In League of Legends there is a change in the South Korean LCK league. For 2024, they are introducing a “salary cap”. This means that teams now have to adjust. If they pay too much in salaries for their players, a surcharge, a luxury tax, will be incurred. But star player Faker is exempt from the new rules in LoL due to noticeably specific special clauses.
What is the radical change?
- The LCK will now determine how much money a team can spend at most: The limit will be calculated based on the revenues that the teams generated in 2022. Anyone spending more money must pay a “luxury tax”, a surcharge (via lolesports). The luxury tax will be distributed among the other teams.
- There is no salary limit for individual players, only for the team: Only the 5 highest-paid players of a team are considered, so substitutes could theoretically be
well paid
. - A salary cap is mainly known from US sports leagues like the NBA. In South Korea, the idea became increasingly attractive for the officials after some teams, like T1, incurred losses of around 12 million dollars.
This change is now leading many teams in South Korea to fall apart before the 2024 season.
Player salaries rose by 71% in 2 years, were out of control
Why was the cap introduced? The league states that the most money is spent by all teams on player salaries. In the last 2 years, the salaries of the 5 top players of each team have risen by 71%.
Therefore, it is necessary to set a limit here to keep the league stable.
What are the effects of the salary cap?
As Dotesports reports, the introduction of a salary cap in South Korea has already caused significant waves:
- Thus, the current champion Gen G has already released 4 players from their roster, including stars like Doran or Chovy – although it is rumored that the best player, Chovy, will be re-signed
- The transfer market in South Korea is also more active than usual in the 2023 offseason: Even world champion jungler Canyon left his team DAMWON and his teammate ShowMaker after 5 years
- It seems that hardly a stone will remain unturned in South Korea, as teams can no longer simply afford multiple stars with high salary demands
Start learning Chinese
What is being discussed?? It is assumed that many South Korean stars, for whom their teams no longer have money, will switch to China in the LPL, where there is no salary cap and teams lure with money.
Therefore, on reddit, one quotes “Start learning Chinese”, which is a standing term from the NBA, where players are threatened that they will be sold to China if they play too weakly.
Some players are also moving from South Korea to the USA: Immortals now has a team leading 3 South Koreans after signing Castle and Mask.
Own Faker rule
protects T1
What exception is there? Ironically, the current world champion T1 seems to be staying together.
This might also be due to an exception rule in the salary cap. Because anyone who has won 3 international or 5 national titles only has 50% of their salary count against the cap.
The rule is so specific that it only applies to Faker and jungler Peanut:
- Faker has been known since 2016 as the only player with 3 world championship titles in LoL (now he has 4)
- Peanut has managed to become a champion in the LCK 5 times
Yet even Peanut enjoyed after 2023: He left Gen G after 2 years and is switching to Hanwha Life. They now suddenly have an excellent team with Doran, Peanut, Zeka, Viper, and Delight.
What special rules are there? There is also a rule that teams can ignore 30% of a salary against the cap if a player has been with the club for 3 years. This is intended to reward teams that develop their stars themselves and do not constantly poach players.
It is also recommended that teams spend at least 70% of their cap.
More about LoL:
