Update: Verdant ended up winning Division 3 and will be playing in the Division 2 promotions tournament.
Original article: Esports teams participating in Division 2 and 3 of the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) have expressed their frustrations over a late format change ahead of playoffs.
The NLC is the European Regional League (ERL) system for the UK, Ireland and Nordics, and consists of five divisions. It’s an official Riot Games league and is operated by Freaks 4U.
Staff at Verdant, one of the UK esports organisations participating in Division 3, took to Twitter to complain about a last-minute change, with management from other UK orgs like LDN UTD and Lucent also chiming in.
Verdant founder Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham said the tournament structure has been changed so one team promotes from Division 3 to Division 2, instead of two teams.
While it’s understood two teams still get relegated from Division 2, only one team promotes up in Summer. The second-placed team in the playoffs has to wait until the end of Division 3 Winter to play the Div 3 winner for a chance at promotion.
So, Division 2 and 3 promotion was apparently split so that the winter season wasn’t redundant for Division 3 teams.
Verdant League of Legends director Richard ‘Froomie’ Froom added in a Twitter thread: “I’m really starting to get frustrated with how the NLC are running the lower leagues. No clarification on dates for ages, and now they’ve made it so one team promotes to Div 2 in summer while the runner-up has to wait out the Winter split to play one series for the second spot?
“To me this is madness, and needs to be looked at. It should be two teams going up and two down in one split – you can’t just expect an org to keep players under contract to play one series whilst having no league to play in. It also gives a massive advantage to the team who has played a whole split.”
Froomie, Verdant
“Also leaves the org that is waiting with next to no prep time for Spring. It’s just too harsh, and not cost effective. Needs to be changed ASAP. Freaks 4U are actively undermining the limbo orgs efforts, whilst also seeming not to have a basic grasp of how teams operate within the ERL ecosystem. As one of the most stubborn tournament organisers I’ve ever encountered, I can’t see the right thing being done.”
Sam explained more in this playoffs format screenshot:
Froomie told Esports News UK in an additional comment: “It really is a kick in the teeth that F4U just change the rules on a whim. Obviously we’re not used to having a Winter split, but for some reason it’s only for Div 3 and below. I feel if Div 2 aren’t doing a Winter split, it makes sense to just have the promotion tournament and be done with it.
“Why make one team wait months, with no competition to play in, then make them play a one-off high pressure series vs a team that has had a full split of comp? Not to mention the financial burden placed on orgs to have to keep players under contract, or agree new deals.
“I know Verdant haven’t even qualified for the promotion tournament yet, but I’m sure any org that finds themselves in that position will feel the stress of having to deal with the long wait. Not to mention that it gives the org next to no prep time, as they won’t know what division they are going to be in until right before the Spring split is due to take place.
“This in itself is a massive issue when it comes to negotiating with players, preparing for the split, and setting out a vision for the future. The bottom line is simply that the results of Summer should not have an impact on Winter. Relegation and promotion should be decided long before the next competitive ERL tournament is due to begin.
“Freaks4U desperatley need a have a rethink, but it is unlikely they will change their mind. Hopefully I am wrong this time, and the decision is changed.”
It’s not the first time NLC rules have been changed midway through a season.
Here’s another example of a Division 2 change:
Others in the industry commented on the situation:
Esports News UK understands the situation may have happened due to Riot not approving dates fast enough.
The news also begs the question – why wasn’t this arranged and announced sooner?
What NLC said about the Div 2-3 playoffs change
NLC posted an update in response to the conversation around the change.
“Unlike in the lower divisions, the teams from Divisions 1 and 2 will not be playing a Winter Split but instead will all be invited to a Winter Event,” NLC said. “This means that it will not be possible to play in a traditional Division 2-3 playoffs bracket in Winter like we did in Spring as there is no Division 2 Winter Split to send Division 2 teams to relegations.
“To avoid the Winter Split being a split where Division 3 teams are not able to promote but only demote, we have decided to essentially split the Division 2-3 playoffs from Summer in half. This is done by adding a sixth and final game to the Summer Playoffs bracket. The winner of this final game directly qualifies to Division 2, the loser qualifies to the Winter Playoffs where they fight against the winner of the Winter Division 3 Playoffs for the second Division 2 spot.”
Verdant founder Sam ‘Sami’ Cunningham commented: “Enjoy investing thousands of pounds into a project and supporting the scene based on an informed level of risk based on the TO’s documentation, only to have said risk doubled out of nowhere.
“I’d like to know from decision makers how they expect orgs to plan in future when NLC have shown they are more than happy to rip up their own rulebook at any point of the season? Or are we expected to just blindly throw money at the league?”
William Gleadall of Lucent also commented on Twitter: “I’ve had so many issues that cover been resolved or helped or aided in some way but it just wasn’t.
“Now I’m having to prepare to try keep 3/5 players to play a meaningless winter split all for it to amount to 1 best of 5 series that determines whether we are in league or not.”
NLC also spoke about a separate winter event for pro and amateur teams (32 in total), featuring a group stage and playoffs bracket.
All Division 1 and Division 2 NLC teams will be invited to this tournament, as will the top eight teams of Division 3’s Summer Season, and four from an open qualifier.
Div 3/4/5 teams will still be able to play their separate winter seasons in parallel to this separate winter tournament.
Esports News previously reached out to Riot Games and Freaks 4U for comment.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
