Gamers threaten to boycott all the time. Pokemon Unite players are currently boycotting the game because a dog is too powerful. Battlefield players were enraged when women were added to the game. Pokemon Go players are leaving en masse because of anti-consumer price changes. Many of these are empty threats, more players either return after a short period or just play a different game. But for professional League of Legends players there’s far more at stake, and they’re currently willing to put their livelihoods on the line to protest changes to Riot’s game that are systematically dismantling the esport as they know it.
Riot’s changes allow esports teams to drop their Challengers League (NACL) rosters, a decision that was backed by the organisations involved. NACL is a pipeline to the League Championship Series (LCS), where many pros get their starts and are offered chances to prove themselves. Soon after Riot’s announcement, seven of the ten NACL orgs dropped their rosters, leaving their players out of a job. If you want to read a detailed rundown of events, I recommend Mikhail Klimentov’s newsletter ReaderGrev on the subject.
Pro player and LCS Players Association (LCSPA) vice-president Mo ‘Revenge’ Kaddoura summed it up in a tweet: “Playing in academy was what gave me the opportunity to play in LCS, this will easily kill the future of the LCS”.
It would be a stretch to call NACL League’s grassroots scene in America, but Riot is certainly dismantling a major pathway towards becoming a pro player. The current crop of LCS players includes many who came up through NACL, and they’ve taken especial umbrage with the fact that Riot said it was “building the future of sport” in a blog post just last month. How can you build the future by disassembling the pathways that take you there?
However, some good may come of this situation: players may realise the power that they have. Esports organisations have been eager to drop rosters in order to cut costs as esports popularity continues to decline, or at the very least stagnate, in terms of profitability. But how profitable will the LCS be if the players don’t turn up? There’s a very real possibility of that happening if the LCSPA vote is passed this weekend. Riot is probably already aware of the power of collective action after its employees threatened to walk out over toxic workplace conditions four years ago, but this is a milestone for esports. The LCS could be the first major esports league to make a concerted, collective act in order to improve conditions for players, and it will be by far the highest profile.
The LCSPA’s executive director Phillip Aram says that as many as 70 jobs may have already been affected by the rules change, and it may already be too late for some of those players and staff. But the long-term effects may be worse still. “North America now has a developmental product with no viewership, no institutional support, no paying jobs, and no future,” reads the LCSPA statement on Twitter.
Drastic action is needed, and there’s a kernel of hope buried deep in the centre of this rotten story. According to Klimentov’s newsletter, Aram considers Riot’s decision a breach of trust, as players were not informed ahead of time, and said, “If we have 26 out of 50 of the LCS player[s] willing to do something, I can tell you right now, the league's not running.”
Don’t get me wrong, the LCS is far from a unionised workplace (it would likely need something more like SAG than a league-based union), but if the players can work together, they might be able to affect real change here. Esports may be in decline, but protecting the future and cultivating young talent through developmental leagues is the only way the future can look any brighter for players. LCS players have more power than your average gamer, each bringing Riot far more money than League’s plumpest whale, and a boycott of their next LCS match could force the publisher to take notice.
Even further than that, pro players across all esports may start to understand their value and take a stand against the anti-employee rules that many tournaments put in place. An LCSPA walkout would be gaming and esports history, and could lead to improvements in competitive gaming infrastructure for players, management, and fans the world over.