LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 564 Triumph
This evening.

The news of EDG's victory once again spread to media outlets across China.

The gaming community celebrated once again, and CCTV media proudly posted a congratulatory message, expressing their admiration for EDG's two consecutive championships.

The joy was amplified when the blog post mentioned that this World Championship final was extraordinary, as it was an all-Chinese battle to determine the champion.

What does this mean?
League of Legends is currently the leader in the esports field, and the outstanding performance of LPL teams undoubtedly demonstrates that esports is booming and gradually moving towards the forefront of the world.

Even South Korea's national media published articles commenting on this after EDG won the championship.

China's e-sports development is gradually catching up with South Korea, and its dominant position in the field may no longer exist in the future.

It all comes down to League of Legends.

Since EDG won the championship at the Bird's Nest last year, esports in China has been climbing at a high level, and this year's continued victory can be said to have ushered in a super boom for the esports market.

With such vast resources as China, as long as there is a market, there will be no shortage of development.

Therefore, South Korean media believe that starting with EDG's two consecutive championships, Chinese esports may continue to dominate them.

They spent over a decade creating this mecca in the esports world, but now, just two years later, it seems their status is about to be overturned.

At least from the current situation of capital investment in LPL, it can be seen that it has completely become a typical Wall Street that spends money like water.

How can this be played?

In the future, we can buy out all the South Korean players with money alone.

Otherwise, just look at what the EDG team jersey looks like; it's practically covered in advertisements.

At least for now, the term "e-sports" has become a hot commodity in the Chinese market, especially with the implementation of the home-and-away system and the increasing urbanization of e-sports, with more infrastructure and even sports venues being put into use one after another.

In this respect, South Korean esports is already far behind.

The market gap is there.

At least until South Korea reclaims the championship at next year's World Championship, China's e-sports industry will continue to develop unchecked, to the point that no one can influence or stop it.

So it's normal for the South Korean media to panic.

The pressure LCK will face next year will be far greater than it is now. It's not that they can't accept failure, but that they can't accept that LPL managed to win all the championships based on their failures.

In the past, even when the LCK ended, it would at least bring some international championships. But in the last two years, not only did it fail to win any MSI or World Championship titles, it also failed to win a single championship in Riot Games' newly added Asian Games.

This completely made LPL surpass LCK overall.

In this way, LCK has no more fig leaf left.

Is EDG the only strong team in the LPL?
No, no, you can't beat IG either, and sometimes you can't beat RNG either.

Okay, it seems like everyone in the LPL is pretty strong.

Therefore, for the future of LCK, LCK has entered a long period of painful reflection. At least next year, increasing player salaries is a must to prevent more LCK players from leaving, given that LPL is currently the top region.

What the LCK officials may not know is that the LPL's greatest strength lies in spending money to buy players.

Even before the World Championship ended and the transfer window officially opened, countless LCK players were already signing letters of intent with LPL teams.

With money, you can always do whatever you want.

The better the LPL performs, the more brands will move in, and then the teams won't lack money; they'll lack how much money they need to buy players.

This is obviously not a problem.

So LCK, having just finished the World Championship, realized a problem: they were not prepared, and it seemed like LCK was about to be robbed.

Fortunately, most players' contracts are held by the teams, so even if players have ideas, they have to wait until the transfer window is over and the teams' opinions are considered.

Of course, there are also players who are about to become free agents and have not yet renewed their contracts with their teams.

Take Faker, for example. After a disastrous year of failing to even qualify for the World Championship, he watched as his old teammates retired or left, and now he has to lead a group of newcomers.

Faker was somewhat resistant, after all, he had brought the team this year, but everyone knows what the result was—they couldn't even make it to the World Championship.

They spent a lot of money to bring in Nofe as a coach during the transfer window, but it turned out to be a side effect.

So Faker understands very well that if there are no major investments next year and the team still relies on one veteran leading four new players, then he will have to go out and see what other teams are like.

Especially with EDG's victory, Lin Ruo has already won two championships and the FMVP award, which makes Faker worry about encountering the biggest rival of his career.

no way.

