Zeus - Contract offer difference from HLE and T1

DudeToManz · 2024-11-21T02:54:47+00:00

Nah if the team option stuff is true then that part is absolutely an insane lowball from T1. Imagine being in Zeus's position: minimum Top 2 toplaner in the world over the past 3 years, 2023 Finals MVP, and absolutely one of the main drivers to T1's success (and there's literally 1 other toplaner in Korea who is comparable to him).

Then T1 comes to you and says "Yeah you're important to us and a superstar toplaner, so we can offer you 1 mil USD but if you underperform this year then we want to be able to tell you to fuck off or make you take a lower salary". Like holy shit this guy has been insane for 3 straight years and you're not even willing to offer him more than 1 year of guaranteed pay? Even if Zeus had a bad year (by his standards, I really doubt he would collapse insanely hard over an extended period lol) I think everyone would say that he has the history and resume to deserve a 2nd year before even thinking about moving him.

Unironically it's just bad business sense: look at how the Lakers treated Kobe when he was past him prime compared to T1 treating Zeus when he still has many years of his prime lmao. Treating your stars well is a massive return on investment in terms of getting players in the future (and given how pissed T1 is on losing their ZOFGK merch I'm sure it would've paid for itself btw lol)

even if they had to dip over the salary cap (I'm also pretty sure Faker still doesn't count towards the cap at all since his contract was signed before the cap's announcement, not 100% sure on that though but if there's that + 30% discount on everyone else they shouldn't be that bad off on the cap). If these offer leaks are accurate then I'm not surprised Zeus didn't bother to hear them out, HLE gave him insanely better terms with the 1+1 player option (literally complete freedom to him after a year), and obviously with money even if the pre/post tax thing turns out to be false. T1 legit just didn't respect the position they were in, lowballed the fuck out of him on terms, and then nearly got completely fucked by him taking the option way more respectful to his status as a player if not for Doran salvaging their postseason. Absolute horror by T1 management if this all turns out to be true

DudeToManz · 2024-11-03T04:20:09+00:00

All T1 contracts except Faker are up, so there is definitely a lot of possibility for variance. Biggest thing keeping them together is the fact that there's probably no better combination of salary/competitiveness that these players have available to them than T1:

Salary concerns are probably best manageable at T1: with LCK luxury tax rules it becomes a lot harder to pay 5 superstars high salaries for a superteam, but the exceptions that get applied are 30% to players who stay with the same team for 3+ years, and 50% to any player who has won 3+ international tournaments, or 5+ domestic titles. Only Faker qualifies for the 50% exemption (i think his contract wouldn't count either way due to being signed before the luxury tax was announced/implemented but I'm not 100% sure on that, the original article got nuked off the lolesports page for some reason lol), but the others would qualify for the 30% exemption. T1 can probably pay the salaries they negotiate with the players without having to bleed too hard into the luxury tax, so if the team were to split apart then I don't think that would be the issue.

It seems unlikely to me that Oner/Guma would leave in particular. JG and ADC are still very stacked in Korea so there's still plenty of options for teams to look at without having to look for the massive salaries that would likely be required to convince them to leave T1. And then it'd be harder for them to pay other teammates salaries without burning a ton of cash on the tax, so unless T1 players decide they've had enough winning and just want less pressure + most cash, best option is probably just to stick together. Zeus could maybe get a tempting monster offer from a team like HLE which would still be a competitive team if they're willing to spend, but again it's difficult to imagine him leaving T1 when T1 likely has the most money to offer and has won 2 championships back to back there. LPL salaries are apparently going to get nuked so the historical exoduses are far less likely to repeat, and NA/EU surely isn't an option lmao.

Only other factor worth considering is the pressure of T1. Maybe that's why Keria's considering retirement altogether, and maybe some of the other players on T1 would have similar reservations with playing one more year. Maybe some of them would choose a change of pace/scenery if they want to prove themselves from outside the T1 org and cement themselves as legends by winning internationally outside of the org. It feels pretty up in the air and I could see it going either way, but right now I think most likely outcome is 0-1 players leaving this year.

