Since League of Legends has become more professional, and the dream of becoming a professional player is increasingly desired by many young people, the salaries and bonuses of players have become a hot topic among fans. Questions like how much superstars like Uzi earn, or how much T1 has to spend to retain Faker… are what everyone wants to know the answers to. But these figures have never been confirmed, even though everyone knows they are very high.
Recently, the League of Legends community was quite stirred when information from LCK indicated that a high consensus has been reached for the salary cap law. In simple terms, in the near future, LCK will also have a salary limit similar to LPL. Teams will have to find various ways to retain their superstars or to recruit players from other teams without violating the salary cap law.
In fact, this law was also mentioned at the beginning of 2022. However, at that time T1 was believed to be one of the teams strongly opposing this law. But the current situation is very different. The world is facing economic downturns after the pandemic, and Esports is no exception. Not to mention, Gen.G’s CEO once admitted that this team has faced many difficulties in finding sponsorship for the team, even though Gen.G is one of the most famous names in the region.
However, if LCK imposes a salary cap, T1 and Faker will be the most affected. Perhaps everyone already knows that Faker was offered a contract with a blank check by a team in LCS. Meanwhile, there have been reports that LPL is willing to spend hundreds of billions to recruit Faker. Knowing that Faker staying with T1 isn’t simply a matter of money, but the team also has to provide a worthy treatment for their star player.
Furthermore, if LCK implements the “salary cap law“, teams will have to worry about retaining their talents against the lure from other regions. Historically, LCK has always been known for its high competitiveness, and the rewards for gamers, even for young players, are very good. If this factor is not ensured, it is inevitable that there will be “talent bleeding”. Especially when having a spot in the starting lineup of teams competing in LCK has never been easy.
Of course, the LCK has not yet announced the exact date for implementing the new law. But for now, it seems that the teams should start calculating new plans for themselves in the future, after the law was recently passed.