Former Top Esports Player Reveals LPL Minimum Wage

Within League of Legends, some regions have been reputed to be the strongest economically within the ecosystem. In the case of the West, the league that has historically had the greatest monetary power is the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). On the other hand, in the East this status has normally been held by the League of Legends Pro League (LPL). Although rumor has it that South Korea is currently the most economically powerful region, player salaries in China have been a mystery to many fans until recent weeks.

On March 15 Alejandro Gomis «anonymity«, journalist from Blix, revealed the best salaries in the LPL. At least 7 players would have received 30 million yuan, which would be just over four million euros. One of the highest paid professionals would be JD Gaming medium Zhuo Ding.”knight«. The medium would have received about 45 million yuan during his time at Top Esports, that is, more than six million euros per year. However, having established the best salaries in the competition, now a former TES player has leaked the minimum.

According to Wang Pengxiaopeng“formerly a substitute jungler for Top Esports, the minimum salary of the LPL is currently about 20 million yuan per month, which would be around 2.7 euros. This would leave an annual salary of 32,000 euros for players with the minimum wage. However, the former TES player has not leaked whether they are net or gross. Furthermore, the jungler has claimed that the current top TES player, Yu Zi-Han “qingtian«, is one of the professionals who currently has said salary.

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Former sub-Jungler of TES Xiaopeng said:

– The minimum wage in LDL is 6k ¥ (0.8k €) and LPL 20k ¥ (~2.7k €) a month. Many players are on it.

– Qingtian is on 20k ¥ per month.

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— Rita (@cutebchu) March 24, 2023

The LPL salary cap

Currently the LPL has a salary cap that aims to equalize the competition and avoid a greater economic bubble. This cap is determined by competitive experts who analyze the data and your performance within Summoner’s Rift. Once the analyzes are done, those in charge distribute the players in the competition in different ranges –tier SA, B, etc.- to set your monthly cap.

In it level higher are the players who, in addition to performing well, have also transferred those performances to the international stage. In other words, that they have been relevant in tournaments such as worlds or the Mid-Season Invitational. In the A range are players who have had great performance but are not considered “world class” by experts. As the tiers are lower, the salary cap is lower. According to anonymotum, many of the players who have not won anything internationally but have performed well in the region are not in the top rank.

Fines for match fixing

Beyond revealing the LPL minimum salary, Xiaopeng has also leaked the measures taken by the competition to prevent cases of match-fixing. He matchfixing is one of the most important problems in the region, specifically in the second division: the League of Legends Development League (LPL). These cases caused players like Team Vitality jungler Zhou Yang-Bo «Bo«, were away for half a year from the competitions. The former Top Esports player has claimed that after the investigation into the case involving Bo, The professionals had to sign an agreement with the championship in which they agreed to pay fines of five million yuan (675,000 euros) in the event of being involved.

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