League of Legends developer Riot Games will reportedly require all participating North American and European League Championship Series teams to “contractually employ” players and staff in the 2017 season, ESPN reported.

Mandating players be considered employees rather than independent contractors allows players access to employee benefits like healthcare for retirement plans. Tax rules will change as well, with teams required to withhold taxes upfront instead of this being handled by the independently contracted player.

ESPN also reported that Riot Games is also considering upping the minimum player salary, which current sits at $12,500 in North America and €11,250 in Europe per player each split season. No minimum has been set just yet, however.

Six teams currently employ players as employees and not independent contractors: Team SoloMid, Team Liquid, Cloud9, Unicorns of Love, H2K Gaming, and Immortals. Should Riot Games implement these changes, 14 teams across North America and Europe will have to move quickly to comply with contractual standards.

If true, this move is likely being made by Riot to head off possible lawsuits from players—many of whom work 60+ hours a week and live in team-owned houses—from filing lawsuits citing Department of Labor violations. We covered this topic thoroughly in the beginning of the year, and believe even more has been happening behind closed doors to prevent legal problems.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]We expect that Riot will either have to step up team funding, or see many team owners leave the game entirely.[/perfectpullquote]

The subject boiled to the surface during the summer, however, when a disagreement between team owners and Riot played out over social media. The core problem? That team owners weren’t able to monetize their LCS teams adequately to meet the demands of owning an esports team. This led to the formation of the Professional Esports Association—which includes many of the top LCS teams. With Riot potentially adding even more demands onto team owners, we expect that Riot will either have to step up team funding, or see many team owners leave the game entirely.

Riot has not addressed the initial ESPN report.