Introduction: The S16 season is approaching, and the majority of players have been paying attention to the recent offseason developments. LCK, acknowledged as the world’s number one region, has recently had Riot officially cancel its league prize money, meaning Riot will no longer allocate any prize funds to LCK. If prize money is desired, the region must resolve it on its own. It was expected that the reigning champions would have many sponsors, but unexpectedly, the official decision to generate revenue surprised all players. The LCK regular season will be hosted in Vietnam, which feels like the NBA playing games here, and there is a strong possibility that T1’s home venue will also move to Vietnam.

LCK regular season confirmed to be held in Vietnam.

Most players are quite familiar with LCK. Recognized as the world’s top region, LCK has developed rapidly over recent years. After becoming a franchise league, player salaries in LCK rose significantly, and many players who had gone overseas gradually returned. This greatly boosted their overall strength, allowing them to win the World Championship multiple years in a row and regain their dominance. It was expected that LCK would thrive in the past two years, given their outstanding results and increasing sponsorships. However, no one anticipated that the LCK organization would face a financial crisis.

Many insiders had previously leaked news that even T1 and GEN teams were experiencing financial deficits, which many people doubted at the time. Just a few days ago, Riot officially cut off all prize money for LCK, which undoubtedly increased the burden on the region. Everything now must be funded internally. Recently, a piece of news from LCK exploded online: Korean media revealed that DRX team would host LCK regular season matches in Vietnam. Simply put, DRX will have a home venue in Vietnam, and teams playing against DRX will travel to Vietnam for their matches. This is similar to the home-and-away format in the LPL and can maximize revenue generation.

According to the leaks, not only DRX but also T1, HLE, and GEN teams might be invited to host home matches in Vietnam. Honestly, if this happens, it would be great news for LCK because no matter where the matches are held, players competing in other regions will surely excite the crowd. During the offseason, T1’s visit to Vietnam drew over 10,000 fans filling the venue. Of course, if they come to the LPL region, the matches would also be equally thrilling, and ticket prices might even be higher and harder to get than in Vietnam.

The current situation in the esports industry is indeed grim. The owner of GEN openly revealed that multiple teams have approached him asking if they could buy their team, including some LCK teams. Coupled with the shrinking number of teams in the LPL, this only confirms that the esports winter has arrived. It’s becoming difficult for any single region to sustain the entire competition alone. However, if there is to be a global tour, only LCK teams have that kind of popularity. LPL teams have very low overseas attention; it seems only one or two teams might have fans attending live overseas, while other teams might even draw fewer supporters than they do within the LPL itself.

In summary,

The biggest problem now is that tickets for live matches are not selling. Although there are official venues and seats, tickets remain unsold, and only popular teams attract fans to the site. Previously, many insiders revealed that for some weaker LPL teams’ matches, many of the live audience were actually staff members dressed up as spectators. Ticket revenue should be the main income for the entire league, but LCK is truly pushed to the brink now. It might be better to merge, creating an East-West confrontation between LPL and LCK.

What do you, the audience, think about this situation?