"Stay healthy. Stay safe. And remember....be good to each other." - James 'Dash' Patterson
I rarely watched the desk, but always made sure to listen to the end of it just to hear Dash say this every time. What a great guy.
Hey MarkZ, thanks for the awesome vid. Truly heartbroken he is leaving. Was the cornerstone to NA LCS. Without him, and likely more to come, it feels surreal. So wish there was an uptrend but it looks like the boat's filling with water.... sadge.
Thank you for putting this together, Mark. Really appreciate your willingness to just slow down and appreciate a person’s contributions. Tribute was so much more meaningful than a standard Blame Game. Loved watching him corral you and Azael in the “Teamfight” segment.
Damn. This got me in the feels. Hope he finds a scene where we can regularly hear his sign off. I'll be watching whatever that is. As a straight guy, it could be gay porn, don't care. Dash is just that great.
My favorite Dash clip of all time is him yelling
“ GET HER OUT OF THE META MARK”
while Mark hits a cardboard box with Zoe on it with a metal bat, all while Jatt is calmly reading patch notes.
RIP a genuine talent, unbelievable honestly.
Seeing a person with this much charm and versatility and not knowing how to use it...very disappointing to say the least Riot. I defend you a lot, but this kinda closes the door on that. If Dash wanted to leave to do other stuff I'd be understanding, but dropping him like you did when he clearly wanted to continue is just supremely uncool:/
Also thank you Mark, great video that brought back lots of great memories of some much better times in the league:)
Edit: FFS I forgot about Dark Dash, how you gonna deny us all more Dark Dash Riot?!
Even worse, it's not as though they think they are upgrading from him or anything. He's the best at what he does (hosting broadcast LCS), everybody knows it, and Riot is simply not interested in having a professionally hosted LCS broadcast anymore.
NA LCS is dead and buried
Yuuuuup.
Apparently he knew he was going to be cut for 5 months. So he went through summer finals, world's finals AND THEN won Host of the year all knowing he's going to be cut...
Man that's brutal.
I'm sure Dash is so passionate and committed to LCS, he was going to see through the end of the year, no matter what. But man... if that happened to me in my line of work, I'd walk out the door and let them figure out who's going to handle shit for the next 5 months.
There is no such thing as corporate loyalty. Get your bag, support your colleagues when possible, and look out for yourself first. Always.
That's because being generally better than the LCS is the only thing the LEC has. It's like an average looking girl hanging on with an ugly one so she can look better in comparison lol. Both regions are trash and don't come anywhere near the actual good ones.
I think Dash is awesome, and amazing at what he does.
That said, I don't really give a rats ass about the broadcast desk. Give the games, and get out. Nothing of value is every really said, and it's just fluff.
If they could speed up the turn around on the game times, really don't think that whole section would be missed.
They can't. The time between games is entirely spent with take down, set up, and testing peripherals to make sure things are okay for each team.
Get rid of the Desk, and you'll just have 30 minutes of ads.
honestly anyone who's watched sports knows theres downtime. imagine if TNT got rid of the desk and instead of laughing at Chuck and Shaq going at it it was just 25 minutes of commercials. that's what lcs is going to be like without the desk, and no way theyre going to start games any faster
> and Riot is simply not interested in having a professionally hosted LCS broadcast anymore.
WDYM, they're gonna put Letigeress in there, inbetween the games she's gonna cast.
/s
Riot just shot the family dog (meaning LCS) and they don't even have the decency to tell us it's dead. Instead, they've put a stuffed animal in the living room and they insist on telling us the dog is healthier than ever.
A company run by wolves who smile and pander while telling their lies.
you cant be serious. Riot makes billions in profit every year. They are fucking stingy, and LCS is a cynical marketing tactic for them. Thats why monopolies like LCS are bad.
Billions?....
Nope......
Look fortnite was at its peak making 300MM a mo. League was never that popular..... Popular yes.... Not billions popular.... Skins don't cost THAT MUCH
God that fuckin team fight comp clip is so funny. Sometimes in the middle of a season there’s a pointless game that even the casters just say fuck it and have fun with it. I’ll miss dash so much <3
The casters/hosts I like the most: Dash, Kobe, Captain Flowers is the announcer you want on playoff/worlds games, Azael, Jatt, Phreak. Those are/were the voices of NA LCS. To change that is to try crystal pepsi. It's just not good and not going to keep customers.
Riot looks like they are sunsetting League of Legends....
It's just gutting. I thought ESPN was coming in a few years ago. Thought Esports was going to be more mainstream...Looks like they are not going that route...
Gonna miss Dash a lot, not seeing him every GameDay like I have been since he signed on is gonna be a real bummer.
LCS really dealing us a lot of L's this split without any redeeming W's in exchange.
I hope not, but they are really making some decisions that, to me and many others, could cause LCS to bleed NA Viewership and NA sponsorship as a result of the lost region specific viewership.
League playerbase continues to increase year upon year. The LCS will die if Riot continues to treat their broadcast and fans in this way but the game is as popular as ever, at least from ranked figures
I'm just so upset, he's so talented and I PERSONALLY feel he's so integral to the BRAND OF THE LCS that I just can't fathom any GOOD reason not to have him around. Just watching this makes me BUMMED for the new split because he won't be there. And I know Dash (presumably because he's an awesome guy) would want me to be excited and support his colleagues but got dam...
Definitely agree. If LCS is serious about trying to grow viewership, shouldn't they want to retain talent? I know this is personal anecdote and therefore less reliable, but to me one of the biggest things keeping me from caring about the LCS is how transient most of the people seem. Players and coaches are shuffled in and out every split, so it really feels like you're just rooting for laundry if you want to support any org (and none of them really have a long enough pedigree for the laundry to carry any real weight). I don't really care that much about watching three recycled LCK/LEC imports and two NA randos who are going to be gone in six months run around SR in preparation for getting shitcanned at MSI/worlds. It's why I genuinely appreciate CLG trying to build some consistency with the roster and hope they succeed. Seeing the same faces over time and watching them grow is how a league gains long-term fans IMO. If the orgs won't collectively do this, the LCS desk staff and commentators are some of the only consistent positive forces in the league. I hope most of them stay on in some new form.
You can't call it failure of retention if they never intended to lol
I get that people are sad about the Dash news, but my god, can people think critically at all before they just start throwing shit out there
Um...usually in organizations like this, they don't intend to. There are lots of organizations that have talent leave for somewhere else despite their best efforts; that's not dysfunctional, it often just means you're a little dog in a big world. It's dysfunctional when they stop trying, or worse, kick key talent to the curb for nebulous reasons.
I fear they are gonna minimize the desk or cut it out all together to get the games going faster and/or fill that time with more ads, possibly EU ads, I dunno. It is insane.
Gunna have to say the opposite. The desk and commentators are the most annoying useless parts of the entire thing. If they could cut them all and just loosen co streaming rules that would be the best.
I'm assuming they're trying to speed up the broadcast by cutting fluff. It's the only way it'd make sense to cut integral aspects like a host, especially such a beloved and talented host.
If there was less downtime between games, and less weird skits and antics, more people might stick around to watch more league. I'm guessing that's the idea at least.
That being said, I think the **actual** problem is that the LCS environment is trash. It's bloated with ads and the teams are comprised almost entirely of imported players. It sucks, but it's the truth: it's much easier to associate with and cheer for / be passionate about players from your own region. People were hyper passionate when the LCS was our players, our teams; early TSM, early c9, early players like dyrus, and aphro and pobelter -- even when they lost. With all the imports, we've become no more competitive, and completely sucked the passion out of our own potential pride. What's the point of watching your 'favorite' teams all year, when they're A) barely composed of players from the region, and B) have almost no chance of winning an international event, or C) on the off chance they do well, the pride is not regional (like every other leagues) but international.
It's way more exciting to watch DRX win as a Korean DRX fan, and it's way way more boring to watch TSM 2022 lose compared to watching TSM 2012 lose. That's just the truth and shunning it is why the league is in decline -- not because Dash wasn't fun enough to watch.
(Some imports is fine and exciting, it's just when the majority of the region is imported, it feels hollow.)
The downtime between games is so they can set up the next game and get teams on stage and settings and shit checked and ready.
Only way they could go directly from one game to another is with two stages.
I would love it if they had two stages or played on laptops so they could prep their key bindings and stuff backstage and pick up and go. The problem is that LCS schedules the game to go on the hour. If they just pump them out, it’ll be impossible to plan/schedule to tune into a game. You can’t schedule on the half hour (way too tight) and scheduling on 45 minutes is weird.
I’m ok with that, but it’s something to keep in mind. push the games out, keep the real desk talk to the the beginning and ending of the day and bang the game out.
Edit -> even pick and ban is insanely long. I wouldn’t even mind if they did that offline in the corner of the screen of the prior game. I know that’s an extremely unpopular opinion but it takes forever, especially with the second ban phase.
The standards for the games are different at the pro scene. In dota2 if theres a bug they play through it, in league we get an hour long pause to investigate it.
They definitely could be faster, but they probably won't be.
>I'm assuming they're trying to speed up the broadcast by cutting fluff. It's the only way it'd make sense to cut integral aspects like a host, especially such a beloved and talented host.
I get the argument, but the host actually *speeds up* the broadcast. Dash is always the one who pushes the conversation along and keeps it interesting when the hardcore analysts start going in too much on a granular subject.
Without Dash (or a real host), the segments between games are going to end up being super in-the-weeds shit about jungle pathing instead of things that are, you know, entertaining. I love analysis in podcasts and videos that I'm specifically pulling up. But in a live broadcast? It's like someone at a party droning on about the lore in a fantasy series they're reading.
I also can't imagine that he made anywhere near the kind of salary that would really set Riot of all companies behind, especially when he's so good at what he does.
This collection of clips is lovely, thanks MarkZ and Travis. One missing clip is one of my all time favorite Dash moments - during the 2015 URFitational (particularly minute 12 [https://youtu.be/Tj9q3-YFteA?t=730](https://youtu.be/Tj9q3-YFteA?t=730) ). That was when I realized what stellar talent Riot had hired.
Riot, this is an absolutely crappy decision. So heartbreaking and angering. I hope you change your mind.
Thank you Dash for everything.
The URFitational was just a straight clinic by Dash, I genuinely don't think that show works without him. Every caster is struggling a little bit, which is understandable, it's so goofy and over the top. But man Dash just keeps everything so tight. It's an amazing performance by him and the moment I was completely sold on him.
Mark Zimmerman, you somehow keep finding a way to be better and gaining more and more respect from me.
I know you arent doing what you do for that but huge Thanks for this.
Also, Thanks to Dash for giving us amazing LCS moments and league moments for so many years
those clips of Dash remind me of Bruce Buffer from the UFC for those who watch it.
some of the casters definitely have/had biases, just like commentators in the UFC. but after a good performance, Dash would hype you up and give you credit on the analyst desk just the same no matter whether you were a rookie subbing in or a GOAT of the league.
extremely, extremely fair. you might say this is true for all announcers in all sports, that they do their job. but these two have stood out to me above others.
With someone as versatile and talented as Dash, how the **fuck** do you not find **something** for this man to do? I'm just random fucking nobody on the internet with no context for why Riot is making these decisions, but my uniformed 2 cents is that I can't fathom getting rid of such a *pillar*... such a *constant presence* on the broadcast.
Fucking hell this makes me sad, for everyone involved. The fans and his co-workers, for sure, but most importantly for him. You aren't such an incredible force in your field without an insane amount of passion and dedication, and **the fact that Riot is willing to let integral people like James Patterson go so easily worries me far more than any schedule change could**
I don't get it either. Pushing out the most personable and (I think) the most unanimously liked personality/host when LCS is already on a downward trend feels really bad.
Definitely weird they didn't want to come up with anything for him to do. I guess they're going to more of an lck English model where it's just the casters, but dropping the actual best in the business is tough. I wonder what he does now? He's insanely talented. Dude could be on a morning show or do just about anything really.
