The 2021 LCS Spring Split was defined by change. Team Liquid won the inaugural preseason LCS Lock In tournament, taking home the first trophy of the year in some of the [most-watched weeks in LCS][1]. As several LCS icons retired, new faces from home and abroad attempted to fill their sizable shoes. With Spring wins and losses carrying over to Summer, the old Spring Playoffs structure was upgraded into the Mid-Season Showdown to determine North America’s Mid-Season Invitational representative. On top of all that, the LCS completed a full rebrand, introducing a new look and feel to our league.
Despite these changes, some things stayed the same. For the second straight year, Cloud9 won the spring postseason tournament— a thrilling five-game victory over Team Liquid — and their jungler, Robert “Blaber” Huang, was once again named Honda MVP. This time, though, C9 will head off to Reykjavík, Iceland for the org’s first MSI, which COVID deprived them of last year.
We could not have succeeded this Spring Split without the support from our fans, teams and partners. Even with COVID’s challenges, we were able to accomplish so much together. Some highlights:
- Hosted MSS Finals at the legendary Los Angeles Greek Theatre, and welcomed the return of PENTAKILL.
- Reworked the LCS schedule to broadcast more games from Friday to Sunday and further built our co-streaming ecosystem so fans could watch the LCS with their favorite personalities.
- Debuted a new-look LCS Analyst Studio, complete with 4,100 square feet of display technology, and designed to flex between remote and IRL broadcasting.
- Welcomed new LCS partners Grubhub, ROCCAT, BCA, and Jackson Guitars - the first Official Guitar partner of an esports league.
- Deepened partnerships with Bud Light, BWW, Honda, Mastercard, Red Bull, Samsung SSD, Secretlab, State Farm and Verizon.
- Introduced a revamped fantasy LCS experience powered by Sleeper and a new mobile metaverse experience powered by GreenPark Sports.
- Saved lives with the First Blood Initiative, a joint effort with the Blood Centers of America to promote the donation of crucial convalescent plasma in the fight against COVID-19. The results were the equivalent of expectations from **41 mobile blood drives** - all over the course of just 6 weeks and counting.
- Debuted the Proving Grounds Circuit, a revamped competitive structure for Academy and Amateur that showcased the best of North America’s growing talent pool.
From a viewership perspective, the league held strong with a 30% increase in hours watched year-over-year for all of spring (across all platforms and co-streaming channels). Friday’s Average Minute Audience (AMA) also increased 70% since the launch of Friday broadcasts last summer.
The Mid Season Showdown Finals saw a peak of 416k CCU across Twitch and YouTube, an increase of 7% year-over-year, and an AMA of 281K. And, the LCS remains the third-most popular professional sports league in the United States among 18- to 34-year-olds, based on live average minute audience.
Once MSI is in the rearview mirror, we’ll kick off the 2021 LCS Summer Split on Friday, June 4th at 1:00 PM PT. You’ll continue to see the LCS Analyst Studio in use by our hosts, and gradually other analysts, shoutcasters, teams and (eventually) fans as local regulations allow. Summer’s opening game will be Cloud9 vs. Team Liquid, a rematch of the MSS Grand Final.
Thank you for your continued support, and we’ll see you in summer!
[1]: https://lolesports.com/article/the-lcs-%E2%80%9Clocks-in%E2%80%9D-impressive-viewership/blt74ce31850c4d0db2
