Ex-Overwatch League coach hits out at teams paying $50K while LCS coaches earn double

Ex-OWL coach for the LA Gladiators and Washington Justice, John Galt, has criticized League teams for paying only $50k per year, while LCS coaches earn double.

John Galt, the former head coach for the LA Gladiators and Washington Justice, claims it is common practice for coaches in OWL to be paid just $50k per year for staggering 72 hour work weeks.

The now retired coach points out that being a coach for an OWL team can be mentally taxing, as it means being away from family, friends and partners for a year at a time. And the position offers very little job security. 

He mentions how easy it is to lose the position of coach if your team does not bring results, and how hard it is to find another coach position for another team. 

Galt points out that assistant coaches in the LCS would earn double of what OWL coaches would make. With head coaches making $150-200k per year. This is backed up by LS, former head coach of Cloud9’s LCS team, when he revealed the salaries in a now deleted clip. 

He says that during the off season of OWL, if the team does not renew your contract, then you will only have earned around 7 months worth of your salary. Then you’re off the team. But in the off season, if re-signed, there’s less work but it’s short lived as scrims would start up again soon. 

He also points out that most teams were based in Los Angeles during the 2019 season, which was when he was coaching. Making the $50k quite meager in one of the most expensive cities in the world. 

“Is it greedy to wish that OWL coaches were paid more?” he wrote in his tweet. “It’s not Mcdonalds, but I would earn way more as a software engineer with less stress.”

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