Most surprised about S04. Not that they were let in, but that they applied at all. I would not have expected the club to make a non-football investment that big. Wonder if there will be backlash once the mainstream hears about that.

Gahlo

United States35174 Posts

October 03 2018 04:16 GMT

#384

I mean... I'm not all that surprised by it. I'd be more surprised by a club making a team *for* franchising than one that was already invested into the scene. No doubt in my mind they say the storm on the horizon pre-NA franchising and were just biding their time.

Granted, not European, so I may be missing context about why this perplexes you.

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

October 03 2018 08:46 GMT

#385

On October 03 2018 13:01 Redox wrote:
Most surprised about S04. Not that they were let in, but that they applied at all. I would not have expected the club to make a non-football investment that big. Wonder if there will be backlash once the mainstream hears about that.

They've been showing highlights of the team's games at their stadium before games so clearly they seem into it. There will always be backlash from idiots, though.

Gahlo

United States35174 Posts

October 04 2018 19:37 GMT

#386

Giants, UoL, Roccat out.

http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/24892443/giants-unicorns-roccat-not-participate-eu-lcs-franchising

Not surprised and don't care about Giants. UoL basically lost their entire brand when Romain went to NA. Roccat's a bit sad to see go, considering they're an endemic sponsor - though they could just piggyback on another team.

chipmonklord17

United States11944 Posts

October 04 2018 20:00 GMT

#387

http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/24892583/sources-astralis-accepted-eu-lcs-deficio

Astralis first new team to be accepted. Four more new teams will join G2/Fnatic/Misfits/S04/VIT

Gahlo

United States35174 Posts

October 05 2018 00:59 GMT

#388

Supposedly Origen didn't even apply.

chipmonklord17

United States11944 Posts

October 05 2018 01:18 GMT

#389

Really? I'd find that incredibly odd given that they formed the team for a revival for the previous season of EU Masters. I always assumed that was them telling Riot "hey guys we won't fuck up this time, remember that one worlds???"

Gahlo

United States35174 Posts

October 05 2018 01:46 GMT

#390

https://old.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/9lfa72/sources_origen_did_not_apply_to_eu_lcs_franchising/

Apparently xPeke's mom is making fun of who said it.

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

October 05 2018 13:57 GMT

#391

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/9lj07f/beyond_the_rift_scarra_mentioned_despite_first/

So, let's start a discussion here. In Australia, the National Rugby League organisers (biggest or second biggest sporting league in Aus depending on who you ask) set a salary cap for both players and support staff (with some exceptions related to third-party deals and sponsorships). Currently, the player's salary cap is 9.4 million AUD for a squad of 30 with a minimum wage of 100K and the support staff cap is at 5.7 million. The NRL provides 11 million AUD in funding every year, essentially covering the playing salary cap and a bit of the support staff cap. What does everyone think of this style of cap being implemented in the LCS?

Currently, the LCS minimum wage is 75K USD, which IMO is too high. AFAIK, almost none of the players in the LCS right now are on under 100K unless they started the year off in Academy. Riot covers an amount of that 75k, not sure how much. It used to be 30k (which when introduced, a lot of teams ONLY paid that salary) but I think it's much more now (MAYBE 50k?).

Sent.

Poland9331 Posts

October 05 2018 14:56 GMT

#392

Minimum wage is obvious yes, but what's the point of salary caps in NA's system where a team can't get demoted/promoted in, so there is little incentive to inflate the salaries for some short term gain? I'm notdenying the salaries are inflated, I just don't understand why would the teams want to keep them like that.

Numy

South Africa35471 Posts

October 05 2018 15:05 GMT

#393

Salary Caps typically aren't about forcing teams to build sustainable business. It's more about limiting the influence outside investors have on a team, ie: Stopping a wealthy investor from coming in and dominating.

The problems facing LCS stem from 2 main areas.
1) VCs inflating cost of business while revenue streams do not match expenses
2) Riot's mismanagement in generating revenue from LCS

Now salary caps can help with point 1 to an extent, they won't really stop the overall costs where players and coaches are being paid far too much money for what they generate. The lowing of min wage is interesting. Would teams lower salaries? Would there be outrage from players? Forcing teams to be sustainable is pretty interesting idea, they clearly would rather whine than do it themselves.

The second problem is pretty tough too. Franchising itself wasn't actually needed to revenue share yet here we are. Riot hasn't shown themselves to be particularly competent in managing their esports side. Makes you wonder why these big investors were willing to pay so much money. They should work harder at generating revenue here but I do wonder if that will even matter. If the teams themselves would just keep raising costs with the increased income instead of trying to stabilize it won't do much.

I know I said this years ago but I do believe the current situation is a combination of terrible investors in league and Riot poor management. Putting all the onus on merely one side isn't going to produce healthy results.

chipmonklord17

United States11944 Posts

October 05 2018 15:57 GMT

#394

I think a major issue that you're never going to stop as far as the undercutting problem is concerned is that its still not in the best interest of teams to search for sponsors together. Every single one of the teams (minus GGS and Clutch) have other esports they're involved in. What's better for the team, a sponsor that sponsors the league, or a sponsor that sponsors them and all of THEIR teams exclusively?

I don't think a minimum wage will solve the issue that its just not in teams best interests to collaborate for sponsors

chipmonklord17

United States11944 Posts

October 13 2018 18:00 GMT

#395

https://tsm.gg/news/ssong-departs-tsm

Lets all pretend to be surprised together