Scrims on streams: how the new rule can help League of Legends teams attract a new audience

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Currently, the professional League of Legends scene is going through a pivotal moment in its history — LEC organizers have temporarily allowed league teams to stream their practice matches (scrims) live, a previously off-limits move. This new option has both pros and cons, and the possibility of streaming scrims has become one of the hottest topics in the LoL community. Fans across Europe and beyond are debating it on social media, prompting Esports Charts to dive into the situation and share their perspective on this major change.

What happened?

First, it's important to note that teams in League of Legends franchise leagues have very limited opportunities to participate in activities outside these leagues. Each team is an asset the league invests in, supporting clubs with sponsorships, and more. Given these investments, the league naturally wants to ensure that high-profile matches remain exclusive to it. This is why franchise league teams rarely compete in external tournaments or events — any such participation requires strict coordination, mainly to prevent oversaturating the tournament schedule or drawing viewers away from other Riot Games leagues. These restrictions have, to some extent, limited the clubs' media presence, which hasn't always sat well with some players — and, of course, the fans.

Professional teams only gained more media freedom relatively recently. Many fans consider the NNO organization to be the trailblazers in this area, as they not only competed in the Prime League but also, starting in 2024, began hosting their show tournaments featuring popular streamers and former pro players. Because NNO competed in a national league rather than a franchise league, they had more freedom and more options for engaging with their audience.

Caedrel / Photo: Riot Games

Later, the initiative started by NNO was taken over by Marc ‘’Caedrel’’ Lamont, a League of Legends streamer who has since become one of the most popular English-speaking community casters for the game. In late 2024, he founded his team, Los Ratones, which included well-known streamers and former LEC players. Los Ratones received an invitation to the NLC Winter 2025 and quickly became one of the season’s biggest surprises. 

Throughout the league, Los Ratones players streamed their practice and official matches on their channels. The team provided NLC viewers with unique content by offering a behind-the-scenes look at the scene, revealing the training process, and more. Instead of watching the official broadcast, fans could tune in to a specific Los Ratones player's perspective and watch their actions, interactions with teammates, decision-making, and more — all in real-time.

The impact of Los Ratones’ new approach to media engagement exceeded all expectations. In just one season, the NLC league shattered viewership records for the series and even outpaced some franchise leagues in terms of audience reach. To put it in perspective, after Los Ratones joined, the average number of viewers for NLC matches increased by twelve times, and the record peak online viewership skyrocketed from 14,023 to 360,545 viewers.

The example set by Los Ratones caught the attention of teams in North America, especially as the LCS league has been experiencing a decline in popularity over the past few seasons. FlyQuest’s top laner, Gabriël ‘’Bwipo’’ Rau, mentioned in an interview that his team was inspired by the Los Ratones model. In early February, FlyQuest held its first broadcast of practice matches against Cloud9. Bwipo himself streamed these games, reaching a peak of 18,026 viewers — setting a new record for his Twitch channel. 

Bwipo / Photo: Riot Games

In mid-February, an LEC representative announced that the European league would also temporarily allow teams to stream their practice matches. This option will be available from March 14 to March 23, after which the league will collect and analyze feedback from players, teams, and viewers. This move from the LEC could significantly change how top teams approach media growth, considering it’s the second most popular franchise league in the professional scene. Streaming practice matches could help the LEC close the audience gap with the LCK, and the league seems eager to seize this opportunity.

The benefits of streaming practice matches

After the LEC allowed its teams to stream practice matches, the community began discussing the pros and cons of this new development. Here are some of the most interesting positive points that the Esports Charts team has found.

Improved communication between the club and its fans. Streaming practice sessions brings the teams closer to their audience. By watching a match from the perspective of their favorite player, fans can feel like they're "in the same room", offering a unique viewing experience and a deeper immersion in the game. This isn’t the same as SoloQ streams, as it involves professional training, communication between players and teammates, and more. It’s more exclusive, high-level content that can teach viewers a lot.

By streaming practice sessions, viewers will gain a better understanding of the team’s "inner workings", follow the atmosphere within the squad, and track the roster’s progress throughout the season. This will give fans more context during the club’s transfer periods, making player changes more understandable to the audience.

Boosting competition within the leagues. In many League of Legends franchise leagues, there are often clear favorites and underdogs. At times, the gap in team strength is so large that it negatively affects the overall viewership of the league. Open practice sessions can help the underperforming teams learn from the leaders — they’ll gain valuable insight, identify strengths and weaknesses in different strategies, and get a better understanding of their opponents.

If teams in the league raise their level of play, it will make matches between them more intense and thrilling. The competition within the league will increase, and the distribution of prize spots won’t rely on just one or two head-to-head matchups between the favorites. In the end, the viewers will be the real winners.

Open practice sessions are valuable not just for teams in franchise leagues but also for Tier-2 teams. For instance, teams from national leagues or weaker regions will have the chance to closely study the gameplay of top teams and learn from their experience. 

