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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