LoL star Rekkles frustrated with extreme transfer fees

The well-known League of Legends player Martin “Rekkles” Larsson spoke out in a recent personal live stream, lamenting about his current situation with transfer fees, which are now, according to his words, “completely out of control”. He also explained the difficulties he was having thanks to a clause in the contract with G2.

Rekkles was put on the G2 bench at the end of 2021 and had to look for another team. The problem was that he had a clause in his contract with G2, that said he would only get six percent of his salary if he was benched by the organization.

The 6% salary clause at G2

When Rekkles signed the G2 contract with the 6% clause in 2020, his lawyer even addressed the clause, but Rekkles told him that he won’t be benched because he will play well. He thought that this was a long-term thing. “I’m not coming for a year, I’m coming for the remaining years of my career,'” Rekkles said on stream. But unfortunately, everything turned out differently and it seems that the lawyer’s concerns were justified.

Rekkles and G2 came close to winning the 2021 World Championship but fell to Fnatic in the quarterfinals of the Summer Split Playoffs. After that loss, Rekkles was benched by the team, which activated the clause. Of course, six percent of the salary is very little, so the professional felt cornered.

“I understood that part of the contract fully,” Rekkles said. “But I was just naive to believe they wouldn’t screw me over. They put me here [on the bench], which is why I had to get out of there. Because if I stayed, I would get no money and I wouldn’t be able to play. I would just sit and wait two years. So I had to get out. “

Terrible transfer fees

Rekkles also claimed on stream that the transfer fee on his G2 contract was too high for most interested teams. It wasn’t until the LEC teams started signing players in the 2021 offseason that G2 lowered the transfer fee.

“Karmine Corp were interested, luckily enough for me,” Rekkles said. “I think if they weren’t, I would have been screwed. I was really lucky that they were interested in working together, but I still wasn’t cheap. When I still say ‘lowered buyouts,’ my buyout was still substantial, to the point where this is still being a problem today.”

The transfer fee for Rekkle’s move to Karmine Corp was never made public. However, ex-CEO of G2 Esports, Carlos Rodriguez announced on Twitter that the transfer fee for his contract was set at €1.5 million.

Rekkles again in a similar situation at Karmine Corp

Now that Karmine Corp bought out Rekkles, he is back in a position where his own value could outweigh the buying potential of teams in need of an AD carry. Still, he wants to play at the LEC level again. He confirmed that he had already received a number of offers from teams.

“A year later I find myself in a similar situation,” Rekkles said. “I’m back under contract and obviously the money that KCorp paid for me last year they want back now.”

Rekkles is not only frustrated with his situation but also explained how this is similarly difficult for other players because the transfer fees had gone far too high: “The money that has been circling around now, in particular in EU and NA, over the past two-three years, has just been way too much for the industry,” said Rekkles. “The money that people are being bought out for is not money that the organizations are making back, so we reached a point now where it’s out of control.”

Rekkles is under contract with Karmine Corp until the end of 2023. How the player will continue after that is not yet clear.

Header: Rekkles