Report: Behind The LCS Downsize

Two teams accepted an agreement to exit cutting the league from ten teams to eight. It could have been more and now Riot Games are left desperately needing the NA league to turn the corner.

On November 20^th Riot Games put a statement out regarding the future of their LCS league. Seemingly out of left field they said they had made the decision to cut the size of the league from ten to eight teams with Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians being the two teams that would be departing. The league had expanded from eight teams in 2015 before franchising in 2018 but 2023 has seen multiple organisations look to desperately cut costs in order to stay afloat.

Prior to the final decision behind the scenes Riot Games had wanted to take a temperature check on how organisation owners were feeling about their involvement with the league after a number of very public problems and negative headlines. At the end of 2022 they received criticism for moving the LCS broadcast to Thursdays and Fridays at 12pm PST in a bid to try and halt the declining viewership. The European LEC league took weekend priority. As a strategy it wasn’t the tourniquet they had hoped as the most recently concluded LCS split peaked at 223,000 viewers making it the least popular LCS split in the league’s history. That split had narrowly avoided a player strike after Riot made the call to change the necessity for participating teams to field a squad for their academy league NACL, a move that prompted seven of the ten teams to drop out. Behind the scenes Riot Games were warning the teams that if they failed to field LCS teams as a result of the strike it could cost them their spot permanently. In the end a resolution with the LCS Player’s Association (LCSPA) ultimately averted a collapse of the league.

Still, the dwindling viewership numbers and continued expense of operating an LCS team during a time when esports operations are mostly downsizing had many of the organisations considering their long term future. As this reporter forewarned in 2022, NA League of Legends titan TSM announced their intention to exit the league to compete in another region back in May and officially sold their slot to Shopify Rebellion in September for a reported $10 million.

With other brands also exploring sale options behind the scenes, according to our sources many embarrassingly throwing themselves at prolific YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, as well as the ongoing financial malaise in esports Riot decided to call a meeting with team owners to discuss their satisfaction with LCS and who was willing to stay or go. One source with knowledge of the meeting explained the results were shocking for them.

“The meeting was very candid and owners didn’t hold back from stating their problems with the league operations” they explained. “When asked who would want to exit the league there were five teams that effectively raised their hands.”

They added that the multiple owners had been pressing the issue with Riot Games executives and were getting to the point of issuing ultimatums about their future. With only weeks before the end of the World Finals and the free agency season there was limited time to put together a plan and crucially decide the future of the league. Riot decided that it was in the best interests of the league and its partner teams to pick the two organisations that were ultimately the least likely to find a buyer or survive the remainder of the market correction referred to as the “Esports Winter.” This chronology is important as at least one of the exiting brands have attempted to make it sound that the decision from Riot forced their hand, while in actuality it was the other way round. This was confirmed by journalist Travis Gafford in an interview with Riot’s President of Esports John Needham.

In addition to this Needham’s claim that they offered the same arrangement to all ten teams is accurate although as you’d expect not the full story. Having spoken on background with management at some of the other teams that had previously expressed an interest the general consensus seemed to be that while their view hadn’t changed they were ultimately persuaded by a desire to see how an eight team version of the league handled and what it might mean for costs and revenue. One such source also stated that Riot effectively asked them to hold the line and trust the league would turn around.

For fans of Evil Geniuses, what few remain, it won’t come as a surprise. This publication has done more than most to cover the cost of the shocking managerial incompetence of the people installed by Peak6 to run the organisation. Behind the scenes they had been trying to offload their LCS slot to all comers. The most likely buyer, reputedly Enthusiast Gaming, had according to sources familiar with the deal stalled talks as part of a strategy to shave millions off the price. As it is now open knowledge that EG is effectively in a liquidation strategy pending a total exit from esports, it wasn’t inconceivable they would sell for what they could get. In the end the easier deal to close was Riot’s offer of some cashback and a convenient farewell. Lest we forget EG did have an unconcluded investigation into player mistreatment underway, one Riot are now unlikely to see to completion.

Golden Guardians may have come as more of a surprise. Their Summer split had been comparatively successful to previous ones having finished fourth overall and ultimately just missing out on qualifying for Worlds. In the end of season awards they had two players place in the All Pro Team, won coaching team of the split and had Eric "Licorice" Ritchie named the Most Improved Player. None of this was enough for the parent company of the organisation, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, who only founded the team in 2017. They are now also likely to exit from esports entirely to focus on basketball.

Further evidence that this was a somewhat emergency move come from the reaction of the affected players. With next split’s roster moves already well underway many EG and Golden Guardian players had committed to stay with their teams, some turning down interest from other organisations. Ritchie himself was one such affected player, putting out a statement on X.com saying that his “plan for next year was to play for GG” and that he didn’t have a team. He added he doubted that he could find a spot in the LCS now as most had locked his position on their rosters.

Sources from within Evil Geniuses also added that they had players on their roster who had agreed paycuts to remain in much the same way they had asked of their Valorant team and had turned down other offers to do so.

On that front the LCSPA put out a statement voicing their dissatisfaction about the timing and how it would impact on their members. This isn’t without validity. As we know from the timeline it was no surprise to Riot that multiple organisations have not only attempted to sell their slots but had also openly expressed their desire to exit the league. In particular Evil Geniuses problems have been known for months. There’s no avoiding the fact there’s been a failure of anticipation here.

“The sudden loss of jobs harms our members” the LCSPA wrote. “For a second time this year, Riot and teams have left players out of the decision-making process and left players out to dry because of organizational mismanagement and 11th hour decision-making. The released players and players who are having verbal agreements not honored will not have the fair opportunity to seek work elsewhere as most rosters are completed or committed to by the time of today's announcement. The LCSPA has called on Riot privately to balance the loss of opportunity with improvements to LCS and NACL conditions for 2024.

Notwithstanding the LCSPA's immediate concerns with today's decision, we believe that removing struggling organizations instead of replacing them can be a step towards a better, more open LCS in the future. Only when players have their voices fully heard, can we all build a better future for the LCS than what franchising has delivered so far. The LCSPA and Riot are actively working on a structure to give players a seat during the decision-making process for those long-term plans.” (

While Needham said they wouldn’t be divulging details of what the offer for the organisations was two sources we interviewed did divulge details although had concerns about revealing the specific amount issued in case it was somehow identifying. While it is our understanding that could not be true from a contractual standpoint we shall err on the side of caution given Riot’s history. What we can say is that while Riot put together a financial package worth millions of dollars for the two organisations that accepted, it certainly falls well short of the $10 million that Shopify Rebellion bought in for. In structure it represents a similar kind of deal that Overwatch League teams accepted earlier this month.

Despite all the issues with LCS Riot enjoyed a very successful World Finals that continues to prove the global popularity of League of Legends. The event became the most viewed esports tournament of all time with a peak of 6.4 million viewers across all languages and platforms with record breaking YouTube viewership. This is before they add the numbers from Chinese streaming platforms which are likely to set an incredible bar for future events to clear. This contrast in headlines might present some insight into where the issues truly lie.