- The company recently announced its “extended” co-streaming program
- This is a big change after Riot received a ton of backlash last year for its limited number of co-streamers allowed
- Each region will announce its streamers, which will be on rotation throughout the event
Riot Games will allow 50 streamers from across the globe in different regions to co-broadcast the LoL World Championship, which starts on October 10.
Riot Announces Worlds 2023 Broadcasting Changes
Co-streaming is one of the most prominent methods that fans of various esports use to watch their favorite events. League of Legends World Championship is no exception, with many viewers tuning in to third-party channels to watch the five-week-long event alongside them. Recently, Riot Games announced some good news for fans who want to watch the tournament like that, as the company is expanding the number of co-streamers.
“We’re excited to expand virtual co-streaming for Worlds 2023!” a recent statement by Riot Games reads. “Over the course of the tournament, we expect more than 50 co-streamers to participate, representing the regions and languages of our community around the globe.”
The company further explained that the co-streaming program is invite-only. Approved co-streamers will be on rotation throughout the event and they will be selected by Riot’s local regional teams. Each region will announce the selected co-streamers via official LoL Esports channels. The company says this will guarantee that the streamers will represent the various regions and languages of League of Legends fans around the world. Furthermore, Riot Games encouraged the teams that have qualified for Worlds 2023 to leverage their content creators to co-stream the games.
Riot’s extended co-streaming program will likely be welcomed by the League of Legends community, especially considering last year’s fiasco. In 2022, only five streamers were allowed to co-broadcast the event, which is an extremely low number, considering the scope of the World Championship. Not only that, but some of the content creators allowed to co-stream last year were not even associated with the game.
This prompted a strong backlash from the community, with even popular content creators dissing Riot Games. Popular caster Marc Robert “Caedrel” Lamont, for example, even called the lineup of co-streamers that Riot Games chose last year “a huge f***ing slap in the face”.
However, it seems the company had learnt its lesson as earlier this year Riot allowed over 30 streamers to co-stream games during MSI 2023. With over 61 million hours watched and a record peak of almost 2.3 million viewers, the tournament became the most popular MSI in history. This popularity was due in large part thanks to Riot’s decision to bring aboard many content creators to co-broadcast the event.
The list of streamers for this year’s Worlds has still not been released, but considering the event starts on October 10, Riot should probably hurry up with its announcement.