The amateur scene for competitive League of Legends is a cesspool. Bereft of Riot's authoritative presence, this realm is filled with all sorts of unethical and shady characters. Many of them may appear genuine at first, only to reveal their true colors later on. With the spotlight on LCS and more recently, the Challenger Series, the amateur scene is the last true frontier for competitive League of Legends. Forget Summoner's Rift - the real battle is fought here. Poaching is all too common; the players, while talented at League of Legends, are overwhelmingly young, impressionable and lacking in life-experience. Many sign contracts that offer little protection to the players, but simply put them under the organization's control. The following example is but one of many. Numerous organizations have lost some, or even all, of their rosters to the highest bidder, rendering null their significant investments of time, energy and funds.

Prime for the Poaching

Acquired in May of this year, Enigma Esports’s League of Legends roster shows promise of qualifying for the Challenger Series. Their performance in the amateur scene has been quite impressive; they have placed first on many occasions, including in multiple Go4LoL and League One tournaments. Further impressive is their possession of three out of the top four ranked 5's teams on the EUW ladder. However, it is precisely these qualifications that make them so appealing to other organizations.

On August 26th, Enigma Managing Director Nick Smith was contacted via Facebook by an interested party. This individual introduced himself as Rhys, manager of Exertus Esports. The two transitioned to Skype, where Rhys revealed his intention of purchasing Enigma’s League of Legends roster. Aside from his personal attachment to the players, Smith informed this potential buyer that his players were all under long-term contracts, but was willing to discuss a partnership/sponsorship arrangement. Rhys then asked if he could see the contracts himself and if Enigma’s management would provide a buyout price. Smith responded by saying that they were not particularly interested in selling; he also informed Rhys that he was not willing to share his players’ contracts. The conversation concluded with both parties agreeing to discuss matters further after a few days.

Deceitful Tactics

However, unbeknownst to Smith at the time, Rhys proceeded to contact a player on Enigma only a few hours after their initial conversation. Not wasting any time, he inquired as to whether or not the players on Enigma were under contract. The player was immediately apprehensive; without answering directly, he questioned Rhys’ intentions. The Exertus manager then specified that he was interested in whether or not said contract contained a buyout clause. He continued, explaining that Exertus recognized their roster’s budding talent and wished to help them reach their potential. The player asked if they would need to leave Enigma; Rhys responded that yes, they would have to do so in order to join Exertus Esports. Upon the player mentioning that he would discuss the matter with Enigma’s management, Rhys become irate. He proceeded to claim that Enigma had “no money in it,” and that the contracts were essentially void; ridiculous claims, seeing as how the Exertus manager has no way of knowing the inner workings of the Enigma organization. The player, having had enough of this conversation, recommended that Rhys discuss matters with someone else on the team.

A few days later, Rhys initiated contact with another player on Enigma. After being denied a Skype conversation, Rhys presented his offer via direct message on Twitter. The Enigma player was confused; he was under the impression that Exertus already had a League of Legends team. Rhys explains that they did in fact have one, but that they were financially capable of supporting two. He also mentioned that, depending on how things played out, Exertus was willing to cut their original team and fully support the new roster. The player wasn’t particularly keen on the prospect of sharing a roof with another team – especially one that he could be replacing. Rhys responded that, after having just spoken with his boss, Exertus would be willing to fire their original roster upon the signing of the new one. After discussing things with his team, the player informed Rhys that they were content to stay with Enigma.

This infuriated the Exertus manager. In an attempt to fill the player's head with doubts, Rhys warned the player against staying with Enigma, saying that “in the long term, Enigma will only fuck you over.” He also claimed that the owner has been “jumping organizations since 2003.”  A few days later, Rhys contacted this player again and continued pushing the offer. He boasted about the “pedigree” of Exertus and continued to badmouth Enigma. After a final refusal from the player, Rhys reluctantly ceased his incessant pestering.