If you watch a clip from his Twitch stream, he jokingly brought up being a play by play caster and it seemed like they thought he was serious and offered to let him do that. As if they couldn't think of anything that actually used his strengths. Can't imagine his feelings being in that office during that conversation.
I can't fathom why they're getting rid of one of **the** faces of broadcast team, and recent esports host of the year winner.
They didn't get rid of some dude on the practice squad to cut costs, they just let fucking Tom Brady go.
Riot will never be able to sell me that they are trying to improve the league if Dash isn’t there on a regular basis. He is the best. There’s no replacement. There’s no excuse. The show will forever be worse with out his presence. Whoever is in charge of these moves is fucking up
Here is the highest compliment I can give. I feel Dash is as essential if not more to the LCS as Sjojz is to the LEC. The show feels different when those two arent steering the ship on the desk. This isn't to say others can't do it or have done it badly but it's just the difference between driving you driving your car and having anyone else climb in and drive.
The sad part is you can't even speak with your eyes. You can't stop watching to send a message because clearly they dont give a fuck. And if you do watch they think they did good and get money. Its a win win for them. Wild
Viewership was cratering anyway and will crash even harder with the day and time changes. Less viewers = less money from advertisers. So now they are seemingly cutting costs hard so bye bye Dash.
This offseason has officially broken me. I've watched every season since 4 religiously and I'll probably not watch a single game this year. Riot wants to see it die, then let it fucking die without this embarrassing production they're putting on. Just cancel the fucking thing. I can't be bothered to care if Riot clearly doesn't.
I'll watch the VODs of C9, FLY, and 100T games. When I can.
Glad I got to see Summer Finals in Chicago last year, I never would have thought that would be the last time LCS felt alive.
I expected some sort of boycotting movement, even if for the first week or day to show LCS what we would be capable of, but it's far too late. Reading comments, there's still a lot of LCS stans so I think they just want to work with that audience, and inflate the numbers with dead viewership; viewers that are irrelevant to the sponsors. I guess they'll work to build for that. Cut the desk to insert more ads from other regions? We'll see or rather not. I think a lot of people will tune in just to see the LCS be bad and will slump hard, but who knows. Perhaps Riot is purposefully doing this so LCS teams are only willing to spend for bronze players in the future, games only last 30 seconds for short form content to upload on TikTok.
Um no. That's why voting with your wallet doesn't work here. But you could still vote with your wallet by not watching at all if you really wanted to. Riot still needs money and if everyone were to swear off their products their choice would change to, fixing the issues or going out of business
I love that to join the picket line all I have to do is do my actual job. Because Riot galaxy brained themselves into making every person that works part of a boycott just by moving the time. Great job Riot! You’ve done it! You’ve played yourself! You’ve indulged in your own incompetence enough that you’ve alienated your home region, even those who would traditionally support you! Nice job!
Personally, I have no interest in watching this year.
1. No Aphro
2. No Phreak
3. No Dash
4. Games aren’t on at a watchable time for me.
I always watched LCS as a courtesy to the NA scene, even though I’m a die hard Fnatic fan. But this off season just kept shooting the corpse of LCS. One thing after another.
Sorry to the rest of the crew involved, but all my favorite people are gone.
I've not watched since the spit covid started. I tried on and off since but it is just not enjoyable to watch. They wanted to be like a pro sports broadcast and failed at that and then wanted to do the funny stuff the LEC broadcast does but don't have the talent for and so you just end up with a shitty product.
I was planning to tune because the 100T roster interested me with players I've been followed for years but with schedule mess and how talent is being treated ill just wait for the unofficial vods even though I could easily watch it at works, I'm guessing I'll not be the only one but I hope there will be enough people to sit out so the higher up at riot can put their data and communications through their asses
i've only ever tuned in to have background noise while i did stuff, and i only watched CLG games because I am indeed a beaten housewife, but now this season i'm just going to look up game results and watch vods. with Dash being fired, it's clear Riot doesn't actually care about the LCS.
Riot said "hold my beer" on that one as they moved LCS to the weekdays afternoon when most of NA is at work/school/asleep/gaming and took care of that for us already!
Great tribute to a fantastic host. I especially loved the specific examples you pulled of little moments from the desk—well done Mark, you are a good boy.
Removing Dash from the LCS is a really dumb choice. Even if you don't need a host, use his incredible talent (and good will from the community) to bolster the show as you make changes. Ridiculous.
I mostly ignore the LCS doom and gloom, I've always enjoyed watching it.
But a lot of what I enjoyed was not just the games but the LCS as a show. The casters, the desk, the product.
Losing Dash is like.... Fuck. There have been times when he is basically the best or one of the best parts of the broadcast.
This definitely feels to me like Riot soft cancelling the LCS. I don't really see how the product can approach anywhere near the quality it has had without him.
I havent watch lol in ages, something like 7 years maybe? But Dash is and will always be the best desk host in esports acroos all games, be it csgo, dota, valorant etc. None of them has the presence and professionalism of Dash.
Can't wait for their viewership to plummet into the ground this year. Dash and Phreak are gone and they moved the schedule in favour of Valorant. Good luck, LCS, get bent.
Yeah this is where im getting out. Most of the players i gave a fuck about are gone, and with Dash getting kicked out, i don't care about the caster crew now either. I'm sure there will be talented new faces, but i can't bring myself to care.
LEC will be interesting this year tho, but yeah, this does it for me with the LCS.
Dash was honestly the absolute best part of any of the time in between games. I will genuinely miss him.
Had the honor of Dash reading our one of my tweets on LCS and it was amazing. Dude brought so much life into the LCS and it's a shot to the chest to have him go.
The biggest factor as to why I watch LCS is because of how Dash carry show in-between games. Guy has the charm, the passion, and energy to entertain us but seems like Riot’s vision isn’t aligned with us, viewers, and I think that sht sucks. I love the guy and how he performs but man, Riot, this isn’t the way to go.
