This is (unfortunately) column number three of a continued series of pieces discussing the LCS Players Association. The author suggests reading the previously published pieces prior to this piece for complete context (definitely not because it will boost his viewership numbers). “The LCS Players Association is Attempting Change but Finding Little Success” and “The Foggy Vision of the Players Association Explained Through Champions Queue“.
On Saturday, November 12, Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme was on Twitter. This wasn’t uncommon as the standout support player has become known for his antics on social media. But what was uncommon was his messages:
“NA PROS ARE TRASH AND DONT HAVE A GOOD ENOUGH WORK ETHIC” -Steve, Platinum IV, who never applied himself to be good enough at anything in life 🙂
why dont you come compete against me Steve instead of tweeting at me from your basement
It was not uncommon for Laflamme to respond to comments about players in the LCS but it was to miss this mark this poorly.
Players in the LCS have once again become the butt of jokes in the League of Legends community. Respected figures in the scene such as Peter Dun, Lee “CloudTemplar” Hyun-woo, Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo and Han “Rigby” Earl have spoken recently, commenting on North America’s struggles and work ethic concerns. And arguably for a player that is having to hear these words from some of his former coaches, that can be a boiling point. Vulcan would adjust his point shortly after yet the damage was still done. It does, however, bring up a unique conversation, a conversation that once again needs to be addressed: what do the players want again?
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Once again, we’re talking about practice.
Allen Iverson delivered his infamous “practice” quote after being eliminated from the 2002 NBA Playoffs by the Boston Celtics. Being peppered with questions regarding his relationship with his coach Larry Brown, he was simply done. The two had been going back and forth through the media and their disastrous exit — losing 120 to 87 — likely meant one of them was gone after this season.
It would be Larry Brown — who would quit. Kind of fitting to this conversation, right?
Practice has been one of the biggest pain points called out by the LCS. Players would rather travel to South Korea to play on the solo queue ladder than play in their home region — even if having access to a far superior system in Champions Queue.
Why this is the case, we’re still learning.
The likely answer is the forced practice setting of being in a foreign country. Unable to take advantage of usual freedoms, time-zone differences from friends and a language barrier, players are somewhat forced to focus on League of Legends. Despite citing quality, the reality is that players will likely see similarities to their North American experience — trolls, toxic behavior, bad games.
It just feels different. The ping, the competition.
But solo queue has somewhat become a second point to the words that players and coaches are really struggling with: scrimmages.
Scrimmages have been the primary source of team practice — dating back to the days where teams would queue up on the Ranked 5v5 ladder. Remember those days? Scrimmages offer a setting where a team can practice a “real game environment.” You can run a lay-up drill all you want but a lay-up in a scrimmage is more than likely going to be much different from a pre-set idea. Here’s where things get a little bit interesting though: League of Legends has a much different scrimmage environment compared to other sports. Teams will compete against each other and call it their practice. And they do this…a lot.
A scrimmage block will see Team 1 compete against Team 2, both with different expectations of what they are looking to accomplish. Team 1 could be looking to work on their early game while Team 2 could be focusing on team-fighting. The scrimmages will also have a debriefing period internally. As a result, teams likely will be at the mercy of their opponents — which they truly do not have a ton of leverage over. A team could call it quits based on the debriefing, the team could want to play out a game rather than stop. You hope for professionalism yet you might not get it. Former Cloud9 head coach Nick “LS” De Cesare had a very good callout regarding the importance of intra-squad scrimmages. And DRX turning to a band of ‘NA misfits’ for their practice prior to the finals versus a traditional scrimmage allowed for the team to control of the practice setting
Because scrimmages truly can vary from the value added, players are often expected to be “on the grind.” Solo queue allows players the opportunity to enhance mechanics and game knowledge through a more casual environment than their competitive stage. It is somewhat of a cop-out for what could potentially be a poor practice setting as a team.
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It took a while to get to this overall point.
This is where the LCS Players Association becomes more and more important in what and how they are communicating. Laflamme is one of three vice presidents on the LCSPA and his voice does carry a ton of weight. Not only is he one of the more well-respected individuals in the LCS, but he’s also now in a position to be speaking on behalf of players within the LCS.
The LCSPA has historically struggled at communicating what they really need or want. Champions Queue was the outcome of years of trying to figure out the ideal practice setting for players. It should be noted that the PA has been much better when it comes to educating and protecting players when it comes to contract negotiations. Then again, this effort and focus continues to the trend of legal-speaking individuals taking advantage of how green the space is and how green individuals in sad space are. This should only be a minor portion of the PA’s duties.
To go on a brief tangent, this is why North America is in a very interesting spot. Notably, negotiations this offseason have been much slower in the region, with organizations being much more patient. While the influence of economic turbulence is very noticeable, organizations also aren’t paying the premium to be first anymore. Rather, they are fine with taking up secondary options or digging deeper to find talent at a discount. It likely will increase the separation in contracts for “top players” versus what “bottom players” will receive.
Players are continuing to lose leverage when they may not be realizing it. One of the key points coming from coaches is just how much power players have. But rather, the power is continuing to be funneled to organization executives — who can maneuver their way through contracts, players and decisions. As we are witnessing with “contract hostages” or organizations being able to reduce a buyout to zero, the organizations are calling the shots.
So when conversations continue to come up about solo queue, it continues this narrative that the players do not know what they’re talking about. Their massive win with Champions Queue instead becomes a wasted opportunity.
Every time a player speaks out regarding practice, I can’t help but think of one of my favorite movie scenes ever. In the cult classic Hot Rod, Danny McBride’s character responds to Bill Hader’s point of wisdom regarding change by spraying water in his face.
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Once again, the Players Association is fumbling an opportunity. It is fumbling a moment for the players to unite to improve the general health of the scene. It continues to be this frustrating point of not understanding the strengths of unionization. They made a union so they could build a contract database — something agencies should be doing on their own and is just a reminder of how bad esports agencies truly are.
Since the introduction of new leadership in May of 2021 to the LCSPA, they have struggled to get their members on the same page — a key component to unionization. Practice has been one key difference.
Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya — the LCSPA President, released a statement back in April regarding his views of practice. He recorded eight games of Champions Queue during Worlds. Fellow council members Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in and Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura recorded 118 games and 84 games played. If this is the difference in how leaders are approaching practice, just imagine the difference in the greater population.
There is a legitimate case for the practice problem in the region, the problem is that no one has been able to articulate the issue about it. Instead, it turns into a conversation about the resources available and the players not being “lazy.” Players have the ability to fight for better work-life balance, they either don’t or they fail to communicate their stress points in an effective manner. Their pointing to professional sports — how they have more downtime and longer vacations (which truly isn’t the case) — continues to be laughed at. And instead of growing from the situation, it creates this never-ending cycle of North American players being flamed after an international event.
Unfortunately, it does not look like this cycle will end anytime soon. Players have differences in opinions and the organization that should be looking out for their best interest leaves them out to dry while attempting to build business cases for why the LCS region should put more money into their pockets through conversations about licensing rights.
And much like the LCS’ performance at Worlds, it’s sad to watch.