Over the past week, the Western League of Legends scene has been hit with a series of negative reports. Specifically, many players who have participated in the World Championship have exposed that the organizations or tournaments they took part in have unpaid salaries and prize money amounting to tens of thousands of USD over several years. This began with players like AHAHACIK and Nomanz accusing the LCL tournament of owing around 10,000 USD in prize money from two years ago.
Following this, a number of former players from the organization PEACE, including Tally, Aladoric, and Babip, have accused the team of still owing salaries and prize money from 2021. According to calculations by Dot Esports, the total amount of unpaid salaries and prize money owed by PEACE to its players has reached 23,100 USD (approximately 530 million VND). Even Tally shared that during his 6 months of playing for PEACE, he only received his first month’s salary.
This is not the first time that “drama” related to salaries and prize money of League of Legends organizations has been exposed. However, what’s noteworthy is that these dramas often occur in smaller regions such as Oceania, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or the VCS, with numerous controversies in the past. This raises questions about Riot’s responsibility; are they neglecting smaller regions and only focusing on managing the LCK, LPL, LEC, and LCS?
We hope that Riot Games will soon respond and take practical steps to resolve the salary debts shared by these players. If necessary, penalties aimed at tournaments and organizations that do not comply with regulations should also be implemented to ensure the rights of professional League of Legends players, regardless of which region they compete in.