This person doesn't seem to be facing any bottlenecks yet.

Faker felt that he had reached a bottleneck, and of course, this bottleneck was caused not only by his own performance but also by the pressure exerted by his teammates.

Who could stand being asked to lead a bunch of newbies every day?

Now that Bang and Wolf have both left, Faker's idea has become even more solidified.

of course.

More likely, the LPL side also had obvious communication with him behind the scenes.

Based on the idea that money is not an issue, Faker is not worried about his annual salary. If given the same treatment, he would naturally prefer to stay in LCK and SKT.

The problem is, the treatment is unequal.

It wasn't that SKT offered him too little; rather, LPL offered him far too much, like leaving a check on the table for him to write numbers on.

Using this to test cadres is a very sophisticated approach.

This forced Faker to enter a period of serious reflection.

However, as I said before, he values ​​the roster more than money, and Faker will not choose to join a team that is not competitive.

Based on this premise of joining a strong team, he still prioritizes LCK teams, unless the LCK does not have a lineup that suits his taste.

Therefore, Faker remains in a wait-and-see state in the face of LPL's communication, waiting for SKT management to offer him a contract renewal deal.

At the same time, he is waiting to see what kind of highly competitive new team the management can build for him after his old teammates leave, so that he can see hope of winning the world championship again.

However, this hope seems to be a bit troublesome.

It's not that SKT is unwilling to invest money, but rather that it seems they can't acquire many of the players.

After the World Championship ends, the team should have some communication with the players they want to buy.

Even the Korean players in the LPL, except those who played in the World Championship, all returned to Korea for vacation. During this period, SKT contacted JDG's jungler Clid.

JDG, as the fourth LPL team this year, missed the World Championship by losing to IG. Considering that IG won the runner-up position in the World Championship, it is enough to prove the potential of this team.

As the jungler and driving force behind their team's success, Korean import Clid naturally attracted a lot of attention. Therefore, it was only natural for SKT to inquire about and have a friendly discussion with Clid.

Logically speaking.

As one of the top clubs in the LCK, Clid knew that SKT wanted him, so he naturally packed his things and prepared to join at any time, saying that he had been a fan of SKT since he was a child and dreamed of joining the club one day.

SKT did indeed achieve this effect initially.

Clid made it clear that he wanted to join SKT.

But why "at the beginning"? Because after EDG won the championship, the LPL had more depth. JDG, who believed they could rank fourth in the Summer Split, thought that as long as they kept the same roster and strengthened it appropriately next year, they would definitely have a place in the World Championship.

They want to qualify for the World Championship and also want to gain greater influence in an era where various forces are crowding into the LPL.

So when JDG heard that Clid, who had returned to Korea, was considering transferring to SKT, they immediately implemented a strong measure to retain him, which was to increase his salary.

There's nothing that can't be done if you pay enough.

Therefore, Clid hesitated.

He said he would wait until the transfer window to make a real consideration, and that they could talk to his club, JDG, directly at that time. He added that they should not contact him now.

Ok.

SKT seems to have a vague idea of ​​what's going on. Clid, who had initially promised to come, isn't planning to? That's not good.

Unfortunately, Faker knew about this news, which made him even more reluctant to renew his contract.

If Clid doesn't come, who else can we buy?

Are they selling GRF's jungler? It seems like they can't find either the former captain who stayed with KT, or Peanut who was kicked out to KZ.

Therefore, SKT's management felt extremely distressed. They could only start communicating with Cuzz, who played for RW. Although Cuzz's performance this year was not as good as Clid's, he had at least maintained absolute stability.

If we can buy it, that's perfectly fine; Faker's side also thinks there's no problem with it.

However, it seems to be more expensive than Clid.

Because he won the LCK championship, Cuzz has higher aspirations. RW is willing to let him go, since the team seems to be breaking up anyway. However, there is also the issue of price.

Last year, Doin and Smlz alone cost tens of millions of dollars, and failing to qualify for the World Championship has already made the investors behind them want to give up.

