Breaking news outside the LPL: Two champion teams withdraw from the league! Players face significant salary cuts and a survival crisis.

Hello to all LPL fans and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Report.

Following today’s conclusion of the S15 World Championship matches, all four top LPL teams have been knocked out, indicating that this year’s World Championship in China will once again culminate in a Korean team face-off in the finals.

During TES’s elimination, significant off-stage revelations emerged within the LPL.

Explosive off-stage news from the LPL: Two champion teams are exiting the league.

Even before the S15 World Championship began, many viewers expressed the opinion that this year was the LPL’s last chance. If they failed to claim the championship again, the LPL would officially decline into a second-tier region, with the entire league potentially collapsing.

Editor’s note

Ultimately, the LPL failed to create a miracle this year, only reaching the semifinals, which means the LPL will face unprecedented challenges next year.

Firstly, sponsors and major investors will withdraw funding. Many LPL sponsors will choose to end their support, and team sponsors will also pull out massively because the LPL environment is deteriorating, making it hard to attract strong financial backers.

Secondly, the competitive strength of the region will decline further. The talent pool in the LPL has sharply decreased, resulting in fewer strong teams and leaving the league struggling to remain competitive on the world stage.

At the same time, the scale of the LPL will shrink. On Weibo, Huanyi revealed explosive news that two champion teams, RNG and FPX, will leave the league. Hongcha also disclosed that many teams want to exit, including those starting with U and L, likely UP and LNG.

Players face steep salary cuts and survival threats.

As the region shrinks and sponsors pull out, the group most affected will be the players. Their salaries will be drastically reduced, and the salary cap will be significantly adjusted. Reports indicate many players are unhappy with the LPL’s salary cap changes.

Frankly, most LPL players do not deserve their current pay. Many simply coast through, treating matches like clocking in at work, indifferent to wins or losses, content just to receive their salary, having lost passion for the game and unwilling to strive for achievements.

This even includes many players from top teams. Many have an inflated sense of self, believing they are league elites and that poor Worlds performance doesn’t matter since they can still earn high salaries domestically. Such players should face pay cuts, as failure on the world stage should bring consequences for both players and teams.

Additionally, with many teams set to leave the league, numerous players will face a dire survival crisis, with many left without teams or matches to play.

LCK dominance and a decline in Worlds’ popularity.

After these adjustments, I believe the LPL environment will still struggle to improve. A fundamental issue is the league’s inability to eliminate match-fixing. When the LPL faces its true downfall, many players may resort to fixing matches to make a quick profit before leaving the scene.

This represents a major crisis the LPL may face next year and is the root cause of its problems. Since many have little income, they might as well exploit their pro status to earn a quick buck before quitting competitive play.

Therefore, the LPL’s current predicament is, to some extent, unsolvable. Next year, only a few teams will strive for good results, while the rest may give up, increasing the risk of match-fixing during this decline.

Following the LPL’s decline, League of Legends will enter an era dominated solely by the LCK. With LCK’s monopoly, Riot will need to worry about a drop in Worlds’ popularity. Compared to the LPL, the Worlds might maintain decent enthusiasm for now, but in a year or two, problems will arise. In any sport, prolonged dominance by a single region leads to a significant decline in viewer interest, which will be a challenge Riot must face.