Riot Games and the uLoL Campus Series is under fire after changes were made to championship prizes without any official announcement.

Riot introduced a regional stage ahead of the 2017 season that featured a new set of prizes. Teams would be divided into groups and compete in a bracket for a shot at scholarships. The regional winners receive $8,000 for each player, $4,000 for the second-place finishers, $2,000 for third and fourth and $1,000 for fifth to eighth.

The winners of each regional bracket move into a playoff to determine the top collegiate League of Legends team in North America.

Players were aware and excited about the additional earning potential but were unaware that the new prize pools were put in place of the championship prizes that were awarded in 2016. The University of British Columbia earned $30,000 per player for their national championship win last year while runner-up Robert Morris University took home $15,000 per team member.

Yahoo Esports were told by anonymous sources that players were not fully briefed on the exclusion of the championship prizes. Sources confirm that regional scholarships were announced and are listed in the tournament rules, but removal of the championship prizes had not be formally mentioned. 

“It’s crushing to watch Riot make such big plans to change the landscape of their collegiate scene without informing any of the driving forces [schools] that are bringing money and competition into the scene," former professional player and University of California at Irvine student James "Lattman" Lattman told Yahoo Esports. "I’ve seen similar examples in the past where Riot took too long to announce anticipated changes to their leagues for organizations to properly gauge the scene they’re attempting to break into, and the results are tragic for the individuals involved.

"All of these individuals’ efforts are undermined when Riot makes plans to change their competitive scene to such a degree with absolutely no notice whatsoever to those who are making major investments in their time and money to compete."

Despite the uproar from many universities, Riot maintains that the changes have been in place since the beginning. Their only regret is the failure to properly announce and explain the new system.

“We haven’t changed anything,” member of Riot's uLoL team Michael Sherman told Yahoo Esports. “Everything is the same as it was when we launched back in September. We admittedly never called out that there wasn’t $15,000 and $30,000-tier in the Championship anymore. In the rulebook, for as long as it’s been out there, it’s always stated just the regional scholarship pool. That was all out there, we just didn’t bring attention to the fact that it ends there.

“We have had that decision for a little while and we didn’t voice it,” Sherman added. “We should have been talking about it earlier. We’re working to correct that in real time.”