Riot Games announces an update on their LCS Watch Party Program and restricts co-streaming of the competitive League of Legends gaming events. Members of the League Partnership Program will no longer be allowed to co-stream the League of Legends Championship Series. The only ones who remain on the list of co-streaming partners from the LOL are the six content creators, including the Cloud 9 head coach for 2022, Nick “LS” De Cesare, as well as Christian “IWDominate” Rivera, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, William “Meteos” Hartman, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi, and Moe “Yassuo” Abdalrhman.
Riot Games’ Streaming Program
Overall, Riot Games has a new co-streaming program, as announced. However, it remains unknown what the requirements are for the application process. Nevertheless, Riot has noted that no new streamers or broadcast partners can join the program without the consent of the League of Legends Championship Series leaders. As for participants, they are allowed to co-stream the event but only with Riot Games permits. An important thing to note is that guests are banned from sharing the co-streaming content to their channels or uploading it on third-party servers unless they are direct members of the program themselves.
How Did the Public React?
The new decision of Riot Games to restrict co-streaming of LCS has caused disturbing reactions among the gaming community because no one can explain why this is happening. Removing co-streamers is judged as the biggest mistake and thought to be one of the worst decisions that would lower the interest and limit the number of spectators. Some suggest that pulling viewers away from co-streamers is the wrong approach and that an opposite strategy should come in place.
Restricting the competitor's co-streaming seems like a hiding veil for Riot Games facing a lack of interest in their events. As the world's largest player-focused game developer, Riot Games is making moves that no one can understand and are certainly not well accepted. Guests are only allowed to publish the streaming content on their channels if they are approved streaming partners.
On the other hand, Riot Games states in their new policy that co-streaming is considered rebroadcasting content from an existing source while enabling live comments. Generally, they don't consider co-streaming as re-uploaded content but rather as rebroadcasted. The co-streaming platforms for this year's LCS will be Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Caffeine.
Co-streamer sponsors will only be allowed if they do not disturb the official tournament sponsors as well as be off the Restricted Sponsorship List that includes liquor, pornography, drugs, and gambling. Posting co-streaming VODs on YouTube is forbidden for at least seven days after the initial broadcast.
Bottom Line
Riot Games is suggesting to be kind to players, express criticism, and avoid attacking. Keeping the game clean and safe for everyone is the key to success. Riot advises the players to help each other if a fellow player wants to co-stream and always direct them to the Riot Contact.
The last thing they warn about is to use safe music for the co-streams to avoid third-party involvement.
All in all, it looks like this year's LCS will have fewer viewers than ever, all because of the new restrictive policy of Riot Games.
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