When the poorest time came, Saudi Arabia came? LOL2025 will usher in a big turning point

★ Game Horseshoe Original

"Poor"

It's not just one or two regions that have this problem, but the entire LOL global esports system will usher in this change in 2025. Of course, this is not a problem that has only appeared in the past two years, as an esports event that has hosted the World Finals for 14 years, LOL is still the leader in the circle. However, compared to the rising period and peak, it looks like it is going downhill now. There are fewer and fewer home stadiums in the LPL, all the wild cards are gone, the Korean club has no money to make in the palace, and everyone looks not getting better and better, but getting more and more "poor".

Cost reduction

In the past, many wildcard events were directly operated by Riot in that region, but because they have not been able to make any meaningful contributions in the Worlds, coupled with some other factors, these small divisions have finally ended up being swallowed up by the major regions and becoming pendants. We don't know if this will increase efficiency, but it's certain that it will reduce the cost and pressure of Riot to host large, independent events in multiple regions. Almost in the past five years, Riot has "eliminated" all the wild cards, and in 2025, only 5 regions will remain, which is two-thirds more direct than in its heyday.

Crying poor

In recent years, some clubs in South Korea have complained to Riot almost every year that they don't make money, all of them are losing money and making money, and they are asking Riot to give more bonuses and benefits. T1 is too special to represent the status quo of the entire industry. Especially after the stage when the value of professional players skyrocketed in the past few years, now it is easy to spend billions of won alone, and the annual expenses of a top team are as high as 10 billion won, and if there is no strong entity behind the funding, they will not be able to maintain the same lineup for more than 2 years.

90% of the economic income from fans has been harvested by those top giants, which also forces those clubs that have no results to choose to rot. That's why you're seeing this year a galaxy battleship like HLE squandering huge sums of money to grab Zeus, and DRX picking up veterans like Rich and Teddy. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge, and the general trend is to get poorer and poorer.

Idea

After S8S9, the LPL has been soaring, and the future is a bright nouveau riche rising period, and the competition area has invested a lot in the construction of the main stadium. However, with the worsening results of the LPL World Championship in recent years (0 championships in the S14 season), on the other hand, the e-sports events that have reached a bottleneck for more than ten years and have begun to decline, as well as the impact of the previous epidemic, it seems that opening a home stadium has become a bad idea.

For example, not long after JDG's home stadium opened, Ruler, who returned home, had already complained about the precipitous decline in attendance the following year. In addition, some professional players also revealed that many post-game sessions had no spectators on the scene, so they could only let the staff play as fans. The NIP (former V5) is also suspected to be without a home stadium in 2025, and the Group D match will be played at the official stadium in Shanghai. When the plan was the most, there was Beijing in the north, Shenzhen in the south, Chongqing and Xi'an in the west, and Suzhou and Hangzhou in the east.

Official events are inferior to sponsors

Since Riot expanded its e-sports territory, it has been obvious that it has not paid much attention to the LOL World Championship in recent years. Especially if the host location is chosen in the local North America, it can be said that it is extremely rotten. The official event is not even as good as a small entertainment tournament, the Red Bull Cup, which burns money, and if you don't have money, you are still reluctant to spend it, in short, it looks much poorer than in the past. From playing S1 in a small stadium back then, to the Bird's Nest of S7, to returning to simplicity in recent years, we may be witnessing the historical point in time when e-sports has ushered in its own important turning point.

If an e-sports event of LOL's size can't become bigger and stronger, then benchmarking traditional sports can only be a vision that can only be realized in a dream. The 2025 LOL global competition looks like they are tightening their belts, but there is also good news, Saudi Arabia's oil cup has to continue to be carried out, and the esports Olympics seem to be about to be born. No wonder Riot has refused to authorize Saudi Arabia to play LOL events before, and it depends on the oil guy to throw money. It's really easy to look at the "money" when playing like this. But the fist is now loose, which also proves the word "poor" from the side.

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★ The game Horseshoe is original, and commercial reproduction is prohibited without permission

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