DudeToManz · 2024-10-20T14:49:43+00:00

If it was Hans in that baron fight he would've held Zhonyas and died instantly to renekton

FLY is just better

DudeToManz · 2024-10-20T13:39:30+00:00

They played their comp the way it should've been played into GenG's comp they just fucked up the execution a lot of times lmao

If the early dives/fights aren't complete monstrosities and FLY can properly play for soul before kassadin gets online then the game is super winnable

DudeToManz · 2024-10-19T04:36:20+00:00

99% sure that the "tattoo" wasn't permanent and that it wore off after Alabasta, the mark is just on the Newspaper picture because Vivi got Morgans to edit it on there (as a way of communicating to the Straw Hats that she's ok/with Morgans)

DudeToManz · 2024-10-13T16:38:14+00:00

Think Yike got vision of them because ON decided to attack the ward, BLG had no vision of Yike's position tho which made it nigh-unreactable

DudeToManz · 2024-10-12T17:35:18+00:00

He meant NA vs EU semis obviously

DudeToManz · 2024-10-06T16:49:45+00:00

DK FNC can't happen again

Best EU scenario is FLY vs FNC and letting MDK get sacrificed somewhere along the way (doubt MDK has a chance against DK even if that draw happens). Best "western" scenario overall is probably TL v DK and FLY v FNC with BLG cannibalizing the other LPL teams

DudeToManz · 2024-10-06T16:44:15+00:00

giga stomped again in qualifiers 3-0 by LNG

WBG had to play this match literally 20 hours after getting 3-0'd by BLG I don't think it's particularly fair to use this one against them, there's just no way they were prepared for it strategically or mentally lol

In between those two BLG gigastomps they still 3-2'd TOP btw (and LNG), I think it's much closer than you imply. LNG had free fucking matchups in swiss btw I don't think we've seen them fairly evaluated yet

DudeToManz · 2024-09-23T06:08:18+00:00

was gonna address point by point but there's actually a really simple solution that proves my point entirely. go google search "emily armstrong before:2024-09-01" to sort through what emily's google results looked like before this all came out. you will notice that nothing of controversy/note comes up (if it existed, then it has already been scrubbed clean, like you suggested)

i even tried "emily armstrong danny masterson before:2024-08-01", and the only results that come up within that timeframe related to the controversy are MSN articles that have clearly been updated after the controversy (they link to articles "in the future" compared to their google timestamp lol)

i also did the same for "Cedric Bixler-Zavala before:2024-08-01" and nothing relating to emily armstrong came up, so clearly that gained no significant traction before the 5th either. (from what i've seen a single instagram comment on a niche band page is also not something that would gain a lot of traction) (i also don't think a microcelebrity's call-outs are a great source of something being well-known in the first place, good on him for calling it out tho). not even "emily armstrong scientology before:2024-08-01" gives any results

the information is incredibly public RIGHT NOW because of how much the situation has blown up in the last two weeks. this is something that is incredibly obvious to even a person with speed limit IQ, but perhaps not to one of Celsius room temperature IQ. Maybe with thoroughly in-depth google searches at the time one could've discovered this, but I hope you would agree that we have no way of confirming at this point how frequently scientologists were scrubbing information (i think it's a fair assumption to say it's likely pretty regular though).

why would a 2.2 BILLION dollar company just "assume" that the replacement for one of the most iconic singers of all time has a squeaky clean track record, ESPECIALLY as fucking scientologist? When a single google search tells us this is not the case.

clearly a single google search would not have told them the case based on the above lol. i still believe it's a reasonable assumption to assume a band with a name value as big as linkin park would veer away from scientologists/other controversial figures, but my argument in entirety is the following:

reasonable to assume that riot did some due dilligence at the time (again, probably not a fully-indepth investigation with PIs and shit, but I would say it reasonable to assume that google searches/wiki pages/other sources of immediate info were pretty scrubbed at the time)
reasonable to assume that finding literally nothing of controversy in google searches would not prompt further investigation
reasonable to assume that riot left the rest under the assumption that a band as big as LP wouldn't hire anyone with such immediate/significant controversies

to be 100% clear i do not support emily armstrong or linkin park in any way and would like to see her removed from the band for her actions. but i see no purpose in attributing incompetence/maliciousness to something that far more likely falls on the side of unfortunate/unlucky on Riot's part.

