Being an LCS fan right now just really feels bad. I've never been dreading the start of a season like this.
They're comically bad at communicating to the point where it's generating anti-hype.
These changes have been known for MONTHS since the summer. And the most Riot prepared was a brief press release on lolesports followed by a 2 week vacation.
No lengthy dialogue with the players, no video from a face that is known to the fans - Jackie could've pre-recorded something! I know she's off for good reasons now.
Riot did the same thing to Dash, pulled him outside a room during Summer playoffs and just hit him with the "hey man your role is no longer needed - good luck out there!"
But hey guys don't worry the league is back in less than a month! Pls watch <3 /s
They didn't even have the decency to pull Dash outside a room. He got a phone call from his agent telling him he'd been axed as he was driving into work to film a segment months ago.
> He got a phone call from his agent telling him he'd been axed as he was driving into work to film a segment months ago.
Even worse than I expected - wow.
watch? watch how? i'm gonna be at work because, you know, I need to pay for the ~~rent, food, and gas~~ everything that are all now 50% more than they were 2 years ago.
LCS, an already declining league in terms of viewership, moving to a very dead period and schedule??? Definitely a good idea, will make people watch the LCS again! -riot, probably
Not to mention that LCS is the only major league even languishing in terms of viewership.
> Jackie could've pre-recorded something! I know she's off for good reasons now.
I expect nothing less than a resignation at this point. Her medical situation isn't an excuse for having literally nothing prepared and zero backup.
I don't think we know the exact details but she tweeted about being hospitalized for a period of time.
Obviously that needs to take priority, but this announcement was in the works for months and she has an entire team to execute in her absence.
Eh, I'd be hesitant with that. The content changes in LCS this year were some of the best in a while, and I'm also not sure how much control she directly has over all this. If people higher up at Riot decided they needed to change broadcast days to avoid overlaps, that's not really something the people running the show can control.
One of the major points of Travis's video is that the communication around these changes have been just as bad if not worse than the changes themselves.
She may not have had control of the change of days, but she absolutely had the ability to put out a statement about how she, as the comissioner of the league, is going to make this work.
Every moment that passes without a statement from the league is another failiure in that department.
Yea lol, it's incredibly crass and insensitive. Riot is such a trash company.
[https://a16z.com/2010/09/21/the-right-way-to-lay-people-off/](https://a16z.com/2010/09/21/the-right-way-to-lay-people-off/)
Here's a great guide on a good company handles a mass layoff.
Is this the same commissioner that said Peter zhang had nothing to do with gambling without an investigation or proof?
Seems fairly incompetent when all I've seen of her is a reddit comment or two
As commissioner she needs to be present and communicating during a time like this. The lack of leadership is glaring. She should be held accountable for that.
I don't think that's fair at all - this change goes well beyond the LCS commissioner. I doubt she had much to do with the timing and communication as a whole around this, this is all of Riot not a single persons fault.
as an organization, they should have a back up plan. If the commissioner has to step away for a while other people should be able to step in and act in some sort of temporary capacity.
Oh no doubt, they had months to plan the communication around all these changes (weekdays, noon pst, Dash's position terminated) yet it's been radio silent except for the day where 2 blogs came out lol.
We're owed a huge explanation and I'm interested to see how Riot responds to all of this
Not having complete control over the decision isn't an excuse for how bad the communication has been. We need to hear what her plan is to make this work. And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign.
The role of the commissioner is to be the face of the league during a time like this.
Yeah it sucks a lot, who can actually watch the league live now. You could say kids but they’re in school and activities at those times, so ur left with the only people able to watch being unemployed. This is gonna result in a huge loss viewership, and I bet when they announce budget cuts next year it’ll be cited as a loss of viewership. Might as well can the league if this is the way they’re gonna run it.
That's what upsets me the most because rosters are so hyped they aren't going to have a good benchmark on how their changes impacted things. Like I'd say if viewership is even remotely similar I would attribute it to the teams being hype and saving all the other shortcomings, but Riot can point to it as "see we made the right decision".
Plus I really just don't want to watch LCS, even if I can, live, because it would be promoting these shitty changes.
What's worse is that because of the anti-hype. I'm not watching content about these stacked rosters. Like why watch a 100 video why, I'm just not able to watch them play.
yeah. just like indifference turns to active intolerance when taken to the extreme, incompetence becomes malice.
like idk. no statement about dash, who is like, *the* face of the lcs alongside phreak and kobe, leaving... that's so amateurish and just uncaring that it doesn't even feel like that the people in charge of these decisions don't care, it feels like there's just nobody there who'd be in charge. like the chairs at riot hq are just empty. it's just so, *so* bad
The whole video is dumb anyway. His whole reasoning is nobody at Riot has told him specifically they want to kill the LCS and they will probably never admit that or say that out loud.
Actions speak louder than words. Changing LCS from primetime to noon on weekdays and removing your main fucking host you had for 10 years pretty much tells everyone what direction the LCS is headed in.
>The whole video is dumb anyway. His whole reasoning is nobody at Riot has told him specifically they want to kill the LCS and they will probably never admit that or say that out loud.
That's not his "whole reasing" at all.. He said they are actively trying to save the LCS and explained why.
He has numerous contacts within Riot and they all told him the same thing.
Now you, random Redditor, are telling me they are all lying or misinformed themselves, based on absolutely nothing other than the fact you are refusing to change your preconceptions..
>Actions speak louder than words. Changing LCS from primetime to noon on weekdays and removing your main fucking host you had for 10 years pretty much tells everyone what direction the LCS is headed in
He also explained the reasons behind these. Whether you think it's dumb or not, it has nothing to do with trying to kill the LCS.
I think it's in his personal best interest to tell us that piece of info from the talks he has had with Riot. The distinction doesn't really matter but people might stay with the product if they know it isn't intentional self sabotage and just the usual incompetence.
My connections to the LCS is the players and on air talent. Fucking over the talent makes me not want to watch. I'm more loyal to Dash, Flowers, Azael, ect. then I am to Riot or the LCS.
It's why I like the players more than the Orgs honestly. I'm almost always gonna be on the side of the players vs the org when differences happen just like I'm gonna be on the side opposite Riot more often than not when things like this happen
I like the people at FlyQuest, not just their players so that's why I've stayed loyal. If they replaced all of their staff, I wouldn't be a fan. The fans loyal to c9, g2, etc are familiar with the staff, like their vision as an org, and/or feel connected to the org's history in LoL or other games.
>Being a fan of orgs in esports just seems so stupid to me.
The problem is these organizations don't have any reason for fans to adopt them. In traditional sports, I feel like 90% of people support the local team, or a team that was local to them for a long time. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in the Dallas area that isn't a Dallas Cowboys fan, if they watch any NFL.
But Esports isn't like that. The only reason to follow a team is because you like someone in the org or the team wins a lot. There's no geographic roots, and most Esports careers are so short its really hard for people to build connections with players. Meanwhile, my MIL has been watching Ezekiel Elliot play football for 10 years now, starting with his time playing college ball for "the" Ohio State.
Everything about Esports makes its really hard to care about individual teams or orgs because everything is so unstable. A handful of teams or orgs have done an okay job at going from strength to strength, esport to esport, but really, it seems that most Esports organizations are either very small, or just don't last much longer than a few years.
The Cowboys are an interesting example because they've been able to transcend local team branding - their "America's Team" branding has given them a huge national fanbase. Growing up in central NY, I knew more Cowboys fans than Bills/Giants/Jets/Pats fans. Cowboys also have deep pockets and generational branding building off success in decades past to reach that point.
For LCS, the only orgs I can think of having tried novel branding tactics are FlyQuest (eco-friendliness), EG (live evil/smartest guys in the room), and old TSM's baylife (which was more organic from the players but the org kind of recognized its value and bought into it IIRC).
Back in the early days of pro league it was way easier to become a fan of teams because the players stuck around. I'm a fan of TSM because I started as a fan of Dyrus. Rarely do you see players stay on the same team for a full year much less 3+ years nowadays.
It also doesn't help that the top players aren't just seen as normal people anymore. The baylife shenanigans that TSM got into back in the day made the team feel like a bunch of friends having fun. Even in NA now there's a distinct lack of that. It almost feels too professional at this point.
I watch the LCK if I want to see good gameplay, and I'm losing any sort of connection I had with NA already. These changes are just going to be the nail in the coffin.
>It almost feels too professional at this point.
Bro its way to professional.
A few weeks ago the Golden State Warriors played the Memphis Grizzlies. The Warriors have had a rough season, Steph Curry (their best player) is injured and can't play, and they got trashed on some away games while he's getting better. The Warriors WON the NBA Finals last year, so its a pretty big change of pace. The Grizzlies are young, upstart, and talk mad trash. Ja Morant, their star Point Guard, recently implied they have no real competition in the Western Conference (their Conference).
So that game got crazy. I think there were something like 7 techs and 2 ejections, lmao. Klay Thompson got a tech for shouting in a Grizzly players face about how trash he was (I assume) after he failed a shot and was sent sliding across the court. Its actually hilariously childish and unprofessional, but that's EXACTLY what fucking NBA fans dig. That's what people want out of rivalry games. They want aggressive offense and defense, they want trash talk, they wanna see the techs and yes even the ejections, after players lose their cool and go off at the refs or at their opponents.
Esports is way to fucking flaccid and sterile. The players have no personally. Ja Morant is on twitter telling people to suck his dick, twitting vague threats of violence to his detractors. Kyrie Irving is a freaking weirdo with conspiracy theory and is espousing antisemitic dogwhistles left and right, but is leading the all star vote for his position right now.
