The Korean League of legends League LCK (League of Legends Championship Korea) has come out with big news. It has announced that it wants teams to apply for long term partnership. Just like other professional League of Legend Suits like LCS, LPL, and LEC. The LCK will move towards a Franchising System starting 2021.
According to their new LCK website “The promotion and relegation series will be held for the last time after the 2020 LCK Spring Split, and the promotion and relegation system will no longer take place afterwards.” Further, “In 2021, we plan to implement the Long-term partnership model in LCK to create an environment where fans, players, and teams can form a long-term relationship.”
They explain in this long term model the teams and the league become partners to take the decisions of the league together as to where the direction of it is headed and also share the revenue. All the teams NOT joining the league will continue to be relegated and remain as a participant of LCK. Apart from sharing the revenues, the players will be guaranteed a salary of approximately $ 48.8K annually.
The league has asked the teams to send a letter of intent by 8th May.
Further all the documents containing business plans, team management plans, financials, and other required documents—by June 19. After implementing this change they became the 5th professional league worldwide to bring about this change. Also considering the fact that the Korean league has won a lot of LoL professional competitions, there is a high chance of this being beneficial both for the teams and the LCK
Further the website mentions how this implementation will help players play in a better environment. It quotes “Teams will be providing much better support and environment that can help improve players’ performance. They will also take players as long-term partners and develop new systems to forge stronger relationships with them. We expect to witness an iconic star be born in every team in the future.”
