League of Legends fans are afraid their fan-favorite European regional league the LEC is “losing its charm” and no longer giving even the most dedicated viewers enough reasons to tune in to livestreams every week.
The biggest issues League fans identified in a Reddit conversation about the European competition on June 17 was that there’s fewer and fewer reasons to watch the lengthy regular seasons, especially after the format change—an issue that’s only been compounded by recent Riot Games layoffs. Things have gotten so bad, some said, that they’re beginning to see it as “the dark days of the LCS” returned again.
Many League fans also said they believe the LEC’s appeal has been more around the casters and personalities than the players in recent years, which has become a downside off the back of departures like Quickshot and Caedrel. Their absences have been a “void in the show” that has diminished the league’s unique personality.
There were other on-Rift grievances raised too, mainly the lack of big names in the tournament and the lack of any modern rivalries. High-class matches were another issue, fans said. Senior European stars like Rekkles, Bwipo, and Perkz not only kept the matches interesting for fans but took the region to new heights, like G2 Esports becoming the first eastern team to lift the Mid-Season Invitational in 2019.
While the tournament still has some big names like Caps and others, the fans feel that the community is less connected to the new generation of players as they’re still forging their legacy and slowly becoming showrunners for the future.
G2’s domination on the European stage also doesn’t help the case; the team has won 14 titles, which is twice the amount of Fnatic, who have the second-highest number of titles. This consistent success may be discouraging for fans, as it creates a predictable narrative and reduces excitement. Naturally, fans don’t feel invested in the narratives if there’s always going to be one team to sweep everything in their way.
The league’s approach to having three splits from the 2023 season also took away importance from their regular Summer and Spring splits, according to fans, and more of them are tuning to co-streamers to watch the LEC with their favorite streamer.
Despite these opinions, LEC has enjoyed incredible viewership so far this year, so it remains to be seen whether these sentiments will truly start hurting LEC’s viewership figures in the future or just stay a blip on the fandom radar.
