League is Dying

I wonder how much money Riot Games have lost on Faker playing without skins,
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[@YamatoCannon213]

Hey team, OPERAGX is sponsoring me this month, please check it out as it helps the channel immensely: operagx.gg/YamatoCannon2aff

[@LordChaos2010]

I have been watching E sports since 2017 and stopped playing League in 2019. I love watching E Sports but hate playing this game.

[@RumandCocaine]

I've Watched lolesport Since s4 and haven't played since vanguard (i miss tft) LolEsport has become more boring for me as i'm in my thirties now, co streaming brought my interest back but it has started to die down hard, who knows i might become one of those t1 fans that only come for msi worlds. Eventually every game dies down.

[@cjnadonga9571]

i started playing and watching since s2. i watched lck lcs and lec then s8 only watched lck and international events. i still watch them today but I've stopped playing since s6.

[@ItsWhatever736]

I tried to start playing again and again. But everytime someone griefs, flames or goes afk I just end up deleting the game again. It's just too toxic for me. And it makes me toxic too.

[@jorembo4941]

the game is actually good. The playerbase makes it unbearable

[@humanoid8344]

same

[@pineapple2814]

Can’t help but feel this is Deja vu. Started playing in 2012, and been watching LOL esports for the entirety of that time. Every year, be it Reddit, or notable figures in the scene (like you good sir) will mention the game is dying. Not a slight on you at all, just noticing a pattern in the general community. I’ve been watching your content for years. You bring up valid points about the casual player (I too think Riot has to find a way to bring in new players and keep them) but League as you and I know it, is not a casual game. It’s demanding. It’s why I play less now as an adult than I did as a study neglecting teen. I would consider myself “casual” “only”playing 50/100 solo que games a split the last year or so. It takes a lot of time to not only invest into learning the game (researching builds, what champs do, what are the champs, which lanes do they play, what items do, have they changed, runes etc) and fundamentals and the flow of the game is foreign to many people who have never watched or played a MOBA. Point being- we know LoL is pulling in higher viewer numbers every year for worlds, last we heard LoL had roughly 100M monthly players, a active interest in the games eco system (Arcane, MMO, Fighting Game, new champs, new seasons, new items etc). Anecdotally, I think many of the “old guard” are simply tired, or cannot maintain their investment. They’ll watch esports or a streamer idly or fairly actively, but playing and reaching for higher ranks or maintaining their rank in the case of this split, is a harder proposition than booting up a couple of ARAMs or a match of TFT. Regardless, I don’t think League is dying, but it is churning. Players that I consider “new” (2016,17,18,20,21 etc) have been playing for years and older folks are rotating or leaving as they cannot maintain their level of play or interest as they once had. My two cents

[@xxhowisuxx]

I mean he has a point but it's a dumb one. He hasn't researched other games that are supposedly dying or dead. Sc2-maybe 20k players daily. Has been there for the last 5 or 10 years. League is far from dying, it's just not growing, and likely will continue to not grow much. This is fine, the game is 14 years old, and still has millions of concurrent, daily players across the world.

[@ScrivoQualcosa]

reddit couldnt predict a sunrise

[@Wegotdazoomies0599]

@@ScrivoQualcosa I have colds rn and you made me laugh so hard I'm crying and snorting

[@goliusargus]

league is "dying" every since the game was born and it only gets bigger lmao some other classics that you'll never stop hearing: "why i'm quitting league after X amount of years playing" and "my 30 min rant about the current state of soloq"

[@EnDoF85]

TRUE jizuke said the same when he was in vitality

[@Grumahr]

i wonder how many times league can die and still be the biggest game, i literally heard league is dying for 10 years straight now.

[@shwix6534]

We all know league has a lot of problems but at the end of the day it is a masterpiece of a franchise and it s the best moba ever

[@MegaCoupie]

Yeah leagues barrier to entry is incredibly high and riot does a really poor job at enabling new players I think

[@Pyrrha_Nikos]

Wdym? A 10 year old tutorial that throws you in a game vs 5 bots where you get extra gold and exp income and they just tell you "go to a lane, hit minions, hit towers until nexus" isn't good for teaching new players? No shot! Impossible!

[@mestane8447]

​@@Pyrrha_Nikos this is how i learned. I spammed playing vs ai to know how to play the game 🤯

[@salikali2]

Exactly, they need longer-term modes like TFT and Swarm because league is too hard to get into. I play video games with my gf and there is no way she could learn this game without turning it into a full-time job.

[@jorembo4941]

hey they got yuumi dont they?

[@reishiki8682]

​@@jorembo4941You have to be a very incompetent player if you have to rely on a point & click - the champion.

[@wsoulless]

Riot should deny smurf to join on casual player's matchmaking. Problem solved. Actually a tik where I can decide to play witth/against smurf or not. Simple. My friend who started played a moba for the first time they being matchmaking with smurf (even if they were silver) since level 3/5 accounts. How they are suppose to learns the game

[@Civtac]

If we are in the wrath of the lich king era for league then I don't think we need to worry considering wrath released 16 years ago (before league was even released) and according to some internal leaks the current expansion (The war whitin) has the most active players ever, and even if that leak was fake the game is still very active, again, 16 years after wrath of the lich king

[@andrewgr144]

I imagine I am the exact demographic you are talking about with regards to getting into the game. I just started following LoL because of the Lincoln Park "Heavy is the Crown" video. Having a somewhat obsessive personality, I've been consuming probably an average of four hours a day of LoL related content for around seven weeks now. Yet in all that time, I've never even installed the client. The closest I came was googling things like, "Does League of Legends have a single player campaign?" and "Can you play League of Legends with only bots as teammates and opponents?" and such. If Riot made it their mission to do whatever they could to get me to start playing, I think their best bet would be to partner up with a smallish, hungry AI company to work on making bots that (1) could learn and adapt from the enormous amount of match data that Riot is either already collecting, or could easily collect; (2) had distinct personalities from one another, ideally matching the lore for that champion whenever possible; and (3) had tunable difficulty, ideally with an optional mode that would allow the difficulty to be determined based on prior performance of the player, rather than just being a preset. Once these bots were developed, they'd make a single-click "single player PvP" mode, where a match had one human player and nine bots. (I am aware that it is possible to create a custom game and use bots to fill the other nine positions; that is a more primitive, less polished, much less hyped version of what I'm describing.) (OPTIONAL: if they made a public API available for writing your own Bot AI in Python or LUA, I think there is a decent chance that a very small but very dedicated group of programmers like myself would pour a lot of time and effort into trying to write AIs that were better or more interesting than those supplied by RIOT; and assuming that the Terms of Service specified that RIOT could use whatever we wrote (ideally with some nominal compensation, like the programmer's name associated with the AI, or a skin that can only be obtained that way, or whatever), that would yield a continuous stream of new Bots to keep gameplay even more interesting. In an extreme case, I could imagine two teams of AIs, each written by a different programmer, competing in an "AI Championship" garnering a lot of viewing interest, even though the number of people writing AIs would be very, very small relative to those who play.) Depending on how interesting the Bots are to play with/against, and perhaps event to spectate, it then becomes an interesting question about if it's even important to provide a glide path to PvP or not. Some people, such as myself, are just never going to feel comfortable playing a team-based PvP game, because the fear letting their teammates down far more than they fear losing a single player game. But if I've learned all of the game's fundamentals and even a decent slice of the nuances by playing with and against good and interesting Bots, aren't I just as likely to buy a skin, or buy merchandise, or become emotionally invested the lore, or start rooting for a professional team, than if I played PvP against other humans? In particular, if I find watching LoL games to be captivating without ever having played, how much more interesting would I find it if I had played hundreds or thousands of hours, even if it wasn't against other humans? (OPTIONAL: there's also a logical "in between" version of this scenario, in which pitting five human players against five bots becomes popular. It wouldn't be compelling for me, personally, because I find the idea of letting my teammates down to be so unappealing; but for a group of five friends who want to practice, I can imagine that being able to select which AIs the opposing side has so that they make it very probable that they will get into a game state that they want to practice against would be very enticing. And again, at the risk of beating a dead horse, I know that a primitive version of this is already available; I can't stress enough what a difference I think using some skilled AI professionals and devoting significant resources to the creation of the bots I've described would transform the experience into something way more compelling.) I absolutely believe that the current level of AI, while not approaching generalized intelligence or anything even in the vicinity of that, is quite capable of being used in games in ways that haven't been explored yet. I think one of these ways is handicapping, where a player's reaction times and other performance metrics are analyzed and the mechanics of the game are adjusted to provide a personalized, optimally compelling experience. I think mutating quests in MMOs, such that a basic template is used, but the details, including key locations, are changed for each player, so that guides that show you exactly where to go and what to do become useless (or at least much less useful) is another one. I think automated map/level design, such that new maps/levels are released on a frequent basis (like maybe once/week, where the AI generates a handful of candidate maps/levels, and the company internally tests one or more of them for a week before approving one of them) is yet another. One area that has been explored, but I don't think has had the necessary resources and planning put in to allow it to show anywhere near its true potential, is AI players (bots); and I think this could constitute a solution, or at least a major component of a solution, to the "League of Legends is too intimidating for new players, and the new player experience isn't fun," dilemma.

