In recent days, the LCS region has become hotter than ever. The reason stems from the LCS Players Association (abbreviated as LCSPA) deciding to organize a “strike” to protest Riot’s wrong decisions regarding the tournament. As a result, the LCS Summer 2023 tournament has been temporarily postponed for 2 weeks for Riot and LCSPA to discuss and find the best solution.
The underlying cause is believed to be Riot Games’ decision to eliminate the requirement for LCS teams to have a youth team participating in the second-tier tournament. Notably, Riot Games initially informed LCS teams that they would implement this regulation starting from the 2024 season. However, they applied the rule right from the Summer 2023 season, causing many players and coaches to lose their jobs and creating significant outrage.
Not stopping there, the unfortunate incident mentioned above was predicted by one of the veteran League of Legends players 11 years ago. Specifically, at the end of 2012, player Scarra expressed concern about Riot having full control over organizing League of Legends tournaments. He believed that this would lead to decisions from Riot potentially conflicting with players, and similar “strikes” would occur.
“I am truly concerned about Riot Games having full control over League of Legends tournaments, at least in North America. This makes me feel that my entire career completely depends on their decisions. I worry that if Riot makes any decisions affecting the players, many players could lose their jobs or have to stop competing mid-season,” Scarra shared in an interview in 2012.
Indeed, Scarra’s predictions have come true as Riot’s decisions are currently causing the LCS tournament to be postponed. We hope that Riot Games and the players in the LCS will come to a reasonable decision so that the tournament can take place as soon as possible.