Dawn

It will be long, sorry. - The "performance based extension" is a way to cover up the fact that they are going to limit the number of teams that could be promoted to VCT from 14 to 12 by showing it as a good thing. - The "performance based extension" reduces the guarantee of a promoted team from 2 years to 1 year in VCT camouflaged as "you can stay longer" which is really complicated. - The above point is curious and has a lot more drama than you might imagine. Moving up to VCT requires a whole logistical, business and economic effort that is often not taken into account, which used to be something to study in depth and now puts you on the razor's edge: a) To ascend to VCT forces you to create a new company in Germany, hire your players and staff in Germany, rent facilities ( and their services of electricity, water, heating, etc... in Berlin ), rent and set up offices in Berlin ( with all the services, internet, equip everything with office material, computers, etc... obv ) and if someone knows the difficulty of the real estate market in Berlin, they will know that it is an odyssey when you do it in the medium / long term, imagine now renting everything for 1 year and in case you stay, try to renew everything or if you do not stay dismantle everything and return to your league. Achieve this type of real estate agreements I would say that it is impossible in Berlin atm. b) Start a new company in Germany, with all the German bureaucracy and at the end of a year close the company. c) Once you get promoted, the nice story and what I would do, would be the same as M8 did in the past, go up and give the opportunity to your group of athletes to enjoy the top competition, because they have earned it, regardless of sporting results, it is sporting justice and you create stories and narratives, the aspirational, BUT NOW, when losing a Bo3 leaves you in danger of being sent back to your regional league, I am sure many players will skip their promotion and many organizations will decide to improve the team with players they consider that will give them more guarantees. Horrible situation for the players. d) The teams that get promoted will never be able to protect their star players or rookies with contracts longer than 1 year, as you have no guarantee that you will stay more than 1 year, and knowing that German labour law protects labour contracts to the maximum, you get promoted, sign your players for 1 year and if your team has a brilliant player that can stand out, at the end of the year you will be a fishbowl for the franchised organisations that have their place assured. e) The business expense of complying with all the legal requirements in Germany and minimum league conditions, plus the taxes in Germany, mean that the cost of promotion is NEVER less than a million euros in the first year, it is true that there are grants from the Riot program that will be paid at the end of the year, but think a little, in a Tier 2 system as fragile as we have, how many organizations in Europe in Tier 2 are in a position ( or want ) to advance more than a million euros knowing that the following year they will be back in their league? f) Being able to extend your stay in VCT is good news if it was out of the minimum 2 years guaranteed initially, but now with 1 year you can leave even if you reach Champions ( if the other Ascending team does too), but realistically, the normal and a good season would be a Top8 finish and that takes you to the relegations, while the permanent association teams can go 0-8, have a mojito on the beach, sign your brightest players at the end of contract and you dismantle your million euro camp and go back to Tier 2, fantastic. - Reducing the VCT guarantee from 2 to 1 year, reducing the number of promoted teams from 14 to 12, placing triathlon worthy conditions to keep your place in the VCT, without security for organisations that bet their capital, leaving players in fragile contractual conditions of 1 year and saying that it is a commitment to sustainability, accessibility, aspirational and saying that it gives value to the Tier 2 ecosystem seems to me a bad joke. - At the same time, Tier 2 continues to be flooded with teams coming from the premier without any kind of protection for the organisations that have been investing in the ecosystem for years, forming players and staff (yes, formation costs money, players are not trained in habits and competitive discipline playing in the premier, they do it in an organised structure, where they can receive a salary that allows them to devote time to improve their level and aspire to more), introducing new players into the Tier 2 ecosystem without legal or economic security for their players, broken toys. - I think it's great to be aspirational, but we must also protect the organizations that feed the Tier 2 and do things right, or gradually (or not so gradually), these organizations will get tired of being mistreated by Riot, unprotected, they will leave and there will be a Tier 2 of mixes, players with no one to form them, who have no wages, who will leave the game and the death of Tier 2, will lead to the decline of Tier 1. This is my reflection on the approach to what is being organised and I feel very sorry for it, because I love the game and I think it would be fixed very easily if only the teams were listened to and not a group of tie-wearing managers in their bubble in an office deciding to change the rules of the game every year, doing drive tests with the health of the ecosystem. Thx for read.