[@chasewooldridge3069]

I wouldn't say it is dying. Not everyone plays football, or tennis or golf or chess etc. people may try them all and if they realize they are no good they quit and find something else. Lots have people have tried it and realize they aren't good enough or don't enjoy it and quit. That means those that play it will be better most likely. If they want to be equal with other sports this will happen and is normal.

[@tekdato9806]

This is such a vibes based argument that has existed ever since LoL became mainstream. I was hoping to see some actual proof in this video because this channel always seemed very grounded, but alas. Not saying the points in the video have no sense to them, but correlation isn’t causation.

[@GreenYellow111]

From what I've heard from friends who have recently entered the game, they feel lack of tutorials on individual champions. Of course, there are minimal manuals on skills, but there are also a lack of step-by-step mini-games where you can learn and try basic maneuvers and combos. Bots and scarecrows are everything. And there were people who felt pressured because the game forced them into PVP or multiplayer even though they weren't ready yet. This game wasn't beginner friendly in the first place, but I think this game need to be kinder if they want to attract more casual players.

[@EmoPorEmilio]

League needs sets like any TCG figured out years ago. The roster is endless. The new player experience is broken. Make it 30, 40, 50, some evergreen like Master Yi, Garen, Annie and Lux, and rotate in and out the rest.

[@timotejlovrec9029]

I agree but 100% they wont do it

[@EmoPorEmilio]

​@@timotejlovrec9029yeah it's a bold move for sure. I think the move to 3 splits and 3 ranked seasons could be an indicator, it's easier to rotate champs 3 times a year that way

[@danielezeme3364]

But Yamato, wouldn’t you agree that the disconnect between playing the game and spectating the game is natural in most sports? Let’s take football… hundreds of millions watch it but only few play it (even at a low professional level)

[@PirocoLouco]

That's completely true. The problem is that football generates most of its income from the watchers, while riot is losing money on esports and justifying it with the exposure and hype around the game that it provides, leading people to buy more skins.

[@YamatoCannon213]

The difference is fans in traditional sports spend money and support local clubs etc. In esports there is little monetary value and when Riot Games do not feel the impact of it being a massive advertisement vehicle the investment long term is not sustainable. That is why the connection is a lot more important in esports.

[@animevolution880]

The opposite actually, I want you to do me a favor, Next time you watch a game in a stadium (or small group) try to listen it somebody says "i could have done that better" or any abbreviation of that. The reason these pro sports get payed so much is because they make the hard part look so easy and effortless, as if You could have done that. Remember its an entertainment first. Then there are those that do that and a step further the magicians, messi ronaldo neymar, pele neuer lahm maradonna, but if everyone was like that, there would be no magic at all. A player like kroos is "basic" but unless hes gone or you have good knowledge of the game AND look at him for entire games, you are not gonna realize what he does. "Querpass Toni" is a nickname he got that is supposed to be negative, because he only plays sideways passes, which is partly true he does that, but its also showing how people think they could replace him Because he does nothing special If league has laneswaps every fucking game, no one is gonna care at a certain point because its 0 percent applicable without voicecomms, toplaners want to fight adcs want to scale and junglers dont want to be forced to go to a certain position with their pathing because the map is split Add voicecomms to league the connection between ranked and esports is gonna be great, because people can do what they see in their own ranked games

[@pavelr.8042]

football and esports comparison only works in games like CS:GO, anybody can tune in and actually watch it, understand it and even enjoy it. that's not the case of most games , LoL especially, get out for few years and you would barely recognize the game you are watching, complete newbie would never stay watching that

[@Javano_]

League is completely unwatchable for anyone who doesn't play League themselves

[@1haker]

its not otherwise you will be jobless

[@dangerousmouse20]

I think Yamato has found his niche here. Love these type of vids, hope to see more.

[@Dib.rafael]

Omg yes league of legends with mods like warcraft 3 would be the best

[@liammckenna1479]

I play League seasonally, pretty much every Fall/Winter and then stop playing during Spring/Summer or so. It's been this way for me for like 4 years. I was playing constantly back in 2012 - 2014.

[@The_Bomb_Devil]

Hey YC, I'd love to have nuanced conversation around this topic Disc: MackieMackie from NA. My simplified perspective on why League is most likely dying and what could be done to capture its remaining momentum is how well it accommodates social connection. I believe shaping the culture of the core game around solo queue has been an error. Solo queue is a miserable experience for most players for many reasons. It also serves to alienate friends from each other who otherwise might play together. Ultimately, the reason most people begin playing league is because of their friends and League of Legends is a game best played when you have a full team of people you're familiar with. Riot's previous attempts at clubs and club tags, team queues, and flex queue iterations have largely been failures at facilitating connectedness between players and incentiveizing them to play together. Normals remains an unsatisfying queue type long term. Rotating game modes and aram have made some progress but serves the core game very little. The friends tab in client is also insufficient to find new people to play with. Finally, solo queue and its culture is antithetical to this goal. One might argue that solo queue is important for the health and longevity of the competitive scene. My counterpoint is that many challenger players feel that their rank means very little and their rank does not translate to professional opportunities. As a related point, Riots decision to remove promotion/relegation in regions like the LCS (now LTA) has disincentivized high level players from forming teams and going pro like the original, beloved C9 roster. In my view, more needs to be done to incentivize players to play together, especially ones of different skill levels. There must be more than solo queue that matters. There also must be better ways for new players to connect with new people and already preexisting players to connect with each other. Riots attempts at connecting unfamiliar players with eachother for something like Clash is another example of their failure to meet this objective. What keeps the casual gamer coming back to a game like League is their sense of connection to others. Currently, Leagues community feels often unapproachable, its core game mode is inhospitable, there's few satisfying alternatives, and fostering new connections in client is near impossible. Riot has failed previously to remedy this issue and has proposed nothing new to its ends.