Since Cuzz signed a two-year contract, they hoped to get a substantial transfer fee when negotiating with SKT.

This puts SKT, who are unwilling to invest excessively, in a difficult position.

They have already tried their best.

In an effort to erase the shame of failing to qualify for the World Championship, they contacted many players they were interested in before the transfer window even opened, hoping to make a move first. However, the result was not ideal.

The only deal reached was with ADCteddy from the aircraft team.

Because he came from a relegated team, and both the LPL and LCK don't lack ADCs, the price he was paid to replace Bang wasn't high.

Teddy was so excited about joining a wealthy family that he couldn't sleep.

This is arguably SKT's best signing result.

In addition, SKT also suffered a setback in signing Khan. After experiencing the humiliation of winning the Spring Split but failing to qualify for the World Championship with KZ, Khan was bound to leave KZ.

SKT, who had been using rookie top laners throughout the S8 season, was the perfect place for him. At that time, SKT desperately needed a mature jungler.

But I'm sorry.

The LPL is back, and the lure of money is once again in front of Khan, leaving him, now a free agent, with a difficult choice to make.

In the past, even if you offered money, many LCK players who wanted to win the world championship might not have chosen to go to LPL, because they felt that it would be difficult to achieve better results there.

But it is different now.

LPL has won two consecutive championships.

What's even more terrifying is that even teams like IG and RNG are extremely competitive.

Simply put, the top-ranked teams in the LPL are not much different from those in the LCK; in fact, it's the LCK that has the gap.

Therefore, going to play in the LPL at this time seems to be a win-win situation, where you can earn money and maintain competitiveness at the same time.

In this situation, the appeal inevitably becomes much greater.

It's normal for Khan to hesitate. He and Cuzz had looked into the LPL and received very positive feedback. He even had the urge to go to the LPL and play with Cuzz.

This gave Cuzz the urge to find a new team in the LPL and then bring Khan in to build a top-tier team.

However, it would be good if they could go to SKT together, but Cuzz is unwilling to compromise on the salary issue. Moreover, even if he doesn't go to SKT, RW will find him the most suitable next team.

Knowing that LPL's investment will increase significantly next year, and that more competitive teams will emerge accordingly, Cuzz has no aversion to staying in LPL.

do not forget.

He was kicked out by KZ.

Seeing KZ get repeatedly beaten by LPL teams, Cuzz was happier than anyone else. However, he also wanted to prove that KZ's choice was wrong, and that leading an LPL team to the World Championship would be a good way to prove it.

Of course, if SKT offers enough money, he will definitely prioritize joining SKT, since there is nothing more meaningful than a head-on confrontation and defeating KZ in order to get revenge.

However, KZ is about to disband at this point, and it's hard to say what lineup they'll have when they meet again. At least Khan and Peanut are confirmed to be leaving the team.

That shouldn't affect Cuzz's determination to return to the LCK.

For SKT, the situation is more complicated. Many players were not acquired as easily as they had hoped, which means that renewing Faker's contract will be more difficult.

Since he hasn't seen a good lineup, Faker would rather go to the LPL to make money. The team that can afford to buy him at a high price must have a pretty good lineup.

Leaving SKT is one thing, but leaving the LCK region is another, which makes Faker a little uncomfortable. So his first goal is still to play in the LCK, and he also wants to try his best to find the possibility of renewing his contract with SKT.

However, this is on the premise that the roster really can't look like it has no obvious competitiveness anymore.

These are the problems that SKT's management is facing.

Unlike EDG, whose management has absolutely no problems, and who are currently enjoying two consecutive championships and offer high salaries, do you think any players would leave the team? That would cost a lot of money.

At least Ed Zhu believes there is a very high probability that the same lineup will be retained next season.

The newly crowned EDG players weren't idle either. How could they just play games in Korea? They had to visit Jeju Island and all the other places they could name.

Ed Ju acted like a tour guide, leading the newly crowned champions to every place they could go in South Korea for nearly seven days before finally deciding to return home.

Two-time champions EDG are finally about to return in triumph.

(End of this chapter)