun 3, 20171 votes

Yeah, Riot needs to look at this with an intent of worrying about #1 first, I LOVE the effort from the players and such but 60-75K a SPLIT or even a year is really an a$$load and I'm literally thinking of this like some middle of the desert pool of water that could go bye fairy quickly especially if the fans do decrease or even go up and down in the viewership scale. I mean people that are close to me who's been watching for 3-4 years have stopped because it's just the same thing over and over and you have to think about the age gap too. I understand 30-50 year old people do love League too but I would say 1 out of every 10 people stop watching all together because of life and it's limitations like working for example add in League just isn't in a " Sunday Night Football" type of situation..."yet?" What I mean is if someone says hey what are you doing X day and you say " Oh, I'm going to watch some 18-20 year old's play a game and cs" it's still kinda like "HUH". Like explaining this s$it to my parents 4-5 years ago was really frustrating for me, so I can only imagine for others. Point is it's too much in my opinion to be paying these people.

RandomoniumJun 3, 20171 votes

I honestly think for league to get to NFL status they need to start associating LCS teams with geographic regions. With a lot of sports I really don't care who's playing but if the team from my hometown is playing then I'll usually tune in and cheer them on, even more so if they're in the playoffs or in the championship.

III BAKURYU III Jun 2, 20171 votes

I read an article on ESPN not thoroughly tho about players making like 12-15K a year but that must have been before 2016, where I thought the players had already gotten much more, now add this with 75K JESUS, not going to lie that's too much in my opinion for playing a videogame.
People can say " that the players scrim, and train for hrs" at the same time they're also enjoying and play on their free time to begin with. Like idk, seems that both ++ are in the player side. I agree about the coaches that's why I thought they already had a hard enough time add in the increase.

I hope the sponsors are lit with $ and League stays popular for years to come that's for sure.

"floundering" - that's not a word I thought for Overwatch for sure. However, one thing that I personally reason on why I wouldn't care as much about an Overwatch League is the fast pace of the game while watching my favorite players. They die constantly to the point where I just wouldn't feel a connection to them. I didn't know Overwatch had poor viewers, again I thought these were the new kids on the block chewing bubble gum and kicking a$$ or something, but I suppose not.
I wouldn't be surprised if Overwatch is gone within the next year counting now 6/2/17.

Thank you for your facts, opinions and brain. Also good job on that promotion (- Insert Drake song here, "Started from the bottom now you here"! lol, gj

RandomoniumJun 3, 20171 votes

How much you get paid in the entertainment industry (which all e-sports and all other sports basically are in) is dependent on how much money you make the broadcasters. If these LCS pros are bringing in enough advertisements and filling enough seats to warrant a $75K+ salary then that is what they deserve. That's why professional athletes make millions as well. Its not because of how amazing they are at the game, its because of how much money they can make their bosses.