* Courtesy of Riot Games

Time and again we have heard the same story from emerging regions; players are getting burned by organizations and they can do nothing about it. In the case of Kirill “Likkrit” Malofeyev, he has revealed that players and staff are getting underpaid or not paid at all (translated by Youtube user ffsfiftyseven and endorsed by Likkrit). The audaciousness to ban Likkrit isn’t precisely what I’d like to talk about, but rather, with the frequency of people getting scammed in emerging regions, Riot needs to look into making policies to prevent situations like these from happening.

* Courtesy of Riot Games

In North America, Riot mandated a Player’s Association, with representatives curated by Riot, then chosen by the players themselves to lead this association. The players also had the option to reject all candidates and choose their own. Riot funded the launch of the Player’s Association themselves and it remains unforeseen whether Riot will continue to do so.

The importance of the Player’s Association cannot be understated because not only does it allow fairness and protection for our favorite players, but crucially, it provides new players with a resource to rely upon when being inducted into the LCS. A player’s most vulnerable time is when they are a rookie, unaccustomed to the legal lingo, with some of them being thrust into the position of pro player without even having job experience. All of this can be daunting and without legal counsel, teams can take advantage of the naivete that may be present when a rookie is signing his first couple of contracts. This is not to say that all teams are malicious by nature, nor is it to say they wish ill will upon the players. From a business perspective, organizations want the most lucrative deal possible, which may be through means of paying a player slightly under what they may be valued at or leveraging their ability to offer the ever-coveted “exposure” amenity to supplement payment.

An emerging region such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is one such place that is vulnerable because there is a large influx of rookies. When a region is created, there are some players that move over from a more well-known region (EU LCS for instance) and are well-versed in contractual deals, but the majority of its players will be new to the environment. This allows for organizations to leverage their position to the maximum effect.

The difficulty of being a rookie is that you have no prior contracts to evaluate your worth. You have no discernible way to determine what your market value is at present. The options left to you, as Likkrit had duly noted about Team Just Alpha, are to “play for a year with no salary, and we cut your winnings by 60%, or you don’t play in the LCL at all”. The organizations have the most leverage and leave on the table a preposterous ultimatum. There is also evidence of this happening in major regions early on, as we can look towards Eugene “Pobelter” Park and his awful contract with Winterfox, allowing the owner to use his image rights forever to sell merchandise.

Riot should look to step-in when it comes to these emerging regions because they are in their infancy, where things are most volatile. Maybe they could enforce teams to pay a fee to participate within the league, which then gets placed into a pool, the rookie protection pool. This pool is used only for rookie players that are about to be signed, to make sure their initial signing is fair and legal. The reason that this would only be available to rookies is because of potential money issues that rookies might have, as they are not yet making money professionally to afford a player agent. As a parallel to the NA LCS, the veteran players could even vote for multiple representative player agents for rookies to choose from during their contract negotiations. This entire process ensures that rookies are well taken care of and there can be a future for their region.

Likkrit is a veteran who has vocalized that he doesn’t want to “desert the sinking ship first”. He is a player that wants to see his home region succeed and it’s evident by Likkrit questioning, “LCL player moving to EU?…There [are] some players that [are] needed, I won’t lie. I have this option, relatively speaking. Will I be able to live with that? If I abandon my region, will I have the right to speak about League of Legends”?

Regardless of the precise solution, Riot must take action to protect their leagues, protect their players and give rookies a chance to thrive.