[@DFivril]

Ive been playing since season 3 and people have been saying it is dying for 10 years. Its just that we are losing faith that the west can perform internationally, the actual playerbase is fine

[@aghileslounis]

1. They need to fix solo queue LP gains. It shouldn't be based on win/lose! BECAUSE it's solo queue. They should have a system that will track every player and distribute LP individually based on your impact on the game. The most frustrating part is losing LP when you play good 2. They need to develop a system that will DEEPLY review your game and when you enter spectator mode it will FLAG certain moments where you could've done better and give you what was the best play instead. 3. Develop the MMORPG FAST.

[@konoeyoshito6105]

i think Fly results at worlds brought back some hope for the West and NA especially that the potential is still here ,LEC mediocre resutls doesn't reall matter at this point since every team was running on low budget except FNC ,G2 ,KC ,VIT for last couple of years ,and frankly speaking EU viewers aren't excepting much from the teams at worlds at this point except G2 and even that the copium is fading away. LPL poor results will surely have a huge impact on teams ,salaries ,players and rookies but who cares tbh ,EU hadn't had good results since 2020 and it still exists and EU has only 1 Worlds (if we can call it that rip fnc) ,LCK thriving once again and T1 especially will surely have a positive impact on League and make League viewership grow more. non esport ,the 2025 update ,more like a remake from scratch league will surely help bring league to modern standars ,new champions are terribly designed most of the time and the fact that they get the green light to be released says a lot about the design ,balance ,testing team (Aphelios ,Yuumi ,K'sante ,Zeri...) the skins are getting a bit too repetitive and boring and league yt content except Educational non clickbaity is boring and copy pasta at this point.

[@bates4635]

I mean my anecdotal evidence is that I've had more friends start playing league in the last year than in any other year before. Idk about esports tho

[@graverobber135]

the fact that you can't take a 2 month break from the game without having to study all the changes that have happened since to even comprehend the meta, without copy pasting builds, is a problem.

[@persona7222]

Like many others, game just turned stale. A lot of hours in the game, stopped playing seriously like 2-3 years ago but still keeping up even with other leagues not only EU and still keeping an eye on meta and all. It just feels like they stopped caring about the game itself long ago

[@czinege1997]

They don't need casual players. If you are a casual player you are not playing addictively, hence you are not gonna spend that much money. They have purposely removed this kind of content from the game. For example, back in the day 3v3 ranked team on Twisted Treeline was not a hardcore competitive game mod. It was fun to play. Hide and seek on the Dominion's map was the perfect casual gaming experience in Leauge. There were the game mods. URF on April 1st, Hexakill on Halloween, Ascension, Poro King on Aram, the Doom Bots, etc. They are rotating some of them, but if they wanted to they could enable all of them at the same time. It is about money just like everything else.

[@giovannicurotto5134]

This comment section is rancid but he's right. If the game was still growing, they wouldn't have an incentive to overmonetize the game, they wouldn't need to be constantly updating and renovating the eSports structure. Everything they've been doing lately, including the fact that the game itself is getting less and less attention in favour of marketing, points to the fact that the ship is sinking and they're trying to squeeze it for all it's worth before it's too late. Had to happen eventually, just wish it could have gone in a different, more player and community friendly way.

[@mrjadelee]

imagine if Netflix made a Drive to Survive type show on League Esports

[@norbertmegyesi7602]

Its not netflix... but there is a show of league ant it's not bad. Called Players and follows an imaginary lol team in the LCS.

[@fmb6945]

Big truths spoken. All my friends that played since season 7/8 left. Every season is harder and harder to play ranked and have fun to the point I also quited this split the game and i feel so drained, I dont have anymore the time and the energy to try keep up with 3 splits per season.

[@ajarofdirt3830]

This is what happens when you don't crack down on griefers leaving 4 minutes into the game because of the small chance their power may have gone out. Surely that's what happened. Surely. It's human nature to hate losing more than to love winning and the negative time wasting aspects of the game really is the nail in the coffin if you want a growing playerbase. There many other multiplayer competitive games that let you save time if someone leaves. Losing LP is whatever, reduced or not. Losing your precious time is the real kicker, but that feeds into many people's addiction and grind which is good for Riot's numbers. I haven't even gotten to the soft inting and just afking in game and moving every 30 seconds to avoid leaver buster. It starts with if Riot wants to fix this problem. If not then yeah the game won't grow.

[@louchomev3063]

If League is at the Wotlk peak after 14 years... We are fine

[@cloudcante2799]

The biggest issue is that LOL is a competitive game. That means its going to attract highly competitive players. What happens when a highly competitive player drops league to focus on real life events? They drop in skill level. Most players want to keep the grind and climb hard but when you come back to a game like league at a significant decrease in skill you end up like me... where you drop the game and become a viewer. Im assuming most viewers only watch specific players they like so once those players retire then it will die entirely unless a new super star can pick up the crown like faker. Its difficult to maintain skill level in league of legends compared to counter strike.

[@laurenslaterveer3554]

1. I was a player since s1, while i played less from s5-s7, s8 league was my main game. I stopped playing August 2023 (had an assigment didnt have time/energy to play) and realized i only was playing solo queue to not demote from masters and to keep my skills sharp for my prime league division 5 team. 2. I still watch Lol-Esports, espacially the internationals. I used to watch all of LEC, stopped this year, only watching some bo3s and most bo5s. LEC was just miserable to watch, the gameplay was horrible and the teams looked like they dont care somehow. 3. Riot pushed the game to be a ranked grind. Riot realized that the ranked grind is an easy way to retain players (infinite content) and thus they introduced 3 ranked splits, so players are forced to grind every split, thus trying to increase time played. Its a known fact that in live-service games, playing time => higher revenue 4. Ranked has the flaw of players inting/trolling or simply stop trying after a death. While i believe the increase of snowballing through dragon souls was a big reason for this (loose early means loose dragons with dragon soul being an automatic win), im 100% convinced that if league had voicechat, the amount of inting or stop trying would serverly decrease. Also the "toxic" messages in chat would go down, maybe you get 1/10th of those through voicechat, but mute button still exist. Ive been playing cs for the better part of a decade now aswell and the amount of "toxicity" i experienced was minimal, espacially compared to league. Ofc i got some comments on the fact that im german (i have a strong dialect) but things were very chill and in the rare event someone was annoying, i could just mute. League tried to go away from solo carry potential to team-based play from around season 5-6, but they never adjusted to give a good form of communication in form of voicechat, which is also tragic. 5. There is no way for skilled players to play with their less-skilled friends. This is a killer for many players. Playing with friends is how a lot of players get enjoyment from the game. Back when Riot was regulary doing event modes, you could easily get a lot of fun from events since these pushed more casual aspects of the game. From one for all, to the darkstar thresh. Players of all skill levers could play together and have a good time. This right now is only possible through aram (i dislike aram tho). Riot noticed this Problem of not being able to play with friends and came up with a "fix". Yuumi. The bad players picks yuumi and goes ontop of their good player friend and all is well. Problem ofc was that yuumi had to be broken and ruined pro play so she was nerfed to the ground. Yuumi was thought of as a replacement for game modes im 100% convinced. 6. On a final note, the New-player experience is horrible. Theres not many ressources on how to get better at the game like their used to (thats how i got better). Players ofc also got way better at the game, macro is difficult, laning is difficult, mechanics are difficult, theres over 140 champions a player has to learn. How can you expect new players to used to this. I know not a single league player that would recomment the game to their friends, so theres no wonder (combined with point 5.) that new players arent coming to the game. 7. I think league is past its prime and is slowly dying. Riot used League to fund their other games and neglected league in the process, (simply look at seasons 10-13, there were barely any changes besides new champs). Valorant and TFT seem to be big hits. LOR was a financial failure and the MMO might never come out and will cost big big bucks. I guess the test of time will tell if Riot can replicate their success with League in other games or if their decision to not care about League for those years will cost them deeply in the long run

