LCS gameday change and PapaSmithy leaving 100T — is Valorant to blame for shift in LCS?

The LCS is rescheduling its game days, teams are making budget cuts and Valorant is Riot’s new cash cow.

At the end of the day, esports is business. Just a few hours following the end of the Group stage at the League of Legends World Championship, changes to the landscape started occurring. Following another disappointing year in terms of international success, the LCS and its teams are starting to transform.

100 Thieves let PapaSmithy walk

Looking at the trajectory of the League department at 100 Thieves, you would be foolish to consider ruining a winning formula. But that’s what Nadeshot and the rest of the 100 Thieves management just did intentionally. And it’s not like it was an internal dispute that caused this, because the media would probably get a whiff of it. Their meteoric rise as an organization has been propelled by smart business decisions, and this might be one of them.

LCS changes in 2023

One sentence from this statement really rings the bell. Why would they not share the same vision that brought them so much success? Well the LCS just saw its three representatives go 3-15 on the biggest international event. But it wasn’t just the abysmal record, but the fashion in which it happened. LCS teams looked like a tier below the rest of the major regions, despite holding the same weight. Many of them spent bigger budgets than winners of the World Championship.

Remember what TL CEO Steve Arhancet said about his 2022 roster? Breaking the bank for rosters that fail to deliver is just not sustainable anymore. Never mind the Covid pandemic, the world is expecting a full-blown recession. When this gets layered on top of the downward spiral that LCS viewership has been in the last few years, you begin to understand why things are transpiring the way they are.

When your star mid-laner, who is also an import, shares a retrospective view of his time with the team, it seems that more than one change is coming to 100 Thieves.

LCS will broadcast on weekdays

LCS teams have already been informed by Riot that the 2023 schedule will be constructed with weekdays planned for competition. This is a major change, considering prime time for entertainment is during the weekend when people are not at work. The LCS has had this schedule ever since the league got franchised, however, there’s a new kid on the block. The ongoing offseason in competitive Valorant has brought more changes than anyone could imagine. 

Valorant, Arcane and Riot’s MMO are the future

Valorant franchising combined multiple regions into one, creating three layers of competition that people will genuinely care enough about to watch. FlyQuest imported Brandon “Josedeodo” Villegas from South America and viewership skyrocketed. Riot just did the same in Valorant, on a much bigger scale.

While the LCS has to worry about an aging fan base with real-life obligations, that’s not the case with Valorant. The LCS might be lagging behind the Eastern leagues but North American Valorant is the best there is in the world. Furthermore, while women in professional League of Legends are still quite a rarity, their Valorant counterparts continue to break barriers every day.

All of these metrics affect viewership numbers on top of the fact that tactical shooters are generally easier to follow and understand than MOBA’s. Any non-gamer will have an easier time understanding that 13 won rounds mean a map win, rather than whatever happens at Drake fights.

Imagine the spike in LCS viewership if Riot flew out League personalities to co-stream live events, like it was the case with Valorant Champions 2022. With Riot being keen on giving Valorant the spotlight and making it its cash cow, teams will follow suit. We already covered how 100 Thieves went from an expensive underperforming roster to young overachievers in Valorant. The writing on the wall was there all along for the LCS roster, we just chose to ignore it.

Header: Riot Games