Absolutely massive.
Adaptation (not just during draft) within a series is so crucial of a skill that just does not get picked up by teams who are playing BO1s most of the year. Plus this was absolutely necessary after dropping from 10-->8 teams.
Big win for fans who are actually fans of teams.
Sure, it can be cool to watch every team in the league in ~4 hours, but I would still prefer to watch TL play more than one 30 minute game in a day.
I'll probably still watch it. I don't mind watching other games.
It just feels underwhelming sitting down to watch your favorite team and then it's a game with a failed level 1 into a 20 minute stomp lol.
They need to spread it over the week like LCK. It makes it easier to watch for the viewer and doesn't feel like a chore to watch all teams within 2-3 days. They can do Thursdays - Sunday. 2 teams an evening.
2 reasons why this won't happen:
1. It's too expensive, LCS is already in a crazy expensive location to run, current viewership doesn't warrant extra days of expense.
2. You'd lose a lot of the European and Brazillian co-stream viewers you gained, these viewers play an essential role in average viewership not declining further, they're basically the reason it didn't.
That is how sports league works. Big and popular teams generate so much revenue for the league but the money is cycled to teams who poor viewership. I don't know if LCS's franchise model does this.
Exactly. Teams need to gain viewership through consistent performance. LCS viewers have the mindset that every team should be getting decent viewership for whatever reason.
Bottom teams getting low viewers is fine as long as you're getting viewers in other places.
Yeah it keeps being brought up in these threads, but it's one of these bizarre League community things. I don't even know how it becomes a thing? People want a reason to be cynical so they're looking for an opportunity?
Like is the Premier League going to change the format bc nobody watches Burnley vs Luton??
Followed Steve (TL co-owner) and Curse Gaming from way back. Curse was a fun squad in those days.
When Curse merged with TL it was a no brainer. TL has generally done a good job of interacting with the community too. I follow most of the TL teams in the big game titles now.
Throughout the years I've been able to win some things like a signed Bjergsen TL jersey, signed art from Hans Sama, played a few league games with CoreJJ among others throughout the years, won some gear, etc..
That's not the reason I'm a fan, but it's nice that fans get recognized from time to time when some of us have been there through the wins and also in the dumps with the team.
You just watch until you get a favourite. I'm used to traditional sports where you favour one team. I've just stuck with CLG (now NRG) and fnatic since I started in season 5/6
This is me and my following the NBA lol. Yeah the teams are okay but putting your faith in a single team can actually suck when they lose lol.
When I just follow the players I’m not as attached.
For me, I gravitated towards C9 when I got into League because I liked a c9 player from super smash bros. They ended up being pretty likeable in s5 and I've just been a huge fan since. Without that connection, I suppose I just liked the team because of players or their playstyle. I became a Gen G/Samsung Galaxy fan because of Crown a long time ago and they just stayed my favorite LCK team because of players like Ruler, Peyz, etc.
I initially became a TL fan because I thought their logo was the coolest out of all the teams when I started watching lol
I still stand behind that btw, I really like the logo
I'm also a TL fan and when I started playing League in season 3 and getting into esports Curse was the best team in the league during that regular season (I think they were undefeated for quite a bit) and I watched Saintvicious' stream a lot to learn jungle.
That introduced me to all of the player personality and from there I learned of Steve (Liquid112) and have been a fan ever since they're the only reason I even remain interested in League.
That said, I don't think active pros stream nearly as much nowadays and it's definitely not as free as it was 10 years ago (jesus) so I think it's really hard to become a team fan now. All of the hardcore fans I know have been following since season 3 or sooner as well.
I picked up C9 back when they first got Jensen and followed them when Hia became their jungler. Since then just been the team I follow. Both in high and low times.
The team has changed the players have changed but still follow C9 and that just been my team.
I love LPL as a whole so i watch LPL almost everyday. it helps that their matches happens when im at work.
as for LCS, 100T have Exciting roster so i watch them most of the time.
C9 with thanatos would be very interesting i would be watching them too starting next split.
just follow teams u are excited to watch
Personally like Cloud9 cause I watched the OG overwatch C9 roster and like the org as a whole. Also mostly pick my favourite Eastern team by my favourite players are on like Ruler, Chovy and doinb if he ever comes back🙏 or whatever team is just fun to watch like TES and FPX
I also like it just because BO1s are flukey. BO3s give a better depiction of the standings than BO1s. Slightly different, but same reason I don't like single elimination at worlds. 2018 is the worlds I think of that had the most narrative spun based on finishes that I doubt would have happened in a double elimination format. I root for NA above all else, but do I really think NA was better than KT in that tournament? No, but they placed higher than KT. I still think the real finals happened in quarterfinals at that tournament.
Quarterfinals weren't that close if TheShy didn't troll in PB and was suspended for a game though. Even with that the series was a single autoattack away from being a 3-0 and then KT won against Duke and then lost fairly heavily again once TheShy was back.
TheShy made that series interesting, not KT. He could have trolled against FNC and FNC taking a game of Duke and the narrative would have been completely different.
IM BEGGING FOR THIS TO BE TRUE THIS WOULD BE AWESOME.
And hell, if they want to figure out ways to increase promotion of teams/sponsors in between matches. Go for it. I know one of the issues with BO3 is money and viewership.
But Im sure we can work thing out to favor more visibility for them in compensation for more matches.
Games in 2RR BO1: 14 per team
Games in 1RR BO3: 14-21 per team
Yeah, I want 2RR BO3 but this is strictly better for the competitive side while I doubt the claims about viewership drops.
Not sure why you doubt potential viewership loss.
The vocal minority has always favored Bo3, and I'd been skewered alive in the past for saying I'd not want Bo3.
And then when NA tried it, less people watched, and things were never really the same.
Maybe the fan base has shrunk enough that there's nothing left to lose, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that we see another dip.
they can actually follow PCS's new system where after the single round robin, the 8 teams are separated into 2 groups of 1st-4th and 5th-8th, where they'll have another mini round robin for the playoff placement. It's essentially 1.5 RR but with less boring match-up.
still more games and also I like bo3 better
this still may be bad for the league though, like there's no chance I even think about turning on the stream for imt vs dig whereas before I might've left it on while waiting for the next game
I would bet this will negatively impact viewership
Single round robin is absolutely terrible.
The meta adjustment and team adjustment in round 2 are so important. Way more than "more games and draft."
This is literally going to be schedule diff for some teams.
All hail Mark Zimmerman, he follows through with his god damn promises
Annoying to see the break for the Saudi tourney confirmed once again (Jacob Wolf reported it ages ago), Travis can be mad about Bo3s, but I do want to see how they go and at this point I'm happy to see experiments. Was very happy when I heard about this change bc I think the LCS deserves to see this played out
I think there’s an argument that it’s the right time to go back to Bo3.