[@mrjadelee]

theres certain content creators that also hate on the casual fans because they don't know as much as they do since they get to analyse the game for a living unlike everyone else who don't have the time to watch everything.

[@FastFoodFamilia]

I feel as if league is on a downtrend and dying in the west specifically, but I think the game is more alive then ever in places like KR/CN. in KR/CN league is embedded in their pop culture so hard that it feels as if it will die out on their end. For the west, I feel as if theres many combinations to why league feels as if its "dying". In NA, the soloq is relatively useless, and even if you get rank 1 after rank 1 it will be discredited by everyone saying how NA soloq is a clown fiesta and holds no merit ect. Whereas if you get rank 1 in kr or eu, there is a merit attached to it, teams will start looking at you and giving you tryouts, if not a LEC team atleast a second division or 3rd division team will hire you. But then, there is also a complacency issue in europe. The only team thats clearly not complacent is G2(and possibly MAD/KOI), where they give their all every single series and win every split. Fnatic? after watching the summer finals and seasonal playoffs, we can all tell they are complacent being the second best team in the region. We could say that g2 had an unlucky draw this year, and as a person I would be inclined to agree. But why do we just give them the pass from last year when they were toted as the "strongest western league team" and getting bareback dicked down 2-0 by NRG? Are we just going to cope out and say g2 wasnt treating them as a strong team with 0 prep work? Because if thats the answer I hear, then G2 isnt doing everything in their power to become a world class team and actually win the world championship. As a person that grinded soloq HARD, and i mean HARD after 2018/2019 worlds finals where I finally saw the west making a break in the glass, why should I even try hard and give it my competitive all to try and compete? EU hasnt made it out of groups (which is considered the better region of the two) in 3 years now? Na has had better international performances the last 2 years in a clown fiesta region? after watching the last few years as a western league fan that really just wanted to watch either EU or NA compete with eastern league of legends, year after year its just dwindling, ever since around ~2020 or 2021 when MAD was the only EU team to make it out of groups, After watching this year worlds, I dont think ima even have faith to see g2 ever make it to semis ever again, let alone finals. I sincerely hope they prove me wrong as a master stuck NA soloq player though.

[@vladimirrassushin8422]

As a long-term player (4,508 hours in the game) I have to say that there is event more to it, unfortunately. While Elite play is really exciting to watch (and not just top teams, but generally LoL e-sports), the experience of a mid-level player like me in soloque is just terrible. I like the game, I like the balance, I'm ok with current state of champions etc., but the problem is in the huge gap (a fricking canyon!) between the things players are SUPPOSED to do in the game and the things they are ACTUALLY doing. I like to watch teams work as a unit applying pressure, pushing waves, rotating, teamfighting, but I have NONE of this experience in my Emerald games, and it gets worse the lower you go. And Emerald+ is like 12-15% of the playerbase, so imagine... Like 90%+ of players are playing the game which is BALANCED for Elite play and UNFORGIVING for casual players. And people want to play ranked, there is competitive spirit... Hence you can find a plethora of KZbinrs creating content for them. But the issue is that this is still a pain in the ass. Especially when the balance changes released by RIOT are not addressing the problems soloque community is facing, but rather the Elite level of play. Something has to be done with it. I quit the game in January-February 2024 and with all the balance changes through the year I must admit that was the RIGHT decision. I love this game with my whole heart, but it is very unfun and unpleasant to play. The player base is toxic, the roles are imbalanced for soloque play, and the average experience of some specific roles (let's say soloque ADC experience) is just MISERABLE. I am happy to buy skins and play. But my FUN is what sells the game to me. And as RIOT can't balance it in a way to be fun at least for an average player like me, then screw them, really. I am happy to play tennis instead of LoL.

[@bigbeast008]

They don’t nerf singed after system wide dmg nerfs for pro play…

[@japposaurusrex]

"I dont play, therefore the game is dying" ahh video clickbait

[@jasonnash4452]

or we could look at statistics but we wouldnt want to use that would. thats not the league community way. concrete evidence is like kryponite to you people. just push narratives that are popular and feel good no matter how many times they are disaproven. "only my opinion matters" ahhh comment

[@EngelRaziel100]

For me, it was the "Find more ways people can enjoy their skins, their cosmetics". I really would like to play more league if I had any way to play other roles than my main role on an even skill matchup. I have no idea how Riot could ever do it because a Role Queue like it is in Overwatch for example is not working. Hopefully they will someday find a way to do that. Because hell it's zero fun to play on my main where my main role is Emerald / Dia while I play the other roles at max on Plat level, more likely on Gold level. Of course, I don't want to smurf, because first it's not fun for everyone else til I finally played enough to reach my skill level on this account and second because all my skins sit on my main account.

[@blibbax]

Totally agree - I watch esports content including this channel, but ranked SR is an insane time and effort commitment to reach a stable rank, and ARAM gets boring fast, especially playing solo.

[@charlington22]

I agree and love the concept of having player-made custom maps. There's all sorts of creative and fun ideas you could get people into custom games playing hide and seek, and all sorts of things

[@Ben-cu9cb]

The moment league starts to die is the moment when Faker retires

[@rishovmukherjee2596]

I started playing LoL from 2019. Now, for me it was't so hard to get into since I had a lot of experience with Dota 2 prior to this. However, the most fun I had with LoL was the first few months where I was learning the game. Honestly, the better I got, the more I hated it and in the past 2 years, there weren't many LoL matches where I didn't want to kill myself. On the contrary, I love watching LoL esports, and "TO ME" it is the most fun esports game to view apart from Street Fighter. I personally feel the only way to introduce casual to LoL is through the universe, the MMORPG. Its impossible to get casuals interested in LoL with PvP, the game experience is insufferable. That said if I had to pay money to watch esports and choose between lets say football and esports..i would choose football 10/10 times

[@bosnianguy6895]

Didn't help that they for over a decade ban people for writing the most tiny stupid shit ever, making them lose their beloved accounts and having to start over. This kills the core of the game and sooner or later they say fuck it and stop playing. Riot made the decision to ban people for expressing emotions.

