Podcast video topics and time stamps:

2:08 - What is Maelk's role as Sporting Director for North?

5:34 - Maelk's thoughts on the EU LCS

12:34 - The future business model of the EU LCS

19:08 - The difficulties in acquiring a new Dota roster

25:17 - On the new Minor and Major system for Dota 2

31:55 - What advice would you give Immortals for entering Dota 2?

37:18 - Why did North sign on with WESA?

43:10 - Explaining the Maelk Award meme

There's something rotten in the state of European esports says North sporting director Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen, and its name is EU LCS.

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When Maelk joined North in January, he expressed interest in expanding the organization into Dota 2 by either developing a new team or acquiring an existing roster. What he didn't do was express the same desire for a League of Legends team.

"One of the reasons for that was, at the time, I believe most of these interviews were done when we launched back in January," Maelk said. "At the time, [EU] LCS wasn't what we regarded as an interesting or healthy environment to participate in. And the game, from my perspective, was sort of dying in terms of entertainment and viewership retention, and I wasn't sure that the model Riot was using at the time was something we'd be interested in supporting."

According to a report by ESPN, the EU LCS will be split into four separate regional leagues that seed into one premier league in Summer 2018. While Riot has yet to announce any changes to the EU LCS, the reported changes would still not be enough for Maelk and North to enter the LoL ecosystem just yet.

"If you ask me right now whether we go into League of Legends or not, my answer would be no," he said. "But I'm not opposed to the fact that it could be down the road, assuming that Riot creates a healthy ecosystem that is worthwhile for teams to participate in. Right now, I'm on the edge whether I believe that or not. I think it's very good for French, German, British and Spanish teams, but outside of that I don't see much potential."

While he has doubts as to whether the EU LCS can create a healthy environment, he believes that the NA LCS is in a far better position considering the support available for the teams competing in it.

"I think North American LCS is healthy," Maelk said. "I think it's a great environment for the organizations that are in it. I think the European LCS is far and away, cost wise, one of the most useless esports leagues at present time. I think there is very few teams that actually run a successful company based on the European LCS. Fnatic, G2, Unicorns of Love to some extent because they've branded themselves within the LCS community.

"But outside of those organizations, even a team like H2K, who has been in the top placements throughout the past seasons," Maelk continued. "Even those guys are probably struggling, and by their own admission, are struggling to find a business model around the European LCS."

Before joining North, Maelk was the former owner of the EU LCS team Alliance, which later branded to Elements before being purchased by FC Schalke 04 Esports in May 2016. He subsequently left Schalke that August, and admits that his interactions with Riot during his tenure on both teams greatly affected his opinion of the EU LCS.

"I rebranded from Alliance to Elements, my hand was forced by Riot," Maelk said. "And that rebranding in itself cost us a ton of fan support. Since then, a lot of different LCS teams have tried to assert themselves. Fnatic was in since the early days. I think Carlos with G2 has been the only one who has successfully created a roster that actually created a fanbase, much of it because of himself. He was a player trying to qualify with the squad for two seasons, he was adamant about continuing in League of Legends, and when he finally succeeded he also built up one of the most championship winning rosters that the European LCS had ever seen.

"Outside of those two teams, I don't really think that it's evidently not easy for the teams to either create a fanbase or create any viewer retention that could even justify them to compete in the league," he continued. "Outside of Riot's payment, I doubt any of those teams have income sources. And that's hugely problematic. When I got the offer from Schalke to sell my spot, I jumped on it, I jumped on it immediately. At the time, there's a whole background story to that, but lets just say I was very happy shutting down Elements and getting rid of the spot. I think that a lot of team owners, a lot of people who have invested into the European LCS, are probably feeling the same thing right now."

Preston Dozsa is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.