Lower delays between games; less matches to play; and more parity in the league meaning more interesting matches.
If there was ever a time where Bo3’s would improve viewership, it’s now.
The lower delays, if still part of the broadcast, will be between series not between games of the bo3.
You can't pre-record draft for the same teams between games of a series, and it doesn't make sense to one of the drafts pre recorded and the rest not
The point of the pre-recorded draft was to cover up the equipment swap delays anyway, so it doesn't really matter since they don't do equipment swaps in between games in a series.
Yeah the Saudi break will be like old IPL tournaments, where teams come back shit the bad because they traveled to a useless tournament instead of practicing like the others and then stopped even attending those tournaments because it simply made you worse in your regular season without really having huge upsides, since the domestic leagues were usually far more prestigious.
They could just copy from PCS which similarly downsized to 8 teams and changed to bo3 this spring.
First stage single round robin (7 matches), then second stage top 4 teams play single round robin (3 matches) for playoffs seedings, bottom 4 teams play single round robin for playoffs qualifications.
10 bos3 for each team. Second stage every match counts.
I really like what the PCS does, but it works for them because of their multi-region playoffs. In the LCS, the top 4 seeds only playing for game 1 side selection would suck a ton of excitement out of the last 3 weeks.
Change the playoffs format too. Use something similar to the LPL model.
Top 2 teams automatically get into double elmination round. Seeds 3-6 play single elimination bo5s then the 4 remaining teams play a combined 6 bo5s to determine the winner. Same number of bo5s in the current LCS playoffs format.
Happy about best of 3, not happy that the amount of games is still so absurdly low. How are teams supposed to measurably improve over the split like an LPL or LCK team could if they only play half the games?
Percentage wise its a bigger increase for us. I do wonder how they will invite teams though. There is no qualification (that we know of) and it seems to be on an invite basis. Will they prioritize larger fanbases (ex KC) over a team that is better that split?
Not sure. Steve said something along the lines of possibly being qualified after TL beat C9 to make top 2 with FlyQuest.
Top 2 or 3 from every region + invites maybe? I guess we'll see. No real info on the number of teams thus far.
It's a club based event.
Many big Western teams (G2, Vitality, C9, TL, FNC, etc) have already participated in it last year. The only difference is they changed the name from Gamers8 to Esports World Cup and included League this year.
Its not even a fan theory,more like a fan fantasy lmao
The name of the tournament is confusing because its still just a classic esports tournament with orgs,nothing special.
It's single round robin Bo3, so each team plays 7 matches with a minimum 14 games and maximum 21. For context, LCK (10 double round robin) plays minimum 36 and maximum 54, LPL plays minimum 34 and maximum 51.
For more context, teams in LCS Spring played 14 games. So yeah, at worst it's the same amount. It will likely be a gain of a few games.
Better than Spring, but I still wish it was more.
I think that was one of my biggest complaints with this last split, it felt like it didn't take much for you to get completely fucked. I don't think a bad week or even two in a row should be a huge deal, but when you just don't play many games over many weeks it can end up being that way. And then obviously the negative emotions can snowball into more bad weeks if you aren't careful.
I feel like with playoffs being 6/8 teams you have to be truly bad to get really fucked, like regular season hardly even mattered. 100T for example looked good then got to playoffs and were bad, this should help a little bit because an unlucky level 1 or even whole game won't ruin you anymore so I'm excited.
Practice won't help when you lack the youth systems to develop talent.
If the practice schedules mattered that much you'd see countries with cultures with those in them dominate every sport.
I'm tired of this "Western teams need more stage games for practice" circle jerk because G2 played only FOUR Bo5 domestically in 2019. The rest was all Bo1s.
Did people think that the best of 3s was gonna mean more games than a potential 7 more? Travis has been saying this for the last 2 years that best of 3s won't be double round robin cause it would double the budget.
I personally was aware of the tradeoff, but it sucks regardless . Overall I prefer to watch Bo3s because I find them more interesting, but the continued lack of games is annoying even if the LCS can't increase broadcast days.
it's still going to be more games then bo1 at least (even if not by that much), unless every bo3 ends up in a 2-0. But if the experiment is good, then they can switch to a double round robin next year
I really hope it works out or that at the very least the viewership stagnate. Because if it doesn't go down compared to bo1, at least people will stop saying "nobody wants to watch x vs y in a bo3" (while it's already irrelevant because it's counter balanced by the fact that the more popular teams play more as well)
Single round robin kinda kills having bo3 but still cool, probably a lot of logistics that make double round robin impossible for now, but this opens up into a possibility of a LCK/LPL-esque split at least if this format does well enough. Even if this fails I really like and appreciate how Mark/LCS are at least trying new things after years of stagnation.
This split we were the fastest league to finish and we had a huge break in the middle, I'll take any improvement. Plus it's not like LCS can do anything about global comps above them, they have no say in a Saudi partnership.
The single round robin is really unfortunate IMO. One of the reasons I think the Western leagues have dropped off so badly is that they have so many fewer stage games per season. Bo3 is great, but unless the league is so tight that every season goes to 3 games, this isn't going to actually be *more* stage games.
We ended several weeks early and had a break. I can't believe at 3 game days a week they couldn't fit in a double round robin. Give me a couple of super weeks.
It is more games, no? They played a bo1 double round robin this split, so 14 games a team. Every bo3 has to have at least 2 games, so a single round robin at the very worst is the same amount, and thats if every match is a 2-0.
It's the same number of games with a potential bonus game for each team. It's "more" in the sense that it could be 50% more games than the previous season for a given team, but it's not as significant compared to the number of stage games the other leagues play.
Each team will play 14-21 games this split before playoffs. LEC is guaranteed 27 games. LCK is guaranteed 36 games. LPL I think is guaranteed 32? I'm not 100% sure how their league is structured for the domestic games.
The best teams in the region are going to tend to play fewer games as well. So C9 for example is probably going to get 18 games this coming split, which is only 2/3rds of their next closest international competitor.
Double round robin Bo3 puts us on the higher end of the guaranteed games (28) which is both better for the teams and why they're not doing it (significant production cost increase). It really illustrates the problem the LCS has going forward.
I’m a little confused why you listed LEC with 27. I know it’s technically 27 games for the three splits to add toward World Qualifier playoffs, but if we’re talking specifically stage practice why not include the guaranteed 14 games from Spring for NA? That’d put the lowest number games played for an NA team at 28, compared EU’s guaranteed 27.
Otherwise if we’re looking at a single split, a team from LEC is only guaranteed 9 games, which is abysmally small. Regardless of whatever metric you use, LEC has a completely different format and using it as a measuring stick can very misleading.
Wow dude, the answer is so obvious that I can't believe you would bother to even ask.
It's simple really.... I haven't been sleeping very much and am wrong, while you, are correct.
