The Problem with League of Legends Esports

On the surface, there doesn't seem to be an actual problem with the competitive scene seeing as viewership has risen greatly in subsequent years. The 2015 finals had 36 million, followed by 43 million in 2016, and then lastly, 60 million for this year. Many news outlets compare the figures to the viewership for NBA finals so no doubt these numbers are impressive. But what's fundamentally wrong with the competitive scene if viewership is steadily increasing and the old promotion and relegation system is being replaced by a franchised league in the NA LCS?

In my opinion, it's still the lack of competition and infrastructure. More specifically lack of international competition and lack of development of esports in other regions outside of China, Korea and North America. Outside of regional leagues and occasional tournaments, MSI, and maybe Worlds if teams are able to qualify, there's almost nothing to participate in. This makes progression slow and yet we were fortunate enough to see Gigabyte Marines perform greatly against teams like Immortals and Fnatic at Worlds. But they're the outlier. Most wildcard teams lose in horrendous fashion albeit putting up a fight in maybe one or two games.

I often make the comparison to CS:GO's competitive scene. Yes they might not have the same viewership numbers as League does, but what they do have is a vast selection of tournaments for teams to qualify and participate in, both online and offline. This creates awareness and excitement for lesser known teams and even creates massive underdogs for bigger tournaments. CS:GO still has their majors every year and yet they trust third parties to host their own smaller competitions. I don't see why Riot needs to be so strict on competition. What they're doing is counterproductive. They should lead the way in encouraging regions to host more regional tournaments in addition to hosting more international tournaments. Fans want to see new teams. Fans want Riot to bring excitement back into the game.

I do think the fix is a very simple one. Riot just needs to speak up more and loosen their grip on the competitive scene without being a dictator. I do hope more people can organise their own tournaments to bring competition to the next level.