Riot Announces BIGGEST Lolesports Changes EVER

0:00 All The News
7:00 My disappointment on the media side
7:56 The Negatives
15:15 The Positives
20:35 Final thoughts

[TravisGafford]

One thing I regret not addressing in this video is how unfortunate this situation will be for the players and staff in regions impacted by what is, ultimately, a downsizing of the lolesports ecosystem. My focus in this video was mostly on addressing this from an LCS fan perspective, as that is the majority of my audience. After uploading the video (but before setting it live), I realized it lacks empathy for fans of regions like the LLA. I should have made it clear that there are obviously going to be terrible ramifications for many people who have dedicated their time and passion to this sport. That deserves a place in this discussion.

On a much smaller note, in rewatching the video here a few hours before it goes live, I also realized I makes it sound like the playins match at Worlds is between the MSI winner and the second best performing region. That wasn't my intent. There is a fight between two teams to determine the final 16 teams at Worlds, but it's unclear to me what the details of that are.

[Liratan]

Ah this explains why DIG finally made a good roster

[AceholeGA]

So basically NA became a wildcard region but they sugar coated it.

[ShamuPvP]

my immediate reaction is a bit sad that LCS is probably gone. I dont care too much about viewers but i liked watching my little league. It was cozy and fun and I knew all the players and personalities. I dont wnat that to go away

[babygggles]

Markz actually had fans excited for summer split. It was the most positive fan sentiment for the LCS that ive seen in years. Then riot has to come in the week the split starts and throw all that good sentiment out the window. Feels like they are intentionally tanking lolesports in the west.

[HT-jjsx]

It's kinda crazy that it's basically an article that comes outta no where. Also a bummer that the number of jobs just got smacked as well. Thx for the content brother.

[MGOD]

As an European that is fucking stupid changes and just destroys the North American league. Personally im kinda sad about these changes

[Hot_Soupp]

The vast majority of these changes feel so bad as an LCS viewer who's watched since LCS' inception. Your point of "maybe long-time LCS fans might stop caring after these changes" is exactly what I'm feeling right now. I also feel super bad for fans (and players / staff) of the other regions as well who are affected by this. I'd imagine the vast majority of fans from all of the affected regions aren't going to be happy with these changes.

Since Mark has come in as commissioner, almost every change has felt VERY fan / player focused, which felt SO GOOD as a longtime viewer. THESE changes feel incredibly corpo, and made by groups of people who don't understand the scene (even if they think they do).

Aside from relegation, which I like, all of this is straight up BAD news for me, and makes me lose more hope. Which sucks, because since Mark stepped in I have felt sooo much more positive and happy with the direction the league was heading towards.

They are making it REALLY hard for me to keep caring about this scene, and that sucks. Idk how much longer I can continue to be frustrated with dumb decisions before I just tap out and stop caring / watching.

[pn]

This comes out of nowhere. Im glad Riot Esports is continuing to be as transparent as the bottom of the ocean.

[ruancomitre]

A few remarks on the video:

- Franchising in sports is pretty much a NA thing only, on the rest of the world is much more common to have tournaments with relegations. Also, conferences is not a concept used in the competions in brasil/latin america;
- For MSI, the three regions lost 2 slots (since it is down from 1 LLA, 1 CBLOL, 2 LCS to 2 americas);
- For worlds, the three regions also lose slots, going from 5 to 6 (3 or 4 LCS, 1 CBLOL, 1 LLA) to 3 slots;

Overral it is bad for all the envolved regions. As a brazilian fan, it feels awful to see our region losing 4 of the 10 teams, especially when we see the scene growing every year despite getting dumpstered internationally in every tournament. I mean, there is even an argument that the CBLOL should be expanded because of the amount of orgs and tier 2/amateur teams we have here that are not in CBLOL. Most of the fans don't care about other leagues, they only care about our the CBLOL.

So i don't see how these fans, who just care about CBLOL, will have any interest in watching this "north conference", and i believe it would only lead to frustration watching our teams duke it out to found out who is going to get rekt by the NA team.

And allegedly, the CBLOL is sustainable on its own. Why our league needs to downsize and get the short end of the stick to fix years and years of mismanagement of Riot NA/NA orgs?

