As has been known, at this point, the 2021 season is considered to have ended for the VCS region even though the 2021 World Championship has yet to officially kick off. The Summer Split will not be held, as explained by the VCS organizers and Garena, due to the pandemic. Additionally, Riot Games has confirmed that there will be no representatives from the VCS region participating in the upcoming highest-level tournament for League of Legends in Iceland.
According to some recent information, the VCS organizers plan to hold a VCS Winter Split in December. However, alongside some teams agreeing, this plan has also faced opposition from some teams like GAM Esports, CERBERUS Esports, BTS Esports. But this is a current issue, and how the VCS region will cope if this situation continues into next year, when the pandemic (the reason given by the VCS organizers and Garena) still presents complex developments.
According to some sources, if the VCS continues to not hold tournaments in the 2022 season due to the pandemic, the teams in the region will face the worst-case scenario of disbanding, as shared by Mr. Nguyễn Khánh Hiệp – General Manager of GAM not long ago.
From some sources at GameK, the operating costs to run a League of Legends team in the VCS over a year are very high, ranging from several billion VND (mainly around 3 – 6 billion VND, with some teams competing for championships potentially incurring higher costs due to transfers worth hundreds of millions to billions VND, and other expenses), including salaries (players and staff), transfer fees, gaming house rent, equipment investment, living expenses (food, transportation)… etc. This does not include costs for youth training, which has become a new trend in recent seasons (except for CES).
These expenses are offset by prize money, advertising revenue, sponsorships, streaming platforms… Even under normal conditions, very few teams are “profitable,” usually just breaking even. To make Esports “profitable,” it often requires maintaining a streak of success over a long period, meaning having a strong and stable brand, thus attracting larger investors.
For this reason, when there are no tournaments, the main source of income for the teams is essentially frozen, and the financial burden on the “owners” is immense.
Not only related to prize money, but the VCS Spring and Summer Splits also hold significance in providing international competition slots, helping the VCS region attract investment from individuals and organizations with strong financial potential. Surely, no “owner” would invest in a tournament that cannot take place for a long time, and this is exactly what VCS teams are extremely worried about, especially when some prestigious corporations in the Esports scene like NRG Asia or Team Secret… are very hopeful about the potential of the VCS region.
Despite these worries, the fact is that, until now, nothing has been officially announced by the VCS organizers. The game publisher still insists that they are working hard to bring the tournament back, and the rumors about the establishment of the VCS Winter 2021 serve as evidence. But the risks are very clear, and certainly, no League of Legends fan in Vietnam or possibly even the world hopes for the worst to happen.