Riot Announces Franchising for the EU LCS in 2019

Post a Reply

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

March 28 2018 12:38 GMT

The future of the EU LCS

Riot has removed relegation and from 2019 onwards, the EU LCS will be run with a franchising system.
A revenue system where 35% will go to players, 32.5% to teams, and 32.5% for Riot.
Will share more on player development at a later date. Previously done branding, social media and sport psychology workshops. Want to ensure pros have a voice and are able to take an active part in the development in the league but yet to go into detail as to how that will occur.
Applications to join the league are open until July 1st. Teams must explain to Riot their: Strategy, branding and ownership and business plans.
Ultimately, 10 teams will be selected into franchising.
The announcement of the teams selected will be done before November so teams can sign players during free agency period.
Teams that are not chosen will be compensated for their investment into the league (no number value given), and offered the chance to sell any contracted players.
Teams that were already in the league will have to pay an 8 Million Euro buy-in fee, while new teams will pay 10.8M Euros.
Minimum player salary bumped from 28k to 60k.
For more info, check out Riot's post on LoLEsports.

General_Winter

United States719 Posts

March 28 2018 14:14 GMT

Hmm. Certainly good for teams. Maybe good for players? Probably bad for fans. When every game is significant even at the bottom it’s a lot more exciting. And when new teams come out of nowhere and roar up the standings like UoL or Origens that’s fantastic. We won’t ever again see another EU team as exciting as UoL in their early seasons.

Sent.

Poland9331 Posts

March 28 2018 14:27 GMT

Will be hilarious if H2K applies and gets dened

AdsMoFro

Japan4761 Posts

March 28 2018 14:32 GMT

What seems most interesting to me was Quickshot admitting that the scene wasn't ready for nation/region based teams but that they're still looking to maybe eventually end up there. You can see in the applications that they're highlighting activating fanbases on a regional basis as a key part of the application process. Would be interesting to see as a way to differentiate from NA which hasn't focused on this at all.

They also mentioned that EU will be getting some sort of rebranding in 2019 to set themselves further apart from NA. We'll see if that's just a different logo or a name change.

Slusher

United States19143 Posts

March 28 2018 16:28 GMT

The LCS West dream is dead.

LuckyGnomTV

Russian Federation367 Posts

March 29 2018 08:45 GMT

I kinda feel sad about it. There are a whole tomes of stories from EU sports (football, basketball, hockey) about teams getting from the bottom to the top and other way around, last second saving themselfes from demotion or getting promotion in the last second - and this is a big difference between US and EU sports. I liked that this tradition continued in eSports too and now it is killed.

Jek

Denmark2771 Posts

March 29 2018 10:31 GMT

On March 29 2018 17:45 LuckyGnomTV wrote:
I kinda feel sad about it. There are a whole tomes of stories from EU sports (football, basketball, hockey) about teams getting from the bottom to the top and other way around, last second saving themselfes from demotion or getting promotion in the last second - and this is a big difference between US and EU sports. I liked that this tradition continued in eSports too and now it is killed.

Agreed. Sad to see possibility of legendary rise/falls for teams to go away.

I do understand the wish for stability in a (currently) new and volatile sport. But meh, that's no how we've done it ovr'ere.

Numy

South Africa35471 Posts

March 29 2018 10:49 GMT

I too am quite sad about the loss of that potential. I feel too often "stability" is synonymous for "anti-competition". All this rev sharing and increase funding can happen without the need to lock teams in for years. A lot of these changes are really cool, I just don't really think they needed to go full into removing competition to accomplish them.

Redox

Germany24794 Posts

April 03 2018 17:32 GMT

Franchising being discussed here by owners of misfits and G2 and Riot head of EU LCS.

Please or register to reply.

Riot Announces Franchising for the EU LCS in 2019

The future of the EU LCS

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming