How the LTA can prevent LoL Champions Queue failures with streamed scrims

On Feb. 4, FlyQuest and Cloud9 became the first tier-one League of Legends teams to stream their scrims in many years. But while it was a positive start, there is a lot to be done to prevent streaming scrims from turning into another champions queue disaster.

After multiple teams made their voices heard during the opening two weeks of the LTA, commissioner Mark Zimmerman announced that a temporary policy has been put in place, allowing teams to scream their scrims. Traditionally, LoL scrims have been played behind closed doors with teams wanting to reveal little-to-no information on the champions they have been practicing. But now, the shackles are off, and it’s up to the teams to make the magic.

Although this is an exciting concept in theory and was very successful during its debut (FlyQuest and C9’s first set of scrims reached 50,000 views, according to FlyQuest’s PapaSmithy), the LTA teams need to avoid repeating history with the failure of champions queue. Streaming scrims is not enough in itself to keep the fanbase entertained over a long period of time; there also needs to be valuable content for fans that they can’t get elsewhere.

We saw what this could look like from FlyQuest first, who during their stream showcased their comms during picks and bans, along with hearing their full review after each game. This type of content is valuable to other professional teams, aspiring high Elo players, and casual fans who are getting a look into the workings of one of North America’s top teams.

On the other side of that scrim, between each game, C9 offered a review between the coaches, allowing fans to get an insight into how the C9 coaches look at their games without any restrictions to worry about.

FlyQuest players reviewing their scrim vs cloud9
Will other teams show their vod review? Image via FlyQuest on YouTube

Just hours after their stream, FlyQuest also posted a video onto their YouTube channel, with short-form content on the way, according to FlyQuest’s Empyre. That doesn’t mean every team needs to follow the exact model of FlyQuest, but there needs to be meaningful content that keeps the fans wanting more.

LTA teams also need consistency in producing this content, which was one of the reasons we saw the downfall of champions queue. At the beginning of champions queue, there was a significant number of pro players in North America using the tool as opposed to playing solo queue. Over time, that figure became smaller and smaller despite the positivity the mode received during Worlds 2022, which saw the best players from across the globe mix it up in pro-only competitive games. In 2023, the mode fell away.

There were several reasons the mode failed, from biased invitations to players not mixing well with each other. It ultimately went away quietly with no real acknowledgment from the NA LoL scene.

In this new content landscape in pro League, it’s now on the teams to remain consistent, because a small sample size can’t be used to decide whether streaming scrims will have a tangible impact on North America’s LoL scene.


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