In League of Legends, eSports has been radically changed: A season in LoL is now compressed into a few weeks. The summer season lasts only from June 17 to July 30. In 2022, the season lasted 4 months. This shortening is wearing the players out, they say.
This is the change: The game times in eSports for LoL have been drastically reduced. The 2022 season is only half as long as before:
- The summer season 2022 in the LEC lasted from June 16 to September 11: 87 days.
- The summer season 2023 runs from June 17 to July 30: 43 days.
- After that, from August 19 to September 10, there are the season finals.
This extreme compression of the season apparently exacerbates the significant problems that had already plagued eSports. The players, many of whom are teenagers, the rest in their twenties, simply cannot cope with the pressure.
16 Pros of the LEC Speak Out
What results from this? The site Dotesports states in a lengthy report that they spoke with 16 current and former players from the European professional league LEC. The findings are alarming.
The top laner of Astralis says: The shortening of the season takes away time for “mental stability”: Once the season starts, players have to give their all or they will be left behind.
The experienced Belgian Nisqy says:
You are expected to be good, but if for any reason you are not, it is very hard to come back mentally and regain confidence. In the end, you might ask yourself: What is my job if I just lose and nothing else?
Nisqy was recently criticized for smiling after a loss – for that he was harshly criticized by angry fans. The accusation: He would not take a loss seriously enough.
He says: It is hard to understand from the outside what problems professionals are really dealing with internally.
“The New Format Is F*cking Bad”
What do professionals say anonymously: The shortening of the season to just 43 days leads to problems that players want to express only anonymously.
A pro from the LEC says: “The new format is f*cking bad, to be honest. This is purely a business matter:”
The anonymous experienced player states: There is no longer a familiarization phase in the teams like there used to be in the first weeks of a season. Now careers can collapse early in a season under pressure. Players could quickly ruin a long career in a top league.
The worst part for players is not even the pressure in a season, but life after a season: There they have no control over their own fate. The team can replace them at any time. This possibility scares many professionals.
Another player says: For him, the hardest part was when he was replaced. Because his own self-confidence depended on the performance:
- When he won matches, he felt good.
- When he lost, he felt worthless.
- The moment he was replaced was very crushing for him, as if he no longer served any purpose.
I saw a player who was so burnt out that he couldn’t get out of bed. He lived League for so many months without anything else. His brain just couldn’t take it anymore and he couldn’t play for 2 weeks. I’ve seen many players with burnout, but never anything like this.
What does an experienced man say? Tim Reichert is a former football pro at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen. Today he works as CEO of Excel. He believes many eSports players lack education compared to athletes:
“Most eSports players lack proper education and learning curve on how to be a professional.”
eSports players have to figure out how to cope with the lifestyle and career risks themselves as teenagers. Even as young adults, they must adapt to a very stressful lifestyle while chasing their dream job, says the former football pro.
Too Much Food, Too Much Caffeine, Too Much Tobacco, Alcohol, Marijuana
What is part of this lifestyle? One of the pros says that most young pros learn behaviors from others, and that is often toxic. Players develop mechanisms to cope with harsh remarks, negative feelings, and toxic environments:
- Alcohol, snuff (
- Alcohol, snuff (
