The LCS are consistently losing viewership counts, but is there any way to counteract that? According to the LoL community, there might be hope to revitalize the LCS.
It may be a while until the League Championship Series (LCS) returns, but that hasn't stopped fans from the League of Legends community from talking about it!
Ever since the LCS was first held in 2013, viewer numbers have been declining quite starkly.
Just for comparison: the LCS (which is the LoL championship for North America and Canada) had over 223,000 viewers at their peak, whereas the LEC (the League of Legends European Championship, which just concluded at the beginning of September) had over 650,000 viewers at peak viewership. Both of these viewership numbers were taken from Esports Charts.
This is obviously a concerning sight to behold, which is why fans are debating about the LCS's future. But is there any way to save the LCS?
LoL: How The LCS Could Be Revitalized
It's always hard to see something as big as the LCS decline from its former glory, but perhaps there is still a way that we can revitalize the LCS and make viewers interested in this LoL championship again!
This thought sparked a new thread over on Reddit, on how Riot could actually possibly save the LCS.
As always, you have your optimists and your pessimists in this sort of discussion, but no one here is an expert, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt, ok?
The thought that started this all was that the LCS needs to go back to its roots and try and step away from their "NFL type approach" to esports. Instead of trying to make a huge show out of the LCS and make it seem larger than life, the LCS should let lower-tier players and teams also take part in the event.
Other points that were made by the original commentator, u/Weedwick, were that the LCS should:
Integrate tier 2 teams from NACL into these domestic tournaments. This supports the pipeline to LCS and creates a stronger connection between NA community and LCS.
You have franchise obligations so ensure that all franchised orgs have a ticket to these domestic events. You can still keep the shorter splits as franchise only - and by extension also have MSI/Worlds qualification be franchise orgs only.
These points could help to strengthen the connection between players/viewers and the championships once again to increase viewer numbers. By including NACL teams, the LCS could also help to raise viewer interest in the "second tier" championship for NA, where up and coming players take part in.
By adding NACL teams into the roster, another point that was made could play in to revitalizing the LCS.
If you don't know already, this year streamer Disguised Toast's esports team DSG took part in and won the NACL. (As for why his team was able to take part in the NACL, the short version is that most pro esports teams in NA decided to leave after Riot refused to agree to make the NACL a viable pipeline for pro players.)
This was a huge deal, since this just opens up so many possibilities for influencer teams to take part in LoL esports championships, while also being taken seriously.
Adding influencer esports teams like DSG, Moist or even a future Mr.Beast-led team could bring back viewers to esports events such as the LCS.
On the other hand, some community members want the LCS and other LoL championships to lean more into the NFL style of broadcasting, to improve viewership quality.
This is where they need to lean more INTO pro sports, not further away, as OP is suggesting. [...] All of the garbage filler drives viewers away. Less is more. Get good games that people want to watch in the prime viewing slots. Put the drivel on a secondary stream/channel, instead of forcing it on people.
While these are all plausible ideas, quite a few community members think that LCS is done for and will continue to lose viewers as time goes on. They think that Riot has leaned in to the corporate side of esports championships too much and will never shake that part off:
We will never get events like IPL5 or MLG again in this world. These events were great because they were organized by people who are just passionate about esports. You can feel this in the product. It's a love letter to the game. Meanwhile Riot events are much more technically impressive, but you can really feel the corporate vibe to it. It's a marketing product. Just two different ways of doing it.
What do you guys think? Is Riot Games making a big mistake by keeping the LCS the way it is, or would you miss it if it were any different?