What about the players?

So, players are getting paid more on average — that is all that matters, right?



I’m an advocate of the players and believe that they should make the most out of their relatively short career span (avg. 3 years), however I’m passionate about this industry as a whole and I’m conscious of the long term stability of it when VC/Angel money over inflates player salaries.

Raising player salaries is a good thing, by in large players have not been getting market value in the past one-two years. However raising them by almost 300%-400%, isn’t the most responsible business decision or beneficial for the industry in my opinion.



As a player who was relatively savvy to my market value throughout my playing career, I actually wouldn’t have wanted my peers to know how much I was making. The reason for this is that it could have disrupted our team dynamic or had other players within the industry look at me in a different light. At present it’s so hard to really determine the market value of the player with so much outside capital being injected in which unfortunately can skew a players expectations away from reality.

CEO of Elemental, Jonathan Pan published LoL Roster ‘Embers’ salaries

Let them be public?

Publishing player salaries isn’t necessarily the Holy Grail. Honestly, all it really does is serve as food for the community to judge the players and teams. I also think the timing of doing it was unnecessary and rushed. We could have spent far more time doing due diligence and having an open dialogue with all parties before irrational jumping to a conclusion. Most players have already signed their contracts for the spring split and all this does is cause dissension amidst teams, as well as players.



What I believe is most important is that the players speak amidst, this will allow them to gain a better understanding of their market value in comparison to their peers. It’s important to note that just because you are more skilful than ‘Y’ player, it doesn’t mean you will get more money. It’s a little bit unfair in some regards, but it is how the current ecosystem operates.

In Summary

Player salaries being public has nothing to do with the community and shouldn’t. It’s more that some players do not know their value and in some cases have been discouraged to talk amidst their peers. There is actually an argument that is illegal to prevent employees talking about their salaries, however as most players are treated as contractors this becomes a grey area. For a new player who might not know enough people (foreign import or fresh from amateur scene), it is very difficult for him to find out his market value and is vulnerable to being exploited.

We need to encourage players to talk freely amidst themselves and those with more experience to act as a support network for newer players coming into the industry. Teams need to improve their monetisation efforts before inflating salaries to unsustainable heights.