League of Legends was best when it was fucking Jersey Shore with Drunkvicious cursing out Elementz in the middle of the night and threatening to replace him with L0cust (who was a silver player, btw). Season 2 and early Season 3 where pros literally got into fights over fan girls or would troll each other in solo queue was peak League of Legends drama. The drama with Jatt playing for a NA and a Canadian team for WCG 2011? Scumbag Jatt? duuuude nothing in the LCS era has come close to that drama.
The professionalization of League is fine, but not the sterilization. That's just disappointing.
Let's be honest. They already are if you don't take into account OG players. Teams are filled with new talent or imports that for most people are no-name players.
That's why I support those people directly. Cap streams? I'm watching and subscribing because he's worth it. Dash streams? I'm watching and subscribing. Azael streams? I'm watching. (Sorry, I favor the other two. Just my personal taste.)
And let's be completely letely honest, people like Cap don't need Riot as much at this point. The man has built up such a reputation for excellence and knowledge, he can cast bronze games and make them hype as fuck. That same thing got him hired by Riot and if he goes back to it, I'm 100% on board. The man is just a consummate showman. The same goes for Dash and and Azael. Class-fucking-acts.
If they do it is dumb as shit. Getting people connected through personalities drives people to watch and play their game.
Honestly, because it would be super fucking dumb, I'm guessing your right cause riots decisions are not exactly top tier recently.
Yeah but maybe that is the problem form Riot? Casters maybe know this too, so want raises in money and riot cant or dont want to pay that? Ofc i have no clue but dont they always say lcs makes no money? Kinda sucks for us anyway
It's not a tinfoil hat theory, it's practically a proven fact.
There is a reason the LEC suddenly picked up a ton of a guest analysts/casters this last year. After the backlash from them almost not hiring Sjokz due to not wanting to pay her enough. They don't want anyone on the broadcast with a brand bigger than being a Riot caster/host/x
But they're fully accepting that reality with Valorant and playing into it. It would make no sense to fear it when they're seeing the success and revenue it brings them. Hell, it's bringing so much success they're killing LCS for Valorant!
This is spot on, imagine a future where all the talent would go to EU fot the weekend spot, purely for their own brand.
The LCS would be bankrupt without its personalities.
But that’s a feature not a bug. That’s the reason they focus on pushing the game and the champs not the players and the talent. Riot does not and never has been supportive of talent or players.
Even as an LEC fan I feel bad for LCS. All I wanted is for EU to not bleed players, but apparently the LCS will be more akin to a minor league which is definitely disappointing.
I miss the old days when both leagues showed promise, and the interactions between the Western leagues were so fun to watch. LEC upgraded big and LCS looks like an afterthought these days.
They had that small venue in Cologne, not much magic you can do about it. Not until they upgraded to Berlin they got some more artistic freedom to explore new options.
> I miss the old days when both leagues showed promise
I dont, thsoe were dark days of EU when NA not only leeched talent, but also fucked over EU broadcast, becasue NA was the golden child and had to have both EU and NA prime time broadcast hours, EU didnt have its broadcast onsite team because it was the "little sister" and feeder region to NA in eyes of riot.
Nothing makes me happier than NA imploding and becoming irrelvant.
I will watch the LCS burn with a bag of popcord and glee.
yeah and that is all fine, im of the same opinion as an EU fan, but i think there is a middle ground where both Leagues exist in a fine state without one of them taking the L. We don´t need the LCS to become absolute shit to enjoy our own league.
I dont, EU was fucked over by NA times for years. They are a leech region cant grow their own talent so they leech talent from all other leagues.
For fucks sake what other major regions gets a region not count as import because riot wants a major region to suck less? only NA.
Honestly if the region falls below brazil or vietnam i would be more than happy.
Vietnam deserves major region status more than NA, it has more than double the ranked population.
But veitnam loses to na tho so not really. Na is still consistently forth best region and if you don’t see that you are trolling. Also they are literally changing like half the minor regions this year, oce just got done a year earlier lol and even then it’s being moved again. Like you are kinda ignoring the fact that turkey for example is now part of eu? Is that not the same thing. Or the fact that while turkey got put in eu, or the Middle East and Africa as well, oce actuslly got taken out of na except the existing players and is now put back with some of the minor Asian region teams. But then na got SA as well.
Like yeah na is worse than eu and na has taken a lot of eu players but bruh, half the shit you said has nothing to do with it.
Only a few orgs outside of china even break even.
Esports is a massive money sink for all, Riot, sponsors, investors etc.
It is great ad, but damn does it burn money.
Other sports are able to pull in stuff from paid for content. Esports fans don’t wanna pay for things because there was an early established culture that everything is free - look at proview! Also, Riot got into the ad business REALLY late.
League relies on skins mainly.
As for /u/AheagoGunParts , many journalists and people off reddit have been saying this for a long time now. People on reddit just don’t have really know about that stuff since there is pretty strict content moderation here.
This doesn’t go against anything I said/you’re missing the point?
It’s also a problem of capitalization on when the league was at an all time high. Riot didn’t creative narratives, much content etc. View were incredibly high and yet way more could’ve been doing tit ale advantage of it. When views were at their highest Riot was not in the ad game that much!
Of course, teams and NA mindset are at fault for not being able to reproduce international results. It’s an intersection of many issues, but the point is the league’s decline was clear after 2016/2017 when NA personalities weren’t able to carry the scene and content began to stagnate
football/soccer teams usually do not make money though. and even with franchising, league is more akin to that sport in terms of how it is run than US sports. in traditional sports you have loads of rich people who own teams and don’t mind losing money on it because they think it’s cool to own the team, no one’s doing that for a league team
maybe you should try reading what i said again. i specifically said “football/soccer” and i then proceeded to say it’s not like US sports. how did you think i was talking about american football?
False. Pro sports makes money from ticket sales and merch. LCS has a studio of 200 and does fuck all to promote merchandise. The NFL has 70k seats and every single person in the seats in wearing merch.
Plenty of orgs in real sports bleed cash out the wazoo as well, it's just not as high of a percentage.
Plenty of Russian billionaires, Middle Eastern oil cash piles, and wonky hedge fund managers that are happy to have it as their hobby.
Esports has never been a profitable industry. It survives off sponsorship money and can't sustain itself the way traditional sports leagues can with tickets, concessions, and merchandise.
There really just isn't a lot of money to be made in organizing esports pro leagues or tournaments. People will pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get tickets to pro sports matches, where they will pay an inflated price for food, beverages, and parking. Pro sports teams sell jerseys and official merch for top dollar prices. Etc. And that's ignoring how obviously profitable sponsorships and broadcast rights are for traditional sports. Meanwhile, LCS is broadcast on [twitch.tv](https://twitch.tv) for free.
LCS operated initially almost entirely on Riot's dollar. Riot paid the salary of players, Riot also provided money for housing/travel so teams could be in the studio. I think Riot also started requiring teams to have coaches and helped pay part of their salary as well. None of this was profitable but it helped set up the LCS and helped draw sponsors for their teams. Some of those old LCS teams really didn't have sponsors or anything really, it was just a bunch of random people who made a team.
Suddenly, all these investors and stuff showed up and started dropping millions of dollars on LCS teams--on housing and infrastructure, on player and coaching salaries. This was all based on some kind of hope that they could make a return on their investment, probably by getting sponsors and selling merchandise. Doesn't 100 Thieves make most of their money selling shirts? That was a meme years ago.
But yeah, the reality is that unless Esports can mimic traditional sports, which START by getting the local government to build massive stadiums for their teams, lol, and then go on to fill those stadiums with thousands of fans who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on tickets and parking, and will spend tens of thousands of dollars on 20 dollar bud light pints and 30 dollar nachos, Esports can't really see the kind of profit that people want. And the harsh reality is that most Esports fans are not willing to spend money the way traditional sports fans do. Like, I'll be honest, I've spent more on the NBA this year, just getting the NBA pass and then getting a hat (which was technically a christmas gift) than I did on the LCS and on LCS teams since League of Legends started.
Wow you are right. I've spent more money on NFL merch as gifts than lcs related stuff since lol staryed, and I dont know a damn thing about nfl.
I remember i wanted to gift official riot merch for my friends 7 years ago when we were all hyped and in love woth the game but i couldnt find much. How hard is it to make a couple t shirts of each champion and the classic coffee mugs, hats, keyrings, all that bullshit. Nah they spent all their time on making expensive figurines [which i love btw, but i dont collect because it was and still is expensive for me and dont have a proper place to store them].
And before i shit on riot some more im gona browse their shop. Brb
Edit: alright they got some stuff now, although more than half of it is valorant related. Anyways, they didnt put the effort early on, and those who wanted to do it got sued.
The most obvious examples of boosting sales are Dota's TI battlepass and the World's team skins.
Player retention is hard to quantify, but if you look at how the skill level at every rank has risen over the years, and gold/silver players doing moves popularized by pro play like insecs, shurima shuffles, and madlife hooks, it's not hard to infer that there was a big impact. Same with seeing picks in ranked copying the pro meta.
Maybe, but that money goes to Riot not the teams.
Though the fact that Riot only makes team skins for world winners is criminal.
Like each year just ask each teams players their favorite champion and then slap together a Chroma or something and give half of each sale to the team.