For the LLA, it also sucks, because this league is already a product of a merger between central america and south america, and they are struggling to keep the league running for a while, which is sad because there is a bunch of very passionate fans in the region.

And for the lcs, they are getting even smaller which is definitly not good for the region, it was already a huge blow to lose 2 teams, and now they are losing two more, making it even harder for the up and coming talent in the region to get spots in the teams. Also for them, it doesn't make any sense to have a finals against a br/lla team where they will just stomp them. It will be super anticlimatic for the players and the fans.

I feel like it would make much more sense to somehow expand both the lcs and cblol with the lla teams if the region is not sustainable, and add some guest/tier 2 slots, to move up from 8 and 10, respectively, to 12 and 14. It would be a nice way to keep LLA region engaged in the competitive scene and bring some new and exciting things.

[FinalAccount-Maybe]

Oh wow. Combining two giant continents AND reducing the amount of competition again. It really does feel like Riot is plighted with a small selection of powerful and terrible decision makers. Hard to imagine how this is remotely good for either the company's bottom line or the viewers excitement.

[User-pulc]

LCS being placed closer to CBLOL is a deathblow to the NA viewer base. We want the NA-EU competitions. This model further reduces the probability to see those match-ups.

[CrenAlder]

As an LCS fan since season 4, these changes make me not want to watch LCS any more.

You're telling me there's only going to be 6 LCS teams now? Mark was doing such a great job of revitalizing the region, and now the whole region is getting slashed. I watch LCS because it's my home region. Even if I like other LPL/LEC/LCK teams, I don't pull for them the same way because they aren't home teams. So instead of thinking long-term to save what is Riot's greatest marketing tool in the LCS, they're deciding to go for a short-term boost over the long-term health of the region. I do not care about the CBLOL or LATAM, and now we also have to give up a Worlds spot and an MSI spot. Fuck that, with my whole chest, that's absolute bullshit.

John Needham is a cancer on the league, and this decision will destroy the LCS. If anyone at Riot reads this, please, reconsider these changes.

[coolasfire]

Fortunately we will not realize a lot of the downsides of these changes since it will fundamentally destroy interest and fan engagement so fast that it would be shocking any NA scene is left in year 2 of this.

[marciojunio]

A few cents on how the Brazilian community reacted: CBLOL currently has 10 teams and losing 4 spots is HUGE and this part by itself is generating a LOT of backslash towards this new format. Removing 4 teams, means not only 20 players fired, but also all the staff behind them, since cleaners to head managers.

There's also an unconfirmed rumor about players max import rules saying it would change from 3 BR players + 2 imports (or 3 NA players + 2 imports in LCS case) to 2 BR players + 2 imports + 1 americas player (2 NA + 2 imports + 1 americas player in LCS case). This could lead to the few good players we still have on the South conference going to the north conference due to currency conversion rates.

Another uncertain topic is how the Tier 2 will develop, because today, we have 14 teams on the academy tournament with players being developed for the future and, once the Tier 2 offers the chance of a spot at Tier 1 League, most T2 teams will probably build lineups jut to win it or just to sell players and the spot at the south conference.

Of course, people are liking the fact that we'll have guaranteed spots at MSI and Worlds, having more games through the year, the relegation system itself (which puts a little more presssure on franchised teams to perform well).

There's another rumour about the global revenue pool which I did not understand pretty well, however, having more money to divide for less teams, could lead into sustainability, together with possible new "monetary fair play" rules in place.

Those are the thoughtfull talks happening right now, there's a bunch of unbased comments saying Riot is trying to merge viewership from CBLOL to LCS and other things I don't think it's worth commenting.

In summary: we did not like it either

[Chubbysquirrel]

Damn I've been a hardcore fan for 10 years(staying up till 5am to watch na at worlds) and now I honestly don't know if i have interest in watching anymore. They killed our league for real this time :/ I guess the lcs should be dead video was a goodbye tribute 😢

[EthanHMoore]

i'm out on these changes. LCS Summer sounded cool, but it means the changes dont matter

[joshuabryant]

Been watching for 10 years. This could genuinely be it for me.

[stefan]

Not sure how they even try selling it as a merger. This is now just 2 regions fighting for the same spots at international. If it goes through like this, I am probably done watching.

[blbaugctvc]

this whole conference thing will exisist for 2 years and then it will be gone as well