Media boost for the entire League of Legends scene. When FlyQuest streamed their practice matches against Cloud9, they allowed anyone to restream them on their channels. The only requirement was to include the team’s tag in the stream title. This is a great way to engage with independent content creators — the club increases its brand visibility and attracts new viewers, not just to their matches but to League of Legends as a whole. These streams and restreams also offer an opportunity to promote sponsors, giving teams new avenues to collaborate with their partners.

In recent years, we’ve seen League of Legends reach a ceiling in terms of audience growth. Some franchise and national leagues have stopped expanding and, for several seasons, have been losing viewers. Finding new fans has become increasingly difficult, which is why they’re bringing in top community casters on every available streaming platform. Leagues like the LCK and LEC, as well as international tournaments, still show positive trends and continue to break viewership records, but not by the same wide margin as they did a few years ago. Public practice sessions could become a new tool to help grow the audience in a game that recently celebrated its 15th anniversary.

FlyQuest players / Photo: Riot Games

A media boost for professional players. Streaming open practice sessions can be a great tool for boosting the media presence of the players themselves. The example with Bwipo showed that such streams attract thousands of fans, and the demand for this type of content is quite high. Just as importantly, it’s much more convenient for the players. In the past, esports players would spend hours playing practice matches and then run SoloQ streams to meet their media obligations to sponsors or simply to entertain fans with a new broadcast. Now, they can combine both, giving them more free time.

The drawbacks of streaming practice matches

Although the community has generally responded positively to streaming practice matches, some League of Legends fans have voiced concerns about this new development. Also G2 Esports General Manager, Romain Bigeard, strongly opposed the idea, emphasizing the importance of scrim privacy. 

The practice process will no longer be a secret. While it’s still unclear whether open practice sessions will be voluntary or mandatory for all teams, not every team will likely want to share their strategies and tactics with their competitors. Some organizations invest heavily in a full team of coaches and analysts, and now a significant part of their work may become publicly available.

On the other hand, wealthier clubs will have the resources to hire more staff for in-depth analysis of their opponents based on these open practice sessions. It will be challenging for the underperforming teams to surprise with “homegrown strategies”, such as unconventional champion drafts or item builds, which will only strengthen the top teams' position.

Karmine Corp has one of the largest and most loyal fan bases. Surprisingly, it is the Karmie fans who most often criticize the idea of scrims broadcasting / Photo: Karmie Corp

Oversaturation of matches and loss of exclusivity. Some LEC viewers worry that streaming practice matches between top teams will flood fans with content. Right now, matchups like G2 Esports vs. Fnatic or Karmine Corp vs. KOI are major events that fans eagerly anticipate throughout the season. Within the league, teams face off against each other only a few times, and each encounter draws thousands of viewers. But what happens if these matchups stop being special and become routine? Would you still watch a tournament match between G2 Esports and Fnatic if those teams already played 5-7 similar practice matches the previous week? Would you watch knowing that one team was much stronger in practice and is unlikely to give the other team a real chance in the official match? There’s a concern that some viewers may simply skip the match if they feel the outcome is too predictable.

Team issues will become public. Every team can experience internal communication problems, and esports teams are no exception. For example, players may argue with each other or question the coach's decisions — these are common workplace challenges that are usually kept out of the public eye. However, with the introduction of open practice sessions, this could change, as any dispute or issue would instantly become public.

Distraction. Many League of Legends fans who criticized the streaming of practice sessions were primarily upset for a different reason. They believe the league is going through tough times and needs to grow its audience, but they feel there are much simpler and more obvious ways to achieve that. For example, on social media, there were suggestions to expand the LEC match format from best-of-1 to best-of-3, as has long been the case in the LCK. Some fans feel that open training sessions do more to highlight the league's issues than to serve as an effective means of improving the situation. Many are simply afraid that the league will become less professional and competitive, and instead turn into more of an entertainment show. A similar view was shared by Paul ‘’sOAZ’’ Boyer, the legendary French player who had a successful career in the EU LCS with teams like Fnatic and Origen. 

Streaming scrims just screams league is dying we need people to care, it will ruin everything about competitive, unless you are a streamer team doing both comp/funz like LosRatones, 0 respect for teams that want to stream their practice in major leagues

— Paul Boyer (@sOAZ) February 1, 2025

Conclusions and future outlook

Open practice sessions are a great way to keep interest in professional teams, the league, and the game itself. However, there are still many aspects that need refining, which is why the LEC organizers have limited this option to a set period. Moving forward, they will need to find the right balance that satisfies both teams and viewers.

On social media, fans have already suggested that streaming practice sessions should be voluntary or at least limited to a certain number of sets/matches. Another possible solution is to allow practice matches to be streamed only between teams from different leagues (for example, between LEC and LFL teams, etc.). 

If the practice of streaming training sessions proves successful and has a positive impact on the game, we could eventually see it adopted by titles like Dota 2, Counter-Strike, or Valorant. For now, Riot Games and League of Legends are leading the way with this approach, further solidifying their prominent position in the esports industry.