salary cap for t2 wont help because the orgs would invest any amount, if there was a reasonable amount coming back, not a 2% (obv not 2% but its not a high chance for any team to reach t1) to reach t1 and then gain some money back. A minimum salary, if anything right now would just lead to more orgs backing out, more dedicated ambitious players would rather play in a lower salary under an org than just not play in an org due to the org needing them to pay a certain amount. We need to cut the off season, and provide a healthy ways of revenue for the orgs choosing to invest into t2. Also, a higher prize pool won't fix the issue, there just need to be more ways to "succeed", right now t2 is more of a hope and pray than a reasonable choice unless you're apeks in emea lol
You cannot have a fair system in place if 'partnered teams' have nothing to lose at the end of every season. No relegation for franchised teams irrespective of performance is a broken system.
I know comparison with traditional sports is not the best stance to take but to bypass that particular view, having the partnered teams locked in for a certain number of years after which they will be eligible for relegation based on performance guarantees the safeguarding of both financial means for the VCT and also ensures that teams aren't just benefitting because of their reputation and financial stature with 0 pressure to perform.
Ascension teams having a 2 year period in the franchised league is broken because of the aforementioned reason. What if they outperform the partnered teams in these 2 years but are forced to get relegated? What part of that seems fair?
Right now the system doesn't prioritize meritocracy.
And they are relegated every 2 years irrespective of performance while the partnered teams have a free swing at things without a care in the world.
Essentially making tier 2 a shot at ascending for 2 years for a handful of teams and not worth investing into which is exactly what you are seeing all around the world with tier 2 orgs dropping out like flies.
letting the teams who won ascension last year play the lcq for champions was a good start but they didnt even try, if you win ascension you wont debut on it until the next year and you can get removed from the team without even starting to play, even tho you were one of the reasons why your team suceeded into making it through, if lev or nrg werent interested tex would´ve been kicked from franchising even tho he literally was the 2nd most valuable player of his team during ascension
I think people blame franchising for stuff that isn't the system's fault.
People love to pretend things were so much better before franchising but the reality is, that there were only that many teams investing the money because of the possibility of them getting franchised. It makes complete sense that we would see a crash of the T2 system because this year teams that played in Tier 2 were spending like they were Tier 1 teams.
There's a big disparity between what people expect the second division to be and what Riot wants for their esports. They're not prioritizing meritocracy, they prioritize long term stable orgs who can bring fans and money into the ecosystem.
In the long term, I think having more yearly promotions is a good measure to implement. Fixing the calendar (something riot did do for 2024) is also a huge improvement.
I think it's just that orgs have been spending way too much for what's financially feasible and lots of players have the wrong perception of what Tier 2 means in Riot's eyes. It should never be a place to stay, rather a way to get into tier 1.
Lots of people are gonna disagree with my take that franchising is actually better for the long term survival of the esport, but that's just my opinion lol
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