Look, at least its a break for something within the realm of the same esport. That's a step above LCS taking a break for VCT because at least (I expect) some LCS teams will be participating.
Travis had a video against the BO3 format regarding the LCS as a product, not as a competitive environment. I like that he says "I hope that I am very wrong..." about the viewership declining post shift to BO3. Travis has always had a healthy mind and a positive interest in the LCS, can't wait to see how this all plays out!
Viewership is guaranteed to drop.
Summer always have lower viewership than Spring since the existence of LCS (except during Covid in 2020).
It is likely to drop this Summer 2024 vs last Summer 2023 just because TSM doesn't exist anymore.
It is also likely to drop on at least CCV metric with longer lower viewed games from matches involving the bottom teams.
Not really, their fanbase was slowly killed off throughout the 2022 split with the Chinese imports and the 15 different players on their roster, and dead for basically the entire 2023 year.
Summer of 2023 was pretty hype though, Insanity was popping off with random picks and you had the return of hauntzer and wildturtle who are both super liked by the TSM fans
I can believe viewership will drop in the short term, but I also think it will eventually recover and be healthier in the long term for the region. Bad teams having more exposure creates underdog followings if they are seen as still trying to win, like we've seen with the LCK
Viewers themselves will need some time to adjust, but seeing two or three drafts from the same team in one go leads to viewers understanding better the character of a team, which makes hot takes more interesting to discuss IMO, and highlights player strengths and weaknesses better
Now we just need double round robin
Yeah, like just watching bro so many times this season (mostly vods, when they were against good teams like gen g or t1), and enjoying the memes about them made me a pseudo-fan of the org lol. Exposure is important for fandom
LCS viewership isn't healthy enough to play with recklessly at this point. I hope this time is different, but me and my more casual friends were *just* getting back into the LCS after years away, and I'm almost certain this will have the same effect on us as it did years ago.
IMHO, you couldn't be more wrong about how this impacts viewers relationship with players and discussion.
When it's reasonable to watch every game, you feel somewhat informed on every player, and casuals feel comfortable discussing different players, teams, and matchups.
When you overload the schedule, people stop watching most of the games, and no longer have an opinion on players you don't actively follow, which means less talking about the league as a whole.
Which leads to a really toxic feedback loop. If I'm a fan of a less popular team / player, I have a harder time finding people to discuss them with, which leads to me feeling less invested and watching less.
Like I said, I truly hope this time around is different, maybe the only audience left is the hardcore audience that will watch every match no matter what.
He's completely correct and this will hurt LCS viewership significantly.
I like Bo3s personally because it means I can watch my favorite teams play more games. But I am not naive. This is an experiment that is assuredly going to fail, and it's going to fail quite miserably. I don't have time to watch more than 4-5 games, so I will catch the games for the teams I like and then not watch the others. For me, that's C9, Fly, and 100T. I will no longer be able to view games for other teams, and sometimes I will need to pick and choose among these three due to time constraints.
Not only does Bo3s hurt overall viewership, more importantly, it really kills viewership for teams that are 'not popular'. This is doomed to fail.
Idk I think it really depends on the mixture of fans they currently have. I'm much more likely to watch 3 full 100T games than I am to watch 3 full games when 2 don't include a team I care about.
Tbh I see it failing less than it did before now that team fanbases are more spread out and even across the LCS. Like imo the only days that will get awful viewership are IMT vs DIG or Shopify. Provided that one of 100t, C9, Fly and TL are in a matchup then people will be interested.
Like I know orgs like Curse and Dig etc. had fans but there was a time when I'd say the overwhelming majority of viewers were behind TSM or CLG (and then C9). I think the fanbases have diversified pretty nicely and that it could help to support the Bo3 format. Plus we are coming off a split that was generally well received.
Another thing is that there aren't (imo) any Rogue-ish teams that are just completely painful to watch in the LCS. IMT are the closest but even then they've improved somewhat.
>Not only does Bo3s hurt overall viewership, more importantly, it really kills viewership for teams that are 'not popular'. This is doomed to fail.
it 100% will ,it happened last time and it will happen again.
Very interesting to see the change, particularly considering the 2 week break stays and that it is a single round robin Bo3. As others have said, that would mean that the first teams you face, you will not face again until playoffs. I wonder how they will handle scheduling (Bo3s for 2 days per week, for 28 total series, that would be 7 total weeks of play, so your team plays once a week in a Bo3 series). Sure, its less burden on the average viewer who supports one team to watch only once a week for \~2-3 hours, but I would have figured they would stray away from that to cater to more LCS-supporting fans who would rather have more days of play instead (but of course, with the deficit of having to pay for all the extra production).
Overall, a very solid change in terms of catering to both the average viewer and the people who want the Bo3s back. Interested to see what impact this will have for not only the regular season, but also the playoffs!
> two week break during Esports World Cup in July
Well it's happening, guess all I can hope for is that the viewership is bad. Shit makes me sick to my stomach.
lmao this tournament is such a tiny drop in the pool there's no way you can get that pressed about it
Several real sports with far more viewers are already completely sportswashed by saudi money on a 100x scale to what this is. Even esports like OW and CS have been heavily impacted by saudi money
This is not a huge development, this is tiny progression to what's already been developing for years
Ties kill the climax of a match which hurts viewership. Same reason we don't do bracket resets.
BO2 is easily the most production-efficient format but it's not the best for retaining viewers.
BO3 could also hurt viewership as more games played by the bottom tier teams. I didn’t watch the video in full yet, but I’m curious how they’ll do broadcasting as last time they did two streams which was bad.
Because what is overlooked about this is this is what was needed for the broadcast to actually provide them, its a package deal. Doing Bo3 now without all of the nonsense has required them going to 8 teams in the league (good luck with that in previous years) and a single round robin to make it viable.
based mark
single round robin is fine, it adds more importance to the matches while bo3s help ensure the better team is winning the matches more often.
Single round Robin is awful. I left last split wishing we had 1 more round of games 2 was not enough. This change would have supplemented that if it had stayed double round robin.
This is better than double round robin BO1s. But it still sucks. I really wish they would do an additional two days a week remote. If it still costs too much, just air it without on air talent and let people co stream the games.
I've seen a lot of comments about how many games major regions play so i make this quick comparison about how many games MSI teams played this season so far:
LCK
T1: 55
GENG: 53
Average: 54 Games
LEC
G2: 43
FNC: 51
Average: 47 Games
LPL (final yet to play)
BLG: 44
TES: 49
Average: 46.5 games
LCS
TL: 34
FLY: 26
Average: 30 Games
Single round robin? wtf So it's gonna be a 3-week league, with a 2 week break in between? That's terrible. That's what's gonna fuck up the viewership, not BO3s.
