Gen.G has claimed the LCK crown a staggering seven times, including its predecessor Samsung Galaxy. Even after rebranding to Gen.G, the team secured four consecutive titles from the 2022 Summer split to the 2024 Spring split, and lifted the trophy back-to-back last year and this year under the revised single-season format. In what the organisation might call a bumpy start, Gen.G somehow managed to claw back in the latter half to script quite the dramatic comeback.

Yet, the vibe has been rather peculiar ever since the LCK finals wrapped up. The LCK is rolling out a revised player salary cap system starting on September 18. A salary cap is basically a luxury tax system slapped onto teams whose total player payroll exceeds a certain threshold. Introduced to the LCK back in 2023, the whole point is to curb reckless salary bidding wars and encourage a balanced, healthy ecosystem across the league.

Back when the salary cap was first brought in, the system offered hefty reductions on the calculated salary amounts for star players or those locked into long-term contracts, all to encourage teams to nurture marquee talent. Even if a team shelled out massive wages, meeting specific performance or long-term contract conditions meant only a fraction of that cash actually counted toward the salary cap.

Now, the recent revisions boil down to two main changes. Previously, teams could reap these reductions for an unlimited number of individuals as long as the conditions were met, but the revised rules cap this at a maximum of two players per team. There is a grandfather clause granting exemptions for contracts signed before July 19 of this year and valid through November 16, 2026, allowing teams to keep the reduction benefits for everyone exceeding the two-player limit until those specific contracts expire. While it might not bite immediately, it certainly sparks worries about long-term team management.

On top of that, the luxury tax brackets have expanded from two tiers to four, creating a structure where the financial sting gets progressively heavier the higher the spending goes. Granted, the conditions to earn 'reduction eligibility' have been slightly relaxed—requiring a combined score of 6 points over the last three years across domestic and international events—but the hard limit of just two players per team feels like a massive bottleneck.

Naturally, fans have been having a proper chat, whispering suspicions about whether this move is secretly targeting Gen.G, a squad that racked up plenty of reduction-eligible players thanks to stellar performances in the LCK. Under the old rules, four out of the five starting roster members qualified for reductions, but the revised regulations slash that eligible headcount down to just two. That sort of squeeze is bound to ripple through future player contract renewals.

Conversely, some chatter suggested things might look a bit brighter for T1, seeing as the points awarded for winning the League of Legends World Championship have gone up, making those stellar performance conditions easier to tick off. Still, as mentioned earlier, one must remember the golden rule: the cap is strictly set at 'two players' per team.

Furthermore, critics have pointed out the timing: the revisions were dropped on September 8 while the league was still very much underway, rather than during the stove league when teams gear up for fresh contracts. Adding to the friction, the cutoff date for the grace period was slyly set back to July—before the revised rules were even announced—leaving teams feeling like their hands were tied with no room to respond. Above all, the LCK failed to provide a clear rationale, background, or concrete examples for this decision, leaving the fandom in an absolute tizzy. Frankly, it is high time the LCK offered a proper, transparent explanation, isn't it?