Repercussions and Ramifications

Rhys crossed a number of ethical lines during the attempted poaching of Enigma's League of Legends roster. Not only did he disrespect Enigma's management by going behind their backs to discuss matters with the players, but he even had the audacity to request that the players not mention their conversation to the Enigma staff. He made it very clear that he wished for Enigma's roster to join Exertus, which is clearly poaching. Had this taken place in the LCS, Exertus would have been punished for violating rule 10.2.13, which specifically states that inquiries into the status of a team member must be made to the team's management - not to the players themselves. Unfortunately, no such protection exists for amateur teams.

Equally worrying were Rhys' multiple requests to see the players' contracts. Luckily, the players were wise enough to withhold them, but one can't help but wonder how many other players would have been too naive to do the same. As many player contracts contain confidentiality agreements, the ramifications of a player revealing the contents of his contract could prove severe. With contract law varying between countries, it's highly unlikely that most young gamers would truly understand the potential consequences of sharing the contents of their contracts with an outside party. Rhys was adamant about finding out the players' buyout prices. For those unfamiliar, a buyout clause is a section in an agreement stating the price necessary for an individual to be released from his obligations to the organization. As this clause is often confidential, a player who foolishly reveals his buyout price is putting himself in a potentially legally compromising situation; this could involve not only fines from his contracted organization, but also from sponsors. Rhys took none of this into account, either through intentional deceit or through ignorance. Either way, such actions are completely unethical and should not be permitted within competitive League of Legends.

Furthermore, Rhys showed absolutely no reservations in slandering Enigma Esports. He claimed that Enigma was broke, yet provided no evidence for this false claim. To make things worse, he used this as evidence for Enigma's contracts being void. Without ever seeing the contracts of Enigma Esports, this claim is complete nonsense as well. He told one of the players that Nick Smith was willing to part with Enigma's League of Legends roster for ten-thousand dollars; another unsubstantiated claim, as Skype logs reveal that no exact figure was provided. Rather, Smith said that he would consider a crazy offer, but was still not particularly interested in selling.

Rhys also claimed that the Enigma owner had been bouncing around organizations since 2003. This claim is especially peculiar, as Enigma is owned by not one, but two individuals: Nick Smith and Eric Biggs. In 2003, Biggs was eleven years old, while Smith's gaming endeavours at the time were limited to participation in an Age of Empires 2 clan. Not only were neither of them involved in Esports at that time, but such a claim implies that the owner in question (it's still unclear which owner Rhys was referring to) was "jumping" around between organizations in a disreputable manner.

The Big Picture

Ultimately, Rhys was unsuccessful in his attempt to poach the Enigma Esports League of Legends roster. However, not every organization is so lucky. Situations like this are unfortunately common in the amateur scene. This type of environment is detrimental to the development of competitive League of Legends – and Esports in general – for a number of reasons. First, this hinders the development of native talent. Many players in the amateur scene have bad experiences with organizations sooner or later, and with a career in professional gaming being fragile enough as is, this could dissuade many young players from pursuing eSports. One bad experience early on can lead to a severe mistrust of gaming organizations in general. Players, such as those on the Exertus Esports roster, are often expendable; contracts at this level generally exist to protect the organization. Many players are lured in by verbal promises, only to later discover that they are legally owed nothing by their organization. One must also consider that these players are often quite unaware of the legal repercussions of their actions. What do most teenagers know about binding legal contracts? Second, honest, well-meaning owners and managers can lose their rosters in the blink of an eye. This can dissuade many of them from entering, let alone staying, in the scene. It also renders the investment of time and money into implementing proper coaching staff a risky decision. Third, teams in the amateur scene with unethical owners/managers could potentially make it to the Challenger Series, or even the LCS.

Are these the types of individuals we want at the forefront of our scene? Surely, they are not. The blatant slander and non-stop pestering that the Exertus manager resorted to in the attempt to recruit the Enigma roster is indicative of the lengths these organizations are willing to go to. This entire discussion begs a number of questions: So what? What do we do about it? How can we improve the amateur scene? If there are readily apparent answers to these questions, I must apologize, for I do not know them. However, even without an immediately obvious solution, I would still argue that the these questions are ones worth asking.

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