Oxygen Esports wins Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2, showmatch brings in the most viewers

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The Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2 — an off-season Valorant event supported by Riot Games — was held on January 13 and 14 at OFFBRAND Studio in Los Angeles. Compared to the first edition, most of the viewership stats saw steep falls, although the identity of participants played a key part.

Like last year, 2024's edition of this off-season tournament had analysts and casters from the VCT circuit calling the matches, ensuring a unique viewing experience for audiences. Moreover, the show match this time saw teams — consisting of renowned content creators and pro gamers — led by organizers Ludwig and Tarik duke it out. The latter won 2:1 in a nail-biting decider that made up for the two one-sided maps in the earlier rounds.

The Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2 was held in a double-elimination format, with all the matches being best of three, unlike in 2023 when the Upper Bracket Final was a best-of-one affair. The four participating sides were Oxygen Esports, Moist x Shopify Rebellion, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves, prominent names in the North American discipline's esports scene.

  Basic stats and most popular matches from the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2   

This $50K Valorant competition hit 82.5K Peak Viewers during the aforementioned showmatch between Team Ludwig versus Team Tarik. With names like Pokimane, TenZ, LilyPichu, and Aiden in action, it also did 1.2M Hours Watched and 58.6K Average Viewers over an airtime of 22 hours.

The most popular match between pro teams in action was the Lower Bracket Semifinal between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. The latter lost 1:2 to finish last and go home empty-handed, while the former lost in the Lower Bracket Final to pocket $5K for its troubles.

The Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2’s most popular side was the only one to cross 60K AV, with the other three teams separated by around 3K people. When it comes to platforms, Twitch was the most preferred, with YouTube having only one channel live streaming the action.

Compared to the previous edition, both main organizers also saw declines in their viewership statistics, reflecting the overall changes between the two years. They remained the most successful streamers across the two iterations but could not attract even half as many viewers across the crucial metrics as they did the first time out.

Moving to a brief recap of the event, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves would have expected to go far, considering they are two of the most popular rosters worldwide. However, as already mentioned, both failed to make the Grand Final, where Oxygen Esports beat Moist x Shopify Rebellion 2:1 to claim the title and a prize money of $30K.

This also meant that the winning side, formed in 2020 by merging Helix eSports and Team Reciprocity, took revenge for its 1:2 loss to Moist x Shopify Rebellion in the Upper Bracket Final. One positive for the runner-up, owned by the popular creator MoistCr1TiKaL, was that it took home $15K.

Two rosters were also coming in with changes, which no doubt piqued the interest of fans of the sport. 100 Thieves had seen former Overwatch pro and Evil Geniuses member Boostio join as its in-game leader, while Oxygen Esports had three members who joined up in December, including IGL mitch.

  Viewership numbers from the two editions of the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational held so far   

Despite having almost double the number of channels streaming the action, the Ludwig x Tarik Invitational 2 fell short of matching the numbers set by its inaugural edition. Unlike last year, the showmatch was more popular than any of the actual games between the organizations.

One reason was the line-up of streamers taking part in this special game, aside from the obvious excitement among fans to see what this new concept holds for them. With regards to the former, 2023's showmatch had names like Shroud, QuarterJade, and Envy in action, with the Canadian former Counter-Strike pro a big draw in himself, meaning attention was pretty high among audiences.

Additionally, Sentinels — perhaps the most popular roster globally — was in action last year, attracting thousands more viewers. However, this year, even though the likes of Cloud9 and 100 Thieves enjoy massive fan bases, they haven't really enjoyed the best results recently, nor are they as famous as their NA counterpart, leading to a dip in interest levels among fans.

This series by two names famous in both esports and streaming circles is another that will only grow from strength to strength thanks to its unique mixture of prominence and name value of competitors, production quality, and superstar broadcast talent. Fans have enjoyed watching their favorite sides from the NA region butt heads over the past two years, while the showdowns between the teams of content creators and pros is a great entertainment quotient in between the serious action.