Recently, Inven Global reported that South Korean lawmaker Yoo Dong-soo proposed that the world’s esports powerhouses should draft a common law for the esports industry and establish an international organization responsible for overseeing and enforcing this law. According to Yoo, the esports law would serve to protect the rights of players and esports organizations, shielding them from risks related to incidents arising from game publishers.
The origin of this idea stems from the sudden cancellation of the Heroes of the Storm Global League, which left many professional players “jobless and without income.” Additionally, the professional League of Legends tournament in the Oceania region was also disbanded by Riot Games at the end of 2020, significantly impacting the jobs of operational staff and players.
Furthermore, the lawmaker mentioned that DWG KIA was scheduled unfavorably by Riot Games at MSI 2021. Yoo believes there needs to be a “third-party” organization to oversee issues related to the tournament organization by game companies, preventing these companies from doing whatever they want, which turns the esports profession into an unstable job completely dependent on a single enterprise.
Simply put, the idea of establishing a separate organization to manage esports tournaments is akin to the presence of FIFA or UEFA in football. These organizations would play the role of unifying, ensuring that game companies comply with the competition rules of esports disciplines, and ensuring the fair operation of tournaments.
If the esports law comes into existence, it would mean that game companies, specifically mentioned here is Riot Games, would not be able to “arbitrarily” make changes to tournament-related issues such as schedules, locations, etc., in a subjective manner that could disadvantage participating teams.
However, currently, these ideas are merely proposals, and whether game companies will agree to “share power” with a third party in organizing events for their titles remains a significant question.