After eSports players voted to walk out to protest over rule changes, Riot announced an update on the 2023 League Championship Series Summer Season. This was supposed to kick off on Thursday, but now is being pushed back by two weeks.
Delaying 2023 LCS Summer Season
Riot is delaying the 2023 League Championship Series after players voted to walk out as a protest over rule changes. According to a report from Dot Esports, the two-week delay will give Riot some time for productive dialogue between the LCSPA, teams, and the league to resume the competition this summer.
Riot Games' League of Legends Global Head Naz Aletaha stated, "We ultimately decided that it would not hold true to our values that Riot's esports offers our players and fans a showcase for the best competitive League of Legends." She added that they want nothing but the best for players in North America, hence this decision.
Aletaha clarified that LCS will not be penalizing the teams for not fielding their rosters during the two-week period as an effort to allow everyone to focus on constructive dialogue. As of now, Riot is ensuring the best for its LCS employees, contractors, and other supports to be not impacted by the delay negatively.
However, Riot Games stated in its announcement that LCS is ready to cancel the entire summer season if it needs to be delayed further. Aletaha said that LCS would not be able to qualify for this year's Worlds Global Tournament, which serves as a high point for competitive League of Legends.
League players have voted to walkout as a protest to Riot Games' decision to no longer require franchisees to field amateur teams. These changes resulted in the elimination of seven teams and many franchises have already dropped their teams for the season.
The League Championship Series Players Association released a statement regarding this matter. "This is not a decision LCS players have come to lightly. Countless discussions and debates were had between all LCS players in the week leading to this historic vote," the association noted.
Responding to Demands
The LCSPA demanded Riot solutions for the LCS and NACL, including system promotion and relegation between the LCS and NACL, revenue pools for NACL wages, and one-year contracts for LCS players that will win the summer finals.
As a response, Aletaha responded to only commit to a single change, and that is for Riot to give Rally Cry an additional $300,000 to jumpstart the 2023 NACL season that is expected to begin on June 10 this year. Rally Cry is the organization that partners with the NACL.
The Verge reported that LCSPA shared an update on Tuesday evening that they discussed with Riot to conduct daily meetings to reach a resolution. The association wrote, "Starting tomorrow, we plan to begin discussions that result in meaningful collaborative action to get our players back to where they want to be: competing for fans on the LCS stage."
