A number of North American college League of Legends teams made their stance regarding the LCSPA players’ walkout very clear—and it’s not good news for Riot.
The directors of multiple university teams, including Maryville’s Daniel Clerke, Winthrop’s Josh Sides, and SLU’s Nick Chiu claimed on May 29 they are not interested in filling for any LCS teams during the upcoming players’ walkout.
The university teams could be asked to lend their players to the LCS organizations for the upcoming games of the 2023 LCS Summer Split, which is scheduled to begin on June 1. With the LCSPA players’ walkout announced, and the reported new player ranking requirements for the LCS, there was a possibility orgs would look for college players as subs for their main team members.
“Maryville League of Legends is not interested in filling for an LCS team during this player strike. We are interested in NACL partnerships that will elevate the NA talent pipeline, but not until this situation is resolved with the teams, players, and Riot in an amicable way,” Clerke wrote on Twitter. “Our players were excited to watch the LCS while in Los Angeles for CLoL so it has been disappointing to see this situation unfold.”
This feeling was echoed by Winthrop’s Sides, who wrote that they were “not interested in crossing the line to play in LCS during the player strike. Chiu hit a similar note, stating that SLU would not be “scabbing” for LCS teams during their time in L.A.
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At the time of writing, it remains unknown when exactly the LCSPA players plan to do their strike, although the first week of the competition, which takes place on June 1 and June 2, seems the most likely. The start date of the North American league is now up in the air following the recent events, so it could be changed.
Dot Esports has reached out to the mentioned directors for a comment, however, didn’t receive any at the time of publishing.
