League of Legends: how Riot killed the Challenger Series

Dead in the water

When the final stab came, it was neither quiet nor loud, not aggressive, hateful or loving. It came as a sort of business transaction, a receipt printed and handed over the counter.

In Spring of 2019, Riot announced, there would be no more live coverage of the Challenger Series until Playoffs.

So where are we at?

We have a League of Legends Challenger Series with 10 non-rotating squads who are competing for nothing but the chance to be arbitrarily selected to join a pro team. There is no commentary for any of the Regular Season games, and there is no substantial prize for winning the series.

In other words, there is no narrative.

Right about now, we have commentators scrambling to string some sort of compelling story together for the Challenger Playoffs – the only games which receive commentary. They are doing so for an audience with no narrative reference about the rest of the series, and who never had a chance to enjoy the Regular Season or shape their own narrative around it.

Just look at this garbage floating at the top of your screen like some noxious algal bloom.

Instead of commentary, stats and shoutcasting, we are offered five hours of soloQ games each week. We then get to watch commentators try to tell us why we should care about players we know nothing about as they compete in a tournament that doesn’t matter.

E Tu, Brute?

And the worst part – the absolute ringer – is that Challenger was demoted to this level for the simple reason that it was not garnering enough views. And, as it turns out, when you create a singularly unpleasant experience for viewers over several years, people stop watching.

Let’s take a moment and compare the numbers.

Week 1, Day 1 of the Summer 2016 Challenger Series (with coverage): Team Liquid Academy Vs. Cloud9 Challenger: 29,406 views on YouTube.

Week 1, Day 1 of the Spring 2019 Challenger Series (without coverage): Team Liquid Academy Vs. Cloud9 Academy: 11,324 views on YouTube.

These numbers are, of course, in light of a growing player base, financial platform and burgeoning mainstream awareness of the League scene.

It’s like Riot hit the Challenger Scene in the head with a 2×4 until it slipped into a coma, then patted themselves on the back after they pulled the plug from the wall. These poor casters in charge of calling the Challenger Playoffs are just reading the eulogy at this point. There is no story left to tell; it disappeared along with any actual purpose for the League of Legends Challenger Series.

Good job, guys. You finally killed it.

Do you miss the Challenger Series coverage? Have any good memories from previous splits? Think Riot did nothing wrong? Leave a comment below!