[@Uri1991]

I appreciate this thoughts. I totally agree on this being a problem for basically all pvp games, It happened the same to me with overwatch, wow, and even lol. I can't bring myself to play league anymore because of the level of the player base being so much higher than mine. I don't have the time anymore to dedicate full time into improving in the game.

[@arthurchen6464]

I was super into SC2 pro scene and competitive, got burned out by Blizz mismanagement of the game and quit esports and competitive gaming altogether around 2013. Missed the entirety of the golden age of League as a result and now while I try to play here and there and follow esports closely, I just can't learn an entire new "language". I don't mean the lingo of League, that's easy enough to learn: prio, tempo, front to back, dive, etc. I mean the ingame language of how the game is played by players who feel it as a second nature. I'm having a hard enough time CSing, but I have to worry about keeping track of enemy junglers ganking or trading with enemy laners who know exactly when to hit and when to back off. Add on top of that having to mentally track all the enemy sums and it's just not something I can realistically become fluent in. I see veteran players catch a glimpse of an enemy at a particular timing in a particular location and know exactly what the enemy is trying to do and I just don't follow. Add in the however many different champs and builds for each role and the different interactions between 10 players each game and I just can't begin to grasp the intricacies.

[@YuYuYuna_]

I don't know if I would say it's dying but it's definitely past it's peak. Maybe it is dying who knows. I think the point when League started its decline was when Riot announced TFT. At least to me at that time it signaled in my mind "Riot is looking to move past League" and League would effectively go into maintenance mode, which to all accounts I've only been proven right. We're getting less champs, less new stuff overall than we used to, but also League is just an old game now. Very few games live as long as League has. I would be genuinely shocked if League was still "alive" in 4-5+ years from now. It's purely anecdotal, but I played SC2 through its lifetime and about a year or two before it died I started to get a gut instinct/feeling that the game was going to die soon. It's like that gut feeling you get you have an older relative and things have been showing signs of decline for years. That very same feeling I got with SC2 I've had a little bit last year and a very strong feeling of it this year with League. Again, all just gut feeling so I could be wrong. I don't think I am however.

[@emil5851]

I think it's just playerbase growing up and the next generation splitting into different games. Since I became adult, I don't play multiplayer matchmaking games.

[@pensato348]

All I'm saying is Supervive is a ton of fun and the open beta begins on Nov. 20th.

[@schmabertfu1373]

I think this is pretty spot-on!! The game is also becoming too complex... At some point they will have to stop adding new champions, because frankly, there are too many to get to know within a reasonable amount of time already

[@bytebandit_0x01]

I completely agree i also think League has been dying for a while now, i am playing 20-40 games a year (Since probably 2016-17) just to get my rank and then quit and keep watching e-sports. I just don't want to invest more endless hours into competitive games and at the end of my session come out angry because i haven't progressed with LP. The competitive grind just doesn't speak to me anymore the few hours i have left after work i want to use differently, on myself family friends and even would rather play a game with a story like Dark Souls. I also find myself into a competitive work environment where i sometimes after work need to invest hours into studying to keep myself relevant on the market. EDIT: The new game mode with survivor that league released this summer i played countless hours getting every achievement on it i would love to see more different game modes and maybe custom fan made maps would go far.

[@ZachryWilliams-mg5zt]

Its because they can’t decide between making the game fun and making the game noob friendly they are always trapped within this duality it makes the game itself feel like such a mess

[@raulama1]

I was a player who spent 5-6 hours a day playing League. I invested money that I could have used to go to a restaurant, a bar, on vacation, to buy skins. I left the game the day they decided to ban my account and keep all my time and money invested. 👎👎

[@miguelribeiro1601]

The problem with League is very simple: The game is visually too outdated and less appealing to the new generation of players. There are two things that the mainstream players are looking for accessibility and graphically appealing games that usually generate hype. League of Legends has none of those, it's a hard game to get into and it has been falling back visually despite some improvements, it's just simply not worth to casual gamers. Aside from that, ranked system being rigged and having all those strange algorithms, trolls, smurfs, inters it's just too far gone. Riot need to let go of the potato PC mentality, start a complete overhaul of their graphics, new engine, music, CLIENT, ranked system (fixing those problems I just stated), engaging game modes, bringing back fun modes like Dominion and Treeline, get map skins on the game because people get tired of the map too. Then when the game gets fun again, people will start to bother and learn the game, until then it will just keep falling. Riot needs to invest hard on the game or it will just die.

[@irynam12]

Yeah this is pretty much like my experience. I watch esports, but already do not play league except some arams from time to time and i know i'm not gonna come back. Because i've spent so much time playing it in the past i enjoy esports championships a lot. And yes, watching best playes makes me sometimes think to play games, but then i remember how it was always hard for me. but at the same time i still would like to play in some league related thing. Currently it is tft, but if it was mmo or rpg or other thing it would be great. I tried to play WoW for some time, but the lore is not that exciting for me. Also all my friends quit league. I'd say that i'm the one left who still play it and watch esports. The 2024 opening ceremony was so good that i was crying, so i want riot only to get better and find ways to expand their universe, because i love it so fucking much.

[@Hoshinokuro]

TLDR : league is dying because i have a feeling its dying because its dying because i have a feeling its dying...a claim like this needs numbers or its all in uour head

[@YamatoCannon213]

I think sentiment as well as looking at pivotal points of other great PVP games of the past is more then just a "feeling". As I mentioned I am happy to change my tune if there would be available data to digest.

[@Dylan-ec7dq]

@@YamatoCannon213 sounds like eu did bad at worlds 2 years in a row and their region is dying more like, that's how na has felt before and it's not dying. you can look at any of the casual game modes you can see that, the queues are almost instant all the time for aram. ranked is less popular because the disconnect is there, the game needs voice comms like valorant for 10 year veterans stuck in bronze, but with a macro sense of a platinum player, to really explain to newer players how things are supposed to go or to learn new ideas themselves from a fresh perspective, without being toxic. then you will see the most competitive game mode get more popular

[@verenasbitch]

But there are numbers. The average players dropped 12% from 22 to 23. And another 7% from 23 to 24. "League is dying" is a term that gets clicks. It still has an insane playerbase. But the West has almost no new players and even in korea while still the biggest game it has lost marketshare (which is easy to look up because PC Bangs provide stats on playtime) Again we are talking about monthy average players of 130 mil. But it was 155mil 2 years ago and it isnt looking like there are New players in sight

[@YNOBLITZ]

@@Dylan-ec7dqna is for sure dying bro what are you on about

[@BDuckie100]

@@Dylan-ec7dqyes bro thats how it works. If you keep being dissapointed while doing a task eventually youre not gonna put in as much anymore. This might turn out to even ring true for China. Even they might turn out next year to be getting fatigued with investing millions and not getting the wanted result. eventually the 10 year olds are not gonna wanna be league pros anymore ya know, if everyone around you in the sphere is just perma dissapointed and depressed.

