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@Riot - The leaked contract for LCS players

SIlentShadow1991·12/5/2013, 7:39:32 AM·4 votes·1,363 views

@Roiters can we get an official response to the whole LCS player contracts restricting what games they can stream at all? I love this game, and understand a lot of the business side of the decisions but I am at the moment regretting that I gave this company 25$ so I could buy some fancy skins. I thought Riot was a better company than this and it is seriously disappointing to me that a company that has said that they give you 300$ a year to go out and play and experiment with other games and encourage you to do so, would then go and prohibit those players who give a face to your game from playing other games than league or face being BANNED from the LCS. The only response to this was on reddit : http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflege...cannot/cdtp3xj

Quote:

[–]RiotMagus -65 points 3 hours ago We say this all the time: we want League of Legends to be a legitimate sport. There are some cool things that come from that (salaried professional athletes, legitimate revenue streams, visas, Staples Center), but there’s also a lot of structural work that needs to be done to ensure a true professional setting. We recognize there may be some differences of opinion in the perception of pro players’ streams. In the past, pro gamers only had to worry about their personal brands when streaming and, at most, may have had to worry about not using the wrong brand of keyboard to keep their sponsor happy. Now, however, these guys are professionals contracted to a professional sports league. When they’re streaming to 50,000 fans, they’re also representing the sport itself. I can’t stress enough how these guys in the LCS are on the road to being real, legitimate athletes. This is new territory for a lot of teams (especially in esports), because the transition goes from being a group of talented individuals to being real icons of a sport and a league. Similarly, you probably wouldn’t see an NFL player promoting Arena Football or a Nike-sponsored player wearing Reebok on camera. Pro players are free to play whatever games they want – we’re simply asking them to keep in mind that, on-stream, they’re the face of competitive League of Legends.

There has been plenty of refutes to the examples he cites alone against this, as well as the fact that Tony Romo plays golf (and actually could have qualified for the PGA) but he is the Dallas Cowboy QB. I just feel that it is wrong that Riot won't even post a response (even if it is a copy and paste) on both Reddit AND the forums. When I see a post with a Riot Flair I make sure to see those posts, but this is at least 2nd HUGE discussion that Riot has swept under the rug in an attempt to hope it goes away (the first was the 3.14 jungle changes).

To be clear: If an LCS player said "LoL sucks, play DoTA2 instead" on stream I could see reason for banning that. But if you are all gamers too why would you then try and limit someone who is equally or more passionate about gaming from playing other games on or off the stream, even if they don't have the "League of Legends" tag going on Twitch? You should openly be encouraging them to continue playing other games because it is what gamers do. I also feel you are also missing the point that some (Diamond/Challenger Elo) play those games because they have Queue times of up to 30 minutes!! I know if I had Queue times that long I would have my Xbox up and play Madden while waiting for Queue.

Edit: Youtube link critiquing the contract: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=wGzoA6hXE8E&feature=youtu.be

Critique from another person: http://www.esportsheaven.com/articles/view/id/5089#.UqD28cRDtoe

Both of these have examples of how Riot blacklisting this game isn't even close to being like the NFL or other professional league and that it shows that riot is scared of their competition instead of embracing it continuing to improve their game. Riot should not be scared, they are top dog and could easily stay that way if they take a look at this crossroads and think to themselves "We are gamers too, we don't like when EA pulls this kind of shenanigans so why should we force this onto those that we pay to participate in our league and from whom we have both gained popularity.

Riot you did not create these streamers, you gave them a high profile venue so they could market themselves. They repay you by staying with your game and continuing to compete. When they stream LoL they help others understand the game as well as they do and grant LoL free exposure to THOUSANDS meaning you win no matter what happens. They gained continue popularity because of: their skills, popularity, uncanny reflexes.

Unless you are willing to start paying them to stream, you have no right to say what they can or cannot stream. They stream because their team sponsors ask them to, they enjoy streaming, it gives them a wider audience.