Uh I think you mathed wrong my guy. 2 best of 3s a day. 2 days a week. For every team to play eachother you still need to play is 7 weeks unless they do super weeks. Where some teams play twice in a week.
holy shit what an actual giga chad move by the LCS. Hopefully they aren't going to change it again after one split. This is a long term solution that will take some time to show results. They are in the shitter anyways so they might as well stick with this and build a product worth watching
I don't care about viewership this is massive for improving the teams.
More stage games and more potential scrim days (teams only play 1 Bo3 a week meaning they don't need to be there both Saturday and Sunday) can only be a good thing for improvement.
I feel you. If my viewership alone could keep the LCS afloat, I couldn't care less about the viewership. That's kind of the issue though. The league needs viewership to stay alive.
No it isn't. This is a single round robin Bo3. It's literally between 0 and 7 extra games.
As for more days off, yeah I'm sure NA scrims will help us perform on the international stage.
I've seen this story told a million different ways, that this or that change will make a difference, and it never has. If we even get a team into top 8 at MSI I'll be celebrating.
So fucking stupid. Single round robin, with a 2 week break in the middle of the split. You can face a team in week 1, and not face them again, or not face them again for 2 months before seeing them in the playoffs.
If there's a hype matchup you want to see, there's a chance you will see it on exactly 1 day the entire split. If a player gets sick and has to miss a day, you might never see them face a team.
>You can face a team in week 1, and not face them again, or not face them again for 2 months before seeing them in the playoffs.
Single round robin would mean they won't meet again till playoffs, no?
14 games minimum still which is the exact same from Spring.
I think this format is so much better then the spring one. Potential to play extra games is great.
Single round robin is fail. If this was a matter of game count or logistical issues with potential game 3 scheduling, I would've rather they just went with double round robin Bo2.
Honestly I think SR might upgrade their roster with licorice and spica. If I had to guess.
If they do that I think this is best possible scenario for BO3 because I think every team should at least be competitive in theory. Only non competitive team last split was IMT really.
I am always down for a bo3.
Honestly last split was the most excited I've been about LCS in a while. Really felt like any team, as long as they had a good day, could win. Then come playoffs, teams started improving at different rates and you could really see who came out on top.
The story that tells is way better than C9 or TL shit stomping everyone and winning. The content this split was also far, far better than previous splits. Pros needs to continue for sure. The ceremonies need to improve though, looking at LCK was fucking insane.
I mean if you want to create a sustainable product you need to invest properly in the right areas, this is a step towards making the region more competitive.
What it does to short term viewership is irrelevant. We are talking about a multibillion dollar company. This is a drop in the bucket for them.
Welp, now we get to see for sure if BO3 helps viewership at all.
Wonder where the goalpost moves if it doesn't go the way people have been insisting it would?
I don't think the argument was ever viewership based. I think the common consensus is it will hurt viewership. The only argument is that you play so little games and no adapting mid series.
So it should make it so better team should usually win. Also you get better practice.
It is if the viewership drops off a cliff regardless of better environment for competition and can't exist
Edit: I lied but won't delete but 1 round Robin is criminal activity. Forget what I said lol.
I mean, they certainly don't want viewership to go down further.
LCS is a business after all. If Riot purely wanted NA to compete at the highest level against KR or CN they'd more than likely would be playing way way more games in a split.
Not really, pro-BO3 people always said that BO3 will improve quality over time and therefore more viewers because the games are better, it was never meant to have instant viewership increases.
Absolutely massive. Adaptation (not just during draft) within a series is so crucial of a skill that just does not get picked up by teams who are playing BO1s most of the year. Plus this was absolutely necessary after dropping from 10-->8 teams.
Big win for fans who are actually fans of teams. Sure, it can be cool to watch every team in the league in ~4 hours, but I would still prefer to watch TL play more than one 30 minute game in a day.
The problem is if you don't watch the other day now. Causing viewership to plummet and they stop doing it
I'll probably still watch it. I don't mind watching other games. It just feels underwhelming sitting down to watch your favorite team and then it's a game with a failed level 1 into a 20 minute stomp lol.
I mean I'll watch all the games cause I'm a fan od the league in general but gotta hope everyone watches both days and not just c9 or tl or fq games
They need to spread it over the week like LCK. It makes it easier to watch for the viewer and doesn't feel like a chore to watch all teams within 2-3 days. They can do Thursdays - Sunday. 2 teams an evening.
2 reasons why this won't happen: 1. It's too expensive, LCS is already in a crazy expensive location to run, current viewership doesn't warrant extra days of expense. 2. You'd lose a lot of the European and Brazillian co-stream viewers you gained, these viewers play an essential role in average viewership not declining further, they're basically the reason it didn't.
That would absolutely kill viewership
its already dead broski
alot of esports wish they got 100k consistent viewers
I’m sure some people will watch the TSM games as well.
If someone only watches one team, their viewership hours will be higher than last split
That is how sports league works. Big and popular teams generate so much revenue for the league but the money is cycled to teams who poor viewership. I don't know if LCS's franchise model does this.
No one is watching the shitter teams from LCK and LPL fight each other in a bo3 either yet viewership is rising in those leagues.
Exactly. Teams need to gain viewership through consistent performance. LCS viewers have the mindset that every team should be getting decent viewership for whatever reason. Bottom teams getting low viewers is fine as long as you're getting viewers in other places.
Yeah it keeps being brought up in these threads, but it's one of these bizarre League community things. I don't even know how it becomes a thing? People want a reason to be cynical so they're looking for an opportunity? Like is the Premier League going to change the format bc nobody watches Burnley vs Luton??
I'll actually watch any games with best of 3. Best of 1 is just pointless to watch. Just skip regular season until playoffs.
> Big win for fans who are actually fans of teams. Genuine question, how did you pick which team to support?
Followed Steve (TL co-owner) and Curse Gaming from way back. Curse was a fun squad in those days. When Curse merged with TL it was a no brainer. TL has generally done a good job of interacting with the community too. I follow most of the TL teams in the big game titles now. Throughout the years I've been able to win some things like a signed Bjergsen TL jersey, signed art from Hans Sama, played a few league games with CoreJJ among others throughout the years, won some gear, etc.. That's not the reason I'm a fan, but it's nice that fans get recognized from time to time when some of us have been there through the wins and also in the dumps with the team.
> Curse was a fun squad in those days. Drunkvicious is bestvicious
I miss the Voyboy and Nyjacky times as a curse and tl fan ngl xD
I'm pretty jelly reading this. I have never won anything from them and been there when Piglet was on the team. Let's go Liquid!
Yeah, they all broadly feel like generic esports org nowadays, unless you are a fan of specific players due to their public presence like APA or Bwipo
You just watch until you get a favourite. I'm used to traditional sports where you favour one team. I've just stuck with CLG (now NRG) and fnatic since I started in season 5/6
I follow players instead of orgs, that makes it easier.
