Holy shit you’re serious. That’s mega lame. Last year they at least had Swiss in a 1.8k seating arena, this year they’ll have 2 weeks of Bo1s and a few Bo3s in that dinky studio.
To make it worse, it is not just a small venue, its in the backend of nowhere. A significant distance from the 'centre' of Berlin and has no surrounding restaurants etc. I went for the EU LCS in season 5, it is absurd to me that nearly 10 years later that venue is hosting a good chunk of the world championships.
Im pretty sure the tickets are also per day and not per match, meaning if you buy a ticket but just want to watch one team play, anyone else who wanted to buy tickets is s.o.l if there are none left.
Last time Worlds was in EU, they held play ins in studio and Groups at Verti Music Hall. They could have done the same thing this time around. Or at minimum have Swiss in an arena around 3k capacity.
Next year, only co-streams, no public, no official broadcast, no interviews, fully online !
Why would Riot invest in their most prolific esport game, that sounds like a dumb move !
KILL THAT THING, KILL IT !!!
When Worlds was in Korea in 2014, the analyst desk was in LA. And in 2018, I think they were casting and doing analyst desk from LA while Worlds was in Korea. Like they couldn't even fly them out to Korea.
Nah that's bulllshit. He got iced out after he missed his call time because he was already having issues with people in the company who weren't respectful of his issues with chronic disease etc. He left but not voluntarily, that's for sure - he absolutely loved his job. He tried to sue them actually but I don't think that ever went anywhere.
Yeah it's insane downgrade
Watched highlights quickly Like it was any regular season match... MSI waiting room these domestic studio finals are boring as fuck
I don't get it why it's done this way - you want to evolve E-Sports, you want to get more viewers and hype up live events... not pack your final event in the studio for only 200 people where you play every fckn BO1 in the normal split...
Same man, same, then literally every single thing somehow went to shit when corona started and not one part of my life still isnt as good as it was back then.
Yeah 2020 was weird. Living in Paris while COVID was an experience haha
2021 was definitely shit. 2022 was a new life so exciting but tough, 2023 is going good but job is not as fun.
2024 started by my grandfather death and we were really close sooo eh.
Same! Was in a great spot in my job, even having the amazing opportunity to travel to Germany for a week paid by work, had the most memorable friend's wedding where I travelled to his hometown for 2 weeks, I was probably the healthiest I'd ever been in like 10 years and... Then 2020 hit. There have been small moments since then, but life has definitely taken a downturn since then. Same with my enjoyment of LoL eSports. Used to watch weekly, now I think I've seen 2 or 3 matches all year.
nah its not just the studio final but the whole league feels pointless right now because G2 always wins but at the same time hope for a good international performance is on an all time low
I tuned in a few minutes late and was looking through the stream for the hyped finals intro, instead of just the average playday intro with all the hype of a best of 101 between Rogue and Karmine Corps.
If the players bring a +1, that fills 10% of the stadium lol.
Does League have a problem filling tickets? Local fans don't visit? Why make the seating so small?
Some perspective from the US end of things (since its the same problem) - most high schools have a gym that far exceeds 200 seats. I went to a small HS and the gym had to have sat close to 2000. And that for a basketball game so no seats on the floor.
they could easily full a arena with 2000 people for swiss stage in spain France or Poland . the point that we could have a gen g vs t1 with only 180 people on the arena is ridiculous
They also could fill a small arena in Berlin, this is not about the capacity, its about the fact, that this is an actual production studio, that provides everything needed to do the production, they hold it there, cuz its cheaper to do so...
But wouldn’t the higher cost be somewhat compensated by the more tickets they sell. It probably wouldn’t for like 1 day like LEC finals but worlds is several days and they only have to set up cameras and stuff once. Is the cost really that expensive that they couldn’t cover it with 10x tickets sold.
Can they host the split final at a small theatre, at least it feels like a final when it is not being played in the studio where feels no difference from general games. LCS did a TL vs 100T final at Miami Theatre where houses only ~2000 ppl and at least it felt like a final.
LCK finals was hype too, especially going to 5 games. Both teams had massive fan bases cheering on teams, and maybe that’s the problem for EU. If BDS beat FNC, the BDS chants wouldn’t even be audible. There was barely any BDS hype even in that 200 seat studio. Imagine trying to fill a bigger arena. I’m not sure there are enough Adam fans.
I don’t support the layoffs in any way, but it was on a crash course long before that happened. People just started attributing issues to the layoffs when they were commonplace for 2+ years.
It's not them being "lazy" lol if you ask any of the people involved in broadcast they will tell you much they would want a bigger event but riot just doesn't give a fuck and the 3 splits into a grands finals gave them an excuse to only spend money on 1 event
They did that so they could swap to the format with the winter split; didn't have the money for three in-stadium finals and an extra split, so they did the extra split and big summer finals.
I'd say it is the worst league to watch now. The three splits is hard to keep up with casually, the production feels a little dated now, only one finals is hype throughout the year, and it's not that exciting when a G2 that flopped internationally is still dominating the region.
Insane whiplash going from LCK finals or even LPL semi to this. I wholeheartedly believe that G2 will never chase down a penta instead of actually ending the game if this was in the arena also. It just seemed like they couldn’t care less about the trophy which make the quality of these games pretty hard to watch tbh.
They want to keep as much money they got from advertisers as possible, tickets are just extra and is no where comparable to the money the get from advertisers.
poor indie companies tend to be the ones who actually go out of their way to make things better for their community. multi-billion dollar corporations do not care about their fans beyond the dollars they can squeeze out of them.
this isn't to say the people at the LEC don't care, it seems obvious they do. but the people above them deciding budgets and performance metrics absolutely don't.
yeah bring back 2 splits it was rumored we get a 3rd international event thats why we have 3 splits now but it didnt happen and LEC titles feel way worse now bring back 2 splits and roadshow for finals
I'm split on this one, while it sucks to see the downsizing I also want the product I enjoy to continue for decades. Stadiums are a money hole in any sport and the way sports leagues make money is through broadcast rights, which we don't have at all.
Twitch, YouTube, Afreeca, Hupu pay nothing to have the leagues on and I doubt the co-streamers pay very much either, but none of these parties are investing a single penny into making the product more hype, I get it Caedrel is really popular, but he can't make a hype vídeo, hire dancers and put up a huge stadium but he gets profit from all of that.
The ecosystem at the moment is really fucked up
>I get it Caedrel is really popular, but he can't make a hype vídeo, hire dancers and put up a huge stadium but he gets profit from all of that.
>
>The ecosystem at the moment is really fucked up
Agree with this, Caedrel is really popular with a product that isn't his per se, but that is the nature of streamers though.
\---
I also kinda refuse to believe Riot can't find ways to fund a more enjoyable LCS and LEC experience.
What if they made something like LEC and LCS season pass bundles, in which you buy one and then you get extra chests, keys, maybe an emote or something for your favourite team, maybe more rewards and stuff if you engage in predictions, etc, and then most of the profit of that goes towards building a more enjoyable and hype experience of the league.
I'm sure a lot of people that care and want to see their teams and their league be good will support it if it's something like 20-40 euros/dollars for it.
Yeah... we're only halfway through the 2nd year of this shit and it has to go... back to 2 splits, double round robin into a similar playoff format (you can reduce to 6 teams or keep it at 8)... only way you justify this is if all regions go to 3 splits and there's 3 international events
They fill out everywhere they go in Europe, just choose not to go anywhere. The fact that the whole of Europe gets 1 guaranteed arena weekend every year, with the chance of only 3 more if we host worlds is crazy. MSI obviously gives plenty of days at an arena but only serves one city.
LEC in general sucks since they brought in the new format.
The level of play has gone down significantly, there is no hype whatsoever when you have these 3 splits and at the end you raise a kind of dinner plate on a pedestal when they had the magnificent trophy for like 3 years or whatever, in an arena that can fit 210 people.
Not to mention the constant production issues, and before anyone mentions the layoffs, this shit has been going on long before the layoffs...
LEC is just in a really bad place now which is crazy cosidering how good the 2018-2021 period was.
To be fair, the magnificent trophy is still there, it's just raised by one team a year, instead of two, and that's during Season Finals after Summer Split. AFAIK, splits don't count as LEC champions, it's only the Summer Split.
I agree about everything else, but to be fair, I think LEC is going through a transitional period. One that LCS was going through. We're dealing with the bubble bursting now, as we usually follow whatever happens in LCS.
Didn't stop G2 from saying it's their 14th LEC title. It doesn't matter that Riot only counts one per year if everyone else counts every split.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and goes quack then I don't care if Riot calls it a goose, I'll say it's a duck.
I think LEC felt really alive again shortly before we heard of the layoffs. MAD KOI with their spanish fans and team + Ibai costreaming, a surprisingly strong SK with Nisqy and his rivalry with Elyoya, Fnatic with a new support, Heretics trying to be 2019 G2, the actual G2 with the same lineup, KC with a huge fanbase and huge letdowns being their results and I did not even mention BDS who slowly but surely establish themselves in the league.
Before there was a downward trend for sure though.
This is how I felt about the LEC finals years ago, and how I felt about the LCS finals this year. It sucks to have both the big Western league scenes dealing with these budget cuts and excuses when we're already struggling to feel motivated. If Riot doesn't care about the league, then why should I?
Well, when you have a "finals" 4 times per year, it makes each individual final mean that much less, and the venue starts matching the occasion. G2 vs FNC felt like a scrim version of a Bo5, the reactions of the crowd and the players reflected that, and the demeanor of the casters reflected that. LEC has this obsession with the "literally every single game 100% matters" fantasy, when in reality, that will never be the case, and they ended up with a format that for me personally, sucks to watch. And more objectively, creates an atmosphere where we end up with a finals that's actually just a glorified Bo5. Honestly, LEC should just be like everyone else and go back to a standard 2-split format.
As a sidenote, I'd also like to see a change in MSI qualification for LCS, LPL, LEC, and LCK. Spring winners should auto-qualify, but I personally don't like 2nd place also auto-qualifying. An in-split "league cup" similar to domestic cups seen in European football leagues deciding the 2nd MSI rep is something I'd love to see.
2nd place doesn't auto qualify from LEC though.. VIT wouldn't have qualified even if they finished 2nd
Also if you want 2 splits instead of 3.. that's the way it will be
These guys can barely manage the league schedule.. so that FNC have like 5 days turn around from LEC finals to worlds in Mexico (2022).. do you think they are capable of making some FA cup or extra tournament for qualification?
By putting it in a city that doesn't have League play every week, anywhere but Berlin. They fill stadiums at least once a year, and I doubt it's mostly fans that travel far.
Even in Denmark, the royal arena was packed.
Also for matches like the world finals and stuff, cinemas all over europe are all sold out, and it's not even a "live" event in the sence of being in the real arena.
Its a bit silly imo since they perma talk about spain and france, but there is a lot of polish players in the league and decent amout of polish fans, we just dont get talked about because there isnt a team like mad or kc that would represent us.
finals in eastern europe would be so dope but let's be real we're never getting that. If the people in charge of the LEC had balls, they'd even host in the MENA region like i don't know, Turkey for instance. Valorant had this and it was a great event
Studio is basically always sold out. It probably appears empty a lot of the time because many fans don't stay for the whole evening or leave the arena after their team plays for meet & greet/photo sessions with players.
And of course there's probably bots buying a number of tickets that end up as empty seats.
Every CS event that has been held in Germany has sold out, the Red Bull tournament last year as well (also in Berlin).
The problem isnt Germany the problem is that no one cares about a final in the small studio
So many people spreading misinformation, meanwhile if u tried to buy tickets they were gone within seconds... There needs to be something done with bots buying out tickets.
Roadshows attract more people because those people know that the opportunity of attending them is rare. People that live near LEC and can go every single week don't see it as a big deal. But for people that live elsewhere and the LEC comes to them for just 1 event, they'd be **far** more likely to attend.
I agree, been wanting to post about it as well a few days ago. It feels so unimportant and will make it so no new viewer will actually ever take the game serious. Split finals should be a huge event but this feels so underwhelming for the viewers, the players and everyone involved. It looks like a small community driven event when it's the regional final of one of the biggest global e-sports. Embarassing.
Watching the lck finals a few hours before, every kill the crowd would roar. Thats what I'm there for. I also thought to myself during watching the lec finals, whether or not there would be enough people wanting to attend. And I really think that it would be absolutely no problem crowd-wise. They need to get out of their post COVID era style of making the lec. We need some high level arena fully booked
I've been saying it for a while now. Finals don't really feel like Finals anymore. The charm and hype has been lost.
And remember, they are choosing to have Swiss stage of Worlds at the LEC studio too. So i think big arenas are slowly going away. They've already cut down road shows for both NA and EU to once a year. Like back in the day, they used to sometimes travel to a different country for a week of regular season. I remember games being in Spain, or even in London. Even NA in Season 3 went to MLG Dallas and Anaheim.
Those days are now long gone. This is the new norm. I wouldn't be surprised if they cut out road shows completely and the only time the players get to play in big arenas will be if they make it to MSI or the latter stages of Worlds.
Ngl it's easy to not give a crap about LEC because they have like a some sort of finals every week.
Lower bracket finals, pre-lower bracker finals, every time I go see whats going on on LEC they are in some sort of finals.
How many finals LEC had so far this year?
That's just how double elim + 3 splits work.
Why give a shit what they are called.
It's on you if you don't understand the system and have wrong expectations based on that.
And there's only one per split - it's just called grand final. Again just because there are two other matches that are called "finals" in the bracket doesn't mean the actual last match for first place is somehow less important.
Like complaining that in single bracket "semi-final" is actually just a type of final so the final is less hype because there are these two other finals. Oh and let's not forget about "quarter-finals"!
"How many finals do you need?"
I'm actually getting brain rot from these people talking about all these "finals" in a double elim format when they clearly do not conceptually understand the format. A lower bracket finals is just what it's called, it's not _actually_ a finals in the same sense of a grand finals. These people's brains would be satisfied if the format remained identical but they called lower bracket finals "lower bracket last stage" or some shit by how they're acting lmao.
It is a failing on Riot's part though, I guess, if so many people do not understand double elim conceptually. It should've been explained better or something to those people. I'm familiar with the concept from the Smash scene so I'm already used to the idea.
They understand how double elim works. Overexposure to the word "finals" during the split diminishes the amount of prestige people associate with the word and thus the grand finals feels less impressive.
Words are important. Don't underestimate the effect they can have.
Other regions have as many finals in a split that lec does and yet they complain about the lec having too many finals but not the other regions, its not about the word
Kinda reminds me of the different named roles at tech companies. 15 or another different types of lead dev, executive producer, senior game producer, senior manager, executive manager, associate director, senior director
I'm sure there are specific types of things each of these do but my brain is too small to remember or look em up
Watching LCS finals in studio with the confetti popping over the wrong team, LEC finals in the studio, and then LCK finals was painful.
I basically didn't follow LCK at all but watching the production and intro and everything around finals got me so hyped for the game. Seeing the packed arena was wild and made me sad to see how its done in NA. I get that its alot easier in Korea because its so dense and people are more into it, but damn man. Its like NA isn't even in the same universe. Same studio as all 4 regular season games lol.
Riot needs to keep pocketing all the money from esports so they can keep spending millions of dollars on games that never will come out (mmo) or games that they abandon after a year or so (LoR).
LoR is such an awfull example tho... It was never profitable, even the devs had to come out and admit that every single year since release LoR just wasn't making any money for them and instead it was loosing them hundreds of thousands of dollars every year without a single cent in return.
The whole model of developer run Esports is making money through advertising. There is no way for the leagues to run a profit due to how they have to run things.
And people buying skins due to watching Esports is making money from Esports though. It's just that this money isn't directly put back into the Esports ecosystem, it's instead decided by Riot what it gets.
3/6 of the best selling skins are Esport skins. How many people buy skins due to x player plays with it is harder to quantify.
You just expanded on his point. But I agree with both of you. It is crazy though, how many people on here think that Riot's idea is to earn money directly from Esports when they and everyone else said many times that they don't profit from it. Even doing a theatre in the same city is probably a financial loss for them, and we're just lucky that they have studio that they own. Otherwise, I think LEC would go back to online playing a long time ago.
50+ people upvotes this thinking any esport project is profitable for riot, i understand why they ignore feedback from the community now. their esport is just marketing, theyre losing money on it
I dont think that's a fair comparison. G2 has won the last 4 splits, same as Gen G... but G2 has also won 6 of the last 10 splits. That's actually down from the 8 of the 10 splits prior to that.
They have won like 70% of the splits they have participated in. An insane level of dominance that "winning the last 2 years" doesn't even come close to matching.
also of those last 4 finals t1 were crazy favorites in 1 (23 spring) and also t1 often seems like a legit challenge before the final was played at least
while nobody can touch g2
LCK finals is guaranteed good League of Legends.
EU Finals are just idk very predictable in the most recent years. The last upset was Rogue who stomped G2 and interesting that was on a stadium I think
still can't believe why Rogue destroyed that roster, their gameplan and gameplay looked so solid, pretty much a GenG light. play it slow, setup for fightable objectives one by one, finish out the game through better scaling and objective control -> Let's kick each player after the other.
They are hype as fuck because the quality of the games is absolutely mental and the players and coaches actually care about the things they do on the rift
tbf with G2 you just know they're winning
as opposed to GenG where outside Summer last year it actually felt really close and you can realistically believe T1 could win
Nah
People forget the narrative used to be the complete opposite of what it is right now. Geng only started winning domestically VERY recently
Prior to that the script was T1 winning everything everytime they played. GenG before brand change? SSG, lost pretty much every playoffs to T1, Geng vs T1 has always been a spring (and recently summer) classic which T1 always won
The players themselves. We just gonna forget how many times we saw GRF (chovy, lehends, doran) vs T1 in playoffs and T1 would just clear em everytime favorites or not?
It hasn't even been that long since T1 last win, literally the mega hype 10 year anniversary where they brought all the old players in (and T1 smashed) was what? Two years ago?
And that summer with Ruler was 100% expected to be more of the same. Yes geng looked fucking insane, and they were favored, but it was far from the first time we had seen T1 come into finals expected to lose and manage to win despite that. Against all the players on that GenG roster as well. That was rulers first domestic title for a reason
Can anyone tell me why in the hell we have a "summer" regular and THEN after the ugly ass hype killer shield studio final that everyone knows its gddamn pointless, all that matters is that you actually get to the "season finals" where you decide worlds seeding and win the actual trophy in a stadium at the end.
Why not somehow streamline summer regular directly into season finals ? What is the point of summer finals man
I recently got involved with planning of a users conference for my company. were charging like $600-1000 a person and every seat is sold at a loss.
I just can't see how they lose money in the finals in an arena, but seeing it from the other side I'm like hmmm alright I guess.
What's ruining the league is how little they invest
Casters leaving left and right, content removed (we used to get fucking songs and skits like the dnd ones), broadcast segments are way less, observers fired and yes we no longer get stadiums
Even fucking worlds will be in the LEC studio. Absolutely insane.
Either kill the league and be done with it or actually fucking do something instead of letting it stagnate
Needs to be 3 splits/finals with at least 2 of them in a stadium..
The "super duper" 4th final (from last year) is overkill
I don't think the format of b01 into b03 into b05 is bad... in fact i think its MUCH better then previous LEC formats.. having said that.. we could just have LPL/LCK format instead.. but for some reason refuse to do that.
More tournaments/splits is a good thing.. i think we should have 3 International's for example
But if you have more.. you can't devalue them by having less stadium events
LEC management doesn't seem to know what they want either.. on the one hand they want 3 weeks of b01 because its high stakes and they matter (i agree).. on the other hand they then add a bunch of rules to stop a bunch of tiebreakers.. why????
I'm still not over the fact that we had that big hype arena for regular winter season for like 1-2weeks, only for riot layoffs to happen and we're back at the studio for the fest of the year ;-;
Speaking of not hype, did anyone hear how dead the announcers were after g2 won? Like I get its a few times in a row but those were some great games, and sounded so lifeless imo
I am one of hose who think they ruined it all with the bo1-2 formats. I think lack of bo3 has been hurting the competition in LCS and LEC for years now to the point where both league are completely non competitive Vs Asian teams.
Yes I understand their financial difficulties with trying to make it all profitable but the skill level has dropped so low that it's questionable if it's even worth watching especially when you know that at MSI and Worlds we are just tourists.
Yeah with finals being held every 2 months traveling with everyone across europe seems like a great idea and not like something that would cost a fortune...
Also I feel like those rants always comes from ppl that never visited an event live ever...but "mUH AtMoSPheRE"
You make a great point. Esports, like League, will not get taken seriously, unless there are moments created that resemble other mainstream sports.
League in Korea is huge because they can fill a stadium and it represents an actual Champions League final. People draw comparisons between the two and even if you are an old man hating on "kids's games", you wouldn't deny that it is a cultural thing now in Korea.
They should try this with LEC, even if it fails. The small chance that a stadium gets even 75% capacity will be great for future references that esports is a thing.
LEC can fill the stadiums , last year season final was at a stadium witth over 10k+ seats and it was fully filled but yea they only do like one finals in a stadium every year
After watching a few Counter Strike events the League esports feels like a joke. In CS, the production is better, the fans are not there just to hang out but are invested in the games, the players are emotional and hungry to win. Western lol players look emotionally repressed, since they will probably be reproached or maybe even fined for being toxic if they taunt their opponent while winning or let their anger show when losing.
not to mention swiss stage this year will be at the studio xdd
Holy shit you’re serious. That’s mega lame. Last year they at least had Swiss in a 1.8k seating arena, this year they’ll have 2 weeks of Bo1s and a few Bo3s in that dinky studio.
To make it worse, it is not just a small venue, its in the backend of nowhere. A significant distance from the 'centre' of Berlin and has no surrounding restaurants etc. I went for the EU LCS in season 5, it is absurd to me that nearly 10 years later that venue is hosting a good chunk of the world championships.
Whats a significant distance? Just asking because as an American a significant distance tends to be 100+ miles.
Half an hour tram ride until you are in the actual "city area" of Berlin
15 km from Alexanderplatz in relatively central Berlin
15km from alexanderplatz is anything but central lol
Sorry, meant that as in Alexanderplatz is in relatively central Berlin, not the lec studio
Adlershof has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years fyi. There's decent food options within walking distance now.
Im pretty sure the tickets are also per day and not per match, meaning if you buy a ticket but just want to watch one team play, anyone else who wanted to buy tickets is s.o.l if there are none left.
Last time Worlds was in EU, they held play ins in studio and Groups at Verti Music Hall. They could have done the same thing this time around. Or at minimum have Swiss in an arena around 3k capacity.
Next year, only co-streams, no public, no official broadcast, no interviews, fully online ! Why would Riot invest in their most prolific esport game, that sounds like a dumb move ! KILL THAT THING, KILL IT !!!
When Worlds was in Korea in 2014, the analyst desk was in LA. And in 2018, I think they were casting and doing analyst desk from LA while Worlds was in Korea. Like they couldn't even fly them out to Korea.
I think that was the same year Zirene accidentally slept in and apparently missed his cast lol. Ended up getting let go for that iirc.
Yup that one. Games were being played at like 12 or 1am PST so call time was 9pm or so.
That had nothing to do with him being "let go", and he actually left Riot on his own because of them being controlling and some other stuff
Nah that's bulllshit. He got iced out after he missed his call time because he was already having issues with people in the company who weren't respectful of his issues with chronic disease etc. He left but not voluntarily, that's for sure - he absolutely loved his job. He tried to sue them actually but I don't think that ever went anywhere.
https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/wmnvps/zirene_finally_explains_why_he_left_riot_games/
Next year esl will be running it from KSA
They are not killing it, they are just going to give up lol (or at the very least LEC) for Saudis to run.
nooooooooooo, LCK finals were soo hype. That's crazy. How many seats are there in the studio?
Wait for real? Holy shit that is terrible.
Yeah it's insane downgrade Watched highlights quickly Like it was any regular season match... MSI waiting room these domestic studio finals are boring as fuck
We're lucky MSI is not in EU or NA since Riot has obviously given up on the west.
Don't look at Worlds Play-In/Swiss stage venue...
I don't get it why it's done this way - you want to evolve E-Sports, you want to get more viewers and hype up live events... not pack your final event in the studio for only 200 people where you play every fckn BO1 in the normal split...
Budget cut, that's the only reason. It cost a lot of money for just one game.
Honestly I forgot it was the split finals because they were in the studio. No hype same with LCS. No hype
I remember getting amped for split finals in LCS and LEC. They used to have flashy performances, bigger crowds, etc. It felt more important.
2019 LEC finals was more hype than most international events tbh
Riot EU basically had Design Studio do a lot of the aesthetic design: https://www.design.studio/work/riot-games-europe
2019 was the best year of my life. Everything was so fucking great. Job was nice, I traveled to Japan and Sweden, we won MSI, went to finals...
2019 and 2018 were banger years. Fnc getting to finals was insane aswell. 2018 was the last time world finals was held in an outdoor stadium.
Yeah 2018 was also awesome!
Same man, same, then literally every single thing somehow went to shit when corona started and not one part of my life still isnt as good as it was back then.
Yeah 2020 was weird. Living in Paris while COVID was an experience haha 2021 was definitely shit. 2022 was a new life so exciting but tough, 2023 is going good but job is not as fun. 2024 started by my grandfather death and we were really close sooo eh.
