MonteCristo, DoA, and PapaSmithy won’t cast MSI following payment controversy

Three of League of Legends‘ most popular casters won’t be attending to Riot Games’ Mid-Season Invitational following payment disputes with the game developer.

Freelance casters Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles, Erik “DoA” Lonnquist, and Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith will not be casting the event, stating that Riot Games wasn’t willing to meet the industry standard of shoutcasting rates. The three casters, who are contracted to work at Korean esports channel OnGameNet, released a collective statement via Medium today.

The casters said they conducted a survey across other esports titles earlier this year, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DotA 2, Starcraft 2, Halo 5, and Hearthstone. Given their findings, they claim Riot Games’s offers to them for the event were roughly 40-70 percent of what is considered the industry standard.

“We rely on these contracts for our income and feel that we would damage our careers in the long term by accepting below-market rates,” the statement said. “Furthermore, by agreeing to a significantly lower wage we fear that we may contribute to the regression of standards for freelance casters in the industry as a whole.”

This will be one of the first international events that Mykles has missed casting since making his mark on the Korean League of Legends scene in 2012. 

Photo by Jeroen Weimar via ESL/Flickr (All rights reserved, used with permission)

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