The LCS came back for its Summer Split June 14th, two weeks after the planned first day. If you don't live under a rock, you'll know why it was delayed, but even if you live on top of the rock, it will be confusing to keep up with the NACL, LCSPA, LCS Walkout trilogy. Don't worry, we've got you covered.  

Chapter 1- The NACL Changes happen

  Riot Games announces the NACL Changes. This was made per request of the LCS teams, who wanted “more operational and financial flexibility“. It isn’t really a secret that LCS teams (and most esports teams) operate at a considerable loss. The business isn’t profitable for team owners and they’ve heavily relied on VC money, which has been quickly drying up in the past couple of years.  Coincidentally, the entire LoL Esports world suddenly remembered how massively important the NACL is, even though only a tiny fraction of them actually tune-in to the games. Outrage ensues and the general public wants some kind of action in response to this decision.  

Chapter 2- The Walkout

  Mikhail Klimentov announces the upcoming vote for the LCS Walkout on his Substack. The overwhelming majority of LCS players voted in favor of said walkout, which was going to take place during the first week of the LCS.      Riot and the teams begin scrambling. Travis Gafford mentions during Hotline League that Riot was removing the minimum rank requirement for people to play in the LCS, seemingly pulling all stops in giving teams as many scabs to pick from as possible. Richard Lewis’ report indicates that players were being offered 4000$ per game. When players kept saying no, teams tried to field staff members, with Lewis mentioning the ludicrous possibility of TSM  having considered bringing back Andy "Blue Card Reginal" Dihn to the Rift.   

The Walkout works?

  No tactics work and the walkout seems to be successful, emphasis on seems. Riot announces that they’re delaying the LCS Summer Split for two weeks. They address the LCSPA demands by refusing all of them and instead giving the Rally Cry (NACL Tournament Operator) a one-time 300000$ payment to assist NACL Teams.     This announcement also came with a very open threat that Riot would be canceling the entire Split and automatically eliminating any LCS slots at Worlds 2023 if the matter wasn’t resolved in two weeks.  

Doublelift strikes again

  100T Doublelift goes on stream to admit publicly the following:

• he doesn’t agree with the LCSPA demands even though he voted in favor of the walkout that was a tool to enforce those demands which he disagrees with.
• He would immediately become a scab if continuing the walkout meant he couldn’t play Summer Split and attend Worlds, essentially rending his Strike action completely meaningless.

    It can be argued that Riot knew full well that most LCS players had this view on the matter, hence their open “we could cancel LCS and your chances of attending Worlds” threat in their announcement. Regardless, it is still incredible that Doublelift not only did this on his livestream, but also uploaded a video of it to his Youtube and later doubled-down saying that he didn’t understand why people were mad at him.  

An agreement is reached

  LCSPA announced that they’d reached an agreement with Riot and proceeded to list of the terms agreed which include none of their initial demands. They address this in the post and say that “talks to continue on unresolved issues”. The LCS started on June 14th and, so far, nothing else has come out regarding the unresolved issues. So, is it over? Like a AAA video game that ran out of development time and had to leave the story conclusion to paid DLC (looking at you Deux Ex: Mankind Divided), the NACL, LCSPA, LCS Walkout debacle comes to an abrupt and disappointing conclusion.

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Images courtesy of Riot Games, LCSPA and Doublelift. Check out more LoL content in our directory.