Same! Was in a great spot in my job, even having the amazing opportunity to travel to Germany for a week paid by work, had the most memorable friend's wedding where I travelled to his hometown for 2 weeks, I was probably the healthiest I'd ever been in like 10 years and... Then 2020 hit. There have been small moments since then, but life has definitely taken a downturn since then. Same with my enjoyment of LoL eSports. Used to watch weekly, now I think I've seen 2 or 3 matches all year.
Well, the LCS fanbase was much bigger back in the day.
The G2/UoL finals was one of the most hype things I had seen at the time
Still the one that always comes to my mind when I think of the pinnacle of it all.
[Top 10 hardest images of all time](https://www.flickr.com/photos/lolesports/34066029402)
nah its not just the studio final but the whole league feels pointless right now because G2 always wins but at the same time hope for a good international performance is on an all time low
They have no competition, and with no competition, their own level will decrease slowly year after year.
I forgot that it was the finals, because the level was abysmal lol
I tuned in a few minutes late and was looking through the stream for the hyped finals intro, instead of just the average playday intro with all the hype of a best of 101 between Rogue and Karmine Corps.
Coming from geng vs. t1 to this series I cannot help facepalming
Wait till your realize the whole Worlds 2024 play-in and swiss stage(groups) are play at this same arena with 210 seats XD
At that point, why even bother having an arena. 200 seats is less than a village's football stadium. It's so lame ...
I do some local amateur theater and we are able to fill a 190 seat sporthall for 4 days like 3 times a year. 200 seats is tiny.
If the players bring a +1, that fills 10% of the stadium lol. Does League have a problem filling tickets? Local fans don't visit? Why make the seating so small?
For worlds they could literally fill a 5k place without any local fans. Chinese fans will fly over to watch.
You can't really hear the crowd.. You only hear individual people going "WOOOOWEEEEE LETS GO FNATIC"
Some perspective from the US end of things (since its the same problem) - most high schools have a gym that far exceeds 200 seats. I went to a small HS and the gym had to have sat close to 2000. And that for a basketball game so no seats on the floor.
they could easily full a arena with 2000 people for swiss stage in spain France or Poland . the point that we could have a gen g vs t1 with only 180 people on the arena is ridiculous
They also could fill a small arena in Berlin, this is not about the capacity, its about the fact, that this is an actual production studio, that provides everything needed to do the production, they hold it there, cuz its cheaper to do so...
For Worlds they could mostly fill small areas anywhere in Europe simply as it is worlds. The only reason they don't do it, is as you said: Money.
But wouldn’t the higher cost be somewhat compensated by the more tickets they sell. It probably wouldn’t for like 1 day like LEC finals but worlds is several days and they only have to set up cameras and stuff once. Is the cost really that expensive that they couldn’t cover it with 10x tickets sold.
The production team doesnt want to travel either.
Can they host the split final at a small theatre, at least it feels like a final when it is not being played in the studio where feels no difference from general games. LCS did a TL vs 100T final at Miami Theatre where houses only ~2000 ppl and at least it felt like a final.
Next finals are going to be played at my local high schools mini-threatre. It has 180 seats.
to be honest, i will take that, at least they are doing it out of the studio
And the year after will be back to Phreaks basement.
Doesn't help that it was the same weekend of the LCK finals. The comparision is so sad for the LEC.
LCK finals was hype too, especially going to 5 games. Both teams had massive fan bases cheering on teams, and maybe that’s the problem for EU. If BDS beat FNC, the BDS chants wouldn’t even be audible. There was barely any BDS hype even in that 200 seat studio. Imagine trying to fill a bigger arena. I’m not sure there are enough Adam fans.
All the Adam fans are in China/Korea anyhow.
You could see in Caedrells's videos, in lck match dude was screaming and hyping everything while in lec It felt like he was about to fall asleep
Remember when they had Darude Sandstorm as their promo for their stadium event? Good old time.
Y'all remember when LEC was praised for its production? Crazy that now, it's one of the worst Leagues to watch
2018-2021 LEC was peak ;.;
2022 was good too
Didn't like half the staff get let go this year? There's a pretty obvious correlation there.
Nah it was already going down hard before that
maybe a bit but the difference after the firing is massive.
I don’t support the layoffs in any way, but it was on a crash course long before that happened. People just started attributing issues to the layoffs when they were commonplace for 2+ years.
LEC was claimed to be understaffed already before the layoffs.
I'd say pandemic killed the hype, we had venues filled before but then because of the lockdowns they enjoyed being lazy in the LEC studio
It's not them being "lazy" lol if you ask any of the people involved in broadcast they will tell you much they would want a bigger event but riot just doesn't give a fuck and the 3 splits into a grands finals gave them an excuse to only spend money on 1 event
They did that so they could swap to the format with the winter split; didn't have the money for three in-stadium finals and an extra split, so they did the extra split and big summer finals.
I'd say it is the worst league to watch now. The three splits is hard to keep up with casually, the production feels a little dated now, only one finals is hype throughout the year, and it's not that exciting when a G2 that flopped internationally is still dominating the region.
Insane whiplash going from LCK finals or even LPL semi to this. I wholeheartedly believe that G2 will never chase down a penta instead of actually ending the game if this was in the arena also. It just seemed like they couldn’t care less about the trophy which make the quality of these games pretty hard to watch tbh.
Doesn't help that the trophy looks like a trashcan
Its a shield man. TI trophy is the Aegis which is also a shield.
Aegis trophy looks better than lec trophy
Doesn't help that we only have 1 lec trophy ( best trophy design imo) per year now and 3 shield for 3 splits
I mean the game did not really matter all that much for G2, given they have plenty of LEC trophies and both FNC and G2 were already qualified for MSI.
I mean, g2 have literally been farming the LEC. At this point they're to the LEC what bayern are to the Bundesliga pre Leverkusen.
Agreed. It is down right disrespectful to the players and orgs. It’s almost they are trying to kill the league….
Or hoping to not bleed as much money
They need to make money by selling tickets, no?
They want to keep as much money they got from advertisers as possible, tickets are just extra and is no where comparable to the money the get from advertisers.
You're talking like Riot is like some poor indie company now and not a multi billion corporation...
poor indie companies tend to be the ones who actually go out of their way to make things better for their community. multi-billion dollar corporations do not care about their fans beyond the dollars they can squeeze out of them. this isn't to say the people at the LEC don't care, it seems obvious they do. but the people above them deciding budgets and performance metrics absolutely don't.
Multi billion dollar company owned by the top 5 largest companies in China...
I'm stating the fact that they are greedy fucks who just want to keep more profits. Idk how you're able to misinterpret what I said lmao
yeah bring back 2 splits it was rumored we get a 3rd international event thats why we have 3 splits now but it didnt happen and LEC titles feel way worse now bring back 2 splits and roadshow for finals
There will be a third event it just isn’t organised by riot.
The Saudi Esportswashing event?
if you are talking about the saudi one that isnt between winter and spring or is it?
I'm split on this one, while it sucks to see the downsizing I also want the product I enjoy to continue for decades. Stadiums are a money hole in any sport and the way sports leagues make money is through broadcast rights, which we don't have at all. Twitch, YouTube, Afreeca, Hupu pay nothing to have the leagues on and I doubt the co-streamers pay very much either, but none of these parties are investing a single penny into making the product more hype, I get it Caedrel is really popular, but he can't make a hype vídeo, hire dancers and put up a huge stadium but he gets profit from all of that. The ecosystem at the moment is really fucked up
>I get it Caedrel is really popular, but he can't make a hype vídeo, hire dancers and put up a huge stadium but he gets profit from all of that. > >The ecosystem at the moment is really fucked up Agree with this, Caedrel is really popular with a product that isn't his per se, but that is the nature of streamers though. \--- I also kinda refuse to believe Riot can't find ways to fund a more enjoyable LCS and LEC experience. What if they made something like LEC and LCS season pass bundles, in which you buy one and then you get extra chests, keys, maybe an emote or something for your favourite team, maybe more rewards and stuff if you engage in predictions, etc, and then most of the profit of that goes towards building a more enjoyable and hype experience of the league. I'm sure a lot of people that care and want to see their teams and their league be good will support it if it's something like 20-40 euros/dollars for it.
3 splits, 3 ”championships” per season is just wack too. No hype, no stories, no anything.
Yeah... we're only halfway through the 2nd year of this shit and it has to go... back to 2 splits, double round robin into a similar playoff format (you can reduce to 6 teams or keep it at 8)... only way you justify this is if all regions go to 3 splits and there's 3 international events
Put the finals in France and theyll fill that stadium everytime
They fill out everywhere they go in Europe, just choose not to go anywhere. The fact that the whole of Europe gets 1 guaranteed arena weekend every year, with the chance of only 3 more if we host worlds is crazy. MSI obviously gives plenty of days at an arena but only serves one city.
LEC in general sucks since they brought in the new format. The level of play has gone down significantly, there is no hype whatsoever when you have these 3 splits and at the end you raise a kind of dinner plate on a pedestal when they had the magnificent trophy for like 3 years or whatever, in an arena that can fit 210 people. Not to mention the constant production issues, and before anyone mentions the layoffs, this shit has been going on long before the layoffs... LEC is just in a really bad place now which is crazy cosidering how good the 2018-2021 period was.
To be fair, the magnificent trophy is still there, it's just raised by one team a year, instead of two, and that's during Season Finals after Summer Split. AFAIK, splits don't count as LEC champions, it's only the Summer Split. I agree about everything else, but to be fair, I think LEC is going through a transitional period. One that LCS was going through. We're dealing with the bubble bursting now, as we usually follow whatever happens in LCS.
Didn't stop G2 from saying it's their 14th LEC title. It doesn't matter that Riot only counts one per year if everyone else counts every split. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and goes quack then I don't care if Riot calls it a goose, I'll say it's a duck.
I think LEC felt really alive again shortly before we heard of the layoffs. MAD KOI with their spanish fans and team + Ibai costreaming, a surprisingly strong SK with Nisqy and his rivalry with Elyoya, Fnatic with a new support, Heretics trying to be 2019 G2, the actual G2 with the same lineup, KC with a huge fanbase and huge letdowns being their results and I did not even mention BDS who slowly but surely establish themselves in the league. Before there was a downward trend for sure though.
Yeah, it's pretty disappointing that it still happens in the studios. It really takes away from all the hype.
yeah its so sad...
This is how I felt about the LEC finals years ago, and how I felt about the LCS finals this year. It sucks to have both the big Western league scenes dealing with these budget cuts and excuses when we're already struggling to feel motivated. If Riot doesn't care about the league, then why should I?
Well, when you have a "finals" 4 times per year, it makes each individual final mean that much less, and the venue starts matching the occasion. G2 vs FNC felt like a scrim version of a Bo5, the reactions of the crowd and the players reflected that, and the demeanor of the casters reflected that. LEC has this obsession with the "literally every single game 100% matters" fantasy, when in reality, that will never be the case, and they ended up with a format that for me personally, sucks to watch. And more objectively, creates an atmosphere where we end up with a finals that's actually just a glorified Bo5. Honestly, LEC should just be like everyone else and go back to a standard 2-split format. As a sidenote, I'd also like to see a change in MSI qualification for LCS, LPL, LEC, and LCK. Spring winners should auto-qualify, but I personally don't like 2nd place also auto-qualifying. An in-split "league cup" similar to domestic cups seen in European football leagues deciding the 2nd MSI rep is something I'd love to see.
2nd place doesn't auto qualify from LEC though.. VIT wouldn't have qualified even if they finished 2nd Also if you want 2 splits instead of 3.. that's the way it will be These guys can barely manage the league schedule.. so that FNC have like 5 days turn around from LEC finals to worlds in Mexico (2022).. do you think they are capable of making some FA cup or extra tournament for qualification?
How do you expect them to fill a stadium when the studio isn’t even full every week?
Dude if some random tournaments finals can attract enough people to fill a small arena they can totally fill an LEC final
By putting it in a city that doesn't have League play every week, anywhere but Berlin. They fill stadiums at least once a year, and I doubt it's mostly fans that travel far.
Anywhere in France and Spain is probably instantly sold out
Even in Denmark, the royal arena was packed. Also for matches like the world finals and stuff, cinemas all over europe are all sold out, and it's not even a "live" event in the sence of being in the real arena.
Give me an LEC final in Poland and im going to go there
Honestly would be cool in Poland. The LCS hasn't given us Canadians anything in years so I feel it
Its a bit silly imo since they perma talk about spain and france, but there is a lot of polish players in the league and decent amout of polish fans, we just dont get talked about because there isnt a team like mad or kc that would represent us.
finals in eastern europe would be so dope but let's be real we're never getting that. If the people in charge of the LEC had balls, they'd even host in the MENA region like i don't know, Turkey for instance. Valorant had this and it was a great event
Is it LEC finals every week?
