LCK teams penned a statement to Riot Games demanding the developer address what they all think are key sustainability issues for the league, but T1’s CEO has denied involvement from his team.
The League of Legends esports landscape has changed significantly in the early stage of 2024. Not only has Riot Games made some changes to how teams qualify for international tournaments, but the leagues themselves have also seen some big changes.
The LEC saw a new team join and the LCS had two teams leave the league. The LCK saw the introduction of salary regulations for its players as a step that was made to create a more sustainable environment for teams to stay in the competition.
However, that change in the LCK was not enough for some teams as they have made a statement to the league calling for more adjustments.
LCK teams demand changes from Riot Games
The statement was translated to English by the social media user, @Erushikay, of an account that provides English-language coverage of the league and translations.
The translated statement laid out five issues the league wants to address for sustainability.
[Translation]LCK Teams' StatementThe 10 teams that make up the LCK Franchise League (hereinafter referred to as the LCK) have formed a consensus and have been requesting changes from the LCK league for the sustainability of the league for the past three years, but ultimately…
— LCKSubs (@LCKSubs) January 17, 2024
“First of all, we request specific answers to the following issues:
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- Expanding investment in dedicated LCK personnel and sharing the commissioner’s right of confidence
- Improvement of the league business structure, including sales distribution
- Solving the problem of the number of LCK games per year, which is significantly lower than that of other professional sports.
- Resolving in-game functional issues to improve the training environment
- Planning and execution of a scalable business model linked to LOL IP
Finally, we reveal why the teams decided to release their statements publicly. Over the past three years, teams have expressed their opinions on ‘sustainable league and team structure’ several times in various ways. However, the LCK league has consistently conveyed Riot’s policy unilaterally,” said the statement.
While the wording in the statement includes all 10 LCK teams, T1 CEO Joe March said in a now-deleted social media post that his organization was not involved in the communication.
— LCKSubs (@LCKSubs) January 17, 2024
“T1 told the other nine teams we did not wish to participate in this letter. We told them we wouldn’t comment publically as to not hurt their cause, but that was before they posted it without changing the language from 10 to nine. T1 talk to LCK in private, not via public letters,” Marsh said in a reply to another account about the public statement.
The league is apparently facing financial obstacles despite being considered the top league in the world and having won the League of Legends World Championships two years in a row. In another translated statement, the LCK teams said that a subscription to the league for fans is more expensive than the Korean pro baseball league. Teams also owe 100 billion KRW in terms of combined debt.
Team comments during press release:– The LCK is promoted as a global professional sports league, and the subscription fee is reported to be higher than that of professional baseball, Korea's representative professional sports league.– However, compared to baseball, the number…
— LCKSubs (@LCKSubs) January 17, 2024
The LCK and many of the league’s teams have yet to address the letter publically as of the time of writing.