Summoning Insight with Thorin and MonteCristo gives the community what it needs

Thorin and MonteCristo should be applauded for their work on Summoning Insight.

Earlier this month, Richard Lewis asked a simple question: Who is making good League of Legends content these days?

You can go on for days when answering his question, but there are two people in particular who stand out.

Duncan “Thorin” Shields and Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles have been in the freelance spotlight of the League of Legends community for quite some time, and together they create the talk show Summoning Insight.

Their caricature-esque over-pessimism and love for the blunt truth resonated with League fans in a time when all other outlets spoon-fed their audience echo chambers of preconceived biases based on popularity.

Essentially, in a culture where fans love to hear about how great their particular region or team is, the duo finds a peculiar amount of joy in relaying soul-crushing realities to the gleefully ignorant masses.

Their condescending attitude towards fans would at first glance seem to be contradictory to the entire goal of a media outlet – to get more followers – yet their numbers consistently surpass those of even Riot’s own content.

Riot broadcasts a show called Primetime League every Wednesday. As of June 25, three days after their latest episode, their YouTube video has accrued 22,000 views. Admittedly, the show also broadcasts on Twitch, but that video has only reached the one-thousand views mark.

So, if we add both of those totals, we would have reached about 24,000 total views on Riot’s own sponsored and professionally produced show.

Now, if we compare that number to Summoning Insight, it is clear that Thorin and MonteCristo have reached a point of popularity that can compete with Riot’s own content.

views /

This number is about 15,000 hits higher than the total viewership of Riot’s own show, and this is only including the numbers for the YouTube video – completely excluding the Twitch total. Additionally, this video has only been out for one day as of June 25. The next natural progression is to ask one simple question. Why?

There are many potential explanations for the duo’s popularity, including the fact that they have been creating content for so long. The show is on its 73rd episode and its debut was on April 4, 2014. Naturally, if the show was created when there wasn’t much League content available, viewers would gravitate towards a series crafted by an esports aficionado who has been around gaming journalism for decades (Thorin) and a well-known caster for League Champions Korea (MonteCristo).

After one experience with either one of them, however, it is easily seen that the reason for their popularity is not a coincidence of time, but of character. That’s not to say character in terms of qualitative moral value, but in terms of a crafted persona that promotes unique production, knowledgeable analysis and constant entertainment.

MonteCristo and Thorin go beyond creating a podcast about League, they truly create a show. Providing such high entertainment value on top of quality analysis from credible sources is not plausible from essentially any other place, which makes any die-hard League of Legends fan seriously consider frequent viewership.