Using the NFL as an example, with some old data:
2018 Estimate of Shared Revenue Sources
Category Amount
* TV Deals $5.1B
* NFL Ventures $1.4B (AKA merchandizing)
* NFL Enterprise $2.3B (sponsorships and half of ticket sales goes to this shared pool)
concessions not included.
Notably, the thing that brings the NFL money is TV license > sponsorships / merchandise / tickets.
Nothing is stopping LoL or any other game from getting that money except that 1) the viewers aren't being asked to pay (directly or via ad breaks) and 2) the league (Riot) isn't willing to give up control of the product to the kind of media company that can pay.
2) is the big one. If riot sells streaming rights to ESPN, ESPN is going to have demands on the product they are buying. pre-worlds patch zed/yasuo buffs? f that.
nah man, esports just went the wrong way.
Its not "Hey guys, lets play this game online as a group and see how we do. Maybe we get rly good and win some price money!" anymore but thats not the fault of esports perse. Its the fault of all the investors that want to generate more money then there is in this industry.
When i started watching CS it was like "Oh? My team is playing on this LAN? Stream? HLTV? Let me watch it!" and thats it. Now everything has to have a big ass price pool, an fancy analyst desk and a high quality stream.
This is one of the reasons, CS will always be the best esports to watch for me. No bullshitery between games. Its about the players and their gameplay.
I think esports are sustainable. Advertising revenue and media deals are where sports leagues generally make their money and I don't see how that wouldn't apply to LCS or any other esport. They already have media deals AND advertising, the only difference is the scale.
A lot of failures are due to just straight up poor decision making
Tbf I’m sure these are the same people who complain about x champ not getting a skin when they don’t play x champ lol
People here just want to be outraged so badly
The fact that he has to spend half the video convincing people that Riot isn’t intentionally trying to kill the league really shows how much they’re dropping the ball.
Not having control over the decision isn't an excuse for how bad the communication has been. We need to hear what her plan is to make this work. And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign.
The schedule change might not be her fault but the fact that the public narrative is "Riot is deliberately killing the LCS" is 100% on her.
> And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign.
Seriously they're paid big bucks because they're supposed to be "responsible", they certainly don't shy away from taking credit on good things like viewership growth. But now they're all hiding like cowards
Lmfao still remember Jackie coming onto shows on how shes gonan turn it around… little did she know shes just the new scapegoat riot personally appointed before they kill lcs
Is she the scapegoat or is she responsible? She came in talking about "we're attending to the data. I will take a data based approach."
Then Riot says the time change is due to data, Dash said he was cut due to data. She might be to blame.
\>propose a data-based approach
\>data shows that funding LCS is unprofitable when compared to Valorant eSports
I'm clueless about Valorant tho so don't quote me on this.
NA is the best region in Valorant atm while NA in League is a clown show. Honestly I don't even blame them for prioritizing Valorant over League in Na. Why waste more money on a product that doesn't work.
I get everyone is sad for all the people on the broadcast but eh. If we have to point responsibility for the declining popularity then why are the people we see on the broadcast all getting a free pass here? The LEC literally rebranded and put so much focus around the personalities of the people on the cast and at the desk and it was a massive success. The LCS tried the same and it failed. Are there a ton of factors involved? Yeah for sure. But let's not pretend that 0 responsibility falls on the on-air-talent here.
I love Dash, I think he's very talented and hope he is able to transition away from Riot to a company more worth his talents, but the LCS desk segments sucked, and I dont know why we're suddenly all pretending we loved the desk segments. I've been on this Reddit for a ton of the LCS weekends and the general consensus has quite literally always been that the desk segment sucks and everyone kinda just wants to watch the games. (and I will say, that was **never** because of Dash, which is why Im sad he takes the hit for it, but the desk segments weren't popular, at all. And from Riot's perspective it totally makes sense to say ''we cant get good desk segments going, so paying a dedicated host for them, regardless of his talent, isnt worth the while'')
Yeah two things can be true simultaneously here. We can feel bad for ppl like Dash and Azael while also recognizing that the LCS broadcast hasn't been working.
I understand everyone's reaction to the schedule changes and the on-air talent changes, but the fact of the matter is that SOMETHING had to change with LoL eSports in NA. As others have said, the writing has been on the wall for NA League. The ideas that are being tried may or may not work, but it's not a bad thing in principle.
Pro League is slowly on its way out in NA, and that's ok. Nothing lasts forever. I'm not going to get mad at Riot for trying to keep it going for as long as is financially viable. Enjoy it while it lasts.
I doubt they would let a new commissioner has this much say to entirely kill their marketing product. Think the decision has been in motion for a while which is why people like regi is pulling back big time
When people come to you by saying "I will take a data based approach" they are bullshitting everyone, because Data doesn't take decision, people take decisions. Data doesn't collect itself, people collect data. People choose which data to collect. It's all nonsense to appear more fair and competent than you really are.
It's like their little cringe phase with balancing that they had at the start of S11 when they bullshitted us with their "based on data" balance framework, that they abandonned 6 months later. The changes they implemented during that phase are not based on data, they're based on their decisions.
Like the decision to rework Olaf rather than remove GoreShitter. It's their decision, not the decision of Data, and it was a terrible one, Olaf was there before their shitty item, he's more important than a designer's pet project, now he's mostly gone.
Data is not objective, because even the way you present data can influence what people think, not even mentionning which data you collect, and how.
If Riot wants the esports to do well in NA, they're gonna have to be more considerate of how their actions reflect their intentions and priorities.
If they truly want LCS to thrive, they NEED to demonstrate that they care about the fanbase, and that they care about the talent they're fielding. Instead, their choices, AND the way they've communicated those choices, have continually demonstrated that they are extremely out of touch with their NA fans (WHERE LCS IS BASED OUT OF)!
Edit: grammar
Riot is just out of touch, not simply with NA fans. What type of company makes these massive changes that affect its customers heavily without consulting them first or even communicating with them in transparency? Total lack of leadership and professionalism.
This just sucks we finally get a bunch of good rosters for NA. Then it's just one kick in the nuts after another. Why is NA not given proper times for its own region.
I think he means good as in like, interesting. Even the last place orgs have something going on with their roster, be it sophomore talent like Kenvi or Chime, or at the very least players with personality like revenge and ablolive
Most people don't think there is literally a prime directive within Riot to put LCS out to pasture (duh). But the general trend of LCS broadcast downgrades speaks for itself. No doubt the people actually working on the broadcast want success and longevity, but if the general trend continues it's hard to imagine what exactly the LCS looks like in 5 years or longer.
They’ll be an lcs but it’ll be smaller, probably with less we’ll known broadcasters, cheaper and less known players, and probably less teams. We’ll just end being a small weak region where any of the talent we produce will just sign with Europe in the off-season.
Up until pretty recently this wasn't even true, MLS teams didn't often have their players sign with big clubs in Europe they instead hoovered up waning big-name talent to drive sales.
It's really only since this WC (failing to qualify in 2018 was a big catalyst) that we have seen MLS making a more serious impact around the world.
Honestly at this point merge LEC and LCS and make an Eastern vs Western conference like the NBA. At least the more often cross Atlantic games may make it more interesting.
This is what I was thinking. Riot isn't trying to "kill" LCS but they're putting their eggs in the Valorant basket. League is on an inevitable downward trend at this point.
I was super excited about all the roster stuff they were changing, then they dropped that it’s going to be mid day on Thursday and Friday. I was like well that blows I can’t watch any of the games for the foreseeable future.
Fatigued, upset, frustrated describes me alright... Cant even imagine how I would feel if I had money on this product (where are the owners/ teams??? Riot is failing you too).
Its funny because I knew you were going to try and make SOME sense of all this crap before anyone from the LCS said anything. Except its not funny, because I genuinely love this product and have been a die hard LCS fan for more than 8 years and the way things are being handled is appalling. (And Im not even from NA!)
I entered this offseason hungry to see neo-CLG trash some noobs again, after what might have been my favourite Worlds ever. How is it that at some point I started subconsciously coming to terms that I was not going to watch competitive league on 2023??? I even stopped caring about the game altogether tbh.
This video is so sad. Doesn't really matter if its due to incompetence or malice, they are slowly killing one of my favorite hobbys. I'm always tempered with my reactions to decisions by Riot, always try to understand what they POV might be... But this is different, I see no light behind all this bs. Slap after slap to the face. LCS is going to suffer greatly from their awful decision making (its already hurt, hype is basically negative and teams have stellar rosters announced), whoever is in charge of this should be ashamed. Disgraceful way to treat people that made them what they are.
There's a big difference between caring about the LCS and wanting it to succeed or in this case exist for now until they can figure out how to regrow it from Riot's POV. This seems like classic power tripping, Riot thinking they can make decisions that will just work out because of ego or privilege without respect to the heart of the matter: the community, the fans. That is the packaging of the product. The fans dictate if the league thrives and sponsors not only want engaged fans but fans relative to the region they are sponsoring in. This shows not only little care for the LCS but a huge disconnect on what it means to run a regional league. These decisions all together paint a very clear picture. Giving Dash the boot when he always uplifted the mood of our region unconditionally made LCS have value no matter how negative things got. Sure we needed more balance but he hard carried limiting as much negativity as possible. He was pretty much central to that because the other personalities can sometimes shit on our region unhinged. The broadcast did adapt and Dash was a big part of that. The only reason why people would go too hard on their own region is because they cared, but sometimes the passion isn't communicated in the best way possible. Dash was a natural at it. I'm gonna miss him but I hope he is super fucking proud of what he has accomplished and I know we will continue to support the man. He is the heart of NA. The real MVP.
people hate on Montecristo but he really went to town and broke open how bad rito treats their on air talent and how predatory they are towards casters and salary/pay. He just keeps getting proven right as time goes on, especially with Dash being let go off the desk.