[@hai3448]

Been playing League since 2015. Here are my complaints about the game and watching esports: Playing the game (PROS) - SR is really fun when playing and winning with friends (Each game feels different) My friends play casually, so they aren't good... more fun to play ARAM with them because it's less tilting for everyone - The team aspect of the game is fun... when things are going well Playing the game (CONS) - No voice comms It's actually so annoying trying to type and play the game at the same time. Not even sure if my teammates read the chat. One small mistake ends up costing the game which could have been avoided with voice chat -Game is too snowbally now Dying once and with the increased death timer, it feels like your lane is pretty much over unless you have a teammate to help bail you out (ganks. It's really not good to gank a hard losing lane lmao) -Rank isn't rewarding Feels like everyone's got an ego in plat elo and above. If the game goes wrong, players want to FF or will grief your lane (take your CS). League feels more fun around silver-gold elo since player's egos aren't inflated and they USUALLY will continue to play the game even if we're losing WATCHING ESPORTS (PROS) - Started watching in 2015 - Watching LoL at a high level is very fun to watch - because of the helicopter view of the game - You get to see the movements of every player during team fights, unlike FPS games where you get a limited view during skirmishes WATCHING ESPORTS (PROS) - Was an SKT fan (because they were the best during the time), LoL esports gets boring to watch over the past 9ish years since the narrative is always about SKT/T1 (No longer an SKT fan) -The narrative is always about SKT/T1 Yeah I get it, they bring in the most viewership. Even my friends who don't play or watch LoL will tune in and automatically support Faker and T1 because of the name - even if they had a bad year (btw how can "tHe GrEaTeSt RoStEr Of AlL tImE" have trouble winning domestically?) Felt like BLG had a pretty successful year, Spring (1st), MSI (2nd), Summer (1st), Worlds (2nd), yet the narrative was never about BLG's best year and their potential to winning worlds (Silver road? lol) - it was mostly "cAn LPL bReAk ThEiR T1 cUrSe??" I feel like the narrative with DRX 2022 gave them a morale boost and helped them win. With BLG vs T1, ppl cared less about BLG even though they were the better performing team this year and was more deserving of lifting the trophy. Not downplaying T1 just saying if they didn't play to standard the whole year and suddenly "we" should support them for winning worlds...? Like come on. - There is always a BIG meta change from Summer to Worlds - Teams that I enjoyed watching in summer and really wanted them to win end up "choking" at Worlds It's almost like their gamestyle they found success in summer doesn't work at Worlds - like they don't even look like themselves anymore - Worlds has become boring to watch because my favorite teams don't perform up to their standards (related to the Worlds patch?) When I first played LoL and watched LoL Esports, it's almost like a dream to want to be a pro player, but throughout the years: - Ranking up is not rewarding (playing in NA you get a lot of trolls) - The match making system consistently tries to keep you at 50% Win rate. - The old 5-game promo games will c0ck block u from ranking because it intentionlly matches you with horrible teammates - You could make a new fresh acc, but why would I waste my time doing that when I can go outside and do something more productive and less tilting - International LoL esports is pretty stale with the same old narratives. Regionals are a little more interesting at times. I actually feel like the games are higher quality

[@ozan2568]

A game dies only when the playerbase decreases to a certain point. So league of legends player has been rising (except 2018) every single year and last two year started to decrease. Last year while monthly average player base was around 150 mil now in 2024 its around 130mil. This 20 mil loss is does not mean league is dying since this amount of playerbase loss is quite new. It means league is in a down trend. Bad soloq experience new unbalanced champion releases, buggy and bad client are probably the cause of this loss. This is fixable. 130 million monthly player base is still crazy high. Games like cs2 , fortnite which have way less playerbases are still alive and well. Maybe a lower playerbase affect the proplay in a bad way and maybe proplay dies in the future but the game might still stay alive. If riot games continues not fixing gameplay experience and does not find a way to draw new players (beause it is getting worse and worse everyday) yes game will die in the long run. But it is still too soon to say that. It is just a warning sign that developers have dropped a ball for a bit. It is not like league has lost half of player base. I believe yamato is a great content creater and an amazing personality. So i don't get why he chose this clickbait video name. He clearly doesn't need it. Kinda disappointing.

[@cedrichofstetter4057]

I think the issue with League is riot balancing the game such that it is very difficult to solo carry the way you used to, making the effect of teammates hard or soft inting felt more making the game way less enjoyable to play

[@reishiki8682]

It's more fun to watch, it's infuriating to play. Either you play with trolls or inters, or your win didn't feel rewarding because you had to drag a team with a deadweight through the finish line, while the enemy team play like a well-oiled machine... half the time or they're a free win since they're plagued by the same problems. Doesn't help that the game is becoming way more unfriendly to ADC players, with them adding mobile bruisers while removing the only mobility item immobile ADC's have. Either they bring back Galeforce or they bring down all these "bruisers but are actually assassins" champions a notch.

[@eldendynast]

Mr YamatoCannon I am scared of change, it really does feel like the game itself is slowly dying and multiple major lolesports regions are on the decline too. Alas I find change so hard, can you coach us on this ;(

[@michaelgray4552]

I think this may help you out. I thought this especially a couple years ago but the changes and looking at how well certain things do like worlds, the game to me will last a very long time. What people don’t look at is the desire to want to be faker. Although the player base prob won’t ever have substantial growth from this point, league has a way to pull you in. I don’t game anymore really. I don’t have time. But I still pull out league every so often. I watch it. I love it. While the game can still do that, I think it will survive. I’m sure there way more hardcore fans than me. I know people want to see a huge spike and be the greatest thing ever but truth is you got to ride the up and downs.

[@limppu1337]

I think esports side missed a big chance during covid, but that is probably easier to say in hindsight. There are clearly big plans with future shows, MMO and 2XKO, but the worry about League itself is something i share. I think it still could all be in our heads. People have been tooting the death of League for yeeears, but still its here doing pretty well i'd say. The longevity also could start to loop around with players starting to have kids soon who could start getting into the game, ok that might still be a few years away. Another aspect of the loop could be people who quite years ago looping back, bit like with WoW classic, but i agree that people need a new way to approach the game as Yamato stated.

[@elbandito2990]

As a new player I can only speak on more surface level things. I would personally like a whole new SR map, or atleast different skins for the current one. Just gets dull to look at. Also when you are losing because Super Minions are constantly keeping you in your base at low elos, it just feels bad, especially when the team doesnt ff(obviously a skill issue thing). But PLEASE GIVE A PROPER TUTORIAL!

[@PirocoLouco]

I don't want to discourage you, but losing in league is a miserable experience in every elo.

[@Avvura]

Trying to follow up 2022 was crazy, 2024 was pretty good. I don't know what else can top it from here on.

[@toastermicrowave]

I think you are right, they need to make it more approachable for a casual.