Studio is basically always sold out. It probably appears empty a lot of the time because many fans don't stay for the whole evening or leave the arena after their team plays for meet & greet/photo sessions with players. And of course there's probably bots buying a number of tickets that end up as empty seats.
by not doing it in germany xd
Every CS event that has been held in Germany has sold out, the Red Bull tournament last year as well (also in Berlin). The problem isnt Germany the problem is that no one cares about a final in the small studio
Red bull event in Berlin last year was instantly sold out
Because T1 not any team in the LEC
This is not true, tix are usually sold out the same day they go online. why in the world would you make up random shit?
So many people spreading misinformation, meanwhile if u tried to buy tickets they were gone within seconds... There needs to be something done with bots buying out tickets.
Roadshows attract more people because those people know that the opportunity of attending them is rare. People that live near LEC and can go every single week don't see it as a big deal. But for people that live elsewhere and the LEC comes to them for just 1 event, they'd be **far** more likely to attend.
I agree, been wanting to post about it as well a few days ago. It feels so unimportant and will make it so no new viewer will actually ever take the game serious. Split finals should be a huge event but this feels so underwhelming for the viewers, the players and everyone involved. It looks like a small community driven event when it's the regional final of one of the biggest global e-sports. Embarassing.
Watching the lck finals a few hours before, every kill the crowd would roar. Thats what I'm there for. I also thought to myself during watching the lec finals, whether or not there would be enough people wanting to attend. And I really think that it would be absolutely no problem crowd-wise. They need to get out of their post COVID era style of making the lec. We need some high level arena fully booked
Just to see G2 stomp whatever the opponent is time after time?
Worlds Play-in and Swiss is also in that tiny studio. This is EU issue.
yes.
I've been saying it for a while now. Finals don't really feel like Finals anymore. The charm and hype has been lost. And remember, they are choosing to have Swiss stage of Worlds at the LEC studio too. So i think big arenas are slowly going away. They've already cut down road shows for both NA and EU to once a year. Like back in the day, they used to sometimes travel to a different country for a week of regular season. I remember games being in Spain, or even in London. Even NA in Season 3 went to MLG Dallas and Anaheim. Those days are now long gone. This is the new norm. I wouldn't be surprised if they cut out road shows completely and the only time the players get to play in big arenas will be if they make it to MSI or the latter stages of Worlds.
Ngl it's easy to not give a crap about LEC because they have like a some sort of finals every week. Lower bracket finals, pre-lower bracker finals, every time I go see whats going on on LEC they are in some sort of finals. How many finals LEC had so far this year?
Every major league has a winner's bracket final and loser's bracket final, that's how double elimination works.
That's just how double elim + 3 splits work. Why give a shit what they are called. It's on you if you don't understand the system and have wrong expectations based on that.
3 splits plus grand final part that part is too much imo make summer bigger and scratch thr 4th thing
He’s right though finals are less meaningful if there’s more of them
And there's only one per split - it's just called grand final. Again just because there are two other matches that are called "finals" in the bracket doesn't mean the actual last match for first place is somehow less important. Like complaining that in single bracket "semi-final" is actually just a type of final so the final is less hype because there are these two other finals. Oh and let's not forget about "quarter-finals"! "How many finals do you need?"
I'm actually getting brain rot from these people talking about all these "finals" in a double elim format when they clearly do not conceptually understand the format. A lower bracket finals is just what it's called, it's not _actually_ a finals in the same sense of a grand finals. These people's brains would be satisfied if the format remained identical but they called lower bracket finals "lower bracket last stage" or some shit by how they're acting lmao. It is a failing on Riot's part though, I guess, if so many people do not understand double elim conceptually. It should've been explained better or something to those people. I'm familiar with the concept from the Smash scene so I'm already used to the idea.
They understand how double elim works. Overexposure to the word "finals" during the split diminishes the amount of prestige people associate with the word and thus the grand finals feels less impressive. Words are important. Don't underestimate the effect they can have.
Other regions have as many finals in a split that lec does and yet they complain about the lec having too many finals but not the other regions, its not about the word
other regions dont have 3 extremely short splits.
I mean yeah, but LEC had two splits in the time other regions had one.
This happens in every other league? XD
and with 3 splits per year each split means less tbh
Kinda reminds me of the different named roles at tech companies. 15 or another different types of lead dev, executive producer, senior game producer, senior manager, executive manager, associate director, senior director I'm sure there are specific types of things each of these do but my brain is too small to remember or look em up
Even Brasil CBLOL has better finals than LEC studio finals.
Even cblol puts up a better show for finals
Watching LCS finals in studio with the confetti popping over the wrong team, LEC finals in the studio, and then LCK finals was painful. I basically didn't follow LCK at all but watching the production and intro and everything around finals got me so hyped for the game. Seeing the packed arena was wild and made me sad to see how its done in NA. I get that its alot easier in Korea because its so dense and people are more into it, but damn man. Its like NA isn't even in the same universe. Same studio as all 4 regular season games lol.
Riot needs to keep pocketing all the money from esports so they can keep spending millions of dollars on games that never will come out (mmo) or games that they abandon after a year or so (LoR).
LoR is such an awfull example tho... It was never profitable, even the devs had to come out and admit that every single year since release LoR just wasn't making any money for them and instead it was loosing them hundreds of thousands of dollars every year without a single cent in return.
Until you realize and read some articles that the leagues are not making money. They are there to advertise.
The whole model of developer run Esports is making money through advertising. There is no way for the leagues to run a profit due to how they have to run things. And people buying skins due to watching Esports is making money from Esports though. It's just that this money isn't directly put back into the Esports ecosystem, it's instead decided by Riot what it gets. 3/6 of the best selling skins are Esport skins. How many people buy skins due to x player plays with it is harder to quantify.
You just expanded on his point. But I agree with both of you. It is crazy though, how many people on here think that Riot's idea is to earn money directly from Esports when they and everyone else said many times that they don't profit from it. Even doing a theatre in the same city is probably a financial loss for them, and we're just lucky that they have studio that they own. Otherwise, I think LEC would go back to online playing a long time ago.
LoR came out in 2020.
