“Contract Jail” in Esports

After the League of Legends World Championship concluded, many of the pro esports teams have begun to restructure their rosters for the next season. Restructuring in this sense refers to adding players that have performed well and dropping/benching players that have not performed well. A recent topic of conversation has been the way that one particular European Esports franchise, G2, treats their players. Players Rekkles and Jankos most recently, but others such as Perkz, Wunder, and Mikyx, have gone on social media and revealed the difficulties the organization has caused them through their contract practices, namely placing inflated buyouts (such that it makes it extremely hard for other teams to purchase these players) and clauses that severely decrease the pay of a player if they are benched (in the case of Rekkles, leading to only 6% of the yearly pay). This situation leads to what is referred to as “Contract Jail”, in which players are stuck on a team making little pay while also not being able to be purchased by other teams.

What could the possible solution to this be? Of course, these players need to have capable legal advice when entering into these contracts. But even more than this, perhaps there needs to be a strong player union which somewhat standardizes some contract practices and could eliminate this “Contract Jail” situation from arising. Maybe there could also be other creative ways to move difficult contracts. In the NBA, difficult contracts are often moved by packaging them with future draft picks or accepting other difficult contracts in return. Perhaps some future incentives can be provided between the Esports organizations during trade negotiations so that contracts can be more easily moved around.

Sources:
https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/they-fed-me-over-rekkles-says-he-would-have-been-paid-6-percent-of-his-salary-if-he-stayed-with-g2
https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/g2-posts-questionable-meme-on-social-media-amid-contract-negotiations-with-jankos

One response to ““Contract Jail” in Esports”

  1. Priscilla

    Great article! Hope Riot (and other developers) will enhance their rules to address the Contract Jail problem.