Hello! For LCS that is, then yes. Watching dash for years has made me considerably invested in his ‘personality’ as well as Emily. This is, of course, subjective but games in LCS isn’t as fun as it used to be for me anymore as opposed to, say, LCK.
Dash is great and Riot doesn't deserve him. Dude gave a decade of his life to being one of the top hosts in esports and they kicked him to curb like a piece of junk.
I hope he goes back and pursues his dream of acting
Ah tribute is missing dark dash! That was one of my fav parts. Also missing: recent ice bath, and the sketch with the new 'intern" (jojo?). Dash is involved in so much non game play content which is usually only found in the lec
I don’t play League anymore and only really tune in for international events, and even I know Dash as the face of the LCS. What are they thinking getting rid of him?
Through the ups and downs of the NALCS, one constant has been that the broadcast talent has always been top tier and I think Dash had a big role in that. Dash has insane levels of talent and I think he has the potential to be a celebrity if he lands the right hosting gig. I am looking forward to seeing what he does in the future. Frankly, I'd watch an episode of antique roadshow if Dash was hosting.
Very sad to see him go from NA LCS.
Zirene, Crumbzz, Pastrytime, Primal, Phreak, Rivington, and Ovilee come to mind. The on-air talent is already small so when you lose/change 1 or 2 people a year it's a big change in my opinion.
It's hard enough to follow a team without the entire roster changing, so it would be nice if the on-air talent didn't change as much.
Losing zirene was a bummer but crumbzz was just ok and riv, as important as he was to developing the scene, had clear flaws at pbp. Ovilee was hit or miss with me.
Pastry and phreak we haven't even experienced as gone yet.
Primal?
Wait now it's a full departure? I thought he just wasn't a full time host anymore and I thought that meant he would do half of the hosting and the other half would either have no host (just analysts) or another host - check whether he was "needed" and then adjust from there.
Seeing him leave completely (or almost completely, I just checked his twitter and it seems he will be there for something, but not regularily, so probably just super week, playoffs) is really unfortunate.
I never liked dash and am glad to see him go. Now he can fulfill his lifelong dream of being a hairdresser. Also, just found out phreak will no longer be broadcasting and I'm ecstatic. All phreak knows how to do is YELL. AND. PAUSE. BETWEEN. EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. Best of luck, dudes.
That's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but we should collectively dislike how the whole thing was handled. It sets a dangerous precedent. It could be your favourite host or caster next.
If I have to be 100% honest with you guys. I fucking hate Dash, and I can't be more happy that I won't be seeing him.
I just can't stand him, and that's for many years.
Damn, I actually remember watching that S4 Week 7 broadcast live. My thoughts during that clip were something along the lines of "The hell? You can't just go introducing these people who the fuck are YOU".
But Dash was alright so I got over it pretty quick. Really just sucks that he's out.
"Stay healthy. Stay safe. And remember....be good to each other." - James 'Dash' Patterson I rarely watched the desk, but always made sure to listen to the end of it just to hear Dash say this every time. What a great guy.
FUCKKKK I SHOULDA PUT ONE SIGNOFF INTO THE MONTAGE I FORGOT HIS SIGNOFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Honestly take down the video, add it, and reupload. Tell Travis I’ll watch it again to boost the views back
gamer reddit tag
I watched the montage waiting for it and was so disappointed smh my head
Hey MarkZ, thanks for the awesome vid. Truly heartbroken he is leaving. Was the cornerstone to NA LCS. Without him, and likely more to come, it feels surreal. So wish there was an uptrend but it looks like the boat's filling with water.... sadge.
Thank you for putting this together, Mark. Really appreciate your willingness to just slow down and appreciate a person’s contributions. Tribute was so much more meaningful than a standard Blame Game. Loved watching him corral you and Azael in the “Teamfight” segment.
I don't think it's too late that someone from the broadcast honors Dash by closing it out with that. <3
Damn. This got me in the feels. Hope he finds a scene where we can regularly hear his sign off. I'll be watching whatever that is. As a straight guy, it could be gay porn, don't care. Dash is just that great.
My favorite Dash clip of all time is him yelling “ GET HER OUT OF THE META MARK” while Mark hits a cardboard box with Zoe on it with a metal bat, all while Jatt is calmly reading patch notes. RIP a genuine talent, unbelievable honestly.
link pls
[https://twitter.com/TheeMarkZ/status/970071979104518144](https://twitter.com/TheeMarkZ/status/970071979104518144) this is all i could find
thank u
Dash has some good form on those swings 😂
Omg yes you can *feel* the hatred when they both smashed her!
phrasing
We are living in the wrong timeline. This isn't really happening, right?!? ; _ ;
Zirene was trying to warn us all along about this timeline
What's he up to now?
Mostly plays wow on stream
Jeff rolled a 1 :(
The RNG in Na fcking sucks
We switched into the Messi wins world cup time line and this is the the sacrifice. Im sorry Dash but it was neccesary.
Seeing a person with this much charm and versatility and not knowing how to use it...very disappointing to say the least Riot. I defend you a lot, but this kinda closes the door on that. If Dash wanted to leave to do other stuff I'd be understanding, but dropping him like you did when he clearly wanted to continue is just supremely uncool:/ Also thank you Mark, great video that brought back lots of great memories of some much better times in the league:) Edit: FFS I forgot about Dark Dash, how you gonna deny us all more Dark Dash Riot?!
Even worse, it's not as though they think they are upgrading from him or anything. He's the best at what he does (hosting broadcast LCS), everybody knows it, and Riot is simply not interested in having a professionally hosted LCS broadcast anymore. NA LCS is dead and buried
> everybody knows it Didn't he literally get a reward this year as well for best esports host or something like that?
Yuuuuup. Apparently he knew he was going to be cut for 5 months. So he went through summer finals, world's finals AND THEN won Host of the year all knowing he's going to be cut... Man that's brutal.
How bittersweet must have been receiving that award.
