Former professional League of Legends player Doublelift had some harsh comments on the current state of finances in the North American League scene on his livestream earlier today. Doublelift claimed that the economic “bubble” of League in NA is “collapsing,” and that the LCS has reached a point where it will need to downsize player salaries and other financial ventures.
“I think the bubble is collapsing,” Doublelift said in a conversation with another former pro League player, Sneaky, on his stream. “I don’t think there’s going to be crazy high overpaid salaries anymore. I mean, esports is a business. It’s an entertainment business. That’s all it is.”
The North American League scene has always been viewed as a more lucrative region for players, largely because of teams’ willingness to hand out big-money contracts. In 2019, Dignitas gave top laner Huni a $2.3 million extension, and in 2020, Team Liquid signed mid laner Jensen to a $4.2 million deal.
Moving into 2023, there’s reason to believe that teams will downsize their payroll. Evil Geniuses won the 2022 LCS Spring Split without having to construct a “superteam,” while other high-paying teams like Cloud9 and 100 Thieves have both faltered on the international stage so far at this year’s World Championship.
“I think the fact that NA does really poorly at Worlds does contribute to the decline of league fans in America, which will contribute to the decline of high salaries,” Doublelift said. “If it continues to get worse and worse and League just becomes less and less popular for a multitude of reasons including that, then yeah, there won’t be that many millions to go around.”
North America’s holistic performance at Worlds could be a turning point this season, especially if the region fails to win a game across its three representatives. Currently, EG, C9, and 100 Thieves each hold records of 0-3 through the first round robin of the group stage. The region is just two losses away from tying its longest league-wide losing streak at Worlds (11 games), which came in 2015.
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“Of course you’re going to keep trying, because at the end of the day, everyone loves competition, “Doublelift said. “It’s a dream to be able to even play at Worlds, even to just get your face caved in by the better teams. That’s the whole point of competition, like, to play against strong opponents and learn and get better.”
This offseason, North American teams could be more inclined to promote talent from within, instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on free agents from either the domestic or imported talent pools. Liquid, in particular, has already expressed interest in “build players using the [internal] infrastructure rather than this concept of building superteams,” according to the team’s owner Steve Arhancet.
Whether or not that strategy will be applied to other teams is yet to be seen, but it is possible that teams who promote from within will likely set themselves up for a more favorable financial situation down the road.
North American League teams will get back to work at Worlds tomorrow, starting with C9. The rest of the region’s teams will play throughout the weekend.
Published: Oct 12, 2022 02:24 pm