Big Changes Coming to League of Legends eSports in 2018
Big changes are coming to League of Legends eSports in 2018. Riot Games announced permanent LCS membership, revenue sharing between Riot and the teams, and better protections for pro players through a player association. The purpose of these changes is to encourage teams to invest for the long health of the scene.
The biggest change seems to be the permanent access to the LCS. Currently teams need to compete to earn a slot in the LCS, but it seems like Riot is moving away from that model to something a bit similar to how traditional sports handle league (think the NBA) with permanent teams. These permanent league slots won't be cheap though and is priced at $10 million. Fortunately teams will only have to pay half upfront with the rest paid over time / deferred. Activision Blizzard implemented a similar system to their eSports scene in Overwatch with the Overwatch league. Unlike Overwatch though, I suspect many teams will get in queue to fork over that $10 million as League of Legends remains the most popular and successful PC game in the world with over 100M monthly active users.
If you're interested in learning more check out the excellent coverage over at Yahoo eSports:
