Here's what went down in the 13 regional leagues of LoL's EMEA region

The 13 regional leagues for EMEA have ended, with the slots for the all-important EMEA Masters Spring 2023 filled. With a prize pool of €150K, the mega event will see the top 28 teams from these competitions battle it out for regional pride.

Here’s a recap of these EMEA Regional League and how they performed compared to their 2022 editions. To be remembered is that there was a revamp of the continental league structure after the merger of the Europe, Turkey, CIS, and MENA regions into one league, christened the EMEA Masters.

This means that while last year’s competitions served as qualifiers for the European Masters Spring 2022, this year’s tournaments helped teams seal their berths in the EMEA Masters Spring 2023. This undoubtedly contributed to the fluctuating viewership numbers from these ERLs.

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Viewership stats from the 13 ERLs in terms of Peak Viewers

LFL Spring 2023

The LFL Spring 2023, the biggest of these 13 ERLs, pulled in lesser viewers than last year. A major reason was that Karmine Corp — the most popular team — failed to get past the Group Stage.

KC’s popularity was such that it was part of all five of the most-viewed matches of this French event. So dependent was the league on this one team that the Grand Final ranked as its fiftieth most popular game.

LVP Superliga Spring 2023

The LVP Superliga Spring 2023 fell by more than 53% in Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. What didn’t help this Spanish competition was that neither KOI nor Heretics was part of the proceedings as they had moved to the LEC and were replaced by their academies.

The former is owned by legendary Twitch star ibai, who usually covers his team’s matches on stream and puts up high viewership numbers. His absence this time was keenly felt, although KOI Academy made it to all five of the event's most popular matches.

Prime League Spring 2023

This league had a story for the ages as at the Prime League 2nd Division Summer 2022, No Need Orga, a side consisting of five popular German League of Legends streamers, were victors. It was no fluke either, with the media calling the win a "miracle run," as the team’s route to the title was incredibly difficult and filled with funny situations.

The side’s dream run ensured the competition broke a record, with the Grand final between NNO and BSC drawing over 91K PV, a new all-time league record. The Prime League Spring 2023 could not match those numbers, and while No Need Orga, now going by NNO Prime, featured in all five of the most-watched games at the tournament, they could not do anything of note, finishing last in the Group Stage to relinquish their crown.

TCL Winter 2023

The TCL Winter 2023 saw decreases of 51.3% in HW and 28.9% in PV, which was expected now that this Turkish tournament, one of the most popular in this discipline, was no longer part of the MSI/World circuit. With only spots in the EMEA Masters at stake this year instead of the usual MSI slot, and with big names like Galatasaray & Fenerbahce pulling out of the competition, it seems fans were not as interested in proceedings as usual.

SuperMassive Esports, perhaps the most popular side here, was involved in three of the most popular games from the event. Alongside fellow qualifiers İstanbul Wildcats and FUT Esports, the organization will look to prove a point for this region come the EMEA Master Spring 2023.

Ultraliga Season 9

The Ultraliga Season 9 was unique in that watch hours fell by 12.7%, but the peak concurrent viewership rose by 18.8% for this Polish event. Competition winner Zero Tenacity attracted lots of concurrent viewers, featuring in three of the five most popular games from the competition

However, it was only the third-best side in audience size with 4.5K Average Viewers, while runners-up Anonymo Esports was the best, with 5K AV. What helped the latter was that it played all the Playoffs matches, making the Grand Final after starting from the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals.

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Viewership stats from the 13 ERLs in terms of Hours Watched

Hitpoint Masters Spring

The Hitpoint Masters Spring 2023 rose by 116.7% in HW and 53.9% in PV, with this Czech tournament seeing the same winner and finalists as last time — Entropiq and eSuba. In a neat bit of symmetry, these teams met twice this year as well as the last, that too in the same stages, with the former winning both games at these competitions to come out on top as victors.

More intriguingly, the entire Playoffs bracket had the same sides playing the same games in a carbon copy of each other over the last two years. Also, both finalists had the same audience sizes with 3.6K AV each, pointing to a split in the fanbase.

Arabian League Spring 2023

The Arabian League Spring 2023, making its debut as part of the wider EMEA family, did some pretty impressive numbers for a first-time effort, matching or beating more experienced events like Poland and Portugal.

PG Nationals Spring 2023

The PG Nationals Spring 2023 did good 33.3% HW and 40.8% PV climbs, and it had a clear favorite in aNc Outplayed. The organization was part of all five of the most popular games from this Italian event, and it had an audience size that was 150% times bigger than the second-best side.

NLC 1st Division Spring 2023

The NLC 1st Division Spring 2023, bringing together teams from Northern Europe, almost mirrored the previous entry. It also had one team stand out from the rest, as NORD Esports made each entry in the most popular games from the event, while it had an average viewership that was 137.5% more than the next best side.

LPLOL Split 1 2023

The LPLOL Split 1 2023 saw an interesting viewership dynamic, as finalists White Dragons appeared twice in the most popular games list but was not among the top five in audience size. More pertinently, winner GTZ Esports made neither list, pointing to a shock result in one of the top leagues among the 13 here.

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In conclusion, most of the bigger leagues witnessed falls in viewership, while it was a mixed bag for the smaller ones, although they will be happy to be part of the wider structure that lets them play in an event as big as the EMEA Masters Spring 2023. It is all to play for when this mega League of Legends competition begins later today, with €150,000 on the line, including €40,000 for the winner.