Riot Announces Change To LCS Schedule Broadcast Time
When Riot announced the new LCS schedule, fans were, to say the least of it, lukewarm on the idea. The shift from weekends to Thursdays and Fridays felt like a downgrade. And the start time of Noon pacific had people wondering whether this would stunt growth even further for the League of Legends North American region.
Well, fans, you have been heard. Kind of.
Riot Pushes Back Start Time of LCS Schedule
While the games are still going to take place on weekdays, Riot Games has announced they'll at least be starting a little later in the day. Everything has been pushed back by two hours, meaning that things will be kicking off at 2 pm PT and 5 pm ET. This should, Riot hopes, make the LCS a bit more accessible to fans across the country.
Of course, school is still in session at 2 pm, but rather than having to catch most of it on VOD, now you may just miss a game or two. On the other side, fans in the eastern time zone won't be up until after midnight watching.
Overall, it's a time slot that isn't perfect for anyone but shouldn't be untenable either. Although it does make one ask, what was wrong with Saturday and Sunday at Noon?
Travis Gafford sat down to talk to the President of Esports, John Needham, and the Global Head of LoL Esports, Naz Aletaha. During the interview, Naz was quoted as saying, "we wanted to find a time that, first and foremost, optimized for a North American audience."
But the realities of programming a five hour event in North America were made plain, and Naz didn't shy away from the issue. She said quote, "Yeah, you know it's tough in the US. I think a lot of our other regions don't have this time zone to really consider when they're setting their start time. We're hopeful that through match scheduling, fans on the west coast are able to access the best of the league when they want."
You can check out the LCS when the spring split kicks off on Thursday, January 26th, at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET on Twitch and Youtube.
