Riot Games has announced that the NLC, the primary League of Legends esports tournament for the UK, Ireland and Nordic countries, is currently without a tournament organiser.
The company in charge of running the event, League ApS, has informed Riot that it is “no longer in a position to operate the league.”
This comes following various allegations of late payments and unpaid invoices from staff who had worked on NLC events.
Riot Announces Uncertain Future of NLC
NLC champions Verdant are currently competing in the EMEA Masters Winter Playoffs with a chance to possibly qualify for this year’s Esports World Cup.
The NLC Spring Split is due to start later this month, yet it is now in doubt as is the future of the league now that League ApS has stepped down from running the event.
In a statement released on the official League of Legends UK, Ireland & Nordics Twitter, Riot stated:
“We are actively assessing the situation and aligning on next steps to ensure continuity and stability for the competition…
“We will share more details on what this means for the Spring Split and the path ahead before it begins at the end of March. Thank you for your patience and continued support.”
What Went Wrong With the NLC?
Last year, the NLC saw unprecedented success with record-breaking viewership thanks to Los Ratones, the esports team formed by popular LoL streamer Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont.
This led to multiple ambitious NLC events last year with arena shows in Nottingham, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, as well as fan expos and a live performance by K-pop girl group Primrose.
Despite this, League ApS claimed that the organisers had failed to secure the additional funding it had hoped for and acknowledged late payments in a statement released three weeks ago.
The statement claimed that the league does pay its talent and would resolve outstanding invoices but would “decline certain late fees.”
The NLC has been met with heavy criticism this year. Not only for payment issues, but also for firing experienced broadcast talent Jake ‘Hiprain’ Matthews and Georgia ‘Troubleinc’ Parasand, and introducing a new format focused on content creation rather than competitive integrity.
Content creators Dumbs, Tim ‘Sloppy Walrus’ Mager, and Maksymilian ‘Drututt’ Przychodzień all fielded NLC teams, with the latter starting a Platinum-ranked streamer.
The NLC also introduced polarising ‘wildcards’ rules, which allowed teams to swap out a player for former high-level LoL esports pros.
The NLC’s “new direction” could not make up for the loss of Caedrel and Los Ratones, as Esports Charts reported the league suffered a 90-94% drop in hours watched and peak viewership this year.
NLC Winter last year recorded a peak audience of over 360k with over 4 million hours watched, while this year it only managed 224k hours watched with a peak audience of just over 32k.
Let us know your thoughts on the current state of the NLC on the Insider Gaming Discord.
And discover more LoL drama as Riot Games has had to ban under-18s in Brazil from playing most of its games.