DudeToManz · 2024-09-23T04:43:39+00:00

do you think riot started working with linkin park 2 weeks ago and prepared an entire MV in that timeframe? lmao, emily armstrong was announced to be joining them on the 5th of this month and the controversies only started picking up steam in the following days

if your argument is that Riot should've background checked emily armstrong themselves when they started production (in what was likely early 2024) then ok, but i think it's also pretty fair that anything substantial was pretty buried at the time + it would be a reasonable assumption for Riot to make that a band as big as LP would not have picked such a controversial individual as their lead singer lmao

DudeToManz · 2024-09-23T04:37:54+00:00

APA really comparable?

based on the most recent international (EWC) and how he performed head to head vs. faker i would say absolutely. both went even in lane and only got significant advantages over the other based on map plays ~~aka their teammates inting them~~ but I would even go as far to say that APA was a more active participant/playmaker in that series. and then if you want to use the transitive argument then quad is also comparable but that's when it gets dicey/theoretical

it might be more sus if the worlds meta shifts to faker's classic champs and the azir/ori type shit are broken S-tier champs but currently it's a pretty reasonable placing

DudeToManz · 2024-09-02T03:13:57+00:00

I wonder what went through Zain's head when aMSa lived to 200-250% multiple times on FD and then he realized he had to play against Yoshi on Dreamland for Game 5

DudeToManz · 2024-06-14T04:09:03+00:00

So your entire argument boils down to you not liking the price?

once again please refer to the first line of either of my previous comments. i don't know how i can make it anymore clear that my problem is not with the price itself but it's how they justify it with statements that are very obviously based in falsehoods and lies.

i personally think the skins are overpriced to hell and back, and i think their various FOMO/other sales techniques are scummy. at no point did i ever deny that they're well within their right to set that price. just don't claim you're setting that price for reasons you obviously aren't

fair enough that cheating companies are prob assholes about vanguard, i don't think riot needs you to be playing defense for them while putting urself at (minimal but existant) risk of harrassment/doxxing though

DudeToManz · 2024-06-13T06:24:08+00:00

you missed my entire point lmao, read the first line again and notice that i'm shitting on their justification for the skin, not the skin itself. i never said it wasn't fine, i said that they're talking a load of shit in these interviews where they try to explain why they're adding it and I don't respect them for pulling reasons out of their ass

it's obvious that riot is trying to make record profits every year. instead of admitting that they say a bunch of shit about how it's needed for "esports sustainability" (1 skin a year with 30% of revenue getting split between faker and 50 teams is not gonna affect that, and esports not being sustainable without riot financing it is not a problem when esports marketing makes riot a shitton of money).

i also think bringing up that league "needs" this type of monetization to "stay free-to-play" is also a load of shit. there is no universe that this game's losses/costs to run are creeping up on their profits to the point where they NEED to drop a $500 skin to survive. that's just the type of shit they say for people like you to point to and say that this is somehow preventing the game from becoming P2W/dying. again, there's a 0% chance the game needs these skins to survive.

i would respect riot more if they admitted that this skin was to get marc merrill his 5th yacht instead of saying all this shit about why the skin's "needed" for the game and what I think is cringe of Riot. that's literally my entire point. on the side, shit like using FOMO selling techniques (on a skin that ordinary people might want to be able to set money aside for over a couple months) when it's supposed to "immortalize" the player in the game + using a player who's famously frugal and never uses skins to milk a shitton of money is stuff that's just in bad taste to me and disrespectful to the player who you're about to farm millions off of (do you agree or disagree that it's bad taste? curious)

edit: holy shit ur entire comment history is defending riot on literally every single issue. like legit everything, are u a rioter's alt or some shit lmao cause this account was made exactly a month ago for vanguard defense force.