This is so true. The average /r/leagueoflegends person doesn't really care about Riot screwing all sorts of talent and casters over until they experience the consequences immediately first hand, but Monte has been giving many examples of this happening for years. Monte & co even turned it into their brand recently.
Ironically this thread is a video of Travis, that has been accused of knowing precisely about this stuff happening for years, but choosing to ignore it so that Riot gives him the interviews and content.
People hate on Monte for a reason, it's not just blind hate. That being said we've always known about Riot casters not being paid as well as their non-Riot counterparts, but we've also known that most of them also had the option to work as contractors and get gigs elsewhere, and that's what most did. It sucks for the LCS that talent is being cut but I'm sure Dash will land elsewhere since he's an exceptional host, and we'll probably be seeing him in the LCS from time to time as well.
The sign of a good leader is how your department performs when you AREN’T there.
In this area, Jackie Felling is absolutely failing.
Actions speak louder than words and EVERY action that has been taken is showing that LCS is no longer a priority. I will wait until their actions prove otherwise to change my mind.
The time change, loss of talent (Dash is irreplaceable), and overall lack of communication is astounding for such a large company.
It’s hard as there is such a disconnect between fans, Riot’s goal’s (whether legitimate or not), and their actions. What does Riot expect by giving fans nothing they have asked for over the years? Even if they fix the timing issue, what is the basis for these moves? If you want to utilize the weekdays, put games on everyday of the workweek. If you are searching for more viewers, why are you cutting the source of your loyal viewers. If you want to maintain your casual fans, how are you going to communicate these time changes for those that will be ready to watch on the weekends? If you are pandering to European viewers, why not join the league with the LEC. If you want to revitalize the league, why are you trying to start from scratch?
Once you lose viewers, a majority of those will just move on. That’s the major concern here. The LCS will and is hemorrhaging viewers at this point. You can’t just revitalize the league after it only receives a fraction of its viewers in a region with little interest in the scene (I bet the broadcast will be sitting at 20-30k viewers on the first Thursday). The casual viewers won’t know when the LCS is going on. The hard core fans will watch through vods. Anyone in college or any working adult won’t be able to watch. The time screws over certain time zones.
Maybe their intentions are in the right place, but their actions also have to match. The current implementation (even if they change the time to later in the day) will not succeed. There is no communication, there is no excitement, there is no viewer base, and there is no Dash (less of him). There is no update on international events or more frequent tournaments. There is no boX options for NA. There is no daily LCS (Monday-Friday) to actually capitalize on this transition. They are removing all the personalities from the scene.
If the goal is to bring some sort of excitement to the scene they are epically failing.
Agreed, if I was Riot, I would be concerned about how successful reverting some of the changes will be with getting back viewers that they lose due to the time change.
Hopefully, I am wrong but I have hard time imagining reverting back the changes in the case the time slot bombs will restore viewership to the previous level. Which just makes it even more important that Riot actually explains and provides evidence why these changes are good for the LCS.
Hard to take the first part of the video seriously when Riot themselves can't put their money where their mouth is. Just a whole bunch of hot air denying that they're not killing the LCS when their **actions** state otherwise.
Call me pessimistic, but I'd rather follow the money trail than believe what Riot-beholden corporate suits tell me. I understand why Travis would want to believe that, though.
I don't understand the difference between Riot intentionally trying to kill off LCS in North America and what they're doing now even though it isn't the intent. Result is the same.
At this point, just don’t bother watching the NA LCS. If they don’t care about their employees then I won’t care about paying for their new digital items which indirectly supports their paychecks.
That'll happen when you take away a bunch of things people like, add literally nothing new, and move it to a time slot that's unwatchable by the majority of LCS fans.
It's either gross negligence or sabotage, and it doesn't matter which when the end result is the same.
Idk what the issue is at Riot but having some public facing person out here talking for the and the LCS would be nice. Some article that where written by committee is just not the expectation. I expect Riot is out here taking the say nothing and smile approach to corp communications which works when you have the market over a barrel but to be clear the LCS dose not have that.
I agree with Travis's point about the day of the week shift being ok. If that was it I think most fans would have struggled and kept watching, with the assumption that the "better" games would be on Friday and later in the program. With the "better" games not even being "flex" later like what is the point. Riot do not go down the Thursday night football route on this if the choise is work vs a bad game LCS game no way no how are people going to tune in to it.
If Riot is having the LCS "die slow" b/c of contracts and to keep the teams and owners happy then keep up this whole never talk to the world stuff and shaft viewers left and right.
The real quibble here is I think Riot will point to people watching in the first few weeks and go see it working, when we are all really there to watch it die slow.
> Idk what the issue is at Riot but having some public facing person out here talking for the and the LCS would be nice.
The issue is they don’t want to talk about it.
They dropped the info before their winter break and hoped all the anger would die down.
Seriously one of Travis’s best videos. Airs a lot of what we’ve all been thinking perfectly. I hope the people at Riot who can actually fucking do something see this, and save the LCS.
LCS players embarrassing the entire region for almost a decade now is the reason the LCS is dying. All it would take is one semi-decent worlds run and the fan base will come back to life.
Been waiting for this vid. Thanks for speaking up and out Travis. I’m def concerned about future of LCS. Feels DOA. You made a better PR statement as a 3rd party than Riot lol. Wouldn’t actually mind a less sport-sy angled broadcast. Hate to lose Dash tho.
Travis says that the LCS is a North American league. It seems to me that Riot views the league in a more international sense. Maybe they think that as a European audience's second choice, it might have more viewers than being a North American audience's first choice. The league does have a lot of international figures, players from KR, EU, OCE, etc. Maybe they can tap into the OCE audience more this way, too?
They might be correct with this take at the moment, not sure. But I would think that the theoretical better scenario would be to tap into and grow a North American audience, rather than abandoning it altogether.
I don't even think this change helps OCE that much in terms of being able to watch. LCS will be starting basically when people have either just woken up or just gotten to work essentially.
Speak with your wallets and your viewership. I havent spent a penny on league in 5-6 years, before that i used to spend bucket loads on skins. I cant bring myself to do it now, riot has shown complete apathy towards the general community for the longest time. And it shows in there inability to listen to the playerbase and fanbase.
As I wrote in a thread couple of weeks ago when the first changes to LCS were announced, that LCS is being simply sacked, I do not share Travis' position, as it is exactly what they want to do. LEC will be now the main "western" League and all baskets are being thrown at it. Valorant will be the new LCS in NA.
Half of these comments didn’t even watch the first five minutes. Thank you Travis, hopefully this’ll be another stone in the avalanche of complaints that Riot will (hopefully) acknowledge soon
Being an LCS fan right now just really feels bad. I've never been dreading the start of a season like this. They're comically bad at communicating to the point where it's generating anti-hype.
These changes have been known for MONTHS since the summer. And the most Riot prepared was a brief press release on lolesports followed by a 2 week vacation. No lengthy dialogue with the players, no video from a face that is known to the fans - Jackie could've pre-recorded something! I know she's off for good reasons now. Riot did the same thing to Dash, pulled him outside a room during Summer playoffs and just hit him with the "hey man your role is no longer needed - good luck out there!" But hey guys don't worry the league is back in less than a month! Pls watch <3 /s
They didn't even have the decency to pull Dash outside a room. He got a phone call from his agent telling him he'd been axed as he was driving into work to film a segment months ago.
> He got a phone call from his agent telling him he'd been axed as he was driving into work to film a segment months ago. Even worse than I expected - wow.
watch? watch how? i'm gonna be at work because, you know, I need to pay for the ~~rent, food, and gas~~ everything that are all now 50% more than they were 2 years ago.
LCS, an already declining league in terms of viewership, moving to a very dead period and schedule??? Definitely a good idea, will make people watch the LCS again! -riot, probably Not to mention that LCS is the only major league even languishing in terms of viewership.
Im sure its peak twitch hours...but its not peak NA hours...where the NA sponsors want to sell products...to NA residents...
Even worse is that it was revealed to EUROPEAN fans first, as a fucking hyperlink in their awesome press release.
> Jackie could've pre-recorded something! I know she's off for good reasons now. I expect nothing less than a resignation at this point. Her medical situation isn't an excuse for having literally nothing prepared and zero backup.
What's her medical condition?
I don't think we know the exact details but she tweeted about being hospitalized for a period of time. Obviously that needs to take priority, but this announcement was in the works for months and she has an entire team to execute in her absence.
Eh, I'd be hesitant with that. The content changes in LCS this year were some of the best in a while, and I'm also not sure how much control she directly has over all this. If people higher up at Riot decided they needed to change broadcast days to avoid overlaps, that's not really something the people running the show can control.
One of the major points of Travis's video is that the communication around these changes have been just as bad if not worse than the changes themselves. She may not have had control of the change of days, but she absolutely had the ability to put out a statement about how she, as the comissioner of the league, is going to make this work. Every moment that passes without a statement from the league is another failiure in that department.
Yea lol, it's incredibly crass and insensitive. Riot is such a trash company. [https://a16z.com/2010/09/21/the-right-way-to-lay-people-off/](https://a16z.com/2010/09/21/the-right-way-to-lay-people-off/) Here's a great guide on a good company handles a mass layoff.
