League of Legends coach Neace has hit back at figures in the community who have criticised the price of his coaching sessions.
The North American content creator has produced a lot of educational videos over the years, and in particular in 2021 he fleshed out his coaching business further, launching a separate League of Legends Challenger Coaching channel on YouTube, doing more coaching sessions and running League of Legends boot camps which have helped more than 7,000 players this year.
Neace currently charges $250 for a single on-stream coaching session, $300 for a private one, $700 for an all-day duo session and $50 for four-day bootcamps, which feature multiple participants.
Yesterday, some people in the community made fun of his prices, including G2’s Summer 2021 LEC strategic coach, Nelson, who has been recently linked to an assistant coaching role with UK-based LEC organisation Excel Esports.
The tweets sparked some discussion in the community around fair prices of video game coaching sessions, with some saying they were costly, and others saying Neace is merely meeting demand, marketing himself and growing his brand.
Neace initially responded with this tweet, which pro player and coach Amazing also shared his opinion on:
Neace then said he was closing his Twitter DMs due to “negative press from influencers regarding my coaching prices and my business – I am getting death threats/spam reviews and anger directed towards me”.
Today, Neace has posted a video response to his critics, which is a part sarcastic money-making guide and part serious account of his background and the amount of work he’s put into his business.
“I was minding my own business, coaching, I mind-controlled two clients to sign up to private coaching sessions, then for three on-stream coaching clients I held a g.. to those players heads to make them get coaching,” he joked in the below video. “I got $1,000 ish, I forced them to buy my coaching, they didn’t choose my coaching.”
Neace then took a more serious turn in the video, explaining how he joined the US military after graduating to pay off debts of $100,000.
He came up with a business plan to make a career out of gaming, before hitting Diamond in League of Legends and posting one of his first educational videos in 2013 – ’10 tips to make Diamond in solo queue’.
Neace began offering $20 coaching sessions in around 2015, before getting burnt out, moving to Fortnite and eventually returning to League and refocusing his coaching. He charged $100 a session, but was always booked up and didn’t have much free time, so he raised his prices again.
He also disputed claims that he never made Challenger, but admitted he doesn’t have the time to maintain a Challenger account due to the amount of coaching work he has. Neace also said Nelson got the maths wrong in the tweet about making $63,000 a month, saying he made $250,000 this year.
“I’ve been doing this for so long, and to have people attack me really, really hurts,” Neace said. “If you think you can do this job, get more clients, make more content and do what I do, stop talking about it on Twitter and do it. I’ll come and support you. If it’s so easy to do it, then go ahead and do it.
“I’ve been doing this for so long, and to have people attack me really, really hurts. If you think you can do this job, get more clients, make more content and do what I do, stop talking about it on Twitter and do it. I’ll come and support you. If it’s so easy to do it, then go ahead and do it.”
Neace
“If I hear another coach’s name on my content, I go and watch their content. A lot of people think I’m out here trying to compete with other people. I’m not. I don’t give a fuck what other coaches do or charge, all I care about is making good content, keeping my audience happy and myself sane.
“I’ve been the hater before, I get it. It’s frustrating when people make more money than you and you think you deserve the chance. But I’m not the guy that lucked into this.
“I love all my fans, my job and I am honestly so sad that there are so many people out there that choose to attack me rather than try to work with me. I’ve been nothing but open and friendly in the coaching space.”
Others in the League community, including the UK scene, commented on the situation. We’ve rounded up some of the reactions below:
Dom is an award-winning writer who graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV as well as Riot Games and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Association up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and as an esports consultant helping brands and businesses better understand the industry.
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