https://x.com/ChainsSoul/status/1849178596633395537?t=bLlIrMXuXr3zY74Nurb2fA&s=19
o7
Yup... Gons
Official statement: https://x.com/PMamantzis/status/1849163137930420303?t=CNW3l-uY0aG4mzD3HboWuA&s=19
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GoNext gone???
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The real problem is that Riot doesn't give a single shit about anything below tier 1... it gets most of the money, obviously, and there shouldn't be a problem with that, if they would also care about tier 2. Talents and teams are underpaid or never even paid, most of the EMEA scene runs on the sole passion and time commitment of the talents/players. Champions Seoul had a prize pool of 2,25 million USD for 16 teams. All of the 24 Challengers leagues in 2024 had a combined prize pool of 1,3 million USD through 2 splits for around a 100 teams. I'll let that sink in. Out of the 10 leagues in EMEA only 1 (Polaris) was confirmed to have paid out prize money. Now, can we blame the tournament organizers for this? Yes, maybe. But most of the blame has to be taken by Riot because of the lack of funding in the tier 2 leagues. Of course, these people are not asking for millions of dollars in tier 2, but you can't fucking keep a team with proper salary sustainable with 4 thousand dollars for 4 months (Challengers Portugal 1st place prize money). The organizations don't make any money, the tournament organizers don't make any money. Because how could they? There's nothing to make money from. If you can't keep a sustainable tier 2 your tier 1 will degrade fast, that's how esports works. That's when Riot should come in, but so far we have seen half of EMEA fall apart. We were promised a Split 3, but not a single league has organized one in EMEA. Because teams/orgs have ran out of money. We have seen SAW, Acend, now GoNext leave the scene. We're already half a foot in the grave, if Riot doesn't get their shit together we will see much much worse things in no time. Be prepared for more to come.
Thank you.
dont see what riot could do about up and coming orgs with 0 background and history, no investor to rely on, and no brand to sell merch/content can do to help besides adding a price cap on players in t2. they shouldnt expect to make a profit and be able to substain themselves easily after 1-2 years when you compare them to orgs that have built a brand over the last 2 decades.
Seriously don't expect what people want riot to do besides that, or maybe pouring an absurd amount of money into t2, but that would be forcing them to rely on sponsors they dont wish to branch out to, or saudi money. Riot isnt making profit to be able to fund that
Of course it's not only on Riot but you can't tell me that the stuff going on right now is okay. Yes, up and coming orgs might not have a brand like a 2 decade old team, but somehow these up and coming orgs are what's keeping tier 2 (or what's left of it) alive. With the possibility of partnered teams having "academy teams" in tier 2 might have saved a few slots but most of tier 2 will be free agent teams in no time. You said Riot isn't making profit to be able to add some more money into tier 2 but they have money for a helicopter show (Champions 2023), so the problem isn't with money, the problem is where they decide to spend that money.
low return on investment. FOr example in CS, if you get a major attending lineup, you are looking at around 2 million dollars, that's probably enough to break even if you spend a lot and a W if you didn't spend a lot. (reason why a team like g2 were willing to spend 600k on monesy, cuz one major attendance clears the payment). acend wasted 700k into nothing, they got nothing and paid a shit ton
Well in this case the problem is that east essentially doesnt have a TO anymore
the statement form krobatv touches on it briefly, but east's TO PLE is having some major issues right now
they havent paid some prizes for years at this point (not only t2 league in emea so thats good news for the future x.x), dont have any valorant specific staff left (afaik) and has been ghosting everyone in valorant
It is impossible to get any information about the current status or future of East right now. This makes it incredibly hard for the big spenders in East like Acend and GoNext to even consider investing, when the bare minimum, a league to play in, isnt guaranteed (and thats ignoring the t2 system as a whole being very problematic already)
Basically East has no guaranteed return at all atm, so it doesnt make sense for an org to stay
I was in direct contact with a few people in PLE, I understand the situation. The problem with East is that it's the league for most eastern/balkan countries, so it's a fundamental league to player/talent development in the region. Merging is no possibility, so either Riot finds a TO or come up with a better solution that doesn't hurt the region. The other problem is that the lack of funds isn't only present in East (or Portugal as I mentioned in the original post), and that should be the main focus.
I do think merging could be possible, however definitely not by next year so I do agree that its not a solution for the current problem.
Im personally looking over towards how pacific does this year, since theyre basically running the (at least from what Ive read from orgs) most popular solution
but even then i dont think it will be enough so idk
any proper solution would require them to rethink the amount of guest slots in t1 and I cant see Riot doing that in the current economical landscape
for the short term all I can say is gl finding a TO for east, that region is impossible to make money in even for a cheap TO xD
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