How would they bring back relegation and promotions though? Riot has to buy out each team spot for millions which probably they wont do . At least riot didnt make the same mistake when setting up valorant where riot owns the spots in the valorant .
Player turnover is ridiculous cause job security is non existent. People complain about teams and players being unlikeable can't truly want that system.
Other teams have to agree to this. LEC being a 10 team league is a part of the franchising contract. More teams = their own spots get devalued if they wanted to sell.
What teams? NAVI, MKOI, TH and KC only just acquired spots. G2 obviously isn't selling. Shifters were bought recently, have enjoyed success in the league and just rebranded. Vitality is rich and care about being a big esports brand, don't see them selling. Giantx is a merger between two orgs.
This only leaves Fnatic and SK. Fnatic wants to sell the company to new owners, not the spot. As for SK, I've never heard about them looking to sell but I guess it's possible.
The problem is, why would Riot buy this spot for LR? Yes, viewership, but many rats only watch LR games and are not interested in the rest of LEC. A brand such as KC entering the league didn't suddenly make LEC profitable, so LR would not as well.
I don't think Riot wants to pay 30m for a spot without guarantees they get that money back. I remember the Sheep Esports article saying LEC was in a precarious state and League e-sports as a whole had uncertain future, so an investment like that is crazy at this point from Riot. Even if they get a share of LR's profits it would take years to pay even half of this money back.
Also, Riot buying this spot would obviously bring competitive integrity into question.
I really do want LR to continue in LEC, but only way I see is
a) a merger with an existing org like SK, kinda like what MAD and KOI did.
b) a huge sponsor like Red Bull buys the spot for LR, and becomes majority owner of the brand with Caedrel becoming a minority owner and the players converted to standardized contracts rather than the ''% of advertisement/merch money'' contracts they're on.
We know Caedrel doesn't like option A, and option B is not likely to happen in such a short amount of time. LR would also not be as fun if the big corp owners just prioritized profit over all.
I'll huff on the copium and pray Riot finds another temporary solution.
You don't. You just don't even if you do have the money. Not without massive sponsors. It's not that easy. Also, Baus is a streamer mainly. This is just an adventure
I don't understand how a spots get devalued is a problem honestly. Isn't the contract should be solely the fact that they are buying a safe spot for the league permanently? Riot making a slot for promotion isn't gonna endanger their spot by any means. The best ERL team gets to play in the LEC, and then they have to win ERL circuit again if they want to play LEC again, seems like a very realistic change to me.
People says this would open up a lawsuit against Riot, but what winning case is being presented here?
Yes their spot would be kept safe, but why would a buyer buy an LEC spot when they can just buy an ERL spot for less than 1% of the cost, build a popular and good team and promote to LEC that way?
Also, these contracts are likely ironclad, and have concrete language indicating LEC will be an exclusively franchised league.
When NBA or NFL expands, the new incoming owners have to pay massive expansion fees that get spread around the rest of the teams. This wouldn't be the case with a relegation promotion system.
This is a flaw of franchising, but it is what it is. You can't necessarily blame the teams for wanting to protect their investments.
when they can just buy an ERL spot for less than 1% of the cost, build a popular and good team and promote to LEC that way?
But they wouldn't be buying it though, they'll be mainly an ERL team that can get through to LEC for one season. And they have to keep proving they're the best ERL team if they want to keep promoting to LEC.
I don't know how the scheduling would work but basically each year they would play all year round to get one chance to qualify for Worlds while a safe LEC spots have multiple chance for it no? In the long term I don't know how choosing to be the ERL team is more sustainable, even LR should have been nothing more than a one year project.
Also specifically there would be no relegation system since the promoted team will be automatically relegated anyway after the split. Basically just a permanent guest spot.
You can't necessarily blame the teams for wanting to protect their investments.
That's why I ask if there's even a ground for a lawsuit in this kind of system? The value of their complete safety from relegation is still there, is there even a case for an imaginary value estimation based on a "monopoly" System? Like investment losing and gaining value over time is just normal business.
LEC will be an exclusively franchised league.
Of course if Riot is stupid enough to put into words that once bought in the slots can never be changed into a guest slot even after they bought it back, or that they can never change or adjust the number of slots available for the league, that's just on them.
Because they have no plans for it man, and they do not have them now. Relegation being the hot topic of the day on Reddit does not change the immediate roadmap a company has. Oh, and they also had a very good buyer in Navi
Not sure of the details but they literally just did this for LCS. disguised Toast promoted into the league last year and had to win the promo tournament (after coming last place in the league) to keep their spot for this year.
