Mentioned in this article Games: Fortnite, League of Legends

Riot Games opens the NA LCS Regional Qualifiers for co-streaming from Sept. 14-16.

The move is similar to Epic Games’ decision to allow co-streaming during the Fortnite Summer Skirmish Finals.

Unofficial co-streams of League of Legends tournaments have brought in big viewership in the past.

Riot Games will allow Twitch broadcasters to co-stream the upcoming North American League of Legends Championship (NA LCS) Regional Qualifiers from Sept. 14-16. This means that anyone with a Twitch account will be able to rebroadcast the matches live with their own commentary.

According to the press release of the announcement, Riot Games is using the NA LCS Regional Qualifier as a means to test the co-streaming concept and will look at other opportunities in the future based on initial reception. Riot Games will not allow videos-on-demand (VODs) of the streams to be moved to any other platforms, only allowing recordings on Twitch. Streamers can be subject to DMCA takedowns by Riot Games if content breaks Twitch or Riot Games’ Terms of Service.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins reached a peak of 312.8K viewers during his co-stream of the Summer Skirmish Finals.

The decision to open the NA LCS Regional Qualifiers to the practice mimics a similar move by Epic Games to allow Twitch streamers to co-stream the Fortnite Summer Skirmish Finals at PAX West. Tyler “Ninja” Belvins hosted a watch party for the event and achieved 312.8K in peak viewership, higher than his peak viewership for any day in August. Similar initiatives for co-streaming esports tournaments have been seen in fighting games, with Bandai Namco allowing popular Twitch streamer Aris Bakhtanians to air tournaments on the Tekken World Tour on his personal channel.

Related Article: LCS Summer Finals on Twitch: 17.8% Increase in Total Hours Watched Over Last Year

Riot Games also recently launched a content creator partner program. When taking in combination with the co-stream pilot initiative, it seems the developer is looking for more ways to leverage League of Legends‘ player base for content.

Co-streams of League of Legends tournaments have brought in big viewership numbers in the past. During the Asian Games 2018, two Arena of Valor pro players Pengxiao “Dave” Mao and Jie “xTears” Shi hosted unofficial broadcasts of the Arena of Valor and League of Legends competitions on Twitch. The League of Legends broadcast on Shi’s channel had a max CCV of over 500K.

For more insights into esports viewership and how you can ensure a profitable investment, download The Esports Observer’s viewership whitepaper. You’ll get insights into how the LCS Summer Finals grew 17.8% over the last year, as well as much more. Twitch data in all of our articles is compiled using our new viewership tool.

