For the past decade, European League of Legends fans have seen the rise of competitive superteams and the inevitable increase in spending for LEC organizations as they build rosters with multiple stars in almost every position.
There are, however, new reports suggesting that those days are coming to an end, with the LEC reportedly looking to introduce a salary cap to the league, according to esports journalist Alejandro Gomis. Teams would have a maximum of 2 million euros on player contracts, and any teams that exceed this limit will need to pay a luxury tax.
The luxury tax is a system designed to incentivize teams to stay under a set spending limit while also punishing those that don’t. Teams will reportedly have to pay 50 percent of however much spent over the salary cap, with the money accrued from luxury taxes being distributed among teams in the league, the league itself, and other tier-two regional leagues.
Many fans will be surprised that a salary cap system has taken this long to be implemented, especially with the current state of the esports scene. Over the last year, many teams around the world have had to shutter their doors or reduce operation costs drastically to make sure that overall operations can still keep chugging forward.
The possibility of an “esports winter” has circulated around the league for some time, especially with the growing amount of teams reporting massive losses over the last few years. Other legacy organizations, like CLG and TSM, left the LCS this year, while multiple European orgs closed down their Game Changers rosters in VALORANT.
A salary cap should help stabilize the LEC for the future since teams won’t be able to overspend on rosters through the offseason unless they want to run the risk of a high luxury tax payout. Some teams could realistically pay these taxes, but overall, the cap should help achieve better parity across its 10 franchised teams.
Published: Sep 27, 2023 10:59 am