Riot Games esports announces major changes to its broadcasting schedule

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Riot Games has one of the most developed esports scenes in the industry. Games such as League of Legends, and Valorant, have a huge player base and reach a worldwide audience. Intending to reach an even wider audience, and provide fans with the best possible viewing experience, it announced some major changes to its broadcasting schedule. 

To avoid both esports scenes having overlapping schedules, Riot Games made some huge changes to their broadcasting schedules. The goals were to reduce broadcast overlaps, have schedules that match the viewers preferences, and explore new format opportunities. 

The organizers of VCT & League of Legends leagues didn't want fans to be forced to pick which leagues to watch, allowing viewers to follow their favorite game regardless of its region. They took into consideration that fans want to primarily watch their favorite team, and see the biggest matchups of that week, to make these changes. The company also concluded that binge-watching every league is just not viable for viewers, and that fans shouldn’t have to decide which league or game to watch. With all these in mind, Riot Games made the following changes to their League of Legends and Valorant esports broadcasting schedules.

League of Legends new schedule

• LCS - Thursday and Friday. Starting at 12:00 PM PT

• LEC - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Starting at 6:00 PM CET

• CBLoL - Saturday & Sunday. Starting at 1 PM BRT

• LPL - Monday-Friday. Starting at 5 PM CST. Saturday & Sunday starting at 3 PM CST

• LCK - New Start Times: Match 2 on weekdays will start at 7:30 PM (KST). Match 1 on the weekends will start at 3:00 PM (KST). Match 2 will start at 5:30 PM (KST).

VCT schedule

• VCT Americas - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Starting at 12:00 PM PT.

• VCT EMEA - Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Starting at 6:00 PM CET

• VCT Pacific - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Starting at 6:00 PM KST

These changes received mostly negative reactions, especially from the LCS North American viewership base, who are not happy with the changes. Worth noting that, the LCS has a big audience in Europe, and those viewers are mostly happy about these changes. LCS viewership has been steadily declining in the past few years, and as some personalities point out, moving the games to weekdays in the morning might not be the best decision. It's not a good time for people to watch the league, since the majority of the viewers will either be at work or school. A minority of the fans is happy with the changes, saying they are glad about being able to watch games during the week, and that not having every league playing on the weekends is actually good. 

It’s the League of Legends schedule that most viewers are complaining about, since the VCT one hasn’t faced almost any backlash at all. Worth noting that, the VCT has only three “main” leagues, while League of Legends has five, not including the European regional leagues. This makes it much easier to create a broadcast schedule that will make the majority of its fan base happy. 

For European viewers, the changes are okay since most leagues are on at a favorable time for the fans. However, in the bigger picture, it can bring some problems, especially for the North American region. For the VCT scene, the schedule has received mostly good reactions. Riot Games said the following about the changes: 

“We’re excited about the benefits of our new system. It will allow us to create flexibility to explore broadcast formats, increase cross regional storytelling, and make it easier for co-streamers. While we don’t expect every call to be perfect, we believe the changes we’re making will improve the viewing experience across all leagues. Where they fall short, we hope you will tell us and we’ll be listening. We want these changes to make it easier to be a fan, follow your favorite competition, and discover new content about the sports and teams you love!”