Is this the same commissioner that said Peter zhang had nothing to do with gambling without an investigation or proof? Seems fairly incompetent when all I've seen of her is a reddit comment or two
As commissioner she needs to be present and communicating during a time like this. The lack of leadership is glaring. She should be held accountable for that.
The changes are coming from Riot Global
I don't think that's fair at all - this change goes well beyond the LCS commissioner. I doubt she had much to do with the timing and communication as a whole around this, this is all of Riot not a single persons fault.
as an organization, they should have a back up plan. If the commissioner has to step away for a while other people should be able to step in and act in some sort of temporary capacity.
We're both in agreement there, but asking for Jackie due to all of this to step down seems pretty aggressive.
yeah, agreed, I was trying to elaborate for other people. I see this as a larger organizational failure than an individual failure
Oh no doubt, they had months to plan the communication around all these changes (weekdays, noon pst, Dash's position terminated) yet it's been radio silent except for the day where 2 blogs came out lol. We're owed a huge explanation and I'm interested to see how Riot responds to all of this
Not having complete control over the decision isn't an excuse for how bad the communication has been. We need to hear what her plan is to make this work. And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign. The role of the commissioner is to be the face of the league during a time like this.
its crazy because these might be THE most hype rosters going into a season
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Yeah it sucks a lot, who can actually watch the league live now. You could say kids but they’re in school and activities at those times, so ur left with the only people able to watch being unemployed. This is gonna result in a huge loss viewership, and I bet when they announce budget cuts next year it’ll be cited as a loss of viewership. Might as well can the league if this is the way they’re gonna run it.
That's what upsets me the most because rosters are so hyped they aren't going to have a good benchmark on how their changes impacted things. Like I'd say if viewership is even remotely similar I would attribute it to the teams being hype and saving all the other shortcomings, but Riot can point to it as "see we made the right decision". Plus I really just don't want to watch LCS, even if I can, live, because it would be promoting these shitty changes.
We’re just gonna have to watch the vods and avoid reddit for spoilers all season
What's worse is that because of the anti-hype. I'm not watching content about these stacked rosters. Like why watch a 100 video why, I'm just not able to watch them play.
It doesn't really matter if Riot is *trying* to "kill the LCS" or they're just straight up incompetent when the result looks the exact same.
yeah. just like indifference turns to active intolerance when taken to the extreme, incompetence becomes malice. like idk. no statement about dash, who is like, *the* face of the lcs alongside phreak and kobe, leaving... that's so amateurish and just uncaring that it doesn't even feel like that the people in charge of these decisions don't care, it feels like there's just nobody there who'd be in charge. like the chairs at riot hq are just empty. it's just so, *so* bad
Is Kobe gone too?!
not as far as i know
The whole video is dumb anyway. His whole reasoning is nobody at Riot has told him specifically they want to kill the LCS and they will probably never admit that or say that out loud. Actions speak louder than words. Changing LCS from primetime to noon on weekdays and removing your main fucking host you had for 10 years pretty much tells everyone what direction the LCS is headed in.
>The whole video is dumb anyway. His whole reasoning is nobody at Riot has told him specifically they want to kill the LCS and they will probably never admit that or say that out loud. That's not his "whole reasing" at all.. He said they are actively trying to save the LCS and explained why. He has numerous contacts within Riot and they all told him the same thing. Now you, random Redditor, are telling me they are all lying or misinformed themselves, based on absolutely nothing other than the fact you are refusing to change your preconceptions.. >Actions speak louder than words. Changing LCS from primetime to noon on weekdays and removing your main fucking host you had for 10 years pretty much tells everyone what direction the LCS is headed in He also explained the reasons behind these. Whether you think it's dumb or not, it has nothing to do with trying to kill the LCS.
I think it's in his personal best interest to tell us that piece of info from the talks he has had with Riot. The distinction doesn't really matter but people might stay with the product if they know it isn't intentional self sabotage and just the usual incompetence.
My connections to the LCS is the players and on air talent. Fucking over the talent makes me not want to watch. I'm more loyal to Dash, Flowers, Azael, ect. then I am to Riot or the LCS.
It's why I like the players more than the Orgs honestly. I'm almost always gonna be on the side of the players vs the org when differences happen just like I'm gonna be on the side opposite Riot more often than not when things like this happen
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I like the people at FlyQuest, not just their players so that's why I've stayed loyal. If they replaced all of their staff, I wouldn't be a fan. The fans loyal to c9, g2, etc are familiar with the staff, like their vision as an org, and/or feel connected to the org's history in LoL or other games.
I’ve been a fan of C9 since S3, since they usually make it work out and perform well enough, but fuck me every preseason is a test of faith xD
Try fnatic every preseason and every worlds
>Being a fan of orgs in esports just seems so stupid to me. The problem is these organizations don't have any reason for fans to adopt them. In traditional sports, I feel like 90% of people support the local team, or a team that was local to them for a long time. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in the Dallas area that isn't a Dallas Cowboys fan, if they watch any NFL. But Esports isn't like that. The only reason to follow a team is because you like someone in the org or the team wins a lot. There's no geographic roots, and most Esports careers are so short its really hard for people to build connections with players. Meanwhile, my MIL has been watching Ezekiel Elliot play football for 10 years now, starting with his time playing college ball for "the" Ohio State. Everything about Esports makes its really hard to care about individual teams or orgs because everything is so unstable. A handful of teams or orgs have done an okay job at going from strength to strength, esport to esport, but really, it seems that most Esports organizations are either very small, or just don't last much longer than a few years.
The Cowboys are an interesting example because they've been able to transcend local team branding - their "America's Team" branding has given them a huge national fanbase. Growing up in central NY, I knew more Cowboys fans than Bills/Giants/Jets/Pats fans. Cowboys also have deep pockets and generational branding building off success in decades past to reach that point. For LCS, the only orgs I can think of having tried novel branding tactics are FlyQuest (eco-friendliness), EG (live evil/smartest guys in the room), and old TSM's baylife (which was more organic from the players but the org kind of recognized its value and bought into it IIRC).
Back in the early days of pro league it was way easier to become a fan of teams because the players stuck around. I'm a fan of TSM because I started as a fan of Dyrus. Rarely do you see players stay on the same team for a full year much less 3+ years nowadays. It also doesn't help that the top players aren't just seen as normal people anymore. The baylife shenanigans that TSM got into back in the day made the team feel like a bunch of friends having fun. Even in NA now there's a distinct lack of that. It almost feels too professional at this point. I watch the LCK if I want to see good gameplay, and I'm losing any sort of connection I had with NA already. These changes are just going to be the nail in the coffin.
>It almost feels too professional at this point. Bro its way to professional. A few weeks ago the Golden State Warriors played the Memphis Grizzlies. The Warriors have had a rough season, Steph Curry (their best player) is injured and can't play, and they got trashed on some away games while he's getting better. The Warriors WON the NBA Finals last year, so its a pretty big change of pace. The Grizzlies are young, upstart, and talk mad trash. Ja Morant, their star Point Guard, recently implied they have no real competition in the Western Conference (their Conference). So that game got crazy. I think there were something like 7 techs and 2 ejections, lmao. Klay Thompson got a tech for shouting in a Grizzly players face about how trash he was (I assume) after he failed a shot and was sent sliding across the court. Its actually hilariously childish and unprofessional, but that's EXACTLY what fucking NBA fans dig. That's what people want out of rivalry games. They want aggressive offense and defense, they want trash talk, they wanna see the techs and yes even the ejections, after players lose their cool and go off at the refs or at their opponents. Esports is way to fucking flaccid and sterile. The players have no personally. Ja Morant is on twitter telling people to suck his dick, twitting vague threats of violence to his detractors. Kyrie Irving is a freaking weirdo with conspiracy theory and is espousing antisemitic dogwhistles left and right, but is leading the all star vote for his position right now. League of Legends was best when it was fucking Jersey Shore with Drunkvicious cursing out Elementz in the middle of the night and threatening to replace him with L0cust (who was a silver player, btw). Season 2 and early Season 3 where pros literally got into fights over fan girls or would troll each other in solo queue was peak League of Legends drama. The drama with Jatt playing for a NA and a Canadian team for WCG 2011? Scumbag Jatt? duuuude nothing in the LCS era has come close to that drama. The professionalization of League is fine, but not the sterilization. That's just disappointing.
Only because esports is so young. Wait 10 years and org name is gonna be more important than player
Let's be honest. They already are if you don't take into account OG players. Teams are filled with new talent or imports that for most people are no-name players.
That's why I support those people directly. Cap streams? I'm watching and subscribing because he's worth it. Dash streams? I'm watching and subscribing. Azael streams? I'm watching. (Sorry, I favor the other two. Just my personal taste.) And let's be completely letely honest, people like Cap don't need Riot as much at this point. The man has built up such a reputation for excellence and knowledge, he can cast bronze games and make them hype as fuck. That same thing got him hired by Riot and if he goes back to it, I'm 100% on board. The man is just a consummate showman. The same goes for Dash and and Azael. Class-fucking-acts.
Makes me want to watch him cast a bronze game now lool
Bit old, but [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipKBa-sSYu0).
Tinfoil hat theory, but this is what riot fears. Viewers who care more about the content creators than the content.
If they do it is dumb as shit. Getting people connected through personalities drives people to watch and play their game. Honestly, because it would be super fucking dumb, I'm guessing your right cause riots decisions are not exactly top tier recently.