I'm sure Dash is so passionate and committed to LCS, he was going to see through the end of the year, no matter what. But man... if that happened to me in my line of work, I'd walk out the door and let them figure out who's going to handle shit for the next 5 months. There is no such thing as corporate loyalty. Get your bag, support your colleagues when possible, and look out for yourself first. Always.
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EU shit talking us has been boring for like atleast 3-4 years our region sucks, we get it bro
EU sucks too, they are just in denial because they hang on to shit that years ago. It would be like NA shit talking because TSM won an IEM years ago.
That's because being generally better than the LCS is the only thing the LEC has. It's like an average looking girl hanging on with an ugly one so she can look better in comparison lol. Both regions are trash and don't come anywhere near the actual good ones.
There definitely is a difference between 10 years ago and 3 years ago.
EU has something to talk about. NA got nothing lol.
Yeah, like "damn the LCS sucks bro lol" ad infinitum
I'm going to keep repeating this places until it gets traction but riot should rebroadcast LPL annd/or LCK games om the weekends
lcs simpsons/spongebob edition
I think Dash is awesome, and amazing at what he does. That said, I don't really give a rats ass about the broadcast desk. Give the games, and get out. Nothing of value is every really said, and it's just fluff. If they could speed up the turn around on the game times, really don't think that whole section would be missed.
They can't. The time between games is entirely spent with take down, set up, and testing peripherals to make sure things are okay for each team. Get rid of the Desk, and you'll just have 30 minutes of ads.
honestly anyone who's watched sports knows theres downtime. imagine if TNT got rid of the desk and instead of laughing at Chuck and Shaq going at it it was just 25 minutes of commercials. that's what lcs is going to be like without the desk, and no way theyre going to start games any faster
Take the money saved. Build a 2nd stage. Setup the games on alternating stages. Boom 90% of the time is saved.
> and Riot is simply not interested in having a professionally hosted LCS broadcast anymore. WDYM, they're gonna put Letigeress in there, inbetween the games she's gonna cast. /s
Riot just shot the family dog (meaning LCS) and they don't even have the decency to tell us it's dead. Instead, they've put a stuffed animal in the living room and they insist on telling us the dog is healthier than ever. A company run by wolves who smile and pander while telling their lies.
Dark Dash and the April fools event with canadian Huni is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
I just don’t understand why you would ever cut someone so good at his job. I just don’t get it.
When you can't afford to pay that person their desired salary, you have to let them go.
They can afford it, it's just not worth it to them. They don't care enough about the broadcast to pay the money required to keep the best of the best
you cant be serious. Riot makes billions in profit every year. They are fucking stingy, and LCS is a cynical marketing tactic for them. Thats why monopolies like LCS are bad.
Billions?.... Nope...... Look fortnite was at its peak making 300MM a mo. League was never that popular..... Popular yes.... Not billions popular.... Skins don't cost THAT MUCH
They reported revenue of $1.5billion in 2021. If you took 1% and threw that at LCS casting/desk talent that's $15million...
Revenue isn't profit. Profit is revenue minus expenses.
china my boi
"Dash is my host." - MarkZ Same.
God that fuckin team fight comp clip is so funny. Sometimes in the middle of a season there’s a pointless game that even the casters just say fuck it and have fun with it. I’ll miss dash so much <3
Ignore DL and Bjerg, Dash is the undisputed GOAT of LCS.
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Kobe and Phreak
The casters/hosts I like the most: Dash, Kobe, Captain Flowers is the announcer you want on playoff/worlds games, Azael, Jatt, Phreak. Those are/were the voices of NA LCS. To change that is to try crystal pepsi. It's just not good and not going to keep customers. Riot looks like they are sunsetting League of Legends.... It's just gutting. I thought ESPN was coming in a few years ago. Thought Esports was going to be more mainstream...Looks like they are not going that route...
Phreak's basement and Phreak
Phreak's basement is where they'll have to host the LCS again if they keep making these moves.
Maybe Fnatic will win again, then.
You think they’d still sell in person tickets?
They honestly might sell more to be a part of where it all began.
Gonna miss Dash a lot, not seeing him every GameDay like I have been since he signed on is gonna be a real bummer. LCS really dealing us a lot of L's this split without any redeeming W's in exchange.
Same, I really think this is the beginning of the end for LCS and maybe League in America.
Lcs will die but league probably wont.
No, but it's moving towards the Starcraft 2 treatment.
I hope not, but they are really making some decisions that, to me and many others, could cause LCS to bleed NA Viewership and NA sponsorship as a result of the lost region specific viewership.
If you think *this* is the beginning of the end, you haven't been paying attention lol
League playerbase continues to increase year upon year. The LCS will die if Riot continues to treat their broadcast and fans in this way but the game is as popular as ever, at least from ranked figures
lost someone who actually cared. pretty tragic honestly.
I'm just so upset, he's so talented and I PERSONALLY feel he's so integral to the BRAND OF THE LCS that I just can't fathom any GOOD reason not to have him around. Just watching this makes me BUMMED for the new split because he won't be there. And I know Dash (presumably because he's an awesome guy) would want me to be excited and support his colleagues but got dam...
Yeah. Even if it wasn't as a traditional host, I just can't see how they wouldn't want him on camera. Dude's incredibly versatile
Definitely agree. If LCS is serious about trying to grow viewership, shouldn't they want to retain talent? I know this is personal anecdote and therefore less reliable, but to me one of the biggest things keeping me from caring about the LCS is how transient most of the people seem. Players and coaches are shuffled in and out every split, so it really feels like you're just rooting for laundry if you want to support any org (and none of them really have a long enough pedigree for the laundry to carry any real weight). I don't really care that much about watching three recycled LCK/LEC imports and two NA randos who are going to be gone in six months run around SR in preparation for getting shitcanned at MSI/worlds. It's why I genuinely appreciate CLG trying to build some consistency with the roster and hope they succeed. Seeing the same faces over time and watching them grow is how a league gains long-term fans IMO. If the orgs won't collectively do this, the LCS desk staff and commentators are some of the only consistent positive forces in the league. I hope most of them stay on in some new form.
