A separate rule protects fakers

earthpressnews

In League of Legends there is a change in the South Korean league LCK. A “salary cap” will be introduced there for 2024. This means that teams now have to change. Because if they pay too much in salary for their players, a surcharge, a luxury tax, is due. But star player Faker is exempt from the new LoL rules due to a strikingly specific special clause.

What is the radical change?

  • In the future, the LCK will determine the maximum amount of money a team can spend: The limit will be calculated from the income the teams generated in 2022. Anyone who spends more money has to pay a “luxury tax”, a surcharge (via lolesports). The luxury tax is divided among the other teams.
  • There is no salary limit for individual players, only for the team: you only take into account the 5 best-paid players on a team, so the replacement players could theoretically be paid well.
  • A salary cap is primarily known from US sports leagues such as the NBA. In South Korea, the idea became increasingly attractive to officials after individual teams like T1 posted losses in the region of $12 million.

    • This change is now causing many teams in South Korea to fall apart ahead of the 2024 season.

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    Player salaries rose 71% in 2 years, were out of control

    Why did the cap come? The league says all teams spend the most money on player salaries. In the last 2 years, the salaries of the top 5 players on each team have increased by 71%.

    It is therefore necessary to set a limit here in order to keep the league stable.

    What are the effects of the salary cap?

    As Dotesports reports, the introduction of a salary cap in South Korea has already caused considerable waves:

  • The current champion Gen G. has released 4 players from his squad, including stars like Doran and Chovy – although it is rumored that the best player, Chovy, will be reinstated
  • The transfer market in South Korea is even more active than usual in the 2023 off-season: Even world champion jungler Canyon has left his team DAMWON and his team partner ShowMaker after 5 years
  • It looks like there is hardly any stone left unturned in South Korea because teams can no longer simply afford multiple stars with high salary demands

    • Learn Chinese now

    How is it being discussed?? It is assumed that many South Korean stars for whom their teams no longer have money will move to China in the LPL, where there is no salary cap and the teams lure with money.

    That’s why people on Reddit quote “Learn Chinese,” which is a common phrase from the NBA, where players are threatened with being sold to China if they don’t play well.

    The first players are moving from South Korea to the USA: Immortals now has a team that has 3 South Koreans in the field after having re-signed Castle and Mask.

    Own faker rule protects T1

    What exception is there? Ironically, the current world champion T1 seems to be staying together.

    This could also be due to an exception rule in the salary cap. Because anyone who has won 3 international or 5 national titles only counts 50% of their salary against the cap.

    The rule is so specific that it only applies to Faker and the jungler Peanut:

  • As is well known, Faker has been the only player with 3 world championship titles in LoL since 2016 (he now has 4)
  • Peanut has achieved the feat of becoming champion in the LCK 5 times

    • But even Peanut enjoyed it after 2023: He left Gen G. now after 2 years and is moving to Hanwha Life. They now suddenly have an excellent team with Doran, Peanut, Zeka, Viper and Delight.

    What other special rules are there? There is also a rule that teams can ignore 30% of a salary against the cap if a player has been with the club for 3 years. The LCK wants to reward teams that produce the stars of their teams themselves and do not constantly poach players.

    It is also recommended that teams spend at least 70% of their cap.

    More about LoL:

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