Imagine being Riot and MarkZ who do nothing to stop toxicity in pro games, and instead show the toxicity on broadcast as a hook to bring in more viewers. This seems like an interesting move given all the steps Riot has taken in non-pro play to inhibit toxicity. Good luck defending any harassment or cyberbullying lawsuits. LMAO. Showing your EULA doesn't apply to pro players and that toxicity is actually encouraged in the game is a VERY bad look. It actually makes one wonder why APA hasn't been silenced like so many other regular players, or at least fined. Pros are to be role models for good habits...I guess Riot/LCS/MarkZ disagree.

I'm glad I don't play the game anymore. The toxicity is going to go off the charts now that APA and TL won finals. "If APA does it, then it must be okay for me to do it too." - many younger players moving forward.

Just another perplexing action taken by the LCS/Riot. To me this shows the state of desperation the LCS has being a "major region" but not being competitive outside the LCS while also having significantly declining viewership.

My god.

This is not edited. It's straight from a podcast episode with Hysterics and Raz (THE BIG LCS PERSONALITY | The Esports Dream Episode 1 - Raz).

It shouldn’t be news to anyone but the LCS has been going downhill for multiple years now and honestly at this point I think they’re 6 feet deep. Only thing left to do is engrave the tombstone.

With EG and GGS leaving it’s more clear than ever that riot does not, can not, and/or will not support a functional system for players and fans. The strikes earlier this year were already proof that Riot along with teams can’t figure out a way to make it financially viable in almost any regard, because of course it always comes back to the money.

I’ve been an LCS fan for almost 10 years now, and I’m sorry to C9 who I’ve been loyal to that whole time but I’m checking out. It’s not what it used to be and just not worth the time investment for me. When any news about the league is negative what am I looking forward to ever? It’s not about international performance, I couldn’t care less about that. I just want a functional league that’s fun to watch, competitive, and supports its players and casters. I really don’t think I’m asking for a lot. The thing is I have been asking, for a long time now, and I’m done.

Anyone see the episode of next level today. Hai, meteos and hotshot gg basically all infer that doublelift is good mechanically but a stupid player. Hai even says he is one of the best mechanically but nothing else.

I cant believe the guy still gets this much hate. First hes not mechanically one of the best adcs. He is far and away the best, no competition.

Of course I have never played with him but its insane to think he doesnt bring anything else to a team. He has more titles than anyone. He won with olleh, yellowstar (almost), a rookie bio frost. He had mediocre teammates like zion spartan and pobelter. He also had top tier teammates who happened to have a hard time winning without him like jensen and berg.

Im not saying that hes gods gift to man, but its just crazy to me that he still gets this hate and that lcs' winningest player gets talked about like this.

Wth wasn’t expecting this. They’re giving me hope

I follow North American and European pro leagues but this past off season and now launch of the LCS seems forced and unorganized. Am I alone? This looks like a bad stream put together by 3 friends

I felt like I had to join this subreddit to make this comment. Why has everyone become so stale except Raz, Flowers, and Mark? If I had to rate them 1-10, I'd say 10. I feel like they carry the rest of the team pretty hard. I've enjoyed the other personalities through time as well but I feel like they've gotten pretty stale and sometimes I just fast forward through them. Mark and Raz have a really funny on screen rivalry going on. Flowers is just the best play by play in the entire West. I can't even say anyone else is even a 6 or 7 anymore. Kinda makes you miss Dash as well. I did enjoy Pastrytime too but I dont see him around anymore. I think it's time the LCS starts bringing in new and proven personalities and maybe keep a rotation. Bring in Tyler1 for half a split. Let QTpie and Kiwi take over a split. QTCinderella had some funny parts, lets keep her on for a whole split why not? Aphromoo can do another split with her sure why not? Throw in Mr Beast to a split if he's really interested in joining the LCS or DisguisedToast. I think this is what is needed to revive the LCS and I really feel like half of the desk and casters aren't really needed anymore. They've plateaued and aren't power spiking anymore you could even say.

I’ve watched Lck some lpl and most of Lec and now watching LTA North. The difference is staggering. The level of play is a canyon wide gap. Except for FLY which looks like a top 3 Lec team Thoughts? Too early to tell? Delusional Lec enjoyer? Idk looks so pointless so far for NA

like maybe in a reverse psychology way the viewers really enjoy the cringe while thinking they don't which helps lcs viewership.

What is going on with this organization? It seems like something dramatic is happening every other day. No wonder we can never make it to worlds, we're too busy playing little high school melodrama games with each other. We look so bad right now. Not only are we just the laughing stock of the international stage play-wise, but now we're also the laughing stock because apparently nobody can get their shit together and act like a damn adult.

So shameful.

Successful sports are sustained through strong brands that remain static throughout the ages. Yes overtime some teams change but it's centuries of legacy branding which sustains sports fandom from generation to generation.

