2023 League of Legends Strike

Overview

The 2023 League of Legends Strike refers to the League Championship Series Players Association (LCS PA) voting to not play in the LCS run by Riot Games after the developer no longer mandated that franchises field North American Challengers League (NACL) teams, which are thought of as development teams for League of Legends. The LCS PA contends that the cut eliminated 70 jobs while Riot contends the cut was made to make the league sustainable and economically viable. After the walkout was announced, Riot threatened to cancel the entire esports season.

Background

In May 2023, Riot Games announced it would no longer mandate that teams in the LCS maintain an NACL team.^[2] NACL teams typically served as developmental teams for organizations that participated in the LCS, akin to a "minor league" in baseball. Esports organizations had reportedly asked Riot to drop the mandate, and in response to the decision, organizations including Cloud9, 100Thieves, TSM and Immortals dropped their NACL teams.^[8]

On May 12th, 2023, the LCS PA criticized the move in a statement arguing that the cut eliminated 70 jobs and cast it as a hollow gesture to appease the owners of LCS teams.^[3] It argued that NACL teams were not greatly affecting the organizations' bottom lines and demanded changes to the LCS structure that would bring more revenue to the players.

Developments

On May 29th, 2023, the North American LCS PA then announced it had "overwhelmingly" voted to strike ahead of the 2023 esports season and released a statement on the official NALCSPA Twitter^[1] account, receiving over 15,400 likes and 1,700 retweets in two days (seen below).

Following the announcement, it was rumored that Riot had removed a League of Legends rank requirement in order to play professionally, which fueled speculation that Riot was looking to field "scab" players, meaning players to fill in for the striking members of the LCS PA ahead of the 2023 season.^[4]

On May 30th, Riot announced it would delay the start of the season by two weeks and was prepared to cancel the 2023 season if they and the LCS PA could not reach an agreement in that time.^[5] The announcement also addressed the demands laid out by the LCS PA, and in all cases were rejected with some explanation.

One particular response, highlighted by Kotaku,^[6] was to the LCS PA's demand that "Riot commit to a revenue pool for player salaries of $300,000 per NACL team, per year." Riot responded:

This ask is for multiple millions in subsidies for the NACL. That simply isn’t sustainable – and to be brutally honest, it shouldn’t be necessary. We have other Tier 2 leagues around the world which thrive on their own, and we believe the NACL can get to that place too.

Riot did say it was giving a one-time $300,000 investment to Rally Cry, the tournament organizer for the NACL.

The same day, May 30th, 2023, the LCS PA announced on Twitter^[7] that it had requested daily meetings with Riot to hash out their differences in order to play the 2023 season. The tweet (shown below) accumulated over 6,700 likes and 420 retweets in less than 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References