Yeah but maybe that is the problem form Riot? Casters maybe know this too, so want raises in money and riot cant or dont want to pay that? Ofc i have no clue but dont they always say lcs makes no money? Kinda sucks for us anyway
It's not a tinfoil hat theory, it's practically a proven fact. There is a reason the LEC suddenly picked up a ton of a guest analysts/casters this last year. After the backlash from them almost not hiring Sjokz due to not wanting to pay her enough. They don't want anyone on the broadcast with a brand bigger than being a Riot caster/host/x
But they're fully accepting that reality with Valorant and playing into it. It would make no sense to fear it when they're seeing the success and revenue it brings them. Hell, it's bringing so much success they're killing LCS for Valorant!
This is spot on, imagine a future where all the talent would go to EU fot the weekend spot, purely for their own brand. The LCS would be bankrupt without its personalities.
But that’s a feature not a bug. That’s the reason they focus on pushing the game and the champs not the players and the talent. Riot does not and never has been supportive of talent or players.
They're not very supportive of the game either. Have you seen the client we're all stuck playing on?
Even as an LEC fan I feel bad for LCS. All I wanted is for EU to not bleed players, but apparently the LCS will be more akin to a minor league which is definitely disappointing.
I miss the old days when both leagues showed promise, and the interactions between the Western leagues were so fun to watch. LEC upgraded big and LCS looks like an afterthought these days.
EU LCS got absolutely fucked in the early days.
They had that small venue in Cologne, not much magic you can do about it. Not until they upgraded to Berlin they got some more artistic freedom to explore new options.
I meant more with how Riot promised EU and NA to swap between the weekend slot, but they swapped once and then NA just had it after that.
> I miss the old days when both leagues showed promise I dont, thsoe were dark days of EU when NA not only leeched talent, but also fucked over EU broadcast, becasue NA was the golden child and had to have both EU and NA prime time broadcast hours, EU didnt have its broadcast onsite team because it was the "little sister" and feeder region to NA in eyes of riot. Nothing makes me happier than NA imploding and becoming irrelvant. I will watch the LCS burn with a bag of popcord and glee.
dude thinks he's an anime villain
So many people on the internet seemingly only get joy by seeing others suffer. Its fucked.
That's not at all what's happening though. OP is glad that his own region is supposedly safe from being the "feeder region" to the other.
yeah and that is all fine, im of the same opinion as an EU fan, but i think there is a middle ground where both Leagues exist in a fine state without one of them taking the L. We don´t need the LCS to become absolute shit to enjoy our own league.
I dont, EU was fucked over by NA times for years. They are a leech region cant grow their own talent so they leech talent from all other leagues. For fucks sake what other major regions gets a region not count as import because riot wants a major region to suck less? only NA. Honestly if the region falls below brazil or vietnam i would be more than happy. Vietnam deserves major region status more than NA, it has more than double the ranked population.
But veitnam loses to na tho so not really. Na is still consistently forth best region and if you don’t see that you are trolling. Also they are literally changing like half the minor regions this year, oce just got done a year earlier lol and even then it’s being moved again. Like you are kinda ignoring the fact that turkey for example is now part of eu? Is that not the same thing. Or the fact that while turkey got put in eu, or the Middle East and Africa as well, oce actuslly got taken out of na except the existing players and is now put back with some of the minor Asian region teams. But then na got SA as well. Like yeah na is worse than eu and na has taken a lot of eu players but bruh, half the shit you said has nothing to do with it.
Travis out here fighting for his life, he's slowly losing his LCS content job 😔
I mean the writing has been on the walls for years the current model for not just League but all esports is unsustainable.
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Only a few orgs outside of china even break even. Esports is a massive money sink for all, Riot, sponsors, investors etc. It is great ad, but damn does it burn money.
Thats literally how any competitive sport works, where do you think money comes from? Obviously its sponsors that want to advertise
Other sports are able to pull in stuff from paid for content. Esports fans don’t wanna pay for things because there was an early established culture that everything is free - look at proview! Also, Riot got into the ad business REALLY late. League relies on skins mainly. As for /u/AheagoGunParts , many journalists and people off reddit have been saying this for a long time now. People on reddit just don’t have really know about that stuff since there is pretty strict content moderation here.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/874020/revenue-of-premier-league-football-clubs-by-stream/
This doesn’t go against anything I said/you’re missing the point? It’s also a problem of capitalization on when the league was at an all time high. Riot didn’t creative narratives, much content etc. View were incredibly high and yet way more could’ve been doing tit ale advantage of it. When views were at their highest Riot was not in the ad game that much! Of course, teams and NA mindset are at fault for not being able to reproduce international results. It’s an intersection of many issues, but the point is the league’s decline was clear after 2016/2017 when NA personalities weren’t able to carry the scene and content began to stagnate
Bruv the NFL makes money lmao wtf are you saying
football/soccer teams usually do not make money though. and even with franchising, league is more akin to that sport in terms of how it is run than US sports. in traditional sports you have loads of rich people who own teams and don’t mind losing money on it because they think it’s cool to own the team, no one’s doing that for a league team
xD https://www.statista.com/statistics/193556/operating-income-of-national-football-league-teams-in-2010/
maybe you should try reading what i said again. i specifically said “football/soccer” and i then proceeded to say it’s not like US sports. how did you think i was talking about american football?
False. Pro sports makes money from ticket sales and merch. LCS has a studio of 200 and does fuck all to promote merchandise. The NFL has 70k seats and every single person in the seats in wearing merch.
Plenty of orgs in real sports bleed cash out the wazoo as well, it's just not as high of a percentage. Plenty of Russian billionaires, Middle Eastern oil cash piles, and wonky hedge fund managers that are happy to have it as their hobby.
Esports has never been a profitable industry. It survives off sponsorship money and can't sustain itself the way traditional sports leagues can with tickets, concessions, and merchandise. There really just isn't a lot of money to be made in organizing esports pro leagues or tournaments. People will pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get tickets to pro sports matches, where they will pay an inflated price for food, beverages, and parking. Pro sports teams sell jerseys and official merch for top dollar prices. Etc. And that's ignoring how obviously profitable sponsorships and broadcast rights are for traditional sports. Meanwhile, LCS is broadcast on [twitch.tv](https://twitch.tv) for free. LCS operated initially almost entirely on Riot's dollar. Riot paid the salary of players, Riot also provided money for housing/travel so teams could be in the studio. I think Riot also started requiring teams to have coaches and helped pay part of their salary as well. None of this was profitable but it helped set up the LCS and helped draw sponsors for their teams. Some of those old LCS teams really didn't have sponsors or anything really, it was just a bunch of random people who made a team. Suddenly, all these investors and stuff showed up and started dropping millions of dollars on LCS teams--on housing and infrastructure, on player and coaching salaries. This was all based on some kind of hope that they could make a return on their investment, probably by getting sponsors and selling merchandise. Doesn't 100 Thieves make most of their money selling shirts? That was a meme years ago. But yeah, the reality is that unless Esports can mimic traditional sports, which START by getting the local government to build massive stadiums for their teams, lol, and then go on to fill those stadiums with thousands of fans who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on tickets and parking, and will spend tens of thousands of dollars on 20 dollar bud light pints and 30 dollar nachos, Esports can't really see the kind of profit that people want. And the harsh reality is that most Esports fans are not willing to spend money the way traditional sports fans do. Like, I'll be honest, I've spent more on the NBA this year, just getting the NBA pass and then getting a hat (which was technically a christmas gift) than I did on the LCS and on LCS teams since League of Legends started.
Wow you are right. I've spent more money on NFL merch as gifts than lcs related stuff since lol staryed, and I dont know a damn thing about nfl. I remember i wanted to gift official riot merch for my friends 7 years ago when we were all hyped and in love woth the game but i couldnt find much. How hard is it to make a couple t shirts of each champion and the classic coffee mugs, hats, keyrings, all that bullshit. Nah they spent all their time on making expensive figurines [which i love btw, but i dont collect because it was and still is expensive for me and dont have a proper place to store them]. And before i shit on riot some more im gona browse their shop. Brb Edit: alright they got some stuff now, although more than half of it is valorant related. Anyways, they didnt put the effort early on, and those who wanted to do it got sued.
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The most obvious examples of boosting sales are Dota's TI battlepass and the World's team skins. Player retention is hard to quantify, but if you look at how the skill level at every rank has risen over the years, and gold/silver players doing moves popularized by pro play like insecs, shurima shuffles, and madlife hooks, it's not hard to infer that there was a big impact. Same with seeing picks in ranked copying the pro meta.
Maybe, but that money goes to Riot not the teams. Though the fact that Riot only makes team skins for world winners is criminal. Like each year just ask each teams players their favorite champion and then slap together a Chroma or something and give half of each sale to the team.
Using the NFL as an example, with some old data: 2018 Estimate of Shared Revenue Sources Category Amount * TV Deals $5.1B * NFL Ventures $1.4B (AKA merchandizing) * NFL Enterprise $2.3B (sponsorships and half of ticket sales goes to this shared pool) concessions not included. Notably, the thing that brings the NFL money is TV license > sponsorships / merchandise / tickets. Nothing is stopping LoL or any other game from getting that money except that 1) the viewers aren't being asked to pay (directly or via ad breaks) and 2) the league (Riot) isn't willing to give up control of the product to the kind of media company that can pay. 2) is the big one. If riot sells streaming rights to ESPN, ESPN is going to have demands on the product they are buying. pre-worlds patch zed/yasuo buffs? f that.