League has abandoned that. With the departure of CLG and the disrepair of TSM, the foundation created by those who made LCS what it is today has been completely wiped away.

Lest not forget this is all a function of Riots decisions.

Riot deprioritized NALCS and now it's letting NALCS die a painful and slow death.

Every game in every league seems to be some mix of the same 20(ish) champions and it’s boring as shit. I’m curious how y’all feel about using a champion cool down rule to force more variety in competitive play. Drop to only 3 bans, but after a team uses a champion for a game, that champion becomes unplayable for that team’s next 3-5 games.

We've spent far too long trying to build a team around this guy with little to no results. We've enjoyed some success domestically with him, but nothing international.

We've done more roster swaps than any other org (to my knowledge, feel free to fact check)

All to build this Bjergsen-centric team that never gets us anywhere. And maybe that wouldn't be the case if we actually treated him like the hard-carry he's supposed to be -- but season after season we put him on support style bullshit and passive laners, nobody that can really pop off and solo-carry a game.

How many junglers do you need to go through before you realize the lack of jungle-mid synergy isn't the jungler's fault?

How many failed trades and acquisitions do we need to go through before we realize the players we're letting go aren't the problem, its one of the ones we're keeping that's the problem?
Bjergsen said Zven and Mithy were a better fit for the team, so we got rid of DOUBLELIFT.
Bjergsen didn't get along with Xspecial, so we got rid of him.
Bjergsen didn't get along with Hauntzer so we got rid of him.

Bjergsen didn't mesh well with Svenskaren or Amazing, so we got rid of them.

I think it might be time to open up to the possibility that the problem is BJERGSEN.

I believe in NA to go 0-18. I have faith

So yeah, I am related to Avano. So growing up with Avano he always had that 1v9 carry big dick aura wherever he went, and it just so happens that he embraced it and became one of the best rookies out on the pro LCS gaming fields. He had mentors like Jerome koko, but quickly exceeded them. With Avano it was just his world and we were living in it, I mean he has so much success it gets me horny. Avano never fails to impress me in league and in the bedroom, I mean this guy can do everything. For example, he got a penta kill while I was blowing him under the desk. But yeah my relationship with Avano is epic, people always spamming me to teach them how Avano taught me, and frankly I just dont care. I too have so much on my plate, such as becoming number 2, because Avano will be number 1 and I could never exceed his superiority on the rift! But yeah this is my bizarre story on being related to a guy who can beat faker.

Well, it is an unfortunate state for the NALCS these days. This may be the first worlds I don't even watch. The gap between NA and basically every other major region is so clear as to be almost comical. CLG and TSM are shadows of their former selves and if what I expect to happen, actually happens, we may as well become a minor region as far as international entries going forward.

2 teams qualified for worlds and we have 1, count em ONE actual north American going to the world's championships. At this point it looks like at most we'll have 4 North Americans actually heading for worlds, and there's a legitimate chance that blabber is going to be the only one if TL wins the lower bracket. How In the world is that not UNBELIEVABLY boring? It's not like I can't enjoy imports, I love watching closer, fudge, corejj and Jensen but it's really hard for to even care about a roster that's ONLY imports, at that point I'm not even watching a North American team.

Maybe I'll get hate for this but if 100T and G2 Meet up in a B05 during worlds, I'm going to root for G2, at least that's a western league of legends team that cares about fielding domestic talent. I'd probably root for C9, but it's not like I'm super stoked to see one domestic play with 4 imports, thats not a NA team any more than 2019 FPX was a chinesse team. the only team at this point that I'd actively be excited to watch at worlds would be EG.

When he was doing it in NA against teams like TL, it just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. The banter while in game rarely moves further than emoting, and I think most of the time it isn't meant to tilt the enemy team. Inspired has now moved on to taunting other teams where they are widely considered the favorite to win. They did the other day against Loud, where they were winning by quite a bit. Today with him waving at Mad after eliminating them from worlds felt really petty. He is constantly kicking people while they are already down and it's just feels like he's taking the "live evil" thing a little to seriously. We now have Impact starting to do the same thing...

Danny got paid off by the EU teams to take a dive, thats why he had to bench himself. They had him do it before finals so it wouldnt be obvious

This is the third time writing this and having it disappear because of technical issues, so please ignore the bluntness.

Let me start by saying: NA sucks. The teams have never been competitive on the international stage.

but the LCS sucks more. There is no creative content. In the LEC we get comedy news shows, music videos, all the different versions of Vedius, songs of the week, memes.

In the LCS we get Phreak and his bad puns. The quality of play in the games does not matter if no one wants to watch it. No amount of format changes is ever going to fix that.

End of story: LCS is stale and old and probably moldy at this point. The next rebrand should actually be a rebrand not just a different logo.