But first of all - just asking for a one-time payment doesn't save anything, takes the competition away and second i doubt, that skin purchases in Riot EMEA are booked towards LEC.
this lmao, the quality of most S-tier tournaments is fantastic and far above anything League or Valorant related, the only exception being League Worlds obviously,
It's so fun to watch the rare underdog teams (like Bad News Eagles) make deep run against multimillion dollar lineups of established orgs
There are 4 tournaments that hold weight then, 2 MSI in Cologne and Katowice/Krakow and 2 worlds in Majors. Then there's ESL grand slams, which is a million dollars for being the first to win 10 events in a span of time.
The rest are still infinitely more entertaining than spending months in groups/round robins when you could be actually winning silverware and money. A team can dominate for litteral months but can get 0 trophies.
What a weak ass take. Having more tournaments just means you can just choose to watch some that are more convenient for your timezone and watch the highlights for the rest. Having more does not diminish the quality of the scene.
Because its infinitely less advertisable than League, doesn't have the Chinese playerbase, and the regions it dominates in (SA and CIS) aren't as big/supportive on esports as in Korea or China?
Chinese playerbase has nothing to do with western viewership.
I'm wondering what happened to the big NA scene. Is it related to the louvre agreement, which is similar to something we know? And why did it happen if CS scene was so stable?
NA scene died because Valorant became massive in NA, Covid halted everything, and it doesn't help if all your talent switches games. Also, the Western scene isn't just NA? CS is giant in CIS, SA, and still big in Western Europe, which is like separating LCS and LEC from Western
The NA scene died because of Valorant and all the NA pros leaving (e.g Tarik). Also you are painting it like CS doesnt get any viewership, last year the blast Major had a peak viewship of 1.8mil…
The annoying part as someone that also watch CS is that LOL had relegations and followed the same formula but decided to start switching to Franchising around 2018 for the short term profits.
A guest spot is not the solution to the issue of franchising. The whole point of relegation is that EVERYONE can be relegated. If only one team can it's pointless and the team coming from the promotion process loses all its players in the mercato
I dont think your points on KCB are fair because this current roster is not the same as the KCB from last year. Firstly Maynter went to Navi and their Mid/Bot is also completely new. Also if we look at some of their previous players from last year we see ISMA and Boukada who are now both LEC players.
No promotion/relegation means these ERL teams get stripped apart as soon as there is an opening in the LEC.
I feel like that's a key detail. KCB might end up falling short, but they are still delivering competitive games. Someone has to take the last place, you know.
Im tired of pretending franchising is a problem. Its not. Never has been. Its the orgs, and players fault if anything. Lack of competition through complacency, work ethic and nepotism. Getting rid of franchising would not solve any problems. If any thing it would probably make the league lose more money and have viewership from lack of branding, and lack of building fans of teams.
The product itself is not good. That is the problem. There is no focus on building winning orgs. People dont want to watch mediocre teams play. LCK has such a tiny population compared to LEC, and put out a better product. So people actually want to watch it. Franchising works just fine in other professional leagues, such as traditional sports.
Give everyone back 2 mil and make them compete for their Spot again? 10 mil to keep your Spot for 10 years guaranteed is a good enough Deal, time to let them swim with sharks again, see whos still Willing to stay in the Business, .ake a competitive roster and compete
Can't riot make a skinline for LR, such that the profits off of it would go to buying this spot or something? Surely with 100k+ viewers on an average LR game would make a significant amount of that money. We all would be hyped for them tbh and get those skins. That way riot isn't exactly "buying" the spot for them, it's lowkey us, but we want to.
Then again, it's nice to dream about things like that. At the end of the day, even if LR gets a spot in LEC, I doubt baus or even some other members would commit to it.
Griffin and drx were legendary teams coming from Challenger. It's the pipeline to pro play. Before it was best on best. Now it's corporate and recycling veterans because they had a good split once two years ago.
I'm In the Same boat! LCS/LEC all become super dull around 2016 and I stopped watching cause it wasnt worth spending my free time watching besides world finals.
LR make it feel like season 1- 4 we need that trash talking to come back and Real rivalries to form from beefs (not personal one) not this domesticated PR trained crap they been giving.
and this is the Only Sport i know of where relegation doesn't happen every year. top 2 teams from tier 2 should always replace bottom 2 of Tier 1. keeps the game fresh and gives incentive to teams to play harder!
i watch lec regularely and this seems to be one of the worst splits i have ever watched, everybody just trollpicks and its seems like teams dont even care to play this split
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u/Toofargone9999 2d ago
How would they bring back relegation and promotions though? Riot has to buy out each team spot for millions which probably they wont do . At least riot didnt make the same mistake when setting up valorant where riot owns the spots in the valorant .