One of the biggest talking points around pro League of Legends today is the massive success and viewership numbers that streaming personality and former pro Caedrel and other co-streamers are sometimes able to generate, arguably at the direct expense of Riot Game’s own official streams and broadcasts.
The reasons for this split have been debated and argued over and over again. Many fans wonder whether co-streamers should even be able to rebroadcast pro LoL matches at all, given the apparent importance of viewership to Riot Games and the publisher’s need to sell its broadcast strength to sponsors.
But by centering around the question of whether these co-streams should be allowed, these conversations often miss on an important consideration: That it may well be Riot’s own failings as a broadcaster that has allowed co-streamers such as Caedrel to step in and have so much success.
What separates co-streamers like Caedrel from official Riot pro game broadcasts?
While many fans may point to a more casual demeanor as the greatest line of separation between co-streamers like Caedrel and the official Riot streams, it increasingly seems as if it’s top streamers who are more willing to focus on the actual gameplay over gimmicks and superfluous information.
When someone enthusiastic enough about League of Legends is tuning in to watch a pro game, it stands to reason that it’s the gameplay they care most about. If they come to feel that streamers are doing a better job of communicating around the game than the official broadcast, that’s sharp criticism towards Riot.
The recently-concluded Mid-Season Invitational was at times a great example of this effect. The official Riot broadcast was loaded with proposed narrative threads, canned phrases as bases fell, and statistical diatribes. But do fans really need all of that? Do pro League fans want to immediately hear about how a fight around the dragon means big things for an entire region, or do they want a more immediate understanding of what happened during the fight with fewer dramatics clouding the explanation?
While Caedrel is certainly one to both meme and talk trash, his big-game broadcasts are dense with information. During draft, he tends to talk heavily about the actual draft the two teams are running through, while the main broadcast can veer and meander.
During games, Caedrel is often focusing on team fights and calling out specific individual plays as they happen.
Sometimes, Riot broadcasters do a great job of that same thing. CaptainFlowers has gained a “rap god” reputation for his ability to explicitly communicate the exact blow-by-blow of a team fight in League in real-time, even as myriad abilities are blending together on the screen and champions are coming in and out of combat with each passing second.
But how many times are these big moments used more to serve narrative purposes than as opportunities to explain what exactly happened? About how one team or region has risen or fallen before our very eyes, rather than paying sufficient mind to what actually took place?
Riot broadcasts often seem to determine ahead of time what they’ll be discussing, making less room for covering the game as it unfolds. When production wants to share a seemingly random statistic, fans are going to see and hear about that stat, sometimes at the expense of what’s actually happening on screen. And don’t even get us started on early-game coaching interviews that can completely drown out critical fights in lane, some of which can swing an entire game’s direction.
Riot broadcasts can seem more concerned with filling out their production checklist than with making sure the in-game action is appropriately covered, and broadcasters are sometimes more concerned with a booming delivery of their best lines than they are with giving the best and most accurate description of the game’s action.
This definitely isn’t to say that Riot broadcasts are full only of issues and errors. Some of Riot’s broadcasters, from the aforementioned CaptainFlowers to analysts like Kobe, are beloved figures in the League of Legends community. And there’s no doubt that such figures as Emily Rand and Vedius bring genuine expertise to the table when given the opportunity.
But too often, that expertise is sidelined in favor of a production suite that seems determined to prove out its worth and value, even when it’s at the cost of a proper focus on the very game these broadcasts are meant to highlight.
Pro League broadcasts have improved before, can improve again
This really isn’t a new problem for Riot’s League of Legends broadcasts. Broadcast experiences were long overwrought, with studio desks meant to emulate traditional sports broadcasts rather than delivering an experience more suitable to the gaming context in which it existed.
These days, official League broadcasts tend to have a more casual feel, with studio talent moving between roles adeptly. Simply put, there are more couches and fewer desks. Broadcasts feel more natural and less performative.
It isn’t a stretch that the game broadcasts themselves could also be made to feel more natural, and could be less inundated with unnecessary production elements, statistical rants irrelevant to the actual game being played on the screen, and focus on high-level narratives that can pull the spotlight away from the actual teams and players themselves.
It should also be noted that while the top co-streamers do sometimes better focus on the actual games being played, that certainly isn’t always the case. Without a producer to keep them on track, co-streamers’ attention may wander. And some just aren’t great at talking over a live game.
For all of Caedrel’s success, there’s good reason why no one else is pulling English-language viewers in the way that he is. Caedrel is himself a former professional caster, in addition to being a veteran of the pro game. He’s particularly good at blending the skill and ability associated with a pro League broadcast with a great mind for the game and a more natural vibe that his viewers appreciate.
Whether Riot is willing to adapt such a vibe to its official broadcasts remains to be seen, but it may be one of the best options the publisher has for pulling some viewership away from co-streamers and back to its official broadcasts.