[@mounirriahi9595]

the game is not gonna die anytime soon but surely the playbase is rapidly decreasing , the problem is riot game is trying to get the numbers back to its glory days by changing the game itself which we all know its never happening just like no is is escaping death , instead they need to keep the actual players satisfied instead of working on making the game easier and more appealing for new players, new players will just come and have a completely new experience anyway why ruin the actual experience for the people who already enjoyed and experienced it , its stupid i bet even half of the new coming players are already old players who forgot their accounts or just making new smurf accounts, also making the ranked game more grinding is stupid too since like i said u have to focus on keeping ur actual player base interested , its a fact old players are getting old they have jobs , university why make the ranked system 3 splits it makes the ranked for ppl who casual players with less time to play in a day an average skill level just a waste of time, its so much harder to experience the lvl of achievement by increasing ur rank, every split u get placed 3 to 4 ranks away and u spend half of ur time getting back to ur actual rank by the time u start slowly climbing bcz ur improving at a very basic lvl ur not a master lvl smurf playing in gold or silver after all, by the time u start feeling good the split is about to end and it gets even uglier since the last few weeks all the smurfs give up in their diamond+ accounts and start spamming games in their low elo smurf accounts . riot games instead of making the game stable the are capitalizing on it and rapidly leading it to its downfall

[@leonardoh7578]

3v3 was the casual mode, quick and fun competitive

[@BDuckie100]

I started playing end of season 1 and am just an aram main and esports watcher at this point. Idk why anyone would wanna start a game and learn 160 new characters tho. Personally if riot put some fuckin effort in and made a sick platform where I could watch pro league and integrate the ability for me to click on normal cast, yamato, dom, ls, doublelift, caedrel, combination of normal cast + any of the costreamers very easily, id pay monthly. Bro if they embed the clicked on costreamer into the normal broadcast when you select one the normal broadcast doesnt even lose my view! Imagine they could sell the product +300k caedrel viewers if they just made a fucking streamlined platform with costreamer integration.

[@MrBahki]

Faker could put a bullet into LoL if he manages to Golden Road & say “The 6th is my last.” Or It would be like One Piece where Gol D. Roger is executed and a new era is made.

[@yassirelhidani6803]

we need to see the numbers of playerbase in soloq , it's just a feeling i think that league is dying , but esports is in fact in a bad situation , riot is finally trying to do something about it and the results will show in couple of years. Let's see!

[@mommysmilkers9518]

Ofc it’s dying its got an extremely high barrier to entry along with an mmr system that doesn’t allow newer players to progress the lower ranks without playing for years (and I’m talking say going from iron to gold or plat) why would anyone pick up this game especially those that are competitively driven (who are the ones who usually end up as permanent players) and this is largely a result of them squeezing out 1v9 potential in other competitive games if u put a Smurf from the equivalent of challenger into the equivalent of gold and their hard sweating it’s almost 100% wr guaranteed they probably would still lose even if it was literally 1v5 and the chal had no teammates bc say valorant for example if me (a high immo lvl player eq to gm in league) was dropped into a silver lobby they probably won’t even kill me unless im being ultra disrespectful but in league if 1 could be 10-0 in a lane perma stomping having their laner not even able to walk back to tower and 5 of them come top and ur teammates will probably just sit and farm jg camps and minions instead of pushing waves to taking plates I’ve literally seen this in my friends gold games where had to come top 10 mins in bc top t2 fell and the midland ahri who was 0-5 was taking scuttle instead of hitting tower and the bot lane was just sitting middle of lane slow farming the wave) and let’s say you’ve been playing for a month or 2 and u get a game like that where ur so fed they need to send 5 to you by min 10 and your teammates are so unaware even in gold they gain nothing from it why would u keep playing if I remember right by 20 mins his mid-bot was a combined 3-22 or something like that a game can’t survive when someone can end up in a game state like that bc it only take 1 games like that where u waste an hour locked in for nothing bc 1 games like that is all it takes for them to never wanna play again it’s unenjoyable to be above competition but have almost no control over the outcome of the game

[@Patron_TheBoss]

Hi, here's a casual that hasn't played LoL for about 10 years, but I still watch LEC,LCK,LCS, & some LPL & World's ofc. Love your content always bud!

[@Khodalyr]

I think league is reviving ever since they started steering away from the bullshit powercreep that was introduced back in S8-S9. The only thing that is really in a terrible terrible state right now is matchmaking in solo/duo ranked because of 3 splits.

[@sshmru]

saying 'league is dying' or stuff like 'watch arcane but dont play league' are directly harmful to league community

[@yiannisgedeon9038]

i watch LEC and LCS for a decade now, havent bothered playing the game even as a casual for at least the last 4 years and abandoned the client after they made mandatory their shit app that crashes my pc. Enjoy watching it massively and love following TL but thats about it.

[@gamensch2629]

I love this new kind of content from you, keep it up ^^

[@jollylp623]

The yearly tradition

[@swayarrow]

I think its takinga dip before its peak then inevitable dip to plateau

[@swayarrow]

We def need to buy more merch myself included

[@matteofurlanello1016]

as i proof, i (and many friends of mine) quitted the game few months ago but i still watch the competitive

[@hugisdb]

Interestingly, the only team that’s profitable is also the team most villainized by the talking heads.

[@JamesBaleLA]

3 splits per year was a big mistake

[@cibhiboopathy4534]

Very valid thoughts and opinions. The prize pool for worlds every year reflects reality.

[@minnesotasteve9382]

I have a similar view based on the USA. But I wonder how the environment is in China and South Korea.

[@Leah_Newton]

League is dying FINANCIALLY. But Legends never DIE. Where itself is dying, TFT and Wild Rift (only in China) are still thriving. But yes, many players left League. From Vanguard to Matchmaking, nothing gets fixed and more concerns/issues are staying longer than they should be. If they want players back, FIX THE MATCHMAKING ISSUE and they get tons of players back. And Vanguard...you should be worried knowing that a ware is installed that has a high potential of turning your PC into a perma-brick. 😢

[@mustard9933]

moba has always been hard to get into but if you stick with one you get better over time.

[@CoconutPipeSmoker]

Yamato, you must understand the current matchmaking system in League of Legends is critically undermining the game’s quality and longevity. Without a meaningful overhaul, it’s likely that the game will continue to lose its player base. Compared to other MOBAs-particularly mobile ones-League of Legends has struggled to adapt or evolve in key areas, especially when it comes to improving matchmaking. Players who consistently perform poorly face minimal repercussions, while those committed to the game endure a frustrating experience. It seems apparent that the developers, who may lack firsthand understanding of the typical player experience, are out of touch with the community's needs and challenges. This disconnect risks alienating casual players, and as a result, only the most dedicated fans might remain, largely due to the sunk cost fallacy. If this trend continues, League of Legends could ultimately decline, retaining only a core audience. It seems apparent you too are disconnected with the casual player base as well.

[@esoncabalde5442]

Anyone who says league is thriving is a casual who only watch Worlds and lne region. Those who follows all regions can see that we have lesser players, new pro players, revenue and budget. LCK is the only region that's okay but NA, LEC started to regress 3 years ago and now LPL is also following. Hopefully something change or else League will end in 7 years or so.

[@SimplyApollo]

It's important to remember. There are less children now than before, and the fewer children are being spread over more games then ever.

[@leonmikeson2313]

I still enjoy the esports side of league but I haven’t played a game in over a year, and more importantly haven’t spent money on league since 2020. People like you, Dom, etc. are my Drive to Survive surrogate for League. As for a map editor and custom games, I don’t see it happening, because they’ll copy WC3Reforged bullsh*t where the company gets exclusive rights to the custom games. Because any amount of good will and player influx from these fun custom games is outweighed by the MONEY that they’d lose when someone makes a new Defense of the Ancients or whatever.

