{"id":5559,"date":"2016-02-18T17:09:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T01:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cpgaming.gg\/?p=5559"},"modified":"2016-02-18T17:09:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T01:09:29","slug":"onwards-and-outwards-the-future-of-league-of-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/onwards-and-outwards-the-future-of-league-of-legends\/","title":{"rendered":"Onwards and Outwards: The future of League of Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cameron Gilbert<\/a>, Web Content Developer for Evil Geniuses<\/p>\n

Since it all started more than five seasons ago, League of Legends has grown every year at an explosive pace and has shattered its own viewership records time and time again. The North American LCS boasts a consistent weekly viewership of nearly 300,000 simultaneous fans, a regular season match between rivals TSM and CLG went over 500,000, and the 2015 World Championship finals boasted more than 14 million simultaneous viewers worldwide. No matter how you slice it, LoL is still the biggest game in the world and looks to remain that way for some time.<\/p>\n

But that’s not to say it’s not slowing down. The gigantic gains it enjoyed in years past have slowed to small steps. Unique viewers for the World Championship have remained relatively consistent across the past three years. And in North America, League of Legends viewership has reached the highest it will probably ever go. With LCS viewer numbers holding steady over the past two years, and now that Riot can scarcely go any \u201cbigger\u201d than Madison Square Garden and the Staples Center, further expanding the audience becomes increasingly difficult and expensive.<\/p>\n

It’s time to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Aces Wild<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the five major regions \u2013 Europe, America, China, Taiwan, and Korea \u2013 there are seven other regions that compete to earn one of two additional spots in the World Championship. Brazil, Turkey, Oceania, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Japan make up these \u201cWild Card\u201d regions. Each has their own internal league, and the winners of these leagues feed upwards into the International Wild Card (IWC) qualifier tournaments. Those who advance from these events get a chance to compete with the big boys: a berth to the Mid-Season Invitational or the World Championship.<\/p>\n

In the past, Wild Card regions have been treated somewhere between amused interest and outright contempt by fans from the major regions. When Alliance, the top European team in 2014, lost to KaBuM eSports from Brazil at Worlds, it was treated not as a victory for Brazil but as Europe’s most shameful moment in history. Brazil is incessantly referred to as \u201cBronzil\u201d by fans, and even after their best showing yet at the 2015 World Championship few acknowledge them as a truly \u201ccompetitive\u201d region. To a certain extent this attitude is even shared by Riot themselves, with little more than passing references to the Wild Card regions appearing in their international-facing coverage.<\/p>\n

But if you take a look at the Brazilian League of Legends official pages and YouTube channels, you’ll see a completely different story: view counts in the hundreds of thousands, passionate fans spamming hashtags in support of their favorite team, and production value rivaling that of any major region. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume that Brazil was one of the strongest regions in the world. Just look at the crowd in attendance for the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) finals and try to say a single condescending thing. You can’t. Because it’s awesome.<\/p>\n