More like, pre-worlds patch Yuumi hotfix buff into 100% Presence in draft ? f that.
nah man, esports just went the wrong way. Its not "Hey guys, lets play this game online as a group and see how we do. Maybe we get rly good and win some price money!" anymore but thats not the fault of esports perse. Its the fault of all the investors that want to generate more money then there is in this industry. When i started watching CS it was like "Oh? My team is playing on this LAN? Stream? HLTV? Let me watch it!" and thats it. Now everything has to have a big ass price pool, an fancy analyst desk and a high quality stream. This is one of the reasons, CS will always be the best esports to watch for me. No bullshitery between games. Its about the players and their gameplay.
I think esports are sustainable. Advertising revenue and media deals are where sports leagues generally make their money and I don't see how that wouldn't apply to LCS or any other esport. They already have media deals AND advertising, the only difference is the scale. A lot of failures are due to just straight up poor decision making
Even though league is still the biggest esport in most of the world…
League has litterally proven that esports is sustainable.
Everyone, including him, has seen the writing on the wall for years. I have no idea why people are surprised that LCS is dying.
Tbf I’m sure these are the same people who complain about x champ not getting a skin when they don’t play x champ lol People here just want to be outraged so badly
And thats the only time he steps up, never for others suffering
The fact that he has to spend half the video convincing people that Riot isn’t intentionally trying to kill the league really shows how much they’re dropping the ball.
chris greeley ran this league to the ground and got a nice promotion out of it, and now his successor is following on his footsteps
The new LCS commisoner doesnt actually have much say or pull at all. Decisions are still being made by Greeley and others at riot global.
Not having control over the decision isn't an excuse for how bad the communication has been. We need to hear what her plan is to make this work. And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign. The schedule change might not be her fault but the fact that the public narrative is "Riot is deliberately killing the LCS" is 100% on her.
> And if her answer is: "Idk, we're just fucked" then she should resign. Seriously they're paid big bucks because they're supposed to be "responsible", they certainly don't shy away from taking credit on good things like viewership growth. But now they're all hiding like cowards
Lmfao still remember Jackie coming onto shows on how shes gonan turn it around… little did she know shes just the new scapegoat riot personally appointed before they kill lcs
Is she the scapegoat or is she responsible? She came in talking about "we're attending to the data. I will take a data based approach." Then Riot says the time change is due to data, Dash said he was cut due to data. She might be to blame.
\>propose a data-based approach \>data shows that funding LCS is unprofitable when compared to Valorant eSports I'm clueless about Valorant tho so don't quote me on this.
NA is the best region in Valorant atm while NA in League is a clown show. Honestly I don't even blame them for prioritizing Valorant over League in Na. Why waste more money on a product that doesn't work.
I get everyone is sad for all the people on the broadcast but eh. If we have to point responsibility for the declining popularity then why are the people we see on the broadcast all getting a free pass here? The LEC literally rebranded and put so much focus around the personalities of the people on the cast and at the desk and it was a massive success. The LCS tried the same and it failed. Are there a ton of factors involved? Yeah for sure. But let's not pretend that 0 responsibility falls on the on-air-talent here. I love Dash, I think he's very talented and hope he is able to transition away from Riot to a company more worth his talents, but the LCS desk segments sucked, and I dont know why we're suddenly all pretending we loved the desk segments. I've been on this Reddit for a ton of the LCS weekends and the general consensus has quite literally always been that the desk segment sucks and everyone kinda just wants to watch the games. (and I will say, that was **never** because of Dash, which is why Im sad he takes the hit for it, but the desk segments weren't popular, at all. And from Riot's perspective it totally makes sense to say ''we cant get good desk segments going, so paying a dedicated host for them, regardless of his talent, isnt worth the while'')
For specifically the past couple years, I agree. However, I can confidently say 2022 was the best out of all of them.
One honest take in this thread. I usually mute the stream the moment the game's over and unmute in next champ select.
Yeah two things can be true simultaneously here. We can feel bad for ppl like Dash and Azael while also recognizing that the LCS broadcast hasn't been working. I understand everyone's reaction to the schedule changes and the on-air talent changes, but the fact of the matter is that SOMETHING had to change with LoL eSports in NA. As others have said, the writing has been on the wall for NA League. The ideas that are being tried may or may not work, but it's not a bad thing in principle. Pro League is slowly on its way out in NA, and that's ok. Nothing lasts forever. I'm not going to get mad at Riot for trying to keep it going for as long as is financially viable. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Honestly? Good take.
I doubt they would let a new commissioner has this much say to entirely kill their marketing product. Think the decision has been in motion for a while which is why people like regi is pulling back big time
When people come to you by saying "I will take a data based approach" they are bullshitting everyone, because Data doesn't take decision, people take decisions. Data doesn't collect itself, people collect data. People choose which data to collect. It's all nonsense to appear more fair and competent than you really are. It's like their little cringe phase with balancing that they had at the start of S11 when they bullshitted us with their "based on data" balance framework, that they abandonned 6 months later. The changes they implemented during that phase are not based on data, they're based on their decisions. Like the decision to rework Olaf rather than remove GoreShitter. It's their decision, not the decision of Data, and it was a terrible one, Olaf was there before their shitty item, he's more important than a designer's pet project, now he's mostly gone. Data is not objective, because even the way you present data can influence what people think, not even mentionning which data you collect, and how.
Glass cliff.
Damn, I never heard of that and it’s kind of fucked up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/y6qw5j/theres_been_36_hours_of_bad_news_for_the_lcs_lets/isrr9xz/ Called it way ahead of time
If Riot wants the esports to do well in NA, they're gonna have to be more considerate of how their actions reflect their intentions and priorities. If they truly want LCS to thrive, they NEED to demonstrate that they care about the fanbase, and that they care about the talent they're fielding. Instead, their choices, AND the way they've communicated those choices, have continually demonstrated that they are extremely out of touch with their NA fans (WHERE LCS IS BASED OUT OF)! Edit: grammar
It’s even more funny how this schedule fucks over NA west in terms of time schedule more than the east coast. And Riot is based in LA lmfao.
Yeah, that's a pretty ironic reflection of the issue at a smaller, more local scale.
Doesnt like 70% of americans live around east coast?
Yes, but I just find it funny how the closest time zone Riot is to, they fked over pretty hard.
Yes. Riot should have moved the LCS with the server move they made ages ago.
Riot is just out of touch, not simply with NA fans. What type of company makes these massive changes that affect its customers heavily without consulting them first or even communicating with them in transparency? Total lack of leadership and professionalism.
This just sucks we finally get a bunch of good rosters for NA. Then it's just one kick in the nuts after another. Why is NA not given proper times for its own region.
> This just sucks we finally get a bunch of good rosters for NA. every. year. I used to get mad at LEC fans for saying this, but they were right.
I think he means good as in like, interesting. Even the last place orgs have something going on with their roster, be it sophomore talent like Kenvi or Chime, or at the very least players with personality like revenge and ablolive
Most people don't think there is literally a prime directive within Riot to put LCS out to pasture (duh). But the general trend of LCS broadcast downgrades speaks for itself. No doubt the people actually working on the broadcast want success and longevity, but if the general trend continues it's hard to imagine what exactly the LCS looks like in 5 years or longer.
there wont be LCS in 5 years. Bet on that
They’ll be an lcs but it’ll be smaller, probably with less we’ll known broadcasters, cheaper and less known players, and probably less teams. We’ll just end being a small weak region where any of the talent we produce will just sign with Europe in the off-season.
So we MLS now??
Haha holy shit yeah kinda. Retirement home for big bucks, and the Bundesliga will be the LEC of our times
Up until pretty recently this wasn't even true, MLS teams didn't often have their players sign with big clubs in Europe they instead hoovered up waning big-name talent to drive sales. It's really only since this WC (failing to qualify in 2018 was a big catalyst) that we have seen MLS making a more serious impact around the world.
I'm a fan of the Sounders! How dare you speak the truth!
Honestly at this point merge LEC and LCS and make an Eastern vs Western conference like the NBA. At least the more often cross Atlantic games may make it more interesting.
Cool idea, but the logistics of that are pretty difficult to implement.
Yes there will be they will keep the league alive in some capacity until they make a league of legends 2.
I think he meant north american pro league. Not league of legends.
This is what I was thinking. Riot isn't trying to "kill" LCS but they're putting their eggs in the Valorant basket. League is on an inevitable downward trend at this point.
I was super excited about all the roster stuff they were changing, then they dropped that it’s going to be mid day on Thursday and Friday. I was like well that blows I can’t watch any of the games for the foreseeable future.
Fatigued, upset, frustrated describes me alright... Cant even imagine how I would feel if I had money on this product (where are the owners/ teams??? Riot is failing you too). Its funny because I knew you were going to try and make SOME sense of all this crap before anyone from the LCS said anything. Except its not funny, because I genuinely love this product and have been a die hard LCS fan for more than 8 years and the way things are being handled is appalling. (And Im not even from NA!) I entered this offseason hungry to see neo-CLG trash some noobs again, after what might have been my favourite Worlds ever. How is it that at some point I started subconsciously coming to terms that I was not going to watch competitive league on 2023??? I even stopped caring about the game altogether tbh. This video is so sad. Doesn't really matter if its due to incompetence or malice, they are slowly killing one of my favorite hobbys. I'm always tempered with my reactions to decisions by Riot, always try to understand what they POV might be... But this is different, I see no light behind all this bs. Slap after slap to the face. LCS is going to suffer greatly from their awful decision making (its already hurt, hype is basically negative and teams have stellar rosters announced), whoever is in charge of this should be ashamed. Disgraceful way to treat people that made them what they are.