[@Nillinoon]

I stopped playing league, I just watch the eSports because I don't have the time to be good. So I would join a queue and be bad and that's not fun at all. Maybe with a 5 player group but it's hard to find 4 other players who want to play just for fun

[@asimon7100]

Ive been watching lol esports since late 2013 and back then I played it a lot too. But its been years now that I dont play the game anymore and that i still watch the esport. I still like watching it and the shows like worlds are good but if im honest every year I care a little bit less about the esport as well ... I dont exactly know why, maybe Im just getting tired of it but to me it absolutely doesnt feel like it did before

[@raphaelleconte2676]

To be honest I understand your point of vue but to me it's not dying. The day it will be the case we will see riot seriously making the game more accessible to new players. As long as they don't, it means they are not scared. At the day there is 180 millions active accounts in the world so basically beetween 100 and 150 millions players still playing. So to me : not dying, but potentially reaching its peak

[@YouGrim]

I've barely played since 2015, didn't really watch in 2017, but worlds 2018 brought me back...Tend to watch less and less now

[@Fearic123]

The thumbnail looks like the Johnny sins pose😂

[@KeptVirus22]

I started playing league about 2-3 years ago just because my friends insisted so much, and I have to say it was THE WORST NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE I have ever had on a multiplayer game of any genre. The fact that you can't even see champions descriptions/skills until you're already in game is ridiculous (like how do you want me to pick a champ if i dont know what they do?). While you are in game you can't know what your allies' champions do, nor the enemies. I had to literally open up a wiki on a second monitior and try and memorize things as I played. The only way to really know what a champion does is to queue on practice tool and see for yourself. Now do that for EVERY FUCKING CHAMPION in the game. Not even in the champions' description/bio, where you only have a vague description of the skill, not cooldowns, not AP/AD ratios, nothing. (and you can't look at this while in champ select) And I don't even want to start talking about smurfs or hardstuck people. Going against them as a new player, with no information about what your fucking champion does is one of the worst experiences I've had in gaming, so frustrating As of now, I've played the game for years and I kinda got around it, but how can i recommend the game to someone who has never played before given the experience that I had while learning this stuff? It's just not designed for new players and it shows.

[@kmg3673]

Im sorry your experience was bad. Also I think your friends just missed it, because its always been possible to see champion abilities outside of the game, you don't have to be in the game with the selected champion to see them. Each one has an overview with videos demonstrating their abilities.

[@dragonair999]

Had an identical experience 🥲

[@KeptVirus22]

@@kmg3673 yes you can in fact go to the champion bio and it will show a simple description with a video, but not while you are in game, so you just gotta memorize everything before playing? Also you don't get to see ap/ad ratios, cooldowns, range, etc on those descriptions.

[@gguille12]

@@KeptVirus22 when you are a new player you are not thinking about cooldowns, ratios etc since these concepts are foreing, you just go into game with a general idea of what the champion does which can be seen in the client. I can see smurfs being a problem in the first few games or if you are playing duo with someone with a high mmr tho.

[@reishiki8682]

Erm... you can check what champion skillsets can do from the Collection tab then g to Champions, select a champion and it'll show their skills along with a short video demo.

[@Zonalar]

hello yamato. I generally agree with this sentiment. But even the viewing experience is not that easy for a casual. - You have to be a pretty degenerate League player to know all the items the players are building, AND how their champions work, to understand if the build is any good (casters do a decent job breaking down that barrier). Draft-phase is fucking black magic for the casual viewer, 95% of viewers cannot list you the top 3 champions for each player, for their favourite team. Let alone for the top teams in the tournament they're watching. It's very hard to gleam any information if picks or bans are any good, which are just useless and which are big-brain fourth-dimensional chess bans like you'd see from G2. - There is no pro-view and Riot killed the baby in the crib with this one. Give back pro-views and allow casual viewers to watch THEIR FAVOURITE PLAYER. That would help alot of players to build a following interested in their personality or particular playstyle, AND improve lane understanding - imagine if we could just watch every match of Bin's laning phase. - No new watcher or casual fan knows what every champion does, and we have a wide variety of champions being played. I've played for 2 and a half seasons, from s11 to s13, and even played back in the S1-S3 days. But when aurora was played in the tournaments, i had no clue what she was doing or if the player was any good, simply because i don't play the game anymore. - Casual viewers have no understanding of the storylines of the teams. Riot doesn't build ANY storylines except for Faker and T1. they ignore BLG, GenG, HLE. Don't hire LPL casters for worlds which had LPL teams face eachother in the semi finals, and BLG in the finals. If you want to have these storylines as a casual viewer, you have to become a hardcore viewer and absorb LFN content like summoning insight or Euro League (Keire is the goat). - The meta shifts every 3 months and its hard to keep track of whether the team comp and builds the team is going for is any good - for casual viewers. These are my thoughts, as an esports fan, who went from watching Sc2 very intensely for years, to Overwatch, Wc3, some niche Age of Empires 2 tournaments, to now watching LoL for 3+ years. The big Teams are dead. Rekkless gone, Perkz kicked for being a professional gamer while managment want to be PC-friendly when they're supposed to be competitors. TSM gone. EG killed itself. CLG gone. Dignitas a shadow of itself. Fnatic is a team of overpriced inters who cannot learn macro for 2 years straight even tho they get to practice G2 all year. KC kicking their best coach and running it down after. Peter Dun exiting to prioritize his family. Mac kicked from Mad Lions after creating a fantastic work enviroment to create a competitive EU team. LCS dead and replaced with LTA. Bjergsen, DoubleLift, Danny gone. NRG turning their league slot into a cynical cashgrab and actually making a profit the most degenerate way possible (this is SO DAMNING for LoL esports, that this was the most profitable move you can make in this industry). What is there to be excited about, if you're a casual esports fan? Or even a Casual league fan? Or even a hardcore fan who watches more than one region, tries to watch every game, just to get a weekly reminder that half the teams are completly worthless, and the other half outclassed by the top2 teams in the region? It's just CBT at this point.

[@Zonalar]

Sorry about the novel. but you asked for comments, so this is my best attempt at putting all my feelings into words. Cheers and have a good day Yamato.

[@ahmedadel-j3i]

Man , i am getting tired of the "Riot only promotes Faker " because its not true Many caster were told to promote other players (cadreal said it on stream) but guess what? They end losing and guess what? Most people likes winners So what iam trying to say is it doesn't matter how cool you make other player story if the don't back it up with winning

[@derboss4149]

Its actually the completly opposite, u took sum good shit nah ?

[@YamatoCannon213]

What do you disagree with in the video? I would be happy to have a conversation about it.

[@derboss4149]

@@YamatoCannon213 viewer ships are higher then ever this means more people are interested in the game and this means the ggame has more players itself and this means more promotion and this means the games catches up more new players

[@reishiki8682]

​@@derboss4149Viewership and player retention are different things though. In short, lots of people watch the high-profile matches but it doesn't equate to "people getting interested on playing LoL".

[@nikolakrstevski8578]

Came from stream! Love the content.

[@MegaCoupie]

I think the demographic for league is ageing and we've grown up playing the game and they need to do something to better draw in players like leagues tutorial is still complete dog shite

[@antoinemoulin1206]

I mean the game can be in a decline without dying, WoW have been declining since early 2010 and fifteen year later it’s still here so RIOT might have a 10 year buffer to turn things around

[@kenk5269]

i stopped playing in 2019 but still consistently watch the tournaments.