What began as a lighthearted practice in preparation for an upcoming season ended in a massacre of emotions for Saint Louis University’s varsity League of Legends team. Exactly two months and seven days after winning the College League of Legends championship (and a $50,000 prize), the SLU varsity League team received an email saying that their program had been defunded and their program director was fired on Aug. 15, 2024. 

The SLU eSports club, which overlooks the different subset teams such as League of Legends, began as one of the largest student-run clubs on campus and is now a well-known name in collegiate eSports. By introducing varsity and club eSports subsets in 2020, the program serves as a space for students to compete in various video gaming competitions and tournaments. 

The League of Legends team is the first and only varsity team under the SLU eSports club. Which means they are the only subset to receive scholarships and travel for competitions.

Earlier this year on June 8, the varsity League of Legends team competed in the College League of Legends (CLOL) Championship, the North American collegiate circuit finals. With a prize package of $50,000 on the line, the Billikens beat their longtime rival, Maryville University, to place first out of 32 teams. This placing secured their first CLOL championship in varsity program history.

The disbandment announcement came to the players in the form of an email from the assistant vice president of student engagement, Benjamin Pearlman, who has since confirmed that the email was sent to all the varsity players as well as the team’s faculty advisor, Nick Chiu.

The email was sent while Chiu was in a meeting with the department of student development to discuss the future of eSports, under the impression that it was a normal staff meeting on the morning of Aug. 15. 

“I went to a meeting with HR and I didn’t know they [HR] were gonna be there,” Chiu said. “They said that starting in September, my position would be eliminated.”

In the department meeting, Chiu was informed the reason for his departure, but was told not to share that information elsewhere.

After the meeting, Chiu checked his phone to see a myriad of notifications from the League of Legends player groupchat. That is when he discovered that while he was in the meeting, the players received communication of the disbandment of the team before he left the meeting itself. 

“The players got the email before I got to say anything,” Chiu said.“I didn’t even want to say anything to them. I got bombarded with messages and I didn’t even know what was going on.” 

Most of the players, Daniel, a sophomore on the varsity team included, thought that the email was a joke.

“Yeah we thought it was a scam honestly,” Daniel said. “The email was only, like, three lines long.”

There had been no communication between SLU and the team about their status in the months following the National Championship until the news of the dissolution, according to the players. Though the team was cut, the players’ scholarships are guaranteed to them until they graduate, which many of them plan to take advantage of. 

Another player on the varsity team, Aaron, who is a junior at SLU and has been on the team since his freshman year, noted that this was too good of a deal to let go of (the scholarships) and he plans to stay at the university until he graduates next May. He said that he wants to still play in the next CLOL season, but without funding to travel, the probability of them attending in-person tournaments with the entire team is too low.

Aaron explained that regardless of the elimination of the team, he will do what he can to keep in contact with the people he built relationships with over the past few years. 

“Even though our program got canceled, these are my brothers,” Aaron said. “Forever.”

For Daniel, now that it seems as though the team will not have a chance to play competitively, he wants to focus his attention on other hobbies. 

“I don’t really have that much motivation to play anymore,” Daniel said. “I can imagine myself in a life without League.”

The common denominator amongst the players in discussing how SLU could have better gone about the cuts, was by being more transparent as the news came to them three days before campus move-in. This prohibited the player’s ability to switch to a different university in order to play collegiately. The players and the eSports president both agreed that they want SLU to tell them directly what is happening with the school.

Chiu said that he wished he would have been told about the university pulling back before anything was finalized. 

“I wish I would have known about the pulling back,” Chiu said. “It is pretty demoralizing, however, that the money is leaving the department and going to another department rather than going outside the university.” 

According to Chiu, his money was cut so that student development does not have to spend money on his position and the future player’s scholarships.

Chiu is the original founder of the eSports club in its entirety, establishing it in 2017 as a student at SLU. In 2020, when he began the League of Legends varsity team, their success skyrocketed each year despite not having donors, according to Chiu.

 “Every single top program we competed against had budgets that were five times the amount of ours, with full investment into their students,” Chiu said.

As the SLU eSports team was on the rise, they were only able to receive minor scholarships equivalent to around $2,000 to bolster the club from the university for recruitment. However, as Chiu’s third year of being director came around, he alternated funding to come from inside the university rather than outside for the League of Legends team. Approximately $75,000 was granted by SLU to put towards recruiting and scholarships for the varsity team. Unlike other competition based programs, SLU eSports is at the mercy of the department.

On the future of the players, Chiu said the university was understanding of keeping the scholarships but that there was nothing in writing. As for Chiu’s income, he declined to comment.

“I made it very apparent that these guys need their promise that I gave them,” Chiu said. “They told me they would maintain their scholarships until they graduate, but there was nothing in writing ever.” 

The Student Government Association (SGA) head of finance, Emma Lercher, said that while SLU eSports as a whole is under SGA, the varsity League of Legends team is not. Therefore, when reached out to for budget inquiries, SGA was unaware of the situation and could not provide numbers on salary, scholarship or other various cuts. 

Chiu sent out a post on X (formerly Twitter) the day the news dropped and other program directors at major universities — including SLU’s rival team Maryville — exploded in rage. 

The X thread can be found below:

Other commenters displayed their frustrations with the decision.

Most of the players also sent posts out thanking the community for their continued support. Aaron’s message reads as follows:

Aaron’s post was met with positive engagement, mostly from outside fans wishing him and the rest of the team the best in the future.

Daniel received different reactions. Although he desisted from crafting a post to send to the community, he was met with several followers from universities with collegiate League teams. 

“They weren’t even sending just regards, though. Other schools started randomly following us with opportunities for their clubs,” Daniel said. “My friends were also like, ‘what are you doing here anymore?’ I told them just because of the scholarship, I’ll stay.”

President of SLU eSports, Jack Parrack, revealed that the club should not, to his knowledge, be receiving any more cuts to any of the other recreational teams. They also plan to keep the lab, pending any decisions made by the university. 

“We should be fine, I think,” Parrack said. “We’ve kind of had to fund ourselves anyway, even though we’d much prefer it if that wasn’t the case.” 

As for the future of the team, Chiu said that they will never reach the level that they were at post-dissolve without him. 

“Can we be national champions without me? No,” Chiu said. “There’s going to be no recruitment and no scholarships. I fully believe that they’re good players, but it’s like asking college basketball to be as good as they are without an athletic director.” 

When asked about his future plans, Chiu revealed that he has been looking at jobs outside the eSports world. He feels as though he has connections in the greater St. Louis area that can get him to where he wants to be. Chiu notes that there is no animosity between him and the university, however. 

“There’s never a good time to get laid off, but I was just baffled,” Chiu said. “I did everything I could, but you can’t please someone who doesn’t know what they want.” 

The landscape of eSports is continually evolving according to Jack.