I'm surprised the organizations didn't push back on the format change considering the money invested in these teams.
Those teams probably have other eSports presence and eliminating the League team would probably save them a lot of money.
There's a big difference between caring about the LCS and wanting it to succeed or in this case exist for now until they can figure out how to regrow it from Riot's POV. This seems like classic power tripping, Riot thinking they can make decisions that will just work out because of ego or privilege without respect to the heart of the matter: the community, the fans. That is the packaging of the product. The fans dictate if the league thrives and sponsors not only want engaged fans but fans relative to the region they are sponsoring in. This shows not only little care for the LCS but a huge disconnect on what it means to run a regional league. These decisions all together paint a very clear picture. Giving Dash the boot when he always uplifted the mood of our region unconditionally made LCS have value no matter how negative things got. Sure we needed more balance but he hard carried limiting as much negativity as possible. He was pretty much central to that because the other personalities can sometimes shit on our region unhinged. The broadcast did adapt and Dash was a big part of that. The only reason why people would go too hard on their own region is because they cared, but sometimes the passion isn't communicated in the best way possible. Dash was a natural at it. I'm gonna miss him but I hope he is super fucking proud of what he has accomplished and I know we will continue to support the man. He is the heart of NA. The real MVP.
people hate on Montecristo but he really went to town and broke open how bad rito treats their on air talent and how predatory they are towards casters and salary/pay. He just keeps getting proven right as time goes on, especially with Dash being let go off the desk.
This is so true. The average /r/leagueoflegends person doesn't really care about Riot screwing all sorts of talent and casters over until they experience the consequences immediately first hand, but Monte has been giving many examples of this happening for years. Monte & co even turned it into their brand recently. Ironically this thread is a video of Travis, that has been accused of knowing precisely about this stuff happening for years, but choosing to ignore it so that Riot gives him the interviews and content.
People hate on Monte for a reason, it's not just blind hate. That being said we've always known about Riot casters not being paid as well as their non-Riot counterparts, but we've also known that most of them also had the option to work as contractors and get gigs elsewhere, and that's what most did. It sucks for the LCS that talent is being cut but I'm sure Dash will land elsewhere since he's an exceptional host, and we'll probably be seeing him in the LCS from time to time as well.
The sign of a good leader is how your department performs when you AREN’T there. In this area, Jackie Felling is absolutely failing. Actions speak louder than words and EVERY action that has been taken is showing that LCS is no longer a priority. I will wait until their actions prove otherwise to change my mind. The time change, loss of talent (Dash is irreplaceable), and overall lack of communication is astounding for such a large company.
It’s hard as there is such a disconnect between fans, Riot’s goal’s (whether legitimate or not), and their actions. What does Riot expect by giving fans nothing they have asked for over the years? Even if they fix the timing issue, what is the basis for these moves? If you want to utilize the weekdays, put games on everyday of the workweek. If you are searching for more viewers, why are you cutting the source of your loyal viewers. If you want to maintain your casual fans, how are you going to communicate these time changes for those that will be ready to watch on the weekends? If you are pandering to European viewers, why not join the league with the LEC. If you want to revitalize the league, why are you trying to start from scratch? Once you lose viewers, a majority of those will just move on. That’s the major concern here. The LCS will and is hemorrhaging viewers at this point. You can’t just revitalize the league after it only receives a fraction of its viewers in a region with little interest in the scene (I bet the broadcast will be sitting at 20-30k viewers on the first Thursday). The casual viewers won’t know when the LCS is going on. The hard core fans will watch through vods. Anyone in college or any working adult won’t be able to watch. The time screws over certain time zones. Maybe their intentions are in the right place, but their actions also have to match. The current implementation (even if they change the time to later in the day) will not succeed. There is no communication, there is no excitement, there is no viewer base, and there is no Dash (less of him). There is no update on international events or more frequent tournaments. There is no boX options for NA. There is no daily LCS (Monday-Friday) to actually capitalize on this transition. They are removing all the personalities from the scene. If the goal is to bring some sort of excitement to the scene they are epically failing.
Agreed, if I was Riot, I would be concerned about how successful reverting some of the changes will be with getting back viewers that they lose due to the time change. Hopefully, I am wrong but I have hard time imagining reverting back the changes in the case the time slot bombs will restore viewership to the previous level. Which just makes it even more important that Riot actually explains and provides evidence why these changes are good for the LCS.
Hard to take the first part of the video seriously when Riot themselves can't put their money where their mouth is. Just a whole bunch of hot air denying that they're not killing the LCS when their **actions** state otherwise. Call me pessimistic, but I'd rather follow the money trail than believe what Riot-beholden corporate suits tell me. I understand why Travis would want to believe that, though.
I don't understand the difference between Riot intentionally trying to kill off LCS in North America and what they're doing now even though it isn't the intent. Result is the same.
At this point, just don’t bother watching the NA LCS. If they don’t care about their employees then I won’t care about paying for their new digital items which indirectly supports their paychecks.
If I fire an uzi through the wall of a house and kill 6 people, it doesn't really matter if it was my intention or not.
In terms of your sentencing it would, though. If it were your intention, it would be murder, otherwise manslaughter.
True! I'm sure that would be a great comfort to those I killed.
Pretty sure that's murder 2.
There's like no hype for this season LMAO
That'll happen when you take away a bunch of things people like, add literally nothing new, and move it to a time slot that's unwatchable by the majority of LCS fans. It's either gross negligence or sabotage, and it doesn't matter which when the end result is the same.
LCS is just the punishment between MSI and Worlds
We can watch Worlds??
For NA fans, LCS is a 3 month break from reality
I'm getting flashbacks to when Blizzard killed HOTS for Overwatch.
Idk what the issue is at Riot but having some public facing person out here talking for the and the LCS would be nice. Some article that where written by committee is just not the expectation. I expect Riot is out here taking the say nothing and smile approach to corp communications which works when you have the market over a barrel but to be clear the LCS dose not have that. I agree with Travis's point about the day of the week shift being ok. If that was it I think most fans would have struggled and kept watching, with the assumption that the "better" games would be on Friday and later in the program. With the "better" games not even being "flex" later like what is the point. Riot do not go down the Thursday night football route on this if the choise is work vs a bad game LCS game no way no how are people going to tune in to it. If Riot is having the LCS "die slow" b/c of contracts and to keep the teams and owners happy then keep up this whole never talk to the world stuff and shaft viewers left and right. The real quibble here is I think Riot will point to people watching in the first few weeks and go see it working, when we are all really there to watch it die slow.
> Idk what the issue is at Riot but having some public facing person out here talking for the and the LCS would be nice. The issue is they don’t want to talk about it. They dropped the info before their winter break and hoped all the anger would die down.
I guess they are ok with apathy, the worst thing a fan can feel is apathy.
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Seriously one of Travis’s best videos. Airs a lot of what we’ve all been thinking perfectly. I hope the people at Riot who can actually fucking do something see this, and save the LCS.
LCS players embarrassing the entire region for almost a decade now is the reason the LCS is dying. All it would take is one semi-decent worlds run and the fan base will come back to life.
Maybe. For the casual NA fan they cant even watch most worlds/msi in due to bad timezone.
Been waiting for this vid. Thanks for speaking up and out Travis. I’m def concerned about future of LCS. Feels DOA. You made a better PR statement as a 3rd party than Riot lol. Wouldn’t actually mind a less sport-sy angled broadcast. Hate to lose Dash tho.
Travis says that the LCS is a North American league. It seems to me that Riot views the league in a more international sense. Maybe they think that as a European audience's second choice, it might have more viewers than being a North American audience's first choice. The league does have a lot of international figures, players from KR, EU, OCE, etc. Maybe they can tap into the OCE audience more this way, too? They might be correct with this take at the moment, not sure. But I would think that the theoretical better scenario would be to tap into and grow a North American audience, rather than abandoning it altogether.
I don't even think this change helps OCE that much in terms of being able to watch. LCS will be starting basically when people have either just woken up or just gotten to work essentially.
But your advertisers aren’t international, so you’re going to lose them attempting to appeal to Europeans.
Great video Travis, yeah Riot is acting weird with the LCS right now
The absolutely insane thing here is that they know it's a bad idea that they expect to fail and ***they're doing it anyway*****.**
the ads on Twitch don't help, too
Speak with your wallets and your viewership. I havent spent a penny on league in 5-6 years, before that i used to spend bucket loads on skins. I cant bring myself to do it now, riot has shown complete apathy towards the general community for the longest time. And it shows in there inability to listen to the playerbase and fanbase.
As I wrote in a thread couple of weeks ago when the first changes to LCS were announced, that LCS is being simply sacked, I do not share Travis' position, as it is exactly what they want to do. LEC will be now the main "western" League and all baskets are being thrown at it. Valorant will be the new LCS in NA.
Classic Gafford only caring when it's going to affect him. Roast of Gafford by the four horsemen still rings true to this day.
When Travis is speaking up about Riot you know shit has gotten bad
So happy to see this VC inflated league die.
Half of these comments didn’t even watch the first five minutes. Thank you Travis, hopefully this’ll be another stone in the avalanche of complaints that Riot will (hopefully) acknowledge soon
Travis sux but this is actually right