In the quarter-finals of the League of Legends S12 global finals, the LPL division played a good hand to a pulp. The situation of our division in the semi-finals of this World Championship has become subtle again – exactly the same as the semi-finals of S11, there are three LCK teams, and one LPL team is besieged.
In the window period before the semi-finals have started, we just have time to gossip about some trends in the LPL division this transfer season. As is customary, when the World Championship draws to a close, the major teams and players in the LPL division will be constantly rumored about various transfer news. The embarrassing king still remembers that this time last year, that melon was too busy to eat. Although in the end, the vast majority of melons are groundless, but this season’s transfer season is obviously too calm.
By the end of 2022, the LPL and LCK have a large number of players with contract expiry
The S12 World Championship is coming to an end. Except for the four teams of JDG, T1, GENG and DRX, other teams around the world have entered the off-season and are starting to prepare for the transfer season. But now the news released by the major teams is mostly news of players leaving the team. The transfer market is actually peaceful.
Through the fist contract database query, some netizens have counted a list of contract expirations in the LPL and LCK divisions as of the end of November 2022. Through this table, it is not difficult to find that by the end of this year, a large number of heavyweight players will have their contracts expired in the two major regions of LPL and LCK.
These players whose contracts have expired, there are Feike, Chidi, Xiaohuan, etc. on the LCK side; and we have more on the LPL side, such as the junior brother, the sister buckle, Xiaoming, Jack Ai, Zuohou, broiler and Saofen. A player with both strength and flow. Except for non-sale products like Feike, most of the other players can talk about it.
But the weird thing is that in the case of a large number of players’ contracts expiring, according to the past practice, the transfer thing must be treacherous and gossip is flying. However, this year’s transfer season market has been unusually calm. This in the end is why? Isn’t it a big star player? Is it because the LPL division has had a bad record in recent years? Or some other reason?
there is only one truth
Regarding the strange situation of this transfer season, the embarrassing king can only say that there is only one truth! That is, this situation has nothing to do with the players, teams and the competition area, but the current environment is too bad, and the major teams have no money. Therefore, this transfer season will appear so calm.
Of course, in addition to the peaceful player market, from the perspective of the team, the situation is different. For example, after being sealed by T1, RNG quickly spread rumors that it was going to be auctioned (please distinguish the authenticity by yourself). This is to put it bluntly, in fact, it is still money trouble, really no money!
Friends who are familiar with the embarrassing king should remember that in all the previous articles about e-sports business, I have been constantly emphasizing. The LPL league is essentially a commercial league. Players, clubs, fist and fist, these players, all want to make money. In the current LPL, there must be achievements and star players, but why is the transfer market stagnant in 2022?
In the LPL league, after the second generation of rich people withdrew one after another and transferred the team to major capitals. Whether it is a traditional enterprise or an Internet enterprise, the ultimate goal is to do marketing and publicity through the team’s exposure. In the eyes of these acquired capitals, the LPL team is actually just an advertising expenditure. Maybe accounting, will be recorded in the advertising category.
However, in today’s environment, the parent companies of each club are trying their best to market and make money. It is impossible to give more financial support to its clubs. Perhaps maintaining the status quo is the best result for the major teams. Therefore, after the previous player contract expires, the major teams will shuffle the cards together and hype the situation together, and there is a high probability that it will not appear. For players, if the salary cannot increase after the transfer, or if they cannot transfer at all, choosing to stay in the team to retain job opportunities may be a high probability choice. In other words, this year’s transfer strategy is mainly based on defense.
Aside from the parent company, for teams and clubs, the cancellation of offline competitions will directly lead to the collapse of the fan economy that clubs and teams depend on for a living. You know, after the offline game, the on-site tickets, the team’s surroundings, on-site catering, venue advertising endorsements, etc., all these seventy-eighty-eighty incomes will be zero. With the sporadic income brought by the game, it is not enough to balance the operation of the players and the team.
Therefore, to sum up the above, the embarrassing king believes that there is only one truth about why the S12 transfer season is so calm, and that is “everyone has no money”. There is a high probability that there will be no “earthquake-level” reshuffle in the transfer market this season. In the case that all clubs are immobile, there is a high probability that only small-scale reinforcements or tinkering will occur.
Dear Rift Summoners, why do you think this transfer season is so peaceful? Let’s talk about your thoughts together!