As we get ready to head into our fourth LCS season, we wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the changes that we're working with team owners on for the 2016 NA and EU LCS, what we’re aiming for, and where we want to improve. One big issue we’re looking to improve on is the pro player experience when it comes to their contracts with teams.
We’ll be back later in the offseason to talk through some additional changes (i.e. looking at the LCS and Challenger formats, where we’ll be holding our international events in 2016), but first we wanted to address some specific changes we’re hoping to put in place for next season with an eye on pro player experience. These aren’t all the changes we’re making, but here’s some details on some of the first tweaks that we’re looking at.
First, we are taking a look at putting a cap on contract lengths. We’ve seen some teams tie up players with long-term deals (we know of at least one 10 year deal in a league outside of the LCS) that don’t guarantee compensation over the life of that contract. While we want to encourage the stability of team rosters in LCS, we believe contracts extending beyond three years at this point in time are not healthy for players or teams given the rapid growth of the League. In addition to helping players seek a fair market value, we also believe that long-term contracts are open to abuse when teams have no responsibility to pay them or keep them on the Active Roster. As a result, we’re looking to cap LCS contracts at 3-year maximums.
We are also looking at requiring that reserve players in the LCS have a contract and that they have a minimum compensation this year. While we know that several teams have compensated their subs and have involved them to a significant degree, we’re hoping to standardize this. We believe this is healthy for the LCS and provides some stability for these players. We’re thinking that subs should be guaranteed a minimum compensation per split while they’re not actively playing (less than LCS starters, although they can certainly be paid more at the discretion of the team). Although this is helpful for reserve players, we’d consider this just the first step - we have a few more initiatives in the works to help all players - starters and subs - unlock their market value and see their overall compensation increase.
Finally, we’d like to introduce a few stipulations to prevent players from being unfairly tied to teams if personal or team circumstances dramatically change. The first change would ensure that players are not tied to a non-compete clause. This is an area where esports has lagged for too long behind traditional sports leagues - restricting players from joining another team once their contract expires is simply unfair and risks the player missing out on key months (or even years) of their career.
The second change we’re looking to make allows players to terminate their contract in the event that their team is removed from participating in the LCS due to rules violations, preventing them from being tied to an organization that can no longer compete. This would not take effect if a team is relegated, so in the past few years would only have been applied in the case of Lemondogs in 2014 or Rich Gang earlier this year. We’re hoping that this won’t need to be invoked except in extreme cases, but it’s important to avoid a situation where a team is removed from the LCS and then blocks their players from joining other teams.
Helping to ensure that players are represented as fairly and completely as possible within player contracts is one of the more impactful ways we can create a positive experience for pros competing in the LCS. It’s our hope that these changes, and other initiatives still in the pipeline, help to provide greater protection and security for players. We’ll be sharing news about more developments during the offseason, so stay tuned.
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