Edit 2 Update: Update:

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1sa59j/update_on_the_lcs_streaming_policy/

Update on the LCS Streaming Policy (self.leagueoflegends) submitted 16 minutes ago by RiotMagus Hey everyone, There’s been a ton of discussion around our LCS team contracts, which stipulated active LCS players couldn’t stream a variety of other games. First, background on why we did this: there’ve been instances of other game studios trying to buy access to League fans by using (or trying to use) LCS teams/players to promote their competing games on stream. The way we chose to deal with this was clearly an overreach. It hit our goal of preventing companies from advertising through LCS players, but it also encroached on pros’ ability to have fun and entertain viewers during long Challenger queues – and we realize that’s not cool. After reading all of your comments and having a LOT of internal debate over the last 24 hours, we’re going to be changing the LCS team requirement to something that more closely matches our intent. While under contract to the LCS, teams and players can’t accept sponsorship from other game companies to promote other titles. Besides that, they are free to stream any games they want. I'll be hanging around to answer questions if you guys have any. Thanks for helping us make a better decision on this.

Well done riot, and thank you for listening to us.

6 Comments

PrincessMeatloaf12/5/2013, 8:27:57 AM4 votes

I completely agree. I could see maybe banning other MOBA games, and maybe extending that to Awesomenauts, even though it's pretty different from League. That'd still be incredibly bm, but at least it makes sense. What makes no sense is Hearthstone, frickin Hearthstone, Starcraft 2, and other games that have nothing to do with LoL except for the fact they are current or potential esports. Last time I checked, pro basketball players aren't forbidden from filming themselves kicking a soccer ball around their yard. Riot is being incredibly controlling and anti-competitive, and I hope this gets enough visibility that they're forced to reconsider this f'ed up policy.

Solan Stonewhip12/5/2013, 3:28:56 PM3 votes

hmmm thanks for posting this. i don't do reddit.

all i have to say is that this is somewhat unprecedented territory. e-sports is a relatively small following in the states when compared to the dynasties that are baseball and football even basketball. but the fact is that there are a good deal of restrictions on pro athletes and they can get fined etc for doing/saying the wrong things. now i agree with you and i think that Riot's policy is a little too far to the Draconian side of things. However, Riot has also shown a penchant to listen to the community. So in a sense posts like this one matter - we can help shape Riot's response and how they handle this going forwards.

PrincessMeatloaf12/5/2013, 10:46:14 PM3 votes

For anyone that wants an in depth explanation and analysis of the situation, I recommend this video from popular gaming youtuber and esports commentator TotalBiscuit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGzoA6hXE8E He does a great job of explaining the less than savory implications of this rule, and why a lot of us are upset even though on the surface it "makes sense."

SIlentShadow199112/7/2013, 12:32:03 AM1 votes

Update:

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1sa59j/update_on_the_lcs_streaming_policy/

Update on the LCS Streaming Policy (self.leagueoflegends) submitted 16 minutes ago by RiotMagus Hey everyone, There’s been a ton of discussion around our LCS team contracts, which stipulated active >LCS players couldn’t stream a variety of other games. First, background on why we did this: there’ve been instances of other game studios >trying to buy access to League fans by using (or trying to use) LCS teams/players to >promote their competing games on stream. The way we chose to deal with this was clearly an overreach. It hit our goal of >preventing companies from advertising through LCS players, but it also encroached on ?>pros’ ability to have fun and entertain viewers during long Challenger queues – and we >realize that’s not cool. After reading all of your comments and having a LOT of internal debate over the last 24 >hours, we’re going to be changing the LCS team requirement to something that more ?>closely matches our intent. While under contract to the LCS, teams and players can’t >accept sponsorship from other game companies to promote other titles. Besides that, they >are free to stream any games they want. I'll be hanging around to answer questions if you guys have any. Thanks for helping us ?>make a better decision on this.

Well done riot, and thank you for listening to us.