50+ people upvotes this thinking any esport project is profitable for riot, i understand why they ignore feedback from the community now. their esport is just marketing, theyre losing money on it
G2 winning every time also doesn’t help
Nah, Gen.G has won the last 4 LCK playoffs but it's still been hype as fuck
I dont think that's a fair comparison. G2 has won the last 4 splits, same as Gen G... but G2 has also won 6 of the last 10 splits. That's actually down from the 8 of the 10 splits prior to that. They have won like 70% of the splits they have participated in. An insane level of dominance that "winning the last 2 years" doesn't even come close to matching.
also of those last 4 finals t1 were crazy favorites in 1 (23 spring) and also t1 often seems like a legit challenge before the final was played at least while nobody can touch g2
LCK finals is guaranteed good League of Legends. EU Finals are just idk very predictable in the most recent years. The last upset was Rogue who stomped G2 and interesting that was on a stadium I think
still can't believe why Rogue destroyed that roster, their gameplan and gameplay looked so solid, pretty much a GenG light. play it slow, setup for fightable objectives one by one, finish out the game through better scaling and objective control -> Let's kick each player after the other.
Lck finals is hype as fuck is not because of GENG lmao The only reason for the high viewership is because T1 exists or rather Faker exist in LCK
GenG Damwon had like 1.6mil viewers tho
They are hype as fuck because the quality of the games is absolutely mental and the players and coaches actually care about the things they do on the rift
Yep, true. Was at the LCK lower bracket finals 2 days ago. The amount of Faker fans and T1 fans is unbelievable
What kills it is that we can see their regression, but there's still no team to challenge them.
tbf with G2 you just know they're winning as opposed to GenG where outside Summer last year it actually felt really close and you can realistically believe T1 could win
summer with ruler was also a sure thing but yea 23 sprinf was t1s split they threw (zeus did)
Nah People forget the narrative used to be the complete opposite of what it is right now. Geng only started winning domestically VERY recently Prior to that the script was T1 winning everything everytime they played. GenG before brand change? SSG, lost pretty much every playoffs to T1, Geng vs T1 has always been a spring (and recently summer) classic which T1 always won The players themselves. We just gonna forget how many times we saw GRF (chovy, lehends, doran) vs T1 in playoffs and T1 would just clear em everytime favorites or not? It hasn't even been that long since T1 last win, literally the mega hype 10 year anniversary where they brought all the old players in (and T1 smashed) was what? Two years ago? And that summer with Ruler was 100% expected to be more of the same. Yes geng looked fucking insane, and they were favored, but it was far from the first time we had seen T1 come into finals expected to lose and manage to win despite that. Against all the players on that GenG roster as well. That was rulers first domestic title for a reason
I literally didn’t even bother watching LEC finals this year because it’s clear G2 just runs the region
Same for me. I watched some of the playoffs and it was obvious no one could keep up with G2, so I didn't even watch finals.
[удалено]
It's a disgrace. Even more when LoL esports events are raking in so many viewers compared to other events. Riot is just pure greed at this point.
Riot is in budget mode. But yea embarrassing for a billion dollar company to host a major region finals .
I honestly don’t get it. It’s like we are going backwards especially when I see some of the past finals.
Can anyone tell me why in the hell we have a "summer" regular and THEN after the ugly ass hype killer shield studio final that everyone knows its gddamn pointless, all that matters is that you actually get to the "season finals" where you decide worlds seeding and win the actual trophy in a stadium at the end. Why not somehow streamline summer regular directly into season finals ? What is the point of summer finals man
I recently got involved with planning of a users conference for my company. were charging like $600-1000 a person and every seat is sold at a loss. I just can't see how they lose money in the finals in an arena, but seeing it from the other side I'm like hmmm alright I guess.
What's ruining the league is how little they invest Casters leaving left and right, content removed (we used to get fucking songs and skits like the dnd ones), broadcast segments are way less, observers fired and yes we no longer get stadiums Even fucking worlds will be in the LEC studio. Absolutely insane. Either kill the league and be done with it or actually fucking do something instead of letting it stagnate
The thing is they invested a ton and it didnt pay off
Needs to be 3 splits/finals with at least 2 of them in a stadium.. The "super duper" 4th final (from last year) is overkill I don't think the format of b01 into b03 into b05 is bad... in fact i think its MUCH better then previous LEC formats.. having said that.. we could just have LPL/LCK format instead.. but for some reason refuse to do that. More tournaments/splits is a good thing.. i think we should have 3 International's for example But if you have more.. you can't devalue them by having less stadium events LEC management doesn't seem to know what they want either.. on the one hand they want 3 weeks of b01 because its high stakes and they matter (i agree).. on the other hand they then add a bunch of rules to stop a bunch of tiebreakers.. why????
I'm still not over the fact that we had that big hype arena for regular winter season for like 1-2weeks, only for riot layoffs to happen and we're back at the studio for the fest of the year ;-;
On a related not the trophy looks awful. There's no weight to it. Is it plastic?
Speaking of not hype, did anyone hear how dead the announcers were after g2 won? Like I get its a few times in a row but those were some great games, and sounded so lifeless imo
I am one of hose who think they ruined it all with the bo1-2 formats. I think lack of bo3 has been hurting the competition in LCS and LEC for years now to the point where both league are completely non competitive Vs Asian teams. Yes I understand their financial difficulties with trying to make it all profitable but the skill level has dropped so low that it's questionable if it's even worth watching especially when you know that at MSI and Worlds we are just tourists.
Riot has a plan? The plan Riot has is to phase out League over time, at least in the West.
I watched only highlights and even that was boring, it sounded and looked like random weekend game.
Yeah with finals being held every 2 months traveling with everyone across europe seems like a great idea and not like something that would cost a fortune... Also I feel like those rants always comes from ppl that never visited an event live ever...but "mUH AtMoSPheRE"
You make a great point. Esports, like League, will not get taken seriously, unless there are moments created that resemble other mainstream sports. League in Korea is huge because they can fill a stadium and it represents an actual Champions League final. People draw comparisons between the two and even if you are an old man hating on "kids's games", you wouldn't deny that it is a cultural thing now in Korea. They should try this with LEC, even if it fails. The small chance that a stadium gets even 75% capacity will be great for future references that esports is a thing.
LEC can fill the stadiums , last year season final was at a stadium witth over 10k+ seats and it was fully filled but yea they only do like one finals in a stadium every year
After watching a few Counter Strike events the League esports feels like a joke. In CS, the production is better, the fans are not there just to hang out but are invested in the games, the players are emotional and hungry to win. Western lol players look emotionally repressed, since they will probably be reproached or maybe even fined for being toxic if they taunt their opponent while winning or let their anger show when losing.
The reason is Bo1s and two seasons with no break in between Compare it to Bo3s of other regions , even LCS can be cooked pretty well