Riot president issues a new response after backlash caused by his earlier comments

Comments made by Riot Games’ president Marc Merrill few days ago caused anger across the League of Legends community especially those into the Esports side of it. A response was delivered by the man himself yesterday to clarify some things while apologizing that the tone of his words maybe weren’t the best.

It all started with Team SoloMid owner’s criticism to the nature of League Esports, as many players see that becoming a pro at the game is not on par with other games out there because of the low pay and prizes. Merrill came later to call out Dinh for his words saying maybe he should spend some of the millions he makes off LCS on his players instead of investing in other games.

The new response had Merrill saying that he agrees with many of Dinh’s recent criticisms, both in the interview with theScore and a follow up response by Dinh on Twitlonger. In his new response, Merrill reveals some new information about Riot Games’ business plans, including team-specific items such as revenue sharing for the teams and their professional players. This is a model that Dinh said works well in first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, where teams’ logos and players’ signatures are sold as stickers to place on guns. That revenue is divided between Counter-Strike’s developer, Valve, and the teams, which ultimately trickles down to the players.

“League esports (in its current form) doesn’t provide the long-term security and sustainability that we ultimately aspire to for teams and pros,” Merrill said in his response. “Team costs are rising faster (and in some cases are higher) than team revenues, and while this may be the short-term reality of growing a young sport (particularly as the value of teams grow), it’s not what we believe the long-term state of League esports will be.”