This week’s hottest eSports news and highlights for LoL, CS:GO, and Dota 2. Expect spoilers!

League of Legends

Player Salaries: Ember, a NA challenger team, releases player salaries causing a fury of discussion and controversy.

Ember, a NA challenger team, releases player salaries causing a fury of discussion and controversy. Roster Swaps: Uzi joins QG Reapers, Sask, NaMei, and inSec join Royal Never Give Up, Athena joins EDward Gaming, Flame returns to Korea, FORG1VEN officially joins H2k.

Uzi joins QG Reapers, Sask, NaMei, and inSec join Royal Never Give Up, Athena joins EDward Gaming, Flame returns to Korea, FORG1VEN officially joins H2k. Legends Rising: Riot finishes seven-episode series with season finale recapping Worlds.

Player Salaries

On Friday, Jonathan Pan, owner of League of Legends NA Challenger Team Ember, released a controversial statement on their philosophy on player management and most of all the salaries of their players. Here is a part of their statement:

Companies have more leverage when there is information asymmetry. And that’s wrong. Last night, we shared our players’ salaries with each other. Today, we are going to share this information with the rest of the esports world so that players in CS and LCS are armed with some facts before their next negotiation.

Bonuses include sign-on and performance.

Gleeb — $57,500 base, $15,000 in bonuses, total comp $72,500

Contractz — $60,000 base, $10,000 in bonuses, total comp $70,000

Goldenglue — $65,000 base, $27,000 in bonuses, total comp $92,000

Solo — $65,000 base, $21,000 in bonuses, total comp $86,000

Benjamin— $60,000 base, $15,000 in bonuses, total comp $75,000

(Click here for the full statement)

Notably, Ember stated that they offer housing, office space, health care, and paychecks given through payroll in addition to a salary.

This statement lead to a whirlwind of social media discussion with professionals, team owners, analysts, and lawyers giving their opinions. Other eSports have also entered the discussion.

The main question that has been asked is, should eSports organizations be obligated to release their players' salaries?

Proponents argue that since transparency grants players a better understanding of competitors' salaries it will lead to better pay.

Opponents argue that Ember’s released figures are inflated and not sustainable for a typical challenger team. If these figures become standard newer organizations will be criticized for underpaying their players when they can’t afford better salaries. But organizations who recklessly spend money on players but eventually fail and die will dissuade mainstream companies from investing in eSports. Without these mainstream investors it will be difficult for players to be paid what they deserve.

Ultimately, eSports is a young industry that it is hard to legitimately decide what a player is worth and to what standard these organizations should be held to. Past controversies, like Doublelift’s dramatic departure and Svenskeren’s contract dispute, illustrate the immaturity of eSports organizations. Hopefully, discussions will help propel the industry into one that is fair, organized, and professional.

Roster Swaps

As with the preseason in years past, each week sees new roster swaps. This week, the most notable ones are in China.

Uzi joins QG Reapers Hailed as one of the best mechanical ADCs in the world, Uzi’s move to OMG was one of the biggest roster moves of last year. Unfortunately, the super team was a flop. After QG’s impressive IEM Cologne 2 nd place run, they paid his expensive buyout and made a line-up to be reckoned with in the LPL.



Sask, NaMei, and inSec join Royal Never Give Up Sask used to be the midlaner in Team King and Royal Club’s LSPL team. Despite being a strong performer, his team did not qualify for the LPL. NaMei was regarded by most analysts as one of the best ADCs in the world at different points in his career. Despite his dominating performances in domestic events, his failure to make an international showing makes him relatively unknown to many. inSec, the Korean jungler that the famous Lee Sin technique is named after, also joins Royal Never Give Up. Despite playing top lane last year, he will be returning to the jungle role joining fellow Koreans looper and Mata.

Athena, formally the midlaner of LCK’s ESK EVER, has joined pawN, Koro1, Clearlove, deft, and meiko on Edward Gaming’s main roster. Athena has shown great mastery on Gangplank and Varus helping ESC EVER win both the Kespa Cup and IEM Cologne despite being only a challenger team from the LCK. Along with Athena, the rest of the EVER roster is expected to join other teams because of EVER’s failure to promote to the LCK from the challenger scene.

Flame returns to Korea from LGD. Flame has been regarded as one of the best top laners in the world. Many hope that his return to Korea will allow him to be in a team where he can truly show his talents.

After an impressive showing in IEM Cologne, FORG1VEN officially joined H2k Gaming. In his personal statement FORG1VEN reported that he received many lucrative offers from NA and LCK teams but turned them down because of the appeal of the H2k team.

Legends Rising

With this year of League of Legends eSports drawing to an end, Riot Games has finished their “Legends Rising” documentary series that followed six different pros from six different regions. Watch the episodes you like or watch the whole series to relive some of the most compelling storylines coming into Worlds. If nothing else, the season finale is a great production and comprehensive look at the journey of five pros in Worlds.

Watch the entire series here.

Legends Rising Season Finale: Worlds

Relive the journey of five of the world’s best League of Legends players as they fight to leave their mark on the world stage in the season finale of Legends Rising.

KOO Tigers Pray on Ezreal (KR Solo Queue)

KOO Pray demonstrates his jaw dropping mechanics on Ezreal in a Korean Solo Queue game. Play at half speed to see how many skill shots he dodges and his on-point use of Quicksilver Sash.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

DreamHack Open Leipzig:

DreamHack Open Leipzig announces their list of invites to the first DreamHack event in 2016. With a tournament prize pool of $100,000 USD, the event is set to take place from January 22-24. The teams are:

Question Mark (TQM)

G2 Esports

pro

Luminosity Gaming

Natus Vincere

mouseports

ELEAGUE Road to Vegas:

The EU and NA Closed Qualifiers for ELEAGUE Road to Vegas have both ended with Lounge Gaming defeating Team Dignitas 2-1 in EU and ex-Conquest defeating Enemy 2-0 in NA. $50,000 is on the line on January 7th as Lounge Gaming and ex-Conquest battle across 7 maps in the ELEAGUE Road to Vegas Finals.

Watch the VoDs here.

eLeague Road to Vegas Highlights (FACEIT)

Watch the best moments from ELEAGUE Road to Vegas.

Dota 2

World Cyber Arena 2015:

From December 17-21, sixteen teams fought in best of twos in the group stage, and best of threes single elimination playoffs until the grand finals between Europe’s Alliance and China’s LGD Gaming. The finals started with Alliance, who have not won a tournament in over a year, winning two games in a row. In face of being swept in front of a home crowd, LGD won the third game through MMY’s performance and carried the momentum into victory in the fourth game as well. The decisive fifth game was neck in neck in kills and was ultimately decided by a counter push that allowed Alliance to take the win and become the 2015 champions of World Cyber Arena, winning $370,200 USD of the $665,000 USD prize pool.

Despite the victory, it is unclear whether the WCA Championship title is enough for a Winter Major invite for Alliance due to the absence of some top teams like Evil Geniuses.

Watch the VoDs here.

Beautiful Teamfight by LGD vs. Team Liquid @ WCA 2015

LGD pull off a beautiful teamfight to beat Team Liquid 2-0 advancing them to the finals against Alliance.

LGD rOtK Steals Roshan and Aegis in Game 5

LGD rOtK brings the fifth and decisive game neck and neck with his Roshan and Aegis steal.

Alliance is back! vs. LGD @ WCA 2015

Alliance rally together to win the series and the championship title against LGD 3-2.

Sources:

GosuGamers- Guess who's back? Alliance takes WCA title

Team Liquid Wiki- ELEAGUE Road to Vegas

The Score eSports-