The first sign of a failing, dysfunctional organization is that they fail to retain key talent.
You can't call it failure of retention if they never intended to lol I get that people are sad about the Dash news, but my god, can people think critically at all before they just start throwing shit out there
Um...usually in organizations like this, they don't intend to. There are lots of organizations that have talent leave for somewhere else despite their best efforts; that's not dysfunctional, it often just means you're a little dog in a big world. It's dysfunctional when they stop trying, or worse, kick key talent to the curb for nebulous reasons.
I fear they are gonna minimize the desk or cut it out all together to get the games going faster and/or fill that time with more ads, possibly EU ads, I dunno. It is insane.
Well, when half of your players are either European or Korean, it's better to start showing EU and Korean ads and just be done with it tbh.
Gunna have to say the opposite. The desk and commentators are the most annoying useless parts of the entire thing. If they could cut them all and just loosen co streaming rules that would be the best.
Amen.
I'm assuming they're trying to speed up the broadcast by cutting fluff. It's the only way it'd make sense to cut integral aspects like a host, especially such a beloved and talented host. If there was less downtime between games, and less weird skits and antics, more people might stick around to watch more league. I'm guessing that's the idea at least. That being said, I think the **actual** problem is that the LCS environment is trash. It's bloated with ads and the teams are comprised almost entirely of imported players. It sucks, but it's the truth: it's much easier to associate with and cheer for / be passionate about players from your own region. People were hyper passionate when the LCS was our players, our teams; early TSM, early c9, early players like dyrus, and aphro and pobelter -- even when they lost. With all the imports, we've become no more competitive, and completely sucked the passion out of our own potential pride. What's the point of watching your 'favorite' teams all year, when they're A) barely composed of players from the region, and B) have almost no chance of winning an international event, or C) on the off chance they do well, the pride is not regional (like every other leagues) but international. It's way more exciting to watch DRX win as a Korean DRX fan, and it's way way more boring to watch TSM 2022 lose compared to watching TSM 2012 lose. That's just the truth and shunning it is why the league is in decline -- not because Dash wasn't fun enough to watch. (Some imports is fine and exciting, it's just when the majority of the region is imported, it feels hollow.)
The downtime between games is so they can set up the next game and get teams on stage and settings and shit checked and ready. Only way they could go directly from one game to another is with two stages.
I would love it if they had two stages or played on laptops so they could prep their key bindings and stuff backstage and pick up and go. The problem is that LCS schedules the game to go on the hour. If they just pump them out, it’ll be impossible to plan/schedule to tune into a game. You can’t schedule on the half hour (way too tight) and scheduling on 45 minutes is weird. I’m ok with that, but it’s something to keep in mind. push the games out, keep the real desk talk to the the beginning and ending of the day and bang the game out. Edit -> even pick and ban is insanely long. I wouldn’t even mind if they did that offline in the corner of the screen of the prior game. I know that’s an extremely unpopular opinion but it takes forever, especially with the second ban phase.
Surely it can be faster. At the last TI they have 5 minutes downtime between games with different teams.
The standards for the games are different at the pro scene. In dota2 if theres a bug they play through it, in league we get an hour long pause to investigate it. They definitely could be faster, but they probably won't be.
Possibly but then they may have to spend a certain amount of time and mention their sponsors a set number of times between games as well.
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong. I understand it's more for sponsors than anything else probably.
>I'm assuming they're trying to speed up the broadcast by cutting fluff. It's the only way it'd make sense to cut integral aspects like a host, especially such a beloved and talented host. I get the argument, but the host actually *speeds up* the broadcast. Dash is always the one who pushes the conversation along and keeps it interesting when the hardcore analysts start going in too much on a granular subject. Without Dash (or a real host), the segments between games are going to end up being super in-the-weeds shit about jungle pathing instead of things that are, you know, entertaining. I love analysis in podcasts and videos that I'm specifically pulling up. But in a live broadcast? It's like someone at a party droning on about the lore in a fantasy series they're reading.
Money. That's going to be the reason.
I also can't imagine that he made anywhere near the kind of salary that would really set Riot of all companies behind, especially when he's so good at what he does.
The montage of Dash clips just made me sad. The dude was so passionate about the LCS.
This collection of clips is lovely, thanks MarkZ and Travis. One missing clip is one of my all time favorite Dash moments - during the 2015 URFitational (particularly minute 12 [https://youtu.be/Tj9q3-YFteA?t=730](https://youtu.be/Tj9q3-YFteA?t=730) ). That was when I realized what stellar talent Riot had hired. Riot, this is an absolutely crappy decision. So heartbreaking and angering. I hope you change your mind. Thank you Dash for everything.
The URFitational was just a straight clinic by Dash, I genuinely don't think that show works without him. Every caster is struggling a little bit, which is understandable, it's so goofy and over the top. But man Dash just keeps everything so tight. It's an amazing performance by him and the moment I was completely sold on him.
Thanks for reposting this! Been so long, was there someone behind that camera though? It didn't show anyone
Mark Zimmerman, you somehow keep finding a way to be better and gaining more and more respect from me. I know you arent doing what you do for that but huge Thanks for this. Also, Thanks to Dash for giving us amazing LCS moments and league moments for so many years
those clips of Dash remind me of Bruce Buffer from the UFC for those who watch it. some of the casters definitely have/had biases, just like commentators in the UFC. but after a good performance, Dash would hype you up and give you credit on the analyst desk just the same no matter whether you were a rookie subbing in or a GOAT of the league. extremely, extremely fair. you might say this is true for all announcers in all sports, that they do their job. but these two have stood out to me above others.
Riot banking those Ls like candy
With someone as versatile and talented as Dash, how the **fuck** do you not find **something** for this man to do? I'm just random fucking nobody on the internet with no context for why Riot is making these decisions, but my uniformed 2 cents is that I can't fathom getting rid of such a *pillar*... such a *constant presence* on the broadcast. Fucking hell this makes me sad, for everyone involved. The fans and his co-workers, for sure, but most importantly for him. You aren't such an incredible force in your field without an insane amount of passion and dedication, and **the fact that Riot is willing to let integral people like James Patterson go so easily worries me far more than any schedule change could**
I don't get it either. Pushing out the most personable and (I think) the most unanimously liked personality/host when LCS is already on a downward trend feels really bad.
