Report: Behind The Scenes At The LCS Player’s Walkout

Riot Games grow furious as LCS organisations explore desperate measures for a "scab-free" solution

This month has seen historic action from an esports Player’s Association as the North American LCS Players Association (NALCSPA) have voted to walkout on their commitments to playing in the league ahead of the opening weekend. This move is the first of its kind in League of Legends and one of the few times in the history of esports that players have mobilised against other stakeholders in the esports ecosystem.

The issue that led to this is the removal of a rule that required LCS teams to field an academy team in their NACL for 2023. That decision was taken by Riot Games after all ten teams in the league voted in agreement to make that request of them. The rationale behind that request was the ongoing economic challenges facing esports organisations as they continue to downsize and layoff staff in a market correction colloquially referred to as the “Esports Winter.” Several of the prominent organisations offered additional context for their decision. Flyquest, who stated they would still field an academy team despite voting in favour of it not being a requirement, stated that they agreed that it would offer some short term financial relief for organisations that really needed it. Team Liquid stated, among other things, that they didn’t feel that the academy league was necessarily the best pathway to pro any more but they’d still field a team.

Cloud9, via the medium of a Reddit AMA, they would increase their commitment to collegiate esports and maybe look to Europe for tier 2 development opportunities in the absence of NACL participation.

Riot too put out a statement clarifying their “commitment” to the NACL which was made up of a three point agenda. A change of format that would make academy teams subject to relegation and promotion to and from other feeder leagues. This would be coupled with cross-regional competition in order to try and build up experience among burgeoning players. Finally, in a move that had been discussed at length behind the scenes, there would be no changes to import policies for foreign players.

While all of these measures may very well serve the needs of the LCS organisations and a long term development of North American talent, in the here and now none of these measures would preserve the jobs of academy players and staff. In a public Twitter post the LCS Players Association added that Riot provided a stipend of $3 million to each of the LCS teams and that an academy team would only utilise 15-20% of that.

In the absence of a satisfactory plan from Riot to resolve that issue the LCS Players Association discussed the prospect of taking action against the league in a bid to get the games developer to the table. The prospect of a walkout was first reported by independent journalist Mikhail Klimentov via his Substack on the 23^rd May.

LCS players to vote on walkout in protest of NACL changes

The head of the PA, Phillip Aram, also made a point of facing the media via the aforementioned Twitter account, quotes to Klimentov and an appearance on the “Four Horsemen” Podcast in which this reporter was also a participant.

Despite the walkout vote looming Riot went ahead and announced the teams that would be participating in the next season of NACL due to start on June 10th, a list of names that were widely considered underwhelming. While the big names of Team Liquid, Flyquest and Evil Geniuses remained part of the project, the rest were a collection of organisations with little following or resources. In addition to that Riot seemed to only be able to sell the prospect of participation to one big name, that of content creator Jeremy "Disguised Toast" Wang, whose foray into esports is part of a new trend of influencer funded efforts in the space. Wang himself has attested to the financial challenges facing him and how difficult it has proven to run an esports team on a sensible budget. Nonetheless his represents a rare bright spot for the league’s prospects due to the amount of attention his involvement could bring. Aram pointed to the fact that the disparity between the inclusion of someone like Wang and a team like Team Fish Taco really shows that Riot have done a poor job in selling any future benefits for entering into the league.

The vote for walkout action came on May 29^th and passed “overwhelmingly” according to a post made by the LCSPA. Our understanding is that the vote was nearly unanimous despite concerns that the named players in the association could receive reprisals from both their employers and Riot Games.

Since the walkout vote was passed multiple sources have reached out to this publication in order to explain what is going on behind the scenes and the likely outcomes as the situation develops. These sources all requested anonymity fearing reprisals from Riot if they went on the record. Riot seemingly has braced itself for the worst with reports that they had cancelled the LCS Asset Day at short notice corroborated by our sources and that they had also cancelled their tech rehearsal and soundcheck for the upcoming broadcast.

The primary issue has been the teams participating in LCS finding players to stand-in for their squads. While Riot have forgone the usual rank requirements and background checks for the duration of the walkout the prospect of being a community pariah seems to have put off any players actually coming forward. The PA issued a statement after the walkout vote had finished urging all players to simply not participate under any circumstances. Many are turning down money to participate in the league. One source with familiarity of these negotiations said that “scabs are impossible to find” even though amounts in the region of $4,000 per game have been offered to some players.

To alleviate this problem at least two LCS organisations have requested if it’s permissible to field staff over players. These teams have approached the Players Association directly and asked if they will give their blessing for this as a workaround, as well as urged Riot to allow this. For example a source familiar with the inner workings of TSM said that they were weighing up a request to field their CEO and former player Andy “Reginald” Dinh in a bid to try and get some positive content out of the situation. At the time of writing there has been no ruling on whether or not this will be approved.

The Riot Games LCS studio

Riot themselves are furious at the prospect of the walkout as it heaps further problems on their esports product that was already struggling for viewership and revenue. Multiple sources told us that they have threatened the organisations with fines if they aren’t able to bring their teams in line. As one source from an esports organisation explained:

“The fines are going to be issued for teams that cannot field an LCS team and will recur each time they are unable to do so. Every LCS team has been told they must have players available for games no matter who they are. They’ve also been told that if they publicly express support for the walkout they will be also be fined.”

Another source who is familiar with the ongoing negotiations says that teams who cannot field rosters for a prolonged period of time could face sterner penalties.

“What has teams acting desperate” they explained “is that Riot has said an inability to field a team will have them re-evaluate their fitness for membership in the league.”

Clearly Riot Games were never going to take this lightly. LCS was for many years their flagship esports league and while it has undeniably lost some of its luster down the years, the propsect of staff members and amateur players participating in professional matches that are set to be broadcast really would be an unprecedented low for the league. With only a few days left to avert that outcome it’s not clear whether Riot will hastily renegotiate with the PA or cancel the opening week altogether. More on this story as it develops.

UPDATE: Shortly after this report went live Riot Games announced they would be delaying the start of the LCS season by two weeks and addressed demands made by the NALCSPA, in most part to decline to meet them. This now places the ball firmly in the Players Association’s court and no doubt a response will be forthcoming soon.