Riot just announced their lolesports schedule for the upcoming 2023 season. LCS fans are not happy with the way things will be going forward with some of the most random start times for games in the history of the league.
Riot just announced their plans for the 2023 season in terms of broadcasts. New broadcast times and days have been announced, but not everyone is happy with the proposed changes.
Fans have spoken out against these proposed changes that could hurt the already declining LCS viewership even further, while also impacting the in-studio attendance at the LCS Arena in California.
LoL: LCS Moving To Weekdays In 2023
The LCS will have their games on weekdays starting in 2023. This isn't anything drastic and data from the VCT, LCK and LPL have shown that having games on weekdays is a good idea and doesn't impact viewership. So, the problem fans have with the new LCS schedule isn't the days of the week, but rather the time.
The LCS will be broadcasting on Thursdays and Fridays starting at 12:00 PM Pacific Time (3:00 PM Eastern Time). This would impact a large fan base because most viewers living in central or western America will not be able to watch the event since they'll either be at work, university or school.
High schoolers living on the East Coast could make it home in time for the second match of the day though, with most schools finishing at 3:00 PM, but even then it's a stretch to consider this an improvement for future viewership.
With these changes, Riot is trying to compare watching the LCS to watching your favorite streamer while studying, but a lot of fans feel that this is not comparable.
In the statement from Riot regarding the time change they also wrote that "consistently long viewing sessions are hard on viewers" and that viewers felt exhausted after watching a full day of LEC and LCS on the weekends.
This schedule does not alleviate the binge-watching aspect of the LCS though, if someone was to watch from 12PM on, since LCS games are still going to take place on two days rather than space games out over the course of a week like the LPL and LCK are doing.
LCS On-Air Talent Also Worried
LCS caster Isaac "Azael" Cummings Bentley also spoke out against the changes, stating that the time slot change had him concerned and that he'd raised the issue internally ahead of the announcement. He also explained that he understands why fans won't be able to tune in to watch because of the 12:00 PM start time.
Fellow caster Clayton "CaptainFlowers" Raines replied to Azael's tweet with "we will face the unknown together, brother". This shows that even the on-air talent of the LCS is unsure of what will happen in the coming year with this new schedule.