In the German eSports of League of Legends, there has been a bitter disappointment. The team “No Need Orga” spectacularly defeated Hertha BSC in the relegation match on September 27 and was promoted to the 1st league. However, the five players will not play in the top league in 2023 – the rules of Riot Games are incompatible with a career as a Twitch streamer. Riot Games did not agree to an exception rule.
This is the situation in the leagues:
- The professional league in Europe is called “LEC”: It is a franchise league, from which you cannot be relegated or promoted. To get into the league, you have to buy a spot from an existing team. The spots go for 30 million €. Schalke sold its spot in 2021.
- Below the LEC, however, there are regional leagues, such as French, Spanish-speaking, or German-speaking competitions: You can be relegated and promoted in regional leagues. Teams have to go through a relegation if they want to be promoted from the 2nd league to the 1st league.
- The team “No Need Orga” spectacularly managed to win in the relegation against Hertha BSC and get promoted to the 1st league. The decider game was viewed by 100,000 spectators – it was a huge deal.
This fantastic play decided the series for promotion 2 months ago:
“Miracle Run” of the Senior Team Excites Germany
Why was the promotion so special? No Need Orga is not a typical LoL team from the 2nd league with managers, coaches, and young talents who want to prove something and dream of a big career at Fnatic or G2.
No Need Orga consists of some of the biggest German Twitch streamers in LoL, many of whom had already left their eSports careers behind. They actually stopped competitive LoL in 2019 or 2020, wanting to play 2nd league just for fun. The players of the team are therefore unusually old for professional players. Normally, you are considered an exception in pro LoL already at the age of 26:
- Midlaner NoWay4U is one of the biggest German Twitch streamers and is 30 years old
- ADC Broeki is 31 and acted as the “janitor” for Eintracht Spandau
- Tolkin (24) has since worked for Freaks4U. After failing to qualify for the LEC twice, he saw no point in continuing to play in the Prime League, as he explained.
NNO calls itself a “senior team”.
The “Miracle Run” of the streamers was an incredible story: The 2nd league ultimately had significantly more viewers in the final than the 1st league:
Twitch Streamers Cannot Comply with Rules, Want Exception
What is the problem? The conflict with Riot Games has been anticipated for a long time: Riot Games never envisioned in the rules that Twitch streamers would be promoted to the 1st league. They apparently expected full-time professionals.
Riot Games has some requirements for teams that want to play in the 1st league, and these rules conflict with the careers of the 5 players as Twitch streamers:
- Teams are not allowed to advertise brands that fall under certain criteria, and they cannot become affiliated with other video games, consoles, or betting providers
- The main problem is that there are restrictions relating to streaming. Streamers are not allowed to be live while the “main broadcast” is running. Riot Games apparently wants to exclude competition. This means that the streamers could not go live on several days, significantly limiting their streaming careers.
The biggest streamer in the group, NoWay, explains:
- He himself, according to these new rules, could not stream on two or three afternoons and evenings
- This would require NoWay to switch to mornings and forenoon to get his hours in
- He would then be competing with his two teammates Tolkin and Agurin and stealing their viewers
Even beforehand, players from NNO, to comply with the rules, had to quit their jobs because they worked for companies that were directly affiliated with Riot Games.
This is the current situation: The team from NNO has submitted proposals on how Twitch streamers can function and play in the 1st league. Their reports indicate that they have filed an appeal.
But now there has been the decision from Riot Games that they will stick to the rules and not give in. They communicated this to the streamers via email, as they explained during Twitch streams on November 10.
The ADC of NNO, Broeki, said in a stream: All proposed changes have been rejected by Riot. Therefore, they will not play in Division 1.
Also, Midlaner NoWay, one of the biggest German streamers, said: They will not play in Division 1, at least with the current roster.
The reason given by Riot Games for the rejection is that such an exception rule would have to apply to all leagues, including the major French league LFL, as explained by NNO Midlaner NoWay in a YouTube video (via youtube).
Furthermore, it appears that Riot Games fears “unnatural growth through influencers” – they would then be dependent on the streamers: What would happen if the streamers exit again? How would sponsors react if the numbers suddenly collapsed?
Streamers Understand Riot Games’ Decision, But Regret It
How do the streamers react? The streamers themselves respond fairly calmly, as it was partly their decision not to comply with the rules. Moreover, Broeki had already joked that he would be heavily kicked by the ADCs of the 1st league. Athletically, they believe that without much training, they simply would not be able to compete in the 1st league, the veterans suspect. This could possibly damage the brands.
- Top-laner Tolkin writes: Really a pity that we will not play in 1st Div. But it was a fantastic year with you.
- NoWay says: He can understand all of this. It is sad news, but now it is necessary to find solutions.
- Broeki says: Riot’s decision is absolutely correct. But it comes extremely late and puts the team under pressure now.
What happens next? NNO says they are looking for “new solutions” – it seems they now want to quickly assemble a new team of “non-streamers” that can play under the name “No Need Orga” in the Prime League. But everything seems to be quite chaotic at the moment.
One option would likely be to seek a merger with a team from the 2nd or 3rd league.
Moreover, the team distinguished itself by having no organization and playing purely for fun.
Fans Are More Disappointed Than the Players
How do the fans react? They are disappointed: Many on Twitter express their disbelief. It is a huge setback for the German scene.
Many say on Twitter: They discovered the Prime League because of NNO – and now, without NNO, they lack the motivation to continue following the German league.
All the more bitter is the situation because NNO’s relegation opponent, Hertha BSC, has now also announced its withdrawal from LoL.
It looks like the hope for 2023 now rests on HandofBlood and Eintracht Spandau. After all, the promotion of NNO was such a beautiful story:
Update, 6:27 PM: We have enriched the article with some information derived from NoWayU’s video “The End of NNO”. There, the Twitch streamer goes into the background of Riot Games’ decision and explains the details of the negotiations.
