The LEC has a player churn problem and no easy solutions in sight

With the LEC 2024 Season kicking off imminently, the calibre of players who failed to find a spot on a roster is startling. Not only are there serviceable players out in the cold — the likes of Kobbe, Abbedagge, Advienne — but players like Crownie and Trymbi were standout performers on their respective teams last season and were rewarded by being iced out of the league altogether.

Going into this season, we have no new expansion plans, no new ERL additions and plenty LEC calibire rosters that can be made with the leftover players. Meanwhile, some organizations are focusing on foreign imports or extreme cost costs with budget additions.

Player imports in a talent stacked competitive scene

The obvious direction for finger pointing would be towards those building the rosters. Crownie and Trymbi were both replaced by Korean prospects; Ice joining BDS from the ERLs and Jun joining Fnatic from LCK bottom feeders Kwangdong Freecs. Risky, presumably budget moves with the chance of big payoffs – risks worth more of a try whilst in the middle of the esports winter.

MAD Lions have replaced their whole side apart from jungler Elyoya. While all of the departing MAD Lions players have remained within the LEC, their swaps are perhaps the most difficult to comprehend. MAD were thought to have always operated on a smaller budget than their title-challenging rivals, so tightening the purse strings doesn’t explain away the decision to remove 4/5 of their Spring-winning roster as well as their famed coaching staff.

Instead the Spanish organisation looks to be pivoting its focus towards harnessing its native fanbase and has gone all-in on superstar jungler Elyoya to make it happen. The PSG and Mbappe or the LEC, MAD has handed Elyoya the reigns and his influence on their off season moves has meant that the roster is light on recognised names. Those players may well be LEC-calibre — top laner Myrwn was the Spanish league’s MVP in the 2023 summer split — though their inclusion means that another four worthy players could be missing out.

Read also: Free Agency Breakdown: Roster Transfers ahead of LEC 2024

Giving the organisations’ management the benefit of the doubt and assuming that all moves are successful, it begs the question of whether an LEC expansion should happen sometime soon.

Xerxe, Finn, Vizicsacsi, Cinkrof, LIDER and countless others have shown to be LEC-level, or at least knocked on the door for a long time, yet currently find no place. The players mentioned in this article alone would fill two complete rosters – not necessarily title contenders, but lineups wouldn’t look out of place in the league.

LEC expansion or simply “Deal with it?”

Sadly the timing for an expansion couldn’t be worse. Global financial struggles in esports in 2023, had teams’ investment warchests dry up, with any and all revenue being crucial. Existing LEC teams would be reluctant to reduce their current revenue share cuts to facilitate newcomers. The LCS’ recent move to eight teams may indicate that a reduction is more likely in EMEA should any changes occur. A similar such reduction would remove ten already hotly-contested LEC spots.

On the plus side, there are already a number of large ERL organisations that could make worthy LEC entrants. Karmine Corp already joined with their enormous fanbase for 2024, but a number of big French, Spanish, and German teams still remain in the second tier.

The ERL infrastructure has also proven a saving grace for those unable to find LEC places. Mentioned as a standout player last year, Crownie only returned to the league in 2023 after spending 2022 in France’s LFL. He’s not alone either – swathes of former-LEC players ply their trade in the regional leagues after getting cut and those leagues provide a crucial platform to continue competing, improving on their game and ultimately earning a shot back in the big leagues.

The ERLs may even provide too good a development path, not only rehabilitating discarded LEC pros but also forming a converyor belt of replacements – constantly helping to create and maintain more and more top tier competitors to compete for a static number of tier one roster spots.

More and more players may be forced to tread the ERL path after the LEC’s 2023 format changes which implemented a three-week, 9-game regular season that sees it’s bottom two teams eliminated from the remainder of the split. It resulted in those bottom teams was frequent roster changes. Fnatic and Excel, the bottom teams from Winter, each finished the season with only two of their initial five players and both changed coaching staff entirely.

Not only does the need for instant success expedite roster changes, but it also means that some players are judged much quicker and based on a much smaller sample size of games. Such judgements can see players’ LEC dreams ended after just three weeks of play.

Take Fnatic’s 2023 starting support Rhuckz who, after plying his trade in the ERLs for seven years, was finally awarded an LEC spot only to become a casualty of the team’s disastrous Winter split. He was immediately moved back to their academy, left the organisation altogether mid-season and will now be lucky to get another LEC chance in his career.

Read next: LoL teams to watch out for going into the LEC 2024 Winter Split