LCK announces three new policies to create more sustainable esports ecosystem

Riot Games has revealed three new policies for its official League of Legends esports league in South Korea aimed to “build a sustainable virtuous cycle ecosystem for all teams, players and the league”. The new LCK policies include the Rookie Development Clause, LCK Agent Certification and LCK Pre-contract Policy.

The trio of new LCK policies introduced by Riot Korea in its recent Twitter video post are set to be implemented starting in the 2022 offseason and will focus on player trade within the league. The new system will affect the development of young players, as well as regulations around agents and contracts.

The video stated: 

“The LCK  will continue to strive to build a ‘sustainable virtuous cycle ecosystem’, which was the goal of the franchise launch in 2021. We will continue to make efforts for mutual growth between players and teams to further improve the quality of the league and to increase the fan experience.” 

Rookie Development Clause

The first of the LCK’s new policies was reportedly designed to “enable teams to discover and invest in new players”. The system looks to help create a pipeline of young talent for the league by guaranteeing rookies playing time on LCK teams. This will generate more career opportunities for players with less than one experience in the LCK split or with less than 1 year of experience in other professional League of Legends leagues. 

All players who played more than 50% of total LCK Challengers games in one split, or at least 25% of total LCK games in one split become eligible for the clause. If one of these conditions has been met, the organization has an option to exercise the rookie development clause, which will allow the team to extend the player’s contract for two years. Furthermore, it will guarantee a “steady salary increase and continuous playing time” for the player during the contracted period. If the team doesn’t provide the player with the minimum guaranteed playing time, the player is free to terminate the contract. 

LCK Agent Certification

This policy has been reportedly designed to “ensure the rights of players by appointing and regulating official agents with professional expertise”. As a result, players will be only able to appoint official agents who passed a certified exam administered by the Korea eSports Association (KeSPA). Agents will be in charge of player salaries and contracts while being obliged to attend seminars, as well as report profits, contracts and disputes. The policy also states that an agent will be able to represent LCK players for up to two years. 

LCK Pre-contract Policy

The last of the new LCK policies aims to “help teams build and maintain competitive rosters”. The LCK Pre-contract Policy allows organizations to extend contracts or recruit players at an earlier time than before. As a part of this policy, players in the last year of their contract are eligible for “designation”, which means they are able to enter the transfer negotiations prior to the start of the offseason. However, only one player per team can be chosen for designation. 

The policy will be divided into three phases: 

1. Designation and announcing the list of designated players publicly 
2. Negotiation proposal period 
3. Final contract offerings and final decisions

If the negotiations are successful and the player decides to transfer, the new team will have to pay the transfer fee to the original team. Moreover, an additional amount will be added to the fee if the player is transferring to a team with a foreign language. Unlike the first two newly formed LCK policies, the LCK Pre-contract Policy will be introduced in time for the 2023 offseason.

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