As we know, just a few days remain until the LPL Spring 2024 begins to keep pace with other regions. Of course, matches from the League of Legends scene in the populous nation will still attract the attention of the global LoL community. However, some issues have arisen and continue to exist, leaving viewers in the region uncertain about whether the tournament will be affected and to what extent. But new problems are emerging, and the players themselves have begun to react.
Recently, on his streaming channel, Ruler openly criticized JD Gaming, specifically at the management level. He stated: “Why is it that VIP tickets for JDG are over 2.5 million won? (around over 50 million VND) Why? Don’t buy it because that’s a huge amount of money. If it were me, I wouldn’t buy it. Why are they making it so expensive? Don’t you think that’s an outrageous price? Even if there’s a fan meeting, it’s still not worth it.” Notably, this ticket price is set by Ruler’s own JDG. Thus, it can be understood that the renowned AD Carry is condemning the excessively high VIP ticket prices of his own team.
Additionally, Ruler also criticized the LCK. According to him, the LCK region not organizing fan meetings for fans is a significant oversight that directly impacts the image of the tournament. This is an annual activity that is familiar to the LCK fan mindset and is a distinctive feature of the League of Legends scene in Korea. Moreover, fans who spend money to watch the tournament have a completely legitimate need to interact with players. Not to mention, it doesn’t take much time for the teams or the organizers.
In a recent FAQ for the new season, the LCK organizers announced that they would not hold fan meetings for teams as usual. The reason given was the lack of safe space for both players and fans. The responsibility for increasing the connection between fans and teams will be up to the teams themselves. Previously, during the 2023 World Championship, there were reports of player safety being threatened by a segment of overzealous fans, especially towards T1 players.
The absence of this familiar activity could greatly impact the relationship between teams and fans. However, from a certain perspective, this also makes sense as the actual space for fan meetings is quite limited and causes many inconveniences.