Tengjing Sports CEO Jin Yibo announced the gradual introduction of a salary cap in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) during the Tencent E-sports Annual Conference last month.
The salary cap was compared to that of the NBA, with a minimum wage as the lower limit and a luxury tax on the higher end of the spectrum. The cap will provide a chance for all teams to have a better opportunity to obtain strong players on their team, limiting the possibility of All-Star teams hoarding the best.
Players will be put into tiers where the caps will be different based on performance, which may cause some fans to be skeptical. How performance will be judged in a way that’s fair to all is difficult to decide.
Honing in on KDA will cause support players to be paid less even if they perform well in their role. The judgments for performance may also cause players to play differently, such as making kill stealing more popular or opting against dangerous plays at the risk of putting their salary in jeopardy.
However, the idea of a salary cap and how it can even out the playing field for smaller teams does interest the gaming community. The LPL could truly be onto something here, and we will get to see how it plays out in upcoming seasons.
--Field Level Media