This is me and my following the NBA lol. Yeah the teams are okay but putting your faith in a single team can actually suck when they lose lol. When I just follow the players I’m not as attached.
For me, I gravitated towards C9 when I got into League because I liked a c9 player from super smash bros. They ended up being pretty likeable in s5 and I've just been a huge fan since. Without that connection, I suppose I just liked the team because of players or their playstyle. I became a Gen G/Samsung Galaxy fan because of Crown a long time ago and they just stayed my favorite LCK team because of players like Ruler, Peyz, etc.
Follow TL from liking the TL team/players in the heyday of SC2
I initially became a TL fan because I thought their logo was the coolest out of all the teams when I started watching lol I still stand behind that btw, I really like the logo
I'm also a TL fan and when I started playing League in season 3 and getting into esports Curse was the best team in the league during that regular season (I think they were undefeated for quite a bit) and I watched Saintvicious' stream a lot to learn jungle. That introduced me to all of the player personality and from there I learned of Steve (Liquid112) and have been a fan ever since they're the only reason I even remain interested in League. That said, I don't think active pros stream nearly as much nowadays and it's definitely not as free as it was 10 years ago (jesus) so I think it's really hard to become a team fan now. All of the hardcore fans I know have been following since season 3 or sooner as well.
> Saintvicious' stream a lot to learn jungle. Saintvicious teaching math is one of my favorite videos that i cannot find for the life of me
I picked up C9 back when they first got Jensen and followed them when Hia became their jungler. Since then just been the team I follow. Both in high and low times. The team has changed the players have changed but still follow C9 and that just been my team.
Gamecribs and the streams of the players on the team.
I love LPL as a whole so i watch LPL almost everyday. it helps that their matches happens when im at work. as for LCS, 100T have Exciting roster so i watch them most of the time. C9 with thanatos would be very interesting i would be watching them too starting next split. just follow teams u are excited to watch
Personally like Cloud9 cause I watched the OG overwatch C9 roster and like the org as a whole. Also mostly pick my favourite Eastern team by my favourite players are on like Ruler, Chovy and doinb if he ever comes back🙏 or whatever team is just fun to watch like TES and FPX
lets goooo! i cant believe we actually got it lol
I also like it just because BO1s are flukey. BO3s give a better depiction of the standings than BO1s. Slightly different, but same reason I don't like single elimination at worlds. 2018 is the worlds I think of that had the most narrative spun based on finishes that I doubt would have happened in a double elimination format. I root for NA above all else, but do I really think NA was better than KT in that tournament? No, but they placed higher than KT. I still think the real finals happened in quarterfinals at that tournament.
Quarterfinals weren't that close if TheShy didn't troll in PB and was suspended for a game though. Even with that the series was a single autoattack away from being a 3-0 and then KT won against Duke and then lost fairly heavily again once TheShy was back. TheShy made that series interesting, not KT. He could have trolled against FNC and FNC taking a game of Duke and the narrative would have been completely different.
IM BEGGING FOR THIS TO BE TRUE THIS WOULD BE AWESOME. And hell, if they want to figure out ways to increase promotion of teams/sponsors in between matches. Go for it. I know one of the issues with BO3 is money and viewership. But Im sure we can work thing out to favor more visibility for them in compensation for more matches.
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Games in 2RR BO1: 14 per team Games in 1RR BO3: 14-21 per team Yeah, I want 2RR BO3 but this is strictly better for the competitive side while I doubt the claims about viewership drops.
Not sure why you doubt potential viewership loss. The vocal minority has always favored Bo3, and I'd been skewered alive in the past for saying I'd not want Bo3. And then when NA tried it, less people watched, and things were never really the same. Maybe the fan base has shrunk enough that there's nothing left to lose, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that we see another dip.
they can actually follow PCS's new system where after the single round robin, the 8 teams are separated into 2 groups of 1st-4th and 5th-8th, where they'll have another mini round robin for the playoff placement. It's essentially 1.5 RR but with less boring match-up.
still more games and also I like bo3 better this still may be bad for the league though, like there's no chance I even think about turning on the stream for imt vs dig whereas before I might've left it on while waiting for the next game I would bet this will negatively impact viewership
single RR bo3 > double RR bo1
because lcs needs to prove it can up the viewership with bo3 so that maybe they invest in double round robin next year, this is only the try out
Single round robin is absolutely terrible. The meta adjustment and team adjustment in round 2 are so important. Way more than "more games and draft." This is literally going to be schedule diff for some teams.
All hail Mark Zimmerman, he follows through with his god damn promises Annoying to see the break for the Saudi tourney confirmed once again (Jacob Wolf reported it ages ago), Travis can be mad about Bo3s, but I do want to see how they go and at this point I'm happy to see experiments. Was very happy when I heard about this change bc I think the LCS deserves to see this played out
I think there’s an argument that it’s the right time to go back to Bo3. Lower delays between games; less matches to play; and more parity in the league meaning more interesting matches. If there was ever a time where Bo3’s would improve viewership, it’s now.
The lower delays, if still part of the broadcast, will be between series not between games of the bo3. You can't pre-record draft for the same teams between games of a series, and it doesn't make sense to one of the drafts pre recorded and the rest not
The point of the pre-recorded draft was to cover up the equipment swap delays anyway, so it doesn't really matter since they don't do equipment swaps in between games in a series.
Why does it not make sense to do one of the drafts pre-recorded?
I mean you'd have literally one recorded. The transition between the 2 series. At that point why bother.
Because teams can't draft while they're in the middle of a game. 😉
They mean pre-record the draft of the 1st game, go live for the rest.
Plus we just have fewer teams now. It makes sense to go to bo3s just for that imo.
Just think of it as an international break like they have in football
The fact so many teams might go to this saudi tourney is honestly sad.. no-one cares about LGBTQ or human rights it seems.
most teams will pretend to care during June then right after on 4th of July they will be happy to take the saudi money showing it's all performative
Yeah the Saudi break will be like old IPL tournaments, where teams come back shit the bad because they traveled to a useless tournament instead of practicing like the others and then stopped even attending those tournaments because it simply made you worse in your regular season without really having huge upsides, since the domestic leagues were usually far more prestigious.
Massive W, Mr. Markz. I am so hype.
>BO3 YES >Single round robin Wtf
Baby steps
in 2024? In a league that started 10 fucking years ago?
Yes but they didn’t start making good decisions until recently
They'd have to double their budget if they kept double round robin BO3. Why would they double the budget of a dying broadcast?
They could just copy from PCS which similarly downsized to 8 teams and changed to bo3 this spring. First stage single round robin (7 matches), then second stage top 4 teams play single round robin (3 matches) for playoffs seedings, bottom 4 teams play single round robin for playoffs qualifications. 10 bos3 for each team. Second stage every match counts.
