League insider claims LCS is “exploding” as player salaries plummet in off-season

MonteCristo, an industry veteran who has worked in and around LCS for several years, claims that many of the region’s teams are blowing up as orgs can’t afford the salaries they put forth to pay players in the past.

With the LCS third and fourth seed unceremoniously dropping out of Worlds 2023 contention and big orgs like FlyQuest being unable to produce results despite investing heavily in their team’s future, the LCS looking a bit different in 2024 wouldn’t have surprised anyone.

However, the changes may be more drastic than anyone predicted. On a recent episode of Power Spike, co-host MonteCristo’s insight on what’s going on behind the scenes painted a grim outlook for the future. Or, at least one that has much less high-profile imports.

He claimed that many of the LCS teams are “exploding” in the off-season, with teams being unable to afford the price many of the top tier players command, resulting in what will likely be a very different LCS landscape in 2024 if his claims come to fruition.

MonteCristo paints a grim picture of the 2024 LCS

With LCS viewership down year over year since a massive boost in 2020, it’s been hard not to speculate that change is coming soon. With North America’s international results being unimpressive despite some of the world’s best talent getting imported into the region, it was only a matter of time until teams weren’t able to sustain their expensive pursuit of earning NA a big international win.

According to MonteCristo, the time for teams to hit that wall may have come. He claimed that the LCS is “exploding”, and that there will be some big changes coming in 2024.

(Conversation starts at 27:00)

“It’s gonna be hard next year for the West, especially for the LCS. What’s going on right now guys, behind the scenes – basically, every team in the LCS is exploding because of the esports bubble popping and the esports winter.” It isn’t clear yet if every team in the league is going to be affected by sweeping changes, but Monte didn’t exactly sound optimistic.

He continued, “What’s gonna happen is, effectively, every LCS team is going to say, ‘Hey, if you wanna stay with us, you need to sign a new contract at a much lower dollar value, or we’re going to release you from your contract to be a free agent.’ So there’s gonna be a giant free agency fiesta, but we’re not going to see the same level of high-quality imports.”

Monte also feels as if the region getting an influx of new players, either from “grassroots” players competing from within the region or “budget imports” that have less experience, that the LCS will take time to be competitive again. Although, saying “again” implies that the region has been competitive internationally in recent times as it is.

When Monte posited that the VCS and other strong minor regions like the PCS may be stronger than the LCS in 2024, IWDominate interjected and claimed that they already are. With Team Liquid losing to GAM at Worlds 2023, it’s hard to argue with results.

Dexerto recently spoke with Vulcan and confirmed that he’s considering LEC offers, and there’s a chance that other hot prospects in the LCS could leave the region as well. Even with there being a salary cap implemented in the LEC for 2024, there’s a chance that players will get paid more to move regions than they will to stay in North America.

Though this may seem like bad news all around, having a hard reset on NA that brings down player salaries and creates a more sustainable region where picking up domestic talent is encouraged could be a good direction for the LCS to take in the long run. Only time will tell.