Photo: Karmine Corp.
What would you do with 50 million euros ? The sum is tidy and the question does not arise for many people, except for the rich heirs or those who win the lottery. In football, however, the sum would not be massive enough to buy a top player: it is estimated Vinicius at 166 million euros today. On League of Legends, this is the amount you would potentially have to spend to buy your place in LEC.
50 million to play in the European elite, it seems completely crazy and it could cool the ardor of ambitious structures like the Karmine Corp. Where KOI. It is even more disproportionate if we take a step back to see the effects of inflation (price increase).
2019: an entry price between 8 and 10.5 million euros
The youngest will perhaps have forgotten this era which is not so far away. But for a long time the European league was open and anyone could get relegated. Franchises only arrived for the 2019 season, with the creation of the LEC, replacing the EU LCS. To be in the new world, you had to file an application and be selected as a partner team by Riot Games. But it was also and above all necessary to pay for a slot. Originally, there were two tariffs:
- 8 million euros : for teams that were already part of EU LCS (Fnatic, G2, Misfits, Vitality, Splyce…)
- €10.5 million : for newcomers (EXCEL, Origen…)
This small rebate of 2.5 million was intended to reward the teams already in place. The sums already seemed large at the time and some teams had not survived the LCS EU – LEC transition… We are thinking in particular of Giants Gaming, H2K and Unicorns of Love.
2021: Schalke 04 break the bank with 26.5 million
Last year, a structure agreed for the first time in history to sell its slot in LEC. Schalke 04in difficulty after the relegation of his football team, thus exchanged places with Team BDS, in exchange for 26.5 million euros. At the time, this resale caused a lot of talk because in the space of 2 years, the German structure managed to make a “profit on resale” of more than 18 million. Obviously, this gain is not net and it is necessary to take into account the management fees, the taxes or the salary of the players. But S04 didn’t come out too badly…
Above all, it created a precedent. We do not see a world where a future transaction would be below this bar of 26.5 million, since a slot is equivalent to any other slot. Moreover, if we take into account that Schalke was in financial difficulty and that it needed cash quickly… we can imagine that it more or less “sold off” its place.
2022: The crazy rumor at 50 million
The rumor by ESPORTMANÍACOS is not sourced and we do not really know whether to take it seriously. The Spanish media often releases scoops, but a rumor remains difficult to verify… Especially since we can easily imagine Astralis leak some information to create hype and raise the bids. In any case, we are talking about a sale price of between 40 and 50 million euros. Compared to the initial purchase price, it’s dizzying! If we compare to the price spent by Team BDS, it is also a significant increase…
To explain this price, we can talk about inflation but also about the fact that Astralis is in a position of strength. According to its annual report, the structure does not necessarily need to sell and it is satisfied with its economic situation. Above all, at the time of Schalke 04, the Karmine Corp. made less noise and KOI did not yet exist. Now that both ambitions want to shine, they may have to pay a heavy price.
Riot Games has occasionally shared revenue generated from the sale of certain skins. Data shared by the company was reviewed to find out how much money League of Legends developers make on average for each cosmetic released for sale in the game.