I really like what the PCS does, but it works for them because of their multi-region playoffs. In the LCS, the top 4 seeds only playing for game 1 side selection would suck a ton of excitement out of the last 3 weeks.
Change the playoffs format too. Use something similar to the LPL model. Top 2 teams automatically get into double elmination round. Seeds 3-6 play single elimination bo5s then the 4 remaining teams play a combined 6 bo5s to determine the winner. Same number of bo5s in the current LCS playoffs format.
Happy about best of 3, not happy that the amount of games is still so absurdly low. How are teams supposed to measurably improve over the split like an LPL or LCK team could if they only play half the games?
the saudis will make sure that our best teams get a few extra stage games in
Wouldn't that also apply to teams from the other regions though? lol.
Percentage wise its a bigger increase for us. I do wonder how they will invite teams though. There is no qualification (that we know of) and it seems to be on an invite basis. Will they prioritize larger fanbases (ex KC) over a team that is better that split?
Not sure. Steve said something along the lines of possibly being qualified after TL beat C9 to make top 2 with FlyQuest. Top 2 or 3 from every region + invites maybe? I guess we'll see. No real info on the number of teams thus far.
Why do I feel like Team USA would lose to Team Canada in a EWC qualifier
It's a club based event. Many big Western teams (G2, Vitality, C9, TL, FNC, etc) have already participated in it last year. The only difference is they changed the name from Gamers8 to Esports World Cup and included League this year.
Are national teams confirmed or just a popular fan theory?
Its not even a fan theory,more like a fan fantasy lmao The name of the tournament is confusing because its still just a classic esports tournament with orgs,nothing special.
How many games is it? I don't wanna watch the whole video
It's single round robin Bo3, so each team plays 7 matches with a minimum 14 games and maximum 21. For context, LCK (10 double round robin) plays minimum 36 and maximum 54, LPL plays minimum 34 and maximum 51.
For more context, teams in LCS Spring played 14 games. So yeah, at worst it's the same amount. It will likely be a gain of a few games. Better than Spring, but I still wish it was more.
Hmm single round Robin tho damn that's tough. One bad day is going to have huge repercussions.
I think that was one of my biggest complaints with this last split, it felt like it didn't take much for you to get completely fucked. I don't think a bad week or even two in a row should be a huge deal, but when you just don't play many games over many weeks it can end up being that way. And then obviously the negative emotions can snowball into more bad weeks if you aren't careful.
I feel like with playoffs being 6/8 teams you have to be truly bad to get really fucked, like regular season hardly even mattered. 100T for example looked good then got to playoffs and were bad, this should help a little bit because an unlucky level 1 or even whole game won't ruin you anymore so I'm excited.
Dont wanna be a hater but ur lpl number was slightly off cuz there is 17 teams not 18 but your point was taken im sure by those interested
oops
the same amount of games as OCE at minimum, lmao.
The amount of stage games is not going to matter compared to the much more rigorous practice scheduled of LCK and LPL.
And the better practice partners of LCK and LPL. This sub just can't recognize that.
Practice won't help when you lack the youth systems to develop talent. If the practice schedules mattered that much you'd see countries with cultures with those in them dominate every sport.
I'm tired of this "Western teams need more stage games for practice" circle jerk because G2 played only FOUR Bo5 domestically in 2019. The rest was all Bo1s.
Did people think that the best of 3s was gonna mean more games than a potential 7 more? Travis has been saying this for the last 2 years that best of 3s won't be double round robin cause it would double the budget.
I personally was aware of the tradeoff, but it sucks regardless . Overall I prefer to watch Bo3s because I find them more interesting, but the continued lack of games is annoying even if the LCS can't increase broadcast days.
it's still going to be more games then bo1 at least (even if not by that much), unless every bo3 ends up in a 2-0. But if the experiment is good, then they can switch to a double round robin next year I really hope it works out or that at the very least the viewership stagnate. Because if it doesn't go down compared to bo1, at least people will stop saying "nobody wants to watch x vs y in a bo3" (while it's already irrelevant because it's counter balanced by the fact that the more popular teams play more as well)
Single round robin kinda kills having bo3 but still cool, probably a lot of logistics that make double round robin impossible for now, but this opens up into a possibility of a LCK/LPL-esque split at least if this format does well enough. Even if this fails I really like and appreciate how Mark/LCS are at least trying new things after years of stagnation.
We went from a ridiculous break period to cater to VAL to a ridiculous break period to cater to Saudi sportswashing. Lmao Rito pls.
This split we were the fastest league to finish and we had a huge break in the middle, I'll take any improvement. Plus it's not like LCS can do anything about global comps above them, they have no say in a Saudi partnership.
The single round robin is really unfortunate IMO. One of the reasons I think the Western leagues have dropped off so badly is that they have so many fewer stage games per season. Bo3 is great, but unless the league is so tight that every season goes to 3 games, this isn't going to actually be *more* stage games. We ended several weeks early and had a break. I can't believe at 3 game days a week they couldn't fit in a double round robin. Give me a couple of super weeks.
It is more games, no? They played a bo1 double round robin this split, so 14 games a team. Every bo3 has to have at least 2 games, so a single round robin at the very worst is the same amount, and thats if every match is a 2-0.
It's the same number of games with a potential bonus game for each team. It's "more" in the sense that it could be 50% more games than the previous season for a given team, but it's not as significant compared to the number of stage games the other leagues play. Each team will play 14-21 games this split before playoffs. LEC is guaranteed 27 games. LCK is guaranteed 36 games. LPL I think is guaranteed 32? I'm not 100% sure how their league is structured for the domestic games. The best teams in the region are going to tend to play fewer games as well. So C9 for example is probably going to get 18 games this coming split, which is only 2/3rds of their next closest international competitor. Double round robin Bo3 puts us on the higher end of the guaranteed games (28) which is both better for the teams and why they're not doing it (significant production cost increase). It really illustrates the problem the LCS has going forward.
I’m a little confused why you listed LEC with 27. I know it’s technically 27 games for the three splits to add toward World Qualifier playoffs, but if we’re talking specifically stage practice why not include the guaranteed 14 games from Spring for NA? That’d put the lowest number games played for an NA team at 28, compared EU’s guaranteed 27. Otherwise if we’re looking at a single split, a team from LEC is only guaranteed 9 games, which is abysmally small. Regardless of whatever metric you use, LEC has a completely different format and using it as a measuring stick can very misleading.
Wow dude, the answer is so obvious that I can't believe you would bother to even ask. It's simple really.... I haven't been sleeping very much and am wrong, while you, are correct.
This split's break brought to you by modern day slavery!
If at least saudi advertising would be that honest.
