New LCS broadcast times announced

Riot Games continues to demonstrate that it listens to its community when making essential game updates. And it is no wonder that the games survive thanks to the community, and if the community is not happy, the games will not be good.

After several weeks in which the North American community was complaining due to the LCS schedule, Riot decided to make a significant change. As a result, the broadcast schedules for the Spring Split 2023 will be changed.

The announcement by John Needham

John Needham, president of esports at Riot Games, and Naz Aletaha, global head of esports for League of Legends, revealed that, for this season, games would start two hours later than initially scheduled. This means that the LCS will be played at 16:00 CT on Thursdays and Fridays, which is more palatable for the NA LoL community.

Aletaha noted that these changes are “optimized for a North American audience.”

On the other hand, the team also wanted to ensure that the broadcasts would not end so late concerning the Central and Eastern time zones. According to Needham, the vast majority of the North American NA community is located on the east coast of the United States.

Negative comments after the first announcement

As we all know, when the original announcement was made, the games would start at 14:00 CT. But the community began to make many negative comments. For example, due to the extremely early start time, many fans would be unable to watch the games live. Some because they were at work and others because they were at school. This would significantly reduce the number of spectators.

On the other hand, it’s no secret to anyone that the popularity of the LCS has been slowly dropping. If the viewership drops, it would be terrible for Riot Games and LoL.

On the other hand, Needham also pointed out that Riot has been having problems communicating with its fans. That is why the company has hired a new community manager to take care of esports.

Finally, Needham denied all the rumors that Riot is leaving the LCS for other leagues and projects. He then added:

“We will never do anything to damage what is the number two league in the Riot ecosystem from a revenue perspective.”

“If there’s one thing I want to talk about a lot, it’s this whole narrative about not caring about the LCS that simply couldn’t be further from the truth. League Esports is by far the largest eSports on the planet, and the LCS is one of our most important leagues within that ecosystem. We’re not going to do anything that weakens or hurts the sport overall or the LCS.”

Header: Riot Games