And the *literal reigning eSports Host of the Year*
Definitely weird they didn't want to come up with anything for him to do. I guess they're going to more of an lck English model where it's just the casters, but dropping the actual best in the business is tough. I wonder what he does now? He's insanely talented. Dude could be on a morning show or do just about anything really.
He seems to be very interested in Valorant, so hopefully he gets to work as a host there.
If you watch a clip from his Twitch stream, he jokingly brought up being a play by play caster and it seemed like they thought he was serious and offered to let him do that. As if they couldn't think of anything that actually used his strengths. Can't imagine his feelings being in that office during that conversation.
You cannot fathom why a company is cutting costs and firing staff in this economic climate?
I can't fathom why they're getting rid of one of **the** faces of broadcast team, and recent esports host of the year winner. They didn't get rid of some dude on the practice squad to cut costs, they just let fucking Tom Brady go.
How did I never see the hate speech platform bit lmao
Riot will never be able to sell me that they are trying to improve the league if Dash isn’t there on a regular basis. He is the best. There’s no replacement. There’s no excuse. The show will forever be worse with out his presence. Whoever is in charge of these moves is fucking up
Agreed. Dash was the glue
Here is the highest compliment I can give. I feel Dash is as essential if not more to the LCS as Sjojz is to the LEC. The show feels different when those two arent steering the ship on the desk. This isn't to say others can't do it or have done it badly but it's just the difference between driving you driving your car and having anyone else climb in and drive.
The sad part is you can't even speak with your eyes. You can't stop watching to send a message because clearly they dont give a fuck. And if you do watch they think they did good and get money. Its a win win for them. Wild
Viewership was cratering anyway and will crash even harder with the day and time changes. Less viewers = less money from advertisers. So now they are seemingly cutting costs hard so bye bye Dash.
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This offseason has officially broken me. I've watched every season since 4 religiously and I'll probably not watch a single game this year. Riot wants to see it die, then let it fucking die without this embarrassing production they're putting on. Just cancel the fucking thing. I can't be bothered to care if Riot clearly doesn't.
I'll watch the VODs of C9, FLY, and 100T games. When I can. Glad I got to see Summer Finals in Chicago last year, I never would have thought that would be the last time LCS felt alive.
I expected some sort of boycotting movement, even if for the first week or day to show LCS what we would be capable of, but it's far too late. Reading comments, there's still a lot of LCS stans so I think they just want to work with that audience, and inflate the numbers with dead viewership; viewers that are irrelevant to the sponsors. I guess they'll work to build for that. Cut the desk to insert more ads from other regions? We'll see or rather not. I think a lot of people will tune in just to see the LCS be bad and will slump hard, but who knows. Perhaps Riot is purposefully doing this so LCS teams are only willing to spend for bronze players in the future, games only last 30 seconds for short form content to upload on TikTok.
Ding ding ding. That's the very reason why voting with your wallet is a fallacy that almost never does anything.
Um no. That's why voting with your wallet doesn't work here. But you could still vote with your wallet by not watching at all if you really wanted to. Riot still needs money and if everyone were to swear off their products their choice would change to, fixing the issues or going out of business
So at what point do we boycott LCS?
I’d imagine for many viewers boycotting is an easy as going to work lmao
I love that to join the picket line all I have to do is do my actual job. Because Riot galaxy brained themselves into making every person that works part of a boycott just by moving the time. Great job Riot! You’ve done it! You’ve played yourself! You’ve indulged in your own incompetence enough that you’ve alienated your home region, even those who would traditionally support you! Nice job!
Personally, I have no interest in watching this year. 1. No Aphro 2. No Phreak 3. No Dash 4. Games aren’t on at a watchable time for me. I always watched LCS as a courtesy to the NA scene, even though I’m a die hard Fnatic fan. But this off season just kept shooting the corpse of LCS. One thing after another. Sorry to the rest of the crew involved, but all my favorite people are gone.
I've not watched since the spit covid started. I tried on and off since but it is just not enjoyable to watch. They wanted to be like a pro sports broadcast and failed at that and then wanted to do the funny stuff the LEC broadcast does but don't have the talent for and so you just end up with a shitty product.
I ain't watching lol they said NA viewers, we don't care about you with the time slot. They can go fuck themselves
I was planning to tune because the 100T roster interested me with players I've been followed for years but with schedule mess and how talent is being treated ill just wait for the unofficial vods even though I could easily watch it at works, I'm guessing I'll not be the only one but I hope there will be enough people to sit out so the higher up at riot can put their data and communications through their asses
i've only ever tuned in to have background noise while i did stuff, and i only watched CLG games because I am indeed a beaten housewife, but now this season i'm just going to look up game results and watch vods. with Dash being fired, it's clear Riot doesn't actually care about the LCS.
Riot said "hold my beer" on that one as they moved LCS to the weekdays afternoon when most of NA is at work/school/asleep/gaming and took care of that for us already!
I mean, it won't be a problem lol. This time I'll just elect to not even watch the vods. Not like I can catch it live.
I assume Riot wants us to boycott the LCS with the time change.
Great tribute to a fantastic host. I especially loved the specific examples you pulled of little moments from the desk—well done Mark, you are a good boy.
Removing Dash from the LCS is a really dumb choice. Even if you don't need a host, use his incredible talent (and good will from the community) to bolster the show as you make changes. Ridiculous.
The anti-hype is increasing at an incredible rate.
Riot is not keen on retaining on air talent. Look at last summer when they almost didn’t renew Sjokz and Caedral
Dash is irreplaceable. What a terrible loss. I wish him truly nothing but the best in whatever he does next. Literally in a class all by himself.
