Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau has revealed his thoughts on scrims, the average LoL pro salary, and problems plaguing the LTA in a candid interview.
League of Legends esports is in a strange spot going into 2025. Although 2024 saw an all-time peak of over 6,800,000 viewers for Worlds 2024, it also experienced hardships. For fans in North America, this was defined by the official end of the League Championship Series (LCS) and its merger with South American pro leagues including CBLoL, creating the new LTA.
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Riot hopes a more unified esports organization will provide better competition and more revenue in 2025. Many League of Legends esports veterans were openly critical of the mismanagement prevalent during the LCS’ latter years, though fans were largely against the creation of the LTA. In a recent interview, Flyquest top laner Bwipo revealed one factor that he believes causes issues for the industry.
FlyQuest pro Bwipo revealed that some top NA LoL pros often reached seven-digit salaries, admiting they made too much money. In an interview with Mais Esports, Bwipo shared his thoughts on LoL pro salaries including those beyond North America.
“The biggest issue, for me at least, was that the salary numbers were just ridiculous…..it was not sustainable,” Bwipo said.
The pro player revealed his salary reached €1.5 million during his three-year stint with Fnatic while playing in Europe. Although he was grateful for the opportunity, he also felt that the funds should have been more spread out. He states that sponsors were pouring in huge amounts of money, but much of the LoL scene still operated at a loss.
“If we make it more sustainable for everyone, everyone can have a long and fulfilling career,” Bwipo said.
He pointed out that while those at the bottom of the pro scene did get raises, those at the top would “triple” or “quadruple” in value. Despite a solid record of wins, Bwipo also admits he felt he was paid “too much” for his stint at Fnatic.
Speaking on streamed scrims, Bwipo claims that scrims and streams will help pro players connect more with fans of LoL esports in North America and beyond. Bwipo is one of the most famous League of Legends pro players in the world in 2025. A huge part of that popularity comes from the pro’s regular LoL streams, interacting with chat and answering questions at length. Many fans joke about Bwipo’s very talkative nature, but that quality makes Bwipo one of the most popular LoL pro streamers.
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These streams have created a tight-knit community for Bwipo. The same cannot be said for many LoL pro players, who either stream irregularly or not at all. That’s why FlyQuest reached out to Cloud9 for a live scrim session. FlyQuest staff member Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith believed these scrims could give the LTA some much-needed viewership. The Flyquest vs C9 scrim peaked with over 50,000 views across official channels, which is a promising start.
Regardless of whether those scrim streams continue, 2025 will be a milestone year for the LoL esports industry. Essentially given a “fresh slate”, viewers are excited to see how Riot and pro players will adapt to the new formats and innovative plans for higher viewership.
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