The 2023 LCS schedule changes hurt LCS viewers
The 2023 LCS schedule changes, alongside changes for other leagues around the world, have been announced after much speculation, and it’s worse than people feared for fans of the North American league.
Initially, the rumor was that games would be played on Wednesdays and Thursdays, starting sometime in the early afternoon, instead games will be played on Thursdays and Fridays starting at 12 PM PST. This time slot chosen for both days is a strange one, mostly because it’s right in the middle of the work day for people working on both the east coast and the west coast of North America.
In the article announcing the 2023 LCS schedule changes, they said that they surveyed fans that led to these changes. Two of the results of the surveys are that fans want to watch their favorite team and see the biggest matchups of the week. For LCS fans, these changes will hit neither of these marks.
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2023 LCS schedule: How will changes hurt the fans?
The fan experience with these changes is effectively gutted. These changes mean that the LCS studio will likely be empty for most games because fans will be either at work or in school. The tailgate outside of the LCS studio, something that had become a tradition in the LCS, is likely dead as well.
In 2022, the LCS had the lowest recorded viewership in the league’s history, and it’s likely going to be beaten with these changes. The only way that fans will be able to watch live is if they sneak it in class, take their break during the games that they want to watch, or a combination of both due to games taking an hour or more to play.
Another one of the findings that Riot Games found from their research is that the appetite for LoL esports was split evenly between the weekend and weekdays and that people will watch a stream while studying. The thing with both of these findings is that studying and the viewing time for said content is done in the late afternoon or evening because when people are off work and out of school.
Putting games in the middle of the day makes no sense if that was one of the findings that Riot Games and the LCS had. There also has to be context to what kind of content people are watching during the week. This can be videos from teams, highlights from games over the weekend that fans may have missed because of something in their personal life, but not multiple-hour-long broadcasts during the middle of the work day.
The 2023 LCS schedule is also going to hurt the third-party media coverage of the LCS in a major way. A lot of the reporters cover the LCS on the side, meaning that during the week and the times that the LCS will be on in 2023 they are busy with something else entirely. This change will have the exact opposite effect of their finding of the weekdays being underserved.
These changes are going to lead to less content from media, lower viewer numbers, and more potential complaints from sponsors that the viewership is not what was expected and them pulling out of their contracts with the LCS. The 2023 LCS schedule changes feel like a nail in the coffin of the first competitive League of Legends league, the one that led to League of Legends becoming the most popular esport in the world.
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It is painfully obvious that the VCT has become the primary focus for Riot Games as the premier esport in North America, with them taking over the old LCS schedule in North America. The LCS was one of the reasons why Riot Games was put onto the map, and instead of trying to help it grow, they instead shot it in both feet and are going to pretend that they don’t know why it is dying at the end of the 2023 Spring Split.
For such a strong start that the LCS had, it’s sad to see the way it is going out. Not with a roar, but with a whimper. Hopefully, these 2023 LCS schedule changes will be changed once the negative side effects have been realized and corrected for a more friendly viewer time.
If you want to read the full article on the 2023 LCS schedule changes, you can find the article from Riot Games here. And if you’re not happy about the 2023 LCS schedule, make sure to let Riot Games know about it on Twitter and other Socials.
