The League of Legends S12 season has started, and the spring season of various major competition regions around the world has been launched. LPL and LCK, as the world's largest and strongest two major divisions, naturally are not to be let go. The spring race in the LPL division has already started on January 10. The performance of the first few teams is eye-catching.
At the beginning of the spring competition in various major regions around the world, the king of 囧 can't help but think of the LCK division next door, which has just completed the alliance in 2021. In the S10 season, the king of 囧 has written an article explaining what may happen after the LCK realizes the alliance, including but not limited to: LCK major teams, with large capital intervention, the player's salary has risen sharply; other divisions are no longer easy to dig up LCK talented players; LCK internal rolls are serious; LCK record has risen significantly.
But after a year of operation of the LCK's alliance, it is not difficult to find that in addition to the sharp increase in the salary of the players, there has not been much change in LCK and before the realization of the alliance: other players who should be lost are still lost; the results that should be played still do not reach the expected goal (hmm?). Maybe it has been, more on that later); after the club received large capital, the profitability has not improved significantly, etc.
So at the beginning of the S12 season, let's look back at what has changed after the LCK league?
Old rules, some of the following data, are based on the data available on the network, welcome to discuss, refuse to spray without reason!
What has changed in LCK after a year of allianceization?
As we all know, as early as 2020, the company officially announced that the LCK division will fully realize the alliance in 2021. Friends familiar with the League of Legends e-sports circle know that the LCK division will achieve full alliance in 2021, which is actually the latest. For example, our LPL division has achieved allianceization as early as the summer of 2017; while the North American LCS division has begun to be leagueized in the spring of 2018; and the European LEC division has begun to be affiliated when it is the spring of 2019. Even LJL and TCL in the Wild Card Division have completed their unionization in 2019.
As one of the world's largest divisions, LCK is nearly four years late in terms of alliance compared to the LPL. Logically, it is possible to learn from the advantages of other divisions, learn from each other's strengths, and complete the overtaking of the corners. Unfortunately, judging from the operation of LCK for more than a year, they have not achieved very good results. In addition to the abolition of promotion and relegation, the league team is more stable, the team personality is more distinct; the player's salary has increased significantly, and it seems that in other aspects, there has been no positive return.
In the case of a sharp increase in the salary of players, the team and club are more concerned about the profitability and profitability of the team after the alliance. After all, after the realization of the league, the LCK and the team will share the benefits of the league. However, the LCK alliance has only been a year later, because the value of the players has become too high, so that the major teams of the LCK have not enjoyed the dividends brought by capital like the players after the alliance. So that on the LCK side, except for a few head teams, most of the other teams, even if they have received investment from large capital, they cannot afford the salary of the players without an upper limit, so that they inevitably lose money.
In the case of a sharp increase in the salary of players and the general loss of the team, the results of the world championship, one of the most important judging criteria for e-sports, have shown a downward trend. After the S11 league, compared with the S10 season, LCK occupied three places in the final four of the S11 World Championship, which was better than S10 from the obvious point of view. However, from the final result, the LCK of S11 is not as good as S10.
From the perspective of achievements and team profitability, the League of Legends esports circle and LCK internal evaluation generally believe that LCK has not changed significantly compared with the operation of Fist Korea before the alliance. In fact, to put it bluntly, there is only one point, that is, after the LCK alliance, the profitability of the team and the club has not been improved, and no one has made money except the players.
After the alliance, the LCK actually did not stop the outflow of players. The other three major divisions, in the S11 season, are still smoothly digging up talented teenagers from LCK.
The LPL, on the other hand, benefits from a huge player base and massive capital intervention. For the team, under the pressure of no promotion and relegation, either play excellent results and earn advertising shares; or maintain high heat and make money through traffic; or draw cards through secondary leagues to train new people to be "financial teams". All this is reflected in the results of the three crowns in four years.
Finally, folks, have you felt the change in LCK since the alliance? Let's talk!