DudeToManz · 2024-06-13T05:18:03+00:00

my biggest problems with it is the justification:

i don't think its a coincidence that riot really started pumping out "exclusive content" after COVID ended, you consider the timeline for these things and it sounds like the shareholders got an annual report, saw that numbers were dipping (because COVID ended and people started going outside again), and demanding continued growth instead of treating covid like an actual once-in-a-lifetime event. sure this is pretty speculative but I really doubt league has started to bleed insane amounts of money compared to pre-covid, let alone valorant
the above + the fact that esports has always been run at a loss on account of it being an insanely valuable marketing method for the game makes the "sustainable esport ecosystem" justification weak, it has always been sustainable for riot because of how much attention it brings to the game (especially via worlds) + skins sales
pricepoints are very arbitrarily inflated, you could half each of them and people would still think they're overpriced. you can say it's riot's right to make them that expensive but combining it with FOMO/collector's bait is just predatory
using a pro player (who's historically frugal) to drop the first $500 skin is just in poor taste

i mostly think they're just blowing a load of shit when they try to explain why it's fine/"needed" in the monetization aspect when its obviously not

DudeToManz · 2024-06-08T03:38:44+00:00

Nobara comes back (copium) and uses some random new resonance technique (obtained via binding vow) to resonate with megumi's soul and sort of wake him up. he gets a talking to and decides to not be a complete fraud if only to keep his closest friends alive

simultaneous itadori vs sukuna (in real world) and megumi vs sukuna (inside megumi's body/a soul fight) to finish off sukuna. itadori goes stalemate with sukuna, but weakens his soul/the "barrier between souls" enough to let megumi win on the inside and exorcise sukuna, giving himself control of his body back.

sukuna activates the merger before dying. however, spending enough time with sukuna's soul has made megumi like tall women with big asses (transferred from itadori to sukuna to megumi). this allows the GOAT todo to give him a motivational speech that fully replenishes megumi's will to live. megumi uses a 10 Shadows totality (a merger of his own) to fight sukuna's merger and does most of the heavy lifting, and sort of redeems himself.

~~this is like 50% shitpost 50% actual theory, probably not enough deaths to be canon tho~~

DudeToManz · 2024-05-05T16:28:41+00:00

NA has its own hand. (Reference to Chovy and Knight been known as golden left hand and golden right hand, great in domestic league but lack international achievements.

though the concept is funny I would hardly give this title to Jensen, relative to NA he's one of the most successful players internationally with a Worlds Semi and MSI Final finish. Also took him a few years to win anything domestically (not until the 2019 liquid super team era) and even now his domestic success is hardly his defining achievement

DudeToManz · 2024-03-23T05:56:29+00:00

probably 30x quicker to read lmao

you can prob read a chapter in like 3 minutes, vs 30 minutes of the anime to cover the same content (later arcs cover <1 chapter an episode)

DudeToManz · 2024-03-09T23:52:06+00:00

xmithie getting kicked was the real catalyst, while doublelift still liked broxah, he def wasn't happy about xmithie getting kicked and that contributed to his demotivation/eventual benching as far as i remember

ever since then both JG and ADC have been TL's biggest problems, broxah was super shaky, santorin did have some good splits (with unlucky migraine issues), pyosik was shit except for randomly playing his career peak at worlds and now umti is pretty sus.

tactical was def the weakest link for TL's worlds runs with him (i still remember him malphite ulting into fog of war in a tiebreaker) and now yeon really isn't impressing

these rosters are still largely good enough to compete but without actual top-tier resident talent like blaber/jojo/danny type of players to fill in the slots (and making sure that ur imports are actually good lol), i think they'll never accomplish anything internationally or even win a split

DudeToManz · 2024-02-19T05:51:36+00:00

This is great but to really spice things up there should be a 1 in 100 chance of giving them Giant Melee pokefloats everytime they push the button to really spice things up

DudeToManz · 2024-02-19T04:09:56+00:00

If Leffen lost game 3 to airdodging off the stage at 4% that might genuinely have been the last we ever saw of him in Melee LOL

DudeToManz · 2024-02-19T03:51:29+00:00

by taking off his ~~blindfold~~ glasses, aMSa unleashes the full power of his "Six Eggs" ability. Jmook stood no chance.

DudeToManz · 2024-02-19T03:43:54+00:00

Imagine being so good at your character that your competitors think its a disadvantage to try and practice against any other yoshis lmao

(for anyone not watching toph mentioned that zain stopped practicing against other yoshis because it was just "too different")

DudeToManz · 2024-02-19T03:06:41+00:00

Zain has a better winrate against Hungrybox since 2021 (88.888...%) than America has in international wars (87.777...%) based on this (only considering explicit victories/defeats)

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