Fans Share Their Thoughts on Best-Of-One Format

When Riot Games chose to revert the format of the North American and European League of Legends Championship Series, reactions were mixed at best. When Riot first announced they would be changing the format, the reasons they gave included fan feedback, viewership numbers, and feedback from the pro players themselves. Riot initially believed that using a best-of-three format would allow for more competitive series, as well as allow fans to tune in to watch their specific favourite team play. What they found was that a majority of fans start watching a Bo3 regardless of where the series was up to at that point, therefore missing out on the full series experience. Additionally, according to Riot, a majority of fans found it hard to find time to watch an entire Bo3 set.

What Riot ultimately found, was that despite fans saying that they want to watch competitive Bo3 series between the teams, viewership numbers were proving that fans were tuning in less and less. Riot sourced feedback indicated that fans preferred to watch multiple teams competing, rather than a single set between two teams, and that the uncertain nature of how long Bo3’s would take, were preventing people from setting aside time to watch all the games.

While some fans have praised Riot’s decision to switch back to individual games, some fans have taken to social media to lodge their complaints, citing such issues as the inability to be certain about the actual skill levels of the teams, and the potential for teams to be left underprepared when it comes to larger tournaments that feature Best-of-3 and Best-of-5 formats.

Some teams have traditionally not performed well under individual game conditions, teams such as TSM have something of a legacy of sitting middle to top of the ladder during the regular season, and yet proving to be extremely skilled when it comes to playoffs. Whether Riot will stay with a Best-of-1 format forever is not clear at this point. Riot have promised that they will monitor the situation and change things as needed. What is certain for now is that the games of the NA and EU LCS are a lot easier for fans to watch, with only a single stream two days a week reducing both the time and effort required to watch the games.

You can read Riot’s blog post about the situation here, and for more LCS action, check out the Power Rankings for the NA LCS and EU LCS, going into week 7.