In 2023, LPL has truly made significant strides, with JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming helping the region dominate completely at MSI. However, while nearly all experts and fans believed that JDG would complete the “Golden Road” and become the first team in League of Legends history to achieve this, the LPL representative was defeated by T1. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that JDG has had a remarkably successful year, reaching the finals in 3 out of 4 tournaments and winning all 3 championships.
However, there are reports indicating that JDG had to accept very large fines to maintain their “all-star” lineup. Not to mention, JDG players are also rumored to receive extremely high salaries, such as Ruler. As known, the LPL region has implemented a salary cap to prevent teams from overspending and causing discrepancies in the tournament. However, there are still special provisions for foreign players who have achieved a lot of glory, such as Ruler. Specifically, the maximum salary for foreign players who reach the semifinals in Worlds will be 12 million RMB (approximately 40.5 billion VND). And of course, Ruler qualifies for this salary level.
This also makes JDG one of the teams with the largest salary fund in the LPL. According to information from Hanyi – the former coach of V5 and a very reliable source about LPL’s behind-the-scenes, JDG’s salary fund is around 45 million RMB (over 150 billion VND). But even more surprisingly, JDG is not the team with the highest salary fund.
The team holding this record is Top Esports, as all their players will receive the maximum salary. Although TES does not actually have any foreign players, they possess all the most famous names in the LPL today. Among them are 3 World Champions (Tian, JackeyLove, Meiko) and 1 MSI Champion (369).
Additionally, according to Hanyi, the amount of salary tax that TES has to pay is enough to “buy the entire OMG roster.” For those who don’t know, OMG is also a mid-tier team in the LPL. To maintain a mid-tier team, the expenses must certainly not be small.
Thanks to the efforts of the LPL organizers and Riot, the LPL does not suffer from the dominance of 1 or 2 particular names. However, there are still disparities, and certainly, in the new season, with their investments, TES is expected to reclaim the throne and become the hope of the LPL in international tournaments.