After a busy free agency period, the hype about the LCS season has set out to get to new level among North American League fans. And as the Riot Games announced the controversial changes in the league schedule, concerns started to fade from fans of the city of the game, as well as 100 Thieves superstar AD carry Doublelift.
The 29-year-old veteran recently announced his return to professional play with the Thieves this past offseason, and in his latest stream, he voiced his concerns about how moving broadcast hours to Thursday and Friday at midday affects viewership.
How much percentage drop off would they need to rethink the plan? Doublelift said. Clearly, doomsday is where the new schedule falls and the LCS has half of the viewership from before I can see the change. Maybe it is one of those things where we just need to fill it for whole year or a whole split?
Another of the Doublelifts fans pointed out that even if the league decides to reverse the changes, it would be extremely difficult to return to the original format because the new NA VALORANT broadcast will occupy the weekend spot at the Riot Games Arena.
Since Riots new favorite boy has been replaced and the LEC also has another schedule to avoid overlap on weekends, there are many different aspects to be moved around to accommodate the LCS if the company decides to return things back to normal. This means that as long as the viewership numbers in North America continue to struggle, the LCS will now have to deal with the drops until the end of the season.
[Riot] finessed themselves mentally into thinking that this would be better for the LCS, Doublelift concluded. I like this plan because they are so certain of it, there isn’t any way that they can make it back. There’s a possibility that the LCS receptive to 50% viewership over the whole year. The difference would be a shame for everyone trying to get sponsorships, get more funding, or sell their LCS spot to a new, shiny investor.
The 2023 LCS Spring Split is scheduled to start on Jan. 26.