Dplus KIA Confirms LCK Salary Delays and Org Sale as Buyer Search Widens

South Korean organisation Dplus KIA has confirmed a one-month delay in paying its player rosters and revealed that a sale of the organisation is underway, apologising to fans and partners in a statement on X. The cash flow disruption, it says, was triggered by administrative delays in the final stages of welcoming a new majority owner.

선수단 급여 지급 지연 및 구단 현황에 대한 입장문 pic.twitter.com/YekBc8vmQO

— Dplus Kia (@DplusKia) July 16, 2026

Under LCK rules, a one-month delay is not merely embarrassing. It is the threshold at which players can walk.

What Dplus KIA Confirmed

Following a report by Korean publication Daily Esports, the organisation’s front office set out the position publicly. It has formally retained a professional M&A advisory firm to coordinate the sale, and while it continues deep administrative negotiations with its primary prospective buyer, it has concurrently opened channels with alternative qualified buyers. The elongated review and advisory processes required for a transition of this size choked the organisation’s cash reserves, which is what caused the payment disruption across its active competitive rosters, including its flagship League of Legends Champions Korea division.

Dplus KIA framed the sale as a deliberate management choice rather than a distress signal, describing it as a way to unlock a larger scale of capability and global competitiveness, and calling a new owner the most viable pathway to guarantee continuous leaps forward and a sustainable future for the team and its players. It also thanked its rosters and coaching staff, who were briefed on the cash flow delays beforehand and chose to maintain training operations without disruption.

The Rule That Makes a Month Matter

The competitive timing is what sharpens this. Under official LCK league regulations, players have the right to request immediate contract termination if salary payments are delayed by a full month, a policy Riot Games designed to ensure player welfare and financial security. That single rule turns an accounting delay into a potential roster collapse, and it is why the organisation has pushed operational normalisation to the front of the queue. “The most important and absolutely non-negotiable value for our organisation is the ‘stable environment and activities of our players’,” Dplus KIA affirmed, pledging to mobilise all organisational resources to restore financial equilibrium.

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The Financial Picture Underneath

The 2025 accounts explain how it got here. According to an audit report on AD Esports Co., Ltd., the operator of Dplus KIA, revenue for 2025 came in at 7.8 billion won, down from 10.6 billion won the previous year, or roughly $5.3 million, a fall of more than 25 percent. Sponsorship revenue held steady, but other streams, including fan business and prize money, declined significantly. The company did cut costs, with total operating expenses of 11 billion won against 12.2 billion won a year earlier, and esports-related costs, understood to include roster maintenance, falling from 7.1 billion won to 6 billion won.

Revenue fell faster than costs, so profitability worsened anyway. The operating loss reached 3.2 billion won, roughly $2.3 million and a 100 percent increase on the previous year’s 1.6 billion won, with a net loss of 3.3 billion won. By the end of 2025 total assets stood at 2.8 billion won against total liabilities of 15.1 billion won, leaving total equity at negative 12.3 billion won, a state of complete capital impairment, with an accumulated deficit of 27.3 billion won. The company is covering its funding shortfall through its parent, borrowing 4 billion won in short-term loans at an annual interest rate of 4.6 percent from Abyss Company, which holds a 100 percent stake. External auditor Daesung Accounting Corporation noted that “current liabilities exceed current assets by 12.9 billion won,” emphasising that “this situation raises significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

The contrast with its peers is stark: fellow Korean organisations T1 and NS RedForce went the other way, reporting 2025 as their first profitable year in history.

A Commercial Front That Kept Running

None of this was visible from the outside. Dplus KIA maintained an active commercial footprint through 2026, onboarding health and supplement brand Nutri D-DAY as its official nutrition partner only four months ago, alongside a physical support deal with ergonomic chair manufacturer AndaSeat. Six months prior it renewed its landmark partnership with hardware manufacturer Logitech G for an eighth consecutive year, one of the longest-running commercial relationships in the entire LCK ecosystem.

Those deals are now assets in a sale process rather than signs of health, and with the advisory firm engaged and a second set of buyers being courted, the organisation’s next move is clearing the salary backlog before the LCK’s one-month rule gives its players a decision of their own.