LPL might be facing the threat of losing its next talented generations in eSports.
Will this policy put an end to the up-rising reign of LPL in the recent Seasons of League of Legends?
Recently, the media has widely reported that the Government of this country has officially enacted a law to strictly control the management of the gaming time fund of teenagers, in order to overcome the problem of game addiction, which is increasingly severe in this age group.
In particular, this legislation stipulates that persons under 18 only play games every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during holidays and the Lunar New Year for up to a maximum of one hour. The games on weekdays are legally forbidden.
After the promulgation of the law, Tencent Games – The company that owns two popular MOBA games, King of Glory and League of Legends, was the first business to issue a press release about its strict compliance with this law. , and proposes the introduction of user control measures.
In 2017, Tencent was also the leading enterprise in China in developing customer information management and control applications to classify underage age and introduced playtime control measures for children this age.
Although this law is considered reasonable in the context of the problem of game addiction causing pain in Chinese society. But an existing consequence is that the law limiting playing hours is expected to seriously affect the development of the e-sports industry in China, especially League of Legends.
In China, the LPL tournament system is currently operating under a professionalized model, with the classification into professional leagues, youth leagues, and academy leagues. Similar to the LCK, LPL organizations also own youth teams and training academies to recruit young domestic talents to foster for the future.
The problem here is that despite having a training academy, most of the famous young stars of the Chinese League of Legends still have their starting points from solo queue. Many of LPL’s greatest players: Tian, Knight, or Wei are all talents found by the scouting team in ranked matches, then recruited and trained in training camps.
The League of Legends community is concerned that limiting gaming to under-18s will make these spontaneous young talents less and less. Although it can be compensated by recruiting interns for academies, the inability to assess the skill level of candidates before entering the academy will also reduce the quality of training.
Another source of talent for LPL teams is Esports courses at professional academies. Some Chinese schools have introduced League of Legends as an official subject, and perhaps that will give students time to get used to the game. However, the prospect of a shortage of young talent in the future and being forced to search for stars in the neighboring area of the LCK is still what makes LPL officials have a headache finding a solution.