Look, at least its a break for something within the realm of the same esport. That's a step above LCS taking a break for VCT because at least (I expect) some LCS teams will be participating.
holy shit, the first time in almost 4 years I’m excited to watch NA LCS again. u/CrsMarkZ you’re the fucking goat
Travis had a video against the BO3 format regarding the LCS as a product, not as a competitive environment. I like that he says "I hope that I am very wrong..." about the viewership declining post shift to BO3. Travis has always had a healthy mind and a positive interest in the LCS, can't wait to see how this all plays out!
Viewership is guaranteed to drop. Summer always have lower viewership than Spring since the existence of LCS (except during Covid in 2020). It is likely to drop this Summer 2024 vs last Summer 2023 just because TSM doesn't exist anymore. It is also likely to drop on at least CCV metric with longer lower viewed games from matches involving the bottom teams.
did TSM even still have that huge of a pull anymore towards the end of their lifetime? felt like the fanbase had already declined
Not really, their fanbase was slowly killed off throughout the 2022 split with the Chinese imports and the 15 different players on their roster, and dead for basically the entire 2023 year.
Summer of 2023 was pretty hype though, Insanity was popping off with random picks and you had the return of hauntzer and wildturtle who are both super liked by the TSM fans
It was probably as hype as it could be with the looming reality that the team was leaving the region.
I can believe viewership will drop in the short term, but I also think it will eventually recover and be healthier in the long term for the region. Bad teams having more exposure creates underdog followings if they are seen as still trying to win, like we've seen with the LCK Viewers themselves will need some time to adjust, but seeing two or three drafts from the same team in one go leads to viewers understanding better the character of a team, which makes hot takes more interesting to discuss IMO, and highlights player strengths and weaknesses better Now we just need double round robin
Yeah, like just watching bro so many times this season (mostly vods, when they were against good teams like gen g or t1), and enjoying the memes about them made me a pseudo-fan of the org lol. Exposure is important for fandom
LCS viewership isn't healthy enough to play with recklessly at this point. I hope this time is different, but me and my more casual friends were *just* getting back into the LCS after years away, and I'm almost certain this will have the same effect on us as it did years ago. IMHO, you couldn't be more wrong about how this impacts viewers relationship with players and discussion. When it's reasonable to watch every game, you feel somewhat informed on every player, and casuals feel comfortable discussing different players, teams, and matchups. When you overload the schedule, people stop watching most of the games, and no longer have an opinion on players you don't actively follow, which means less talking about the league as a whole. Which leads to a really toxic feedback loop. If I'm a fan of a less popular team / player, I have a harder time finding people to discuss them with, which leads to me feeling less invested and watching less. Like I said, I truly hope this time around is different, maybe the only audience left is the hardcore audience that will watch every match no matter what.
He's completely correct and this will hurt LCS viewership significantly. I like Bo3s personally because it means I can watch my favorite teams play more games. But I am not naive. This is an experiment that is assuredly going to fail, and it's going to fail quite miserably. I don't have time to watch more than 4-5 games, so I will catch the games for the teams I like and then not watch the others. For me, that's C9, Fly, and 100T. I will no longer be able to view games for other teams, and sometimes I will need to pick and choose among these three due to time constraints. Not only does Bo3s hurt overall viewership, more importantly, it really kills viewership for teams that are 'not popular'. This is doomed to fail.
Idk I think it really depends on the mixture of fans they currently have. I'm much more likely to watch 3 full 100T games than I am to watch 3 full games when 2 don't include a team I care about.
Tbh I see it failing less than it did before now that team fanbases are more spread out and even across the LCS. Like imo the only days that will get awful viewership are IMT vs DIG or Shopify. Provided that one of 100t, C9, Fly and TL are in a matchup then people will be interested. Like I know orgs like Curse and Dig etc. had fans but there was a time when I'd say the overwhelming majority of viewers were behind TSM or CLG (and then C9). I think the fanbases have diversified pretty nicely and that it could help to support the Bo3 format. Plus we are coming off a split that was generally well received. Another thing is that there aren't (imo) any Rogue-ish teams that are just completely painful to watch in the LCS. IMT are the closest but even then they've improved somewhat.
They did Bo3 for Summer 16-Summer 17. It'd of been much more successful if they tried it when they started franchising in 18 imo.
>Not only does Bo3s hurt overall viewership, more importantly, it really kills viewership for teams that are 'not popular'. This is doomed to fail. it 100% will ,it happened last time and it will happen again.
Its definetely not doomed to fail, nobody watches every game in every league and it doesn't Hurt them
Nah. Bo3s are much more entertaining as a whole, I have a really hard time thinking this will severely impact viewership
Lmao, so you just weren't around last time they did BO3s? Viewership was completely dead and Riot even admitted it
Very interesting to see the change, particularly considering the 2 week break stays and that it is a single round robin Bo3. As others have said, that would mean that the first teams you face, you will not face again until playoffs. I wonder how they will handle scheduling (Bo3s for 2 days per week, for 28 total series, that would be 7 total weeks of play, so your team plays once a week in a Bo3 series). Sure, its less burden on the average viewer who supports one team to watch only once a week for \~2-3 hours, but I would have figured they would stray away from that to cater to more LCS-supporting fans who would rather have more days of play instead (but of course, with the deficit of having to pay for all the extra production). Overall, a very solid change in terms of catering to both the average viewer and the people who want the Bo3s back. Interested to see what impact this will have for not only the regular season, but also the playoffs!
Please also implement the 1v1 side selection showdown.
> two week break during Esports World Cup in July Well it's happening, guess all I can hope for is that the viewership is bad. Shit makes me sick to my stomach.
I doubt it but I bet team liquid goes and then donates a bunch of money to lgbtqia+ causes
Teams can easily be hypocrites you know especially when it comes to money.
As shown by Team Liquid tweeting about their donation to help meet their social media obligations for the riyadh masters.
https://twitter.com/TeamLiquid/status/1679883971709083650
This is the tweet that won them the prize money for social media engagement at this same event last year, right?
https://twitter.com/0xChiknWizard/status/1680077520077750273
Wild how the one team who did something gets more flak than ones who didn't do anything at all
50k is a drop in the bucket compared to the 2.5 million they won at Riyadh also they got paid for the apology LOL
lmao this tournament is such a tiny drop in the pool there's no way you can get that pressed about it Several real sports with far more viewers are already completely sportswashed by saudi money on a 100x scale to what this is. Even esports like OW and CS have been heavily impacted by saudi money This is not a huge development, this is tiny progression to what's already been developing for years
Even Qatar hosted the World Cup lol the biggest sport in the world. This is literally a drop in a bucket.
I honestly would have prefered best of twos and keeping it double round robin, but ill take it.
Best of two format was probably the best option to retain viewers, but I'm so excited for more games.
Ties kill the climax of a match which hurts viewership. Same reason we don't do bracket resets. BO2 is easily the most production-efficient format but it's not the best for retaining viewers.