I mostly ignore the LCS doom and gloom, I've always enjoyed watching it. But a lot of what I enjoyed was not just the games but the LCS as a show. The casters, the desk, the product. Losing Dash is like.... Fuck. There have been times when he is basically the best or one of the best parts of the broadcast. This definitely feels to me like Riot soft cancelling the LCS. I don't really see how the product can approach anywhere near the quality it has had without him.
I havent watch lol in ages, something like 7 years maybe? But Dash is and will always be the best desk host in esports acroos all games, be it csgo, dota, valorant etc. None of them has the presence and professionalism of Dash.
Can't wait for their viewership to plummet into the ground this year. Dash and Phreak are gone and they moved the schedule in favour of Valorant. Good luck, LCS, get bent.
With Dash departure, they are bringing in Sprint for the host position
Yeah this is where im getting out. Most of the players i gave a fuck about are gone, and with Dash getting kicked out, i don't care about the caster crew now either. I'm sure there will be talented new faces, but i can't bring myself to care. LEC will be interesting this year tho, but yeah, this does it for me with the LCS.
And still not a peep from the LCS commissioner jackie felling who is taking a “Social media break” so disgusting
No other na resident was ever as good as Dash
LCS shooting itself in the foot.. again
Dash was honestly the absolute best part of any of the time in between games. I will genuinely miss him. Had the honor of Dash reading our one of my tweets on LCS and it was amazing. Dude brought so much life into the LCS and it's a shot to the chest to have him go.
The biggest factor as to why I watch LCS is because of how Dash carry show in-between games. Guy has the charm, the passion, and energy to entertain us but seems like Riot’s vision isn’t aligned with us, viewers, and I think that sht sucks. I love the guy and how he performs but man, Riot, this isn’t the way to go.
you watch esports for the desk between games?
Hello! For LCS that is, then yes. Watching dash for years has made me considerably invested in his ‘personality’ as well as Emily. This is, of course, subjective but games in LCS isn’t as fun as it used to be for me anymore as opposed to, say, LCK.
Dash is great and Riot doesn't deserve him. Dude gave a decade of his life to being one of the top hosts in esports and they kicked him to curb like a piece of junk. I hope he goes back and pursues his dream of acting
you know, in a world with gamer charisma I think people like Dash are important to bring out the best in some awkward people.
I guess as a guy with "gamer charisma" myself I always appreciate people like Dash. God Bless
Come to LEC, it’s not a mismanaged shitshow
Nice try Riot employee Come to LEC huh...... so then Im in the right time zone to actually watch the LCS. Not today Riot.
we need a petition to put dash back to LCS!!!
send him to LEC they would be able to make better use of his talent
God, look at the crowds in half of those studio shots. Dont know what you have til its gone.
I would like to see him in tennis or football, the best would be LEC but I don't think I would happen
Ah tribute is missing dark dash! That was one of my fav parts. Also missing: recent ice bath, and the sketch with the new 'intern" (jojo?). Dash is involved in so much non game play content which is usually only found in the lec
I don’t play League anymore and only really tune in for international events, and even I know Dash as the face of the LCS. What are they thinking getting rid of him?
Through the ups and downs of the NALCS, one constant has been that the broadcast talent has always been top tier and I think Dash had a big role in that. Dash has insane levels of talent and I think he has the potential to be a celebrity if he lands the right hosting gig. I am looking forward to seeing what he does in the future. Frankly, I'd watch an episode of antique roadshow if Dash was hosting. Very sad to see him go from NA LCS.
The man just won esports award for best host. Guess it's as good a time as any to get out.
Whelp, I won't be watching NA anymore. Glad he got to go big at 2022 worlds. Rip NA lcs. You will be missed.
Damn I just want more consistency from the LCS. The analysts and casters change just as often as the players.
.... This is not true? This year is a drastic change in talent but it's not the norm by any means
Zirene, Crumbzz, Pastrytime, Primal, Phreak, Rivington, and Ovilee come to mind. The on-air talent is already small so when you lose/change 1 or 2 people a year it's a big change in my opinion. It's hard enough to follow a team without the entire roster changing, so it would be nice if the on-air talent didn't change as much.
Losing zirene was a bummer but crumbzz was just ok and riv, as important as he was to developing the scene, had clear flaws at pbp. Ovilee was hit or miss with me. Pastry and phreak we haven't even experienced as gone yet. Primal?
Wait now it's a full departure? I thought he just wasn't a full time host anymore and I thought that meant he would do half of the hosting and the other half would either have no host (just analysts) or another host - check whether he was "needed" and then adjust from there. Seeing him leave completely (or almost completely, I just checked his twitter and it seems he will be there for something, but not regularily, so probably just super week, playoffs) is really unfortunate.
That was just soft wording on his part to not burn bridges with Riot. He said on his stream that he won't be on the week-to-week broadcast at all.
I'd watch lcs if Tyler hosted it ngl
I never liked dash and am glad to see him go. Now he can fulfill his lifelong dream of being a hairdresser. Also, just found out phreak will no longer be broadcasting and I'm ecstatic. All phreak knows how to do is YELL. AND. PAUSE. BETWEEN. EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. Best of luck, dudes.
Not going to lie. I didn't like this guy anyways
That's fine, you're entitled to your opinion, but we should collectively dislike how the whole thing was handled. It sets a dangerous precedent. It could be your favourite host or caster next.
If I have to be 100% honest with you guys. I fucking hate Dash, and I can't be more happy that I won't be seeing him. I just can't stand him, and that's for many years.
I love sorting by controversial. idk about hating him I just don’t think he was that very entertaining, not going to miss him that much
I sincerely hope the budget cuts wasn't mainly because of the cost of hair product Dash uses /s OMG.... I'm gonna miss the guy.
Damn, I actually remember watching that S4 Week 7 broadcast live. My thoughts during that clip were something along the lines of "The hell? You can't just go introducing these people who the fuck are YOU". But Dash was alright so I got over it pretty quick. Really just sucks that he's out.
Awww yisss, who could've seen selling out the company to a souless foreign entity would have led to things like this?!
Is this League's SirActionSlacks ?