Slasher: I'm not sure on what the status was before, 'cause Riot has never really officially said their stance on neither the leagues nor the teams in terms of this exclusivity agreement that's been thrown around the past few weeks. At least as of right now, they have gone back on what has happened.
SirScoots: Yeah, let's call it what it is. Riot changed their mind. For whatever reason, Riot changed their mind. Because for the last two weeks, there's been a boat load of internal discussion with a whole lot of people, and that was in fact the case. If you wanted to be a top Season 3 team in Riot's league, you could not support any other MOBA. No ifs ands or buts. That was going to be the rule. It was in place. Guys like Odee, guys like the guys from Complexity, guys like Alex Garfield who are very interested in maybe looking at League or have League, and are looking at Dota for example in Odee's case, made a very strong case to Riot over the last couple of weeks and said 'Hey you don't need to monopolise like this. We're not the big bad guys here. Let us have our Dota team. Or in Dignitas' case, 'Let us keep our League team and let us do other stuff'. Complexity doesn't have a LoL team, but they want one, but they've got HoN and Dota. We've been looking at League teams for quite a while, but we have a Dota team. We were certainly not going to drop one for the other - we want to support as much as possible. So, yes Riot has said it is not the case, but last week it very very very much was the case. Look in my eyes. It was the case. So, the praise here is to Riot for changing their plan and opening it up, because that is the right decision. Because, they don't need to build CGS Junior here and lock everything down with just these little teams that have their own little world. They don't need to. There's plenty of space for all of us to play and help each other in that sense. So very very kind of unfortunate news this last week turned to very very good news, and I think it is guys like Odee who really presented them very strongly, like why it's an unnecessary thing to lock down. I mean again, Riot has said it is not the case. So it's good. But those who want to think it was never the case? I'm sorry. It was the case. It was. It was never publicly announced so in that sense it's not like they're going back on a rule, but behind the scenes it was very much a rule in place for Season 3, and I'm very glad, very very glad that it's no longer in place. Because again, it's not needed - they don't need to worry about a team like Complexity or Dignitas or EG supporting another MOBA. That doesn't hurt the support that these teams would give to League, and those players. So it's good shit at the end of the day. Anyway.
Slasher: And I can confirm what Scott is saying. Multiple team owners have told me the same thing. This rule was in place. As early as possible as this weekend this was the case. Things have now changed as of yesterday. Teams are now allowed to have the game. This says nothing about the leagues. The exclusivity agreement with the leagues and what they may do for next year is not known as of yet. I'm attempting to interview Riot regarding all of these things in the next few days for Gamespot. I will see what I can do. I want to get your opinion on this. I mean I think this is kinda good that Riot to me is trying to revitalise the Championship gaming series and the failed attempt of many employees there that were of CGS before and that this was a large kind of ownership thing. They wanna own the players, the teams, the game, the league, the building, the streaming, everything.
djWHEAT: Okay I get it. You don't have to paint a picture for me Slasher. I've seen it before. If you didn't know I was actually a part of the Championship Gaming Series. I have a lot of experience in this particular realm and as I was saying yesterday I think to a lot of misunderstanding is that the difference here is that Riot owns the game, so they are investing what could essentially be construed as a marketing budget into their game. Like, that is how they're marketing. Now, am I surprised to hear that a statement has been retracted or that another statement has been identified as rumor so that they can avoid a shitstorm? Like, I think that's great. This is another great example of the community basically saying 'Hey this is kind of bullshit, and you know what we might fucking go out of our minds if this happens, so you better not do it.' It's better to identify it, like call it what it is and say it's not gonna happen than to let it happen and then have to retract it, because then it looks like mad douchebaggery and let's be honest guys, we've seen this happen in e-sports before. So what was being said yesterday about how it was smart for Riot but terrible for e-sports, was still how I felt about it but now it appears that Riot realises, you know, maybe even though we do own the game and though we have a fucking ridiculous amount of power in what we can do and what other people can do with our game, it makes more sense to be liked and loved in sort of the general e-sports community. That's sort of my thought on it, so, you know, white knight? Sure, seen it before. So, you know, I'm not surprised. And you know what, is anyone? Haven't we seen more e-sports organizations kinda go 'yeeeeeaeh the community is right and it sounds like they're kinda pissed off, we should probably go the opposite way.' MLG, Gom tv, you know just to name a few. So, that's my thought.
SirScoots: Yeah, and again, hopefully the next step is that they re-look at that exclusivity agreement they do with leagues, because that is in place for some of these big leagues. I think Dreamhack's the only one that said, 'We'll host a League tournament, but we're not not doing whatever the hell we want.' But everybody else, if you ask MLG, they cannot run Dota concurrently with League. That's part of their contract with Riot. Now that's not... That's just a non-compete, that's not shady or dirty business. That's Riot looking out for the wherewithall of their title. And MLG being okay with that, and signing it. So it's not like they're a bad guy. It's just.. It just is what it is. But of course, we want these leagues to throw all these games, so we have more places to play. But it's not shady, it's not sketchy, it's just, again, it's a non-compete, you know. 'You want our money to host a tournament, you can have it, but here's our requirements.' But, you know, maybe Season 3, Riot takes control of their big world, the big show, and these other leagues can do.. Maybe have a little more free range with using League and using HoN and using Dota, and less restricted because they're kind of almost feeder tournaments in that sense now to Season 3 for Riot. But again, we don't have enough of the details, so we'll see. I like that they're listening. I don't necessarily like all their agreements, but as I said, at least they're not going 'Pffft, shut up, our way or the highway.' They're listening which is half the battle sometimes. So there you have it.