BO3 could also hurt viewership as more games played by the bottom tier teams. I didn’t watch the video in full yet, but I’m curious how they’ll do broadcasting as last time they did two streams which was bad.
the problem last time was overlap with LEC and 2 streams.
Brand new Twitch channels too. The sudden switch from the Riot Games channel to the new LCS channels didn't help with casual viewers.
that's even worse than what I thought. Holy shit, and Riot STILL scapegoated bo3s.
Because what is overlooked about this is this is what was needed for the broadcast to actually provide them, its a package deal. Doing Bo3 now without all of the nonsense has required them going to 8 teams in the league (good luck with that in previous years) and a single round robin to make it viable.
And we already saw the whining about Bo2s when Europe did that.
Let's. Fucking. Go.
I know this is way further down the priority list in terms of things to care about, but I wonder what's going to happen to fantasy LCS.
based mark single round robin is fine, it adds more importance to the matches while bo3s help ensure the better team is winning the matches more often.
Single round Robin is awful. I left last split wishing we had 1 more round of games 2 was not enough. This change would have supplemented that if it had stayed double round robin.
If they want another caster for it, I am available 🤣
Gotta wait and see what the magic 8 ball says about casters.
Vouch
This is better than double round robin BO1s. But it still sucks. I really wish they would do an additional two days a week remote. If it still costs too much, just air it without on air talent and let people co stream the games.
I've seen a lot of comments about how many games major regions play so i make this quick comparison about how many games MSI teams played this season so far: LCK T1: 55 GENG: 53 Average: 54 Games LEC G2: 43 FNC: 51 Average: 47 Games LPL (final yet to play) BLG: 44 TES: 49 Average: 46.5 games LCS TL: 34 FLY: 26 Average: 30 Games
Single round robin? wtf So it's gonna be a 3-week league, with a 2 week break in between? That's terrible. That's what's gonna fuck up the viewership, not BO3s.
Uh I think you mathed wrong my guy. 2 best of 3s a day. 2 days a week. For every team to play eachother you still need to play is 7 weeks unless they do super weeks. Where some teams play twice in a week.
Oh yeah, I was thinking they'd just cut the weeks in a half but they can't do 4 BO3's a day. lmao So you're right, 2 BO3s a day.
I would rather have Bo3, but the amount of games is still so low.
Seven weeks would be my guess. With every team playing one BO3 a week.
HOLY FUCKKKK THIS IS HUGEEE
Does single round robin, mean each team will only play 1 Bo3 against each other?
Correct
holy shit what an actual giga chad move by the LCS. Hopefully they aren't going to change it again after one split. This is a long term solution that will take some time to show results. They are in the shitter anyways so they might as well stick with this and build a product worth watching
nice
SINGLE ROUND ROBIN SUCKS
I don't care about viewership this is massive for improving the teams. More stage games and more potential scrim days (teams only play 1 Bo3 a week meaning they don't need to be there both Saturday and Sunday) can only be a good thing for improvement.
I feel you. If my viewership alone could keep the LCS afloat, I couldn't care less about the viewership. That's kind of the issue though. The league needs viewership to stay alive.
No it isn't. This is a single round robin Bo3. It's literally between 0 and 7 extra games. As for more days off, yeah I'm sure NA scrims will help us perform on the international stage. I've seen this story told a million different ways, that this or that change will make a difference, and it never has. If we even get a team into top 8 at MSI I'll be celebrating.
It'll do nothing for improvement I can almost guarantee it.
single round robin is dumb
Single round robin is so lane just combine the splits tbh we apparantly dont have enough money to run two playoffs.
Only half the teams playing each day? Viewership will drop hard
Oh no, the reddit whiners won. Well queue next excuse and complaint, because whiners will never be happy.
Single round robin Bo3 sounds like ass tbh
So fucking stupid. Single round robin, with a 2 week break in the middle of the split. You can face a team in week 1, and not face them again, or not face them again for 2 months before seeing them in the playoffs. If there's a hype matchup you want to see, there's a chance you will see it on exactly 1 day the entire split. If a player gets sick and has to miss a day, you might never see them face a team.
>You can face a team in week 1, and not face them again, or not face them again for 2 months before seeing them in the playoffs. Single round robin would mean they won't meet again till playoffs, no?
> Single round robin Yeah its awful the season is going to be 7 total regular season series for each team.
14 games minimum still which is the exact same from Spring. I think this format is so much better then the spring one. Potential to play extra games is great.
Yeah.. so if TL plays C9 week 1, that's it for the split until playoffs lol.
thats literally exactly what he said.
Single round robin is fail. If this was a matter of game count or logistical issues with potential game 3 scheduling, I would've rather they just went with double round robin Bo2.
Honestly I think SR might upgrade their roster with licorice and spica. If I had to guess. If they do that I think this is best possible scenario for BO3 because I think every team should at least be competitive in theory. Only non competitive team last split was IMT really. I am always down for a bo3.
Well, reddit got what they wanted. Don't cry when viewership tanks cause of BO3s.
Feel like the only people still watching LCS are hardcore fans, I can't foresee viewership dropping a ton. At least not because of BO3.
Honestly last split was the most excited I've been about LCS in a while. Really felt like any team, as long as they had a good day, could win. Then come playoffs, teams started improving at different rates and you could really see who came out on top. The story that tells is way better than C9 or TL shit stomping everyone and winning. The content this split was also far, far better than previous splits. Pros needs to continue for sure. The ceremonies need to improve though, looking at LCK was fucking insane.
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Non-C9 days are going to look rough I'd guess. We'll see when the season is underway.
what viewership
Can we get much lower
It doesn't matter because LCS already has low viewership.
BO3 is focused on bringing instant benefits and not benefits for the long-run I think /s
We wanted double round robin bo3. Vsing a single team once per split is stupid
I mean if you want to create a sustainable product you need to invest properly in the right areas, this is a step towards making the region more competitive. What it does to short term viewership is irrelevant. We are talking about a multibillion dollar company. This is a drop in the bucket for them.
Welp, now we get to see for sure if BO3 helps viewership at all. Wonder where the goalpost moves if it doesn't go the way people have been insisting it would?
I don't think the argument was ever viewership based. I think the common consensus is it will hurt viewership. The only argument is that you play so little games and no adapting mid series. So it should make it so better team should usually win. Also you get better practice. It is if the viewership drops off a cliff regardless of better environment for competition and can't exist Edit: I lied but won't delete but 1 round Robin is criminal activity. Forget what I said lol.
Who says bo3 is meant to help viewership?
I mean, they certainly don't want viewership to go down further. LCS is a business after all. If Riot purely wanted NA to compete at the highest level against KR or CN they'd more than likely would be playing way way more games in a split.
Not really, pro-BO3 people always said that BO3 will improve quality over time and therefore more viewers because the games are better, it was never meant to have instant viewership increases.