We were excited to push past the challenges of working in an entirely cloud-based and remote workflow, and launch a series of broadcast updates through a mix of technology and new segments to better serve our fans. This included introducing Friday Night League - a new night with a distinct feel, a revised [HUD][1], and the [LCS DOME][2]. That said, we recognize that we missed the mark on what you expect from the LCS broadcast, from both a creative cohesion and technical POV. We’ve been listening to your feedback and we wanted to share some of the updates that you can expect from the broadcast heading into Week 2:
**Technical Polish:** From audio issues to screen flickering, we suffered a series of technical issues that you wouldn’t expect from us, which we hadn’t seen in rehearsal. We’re working with our engineering team to button things up going into Week 2.
**Friday Night League:** One of our goals heading into the Summer Split was to make Friday Night League visually distinct from the rest of our weekend broadcast. We think it’s important that Friday Night League has an identity that draws in viewers outside of just what teams are playing that night. This visual style, however, was jarring to many when presented in the LCS DOME. Due to this, we've begun the process of scaling back many of these visual elements in order to make Friday Night League feel more cohesive with the studio environment in the LCS DOME.
Additionally, we heard your comments about analyst desk synergy and overall content tone. In some cases, the audio glitches we referenced earlier created a delay for the analysts, which made it difficult for them to hear each other and react to one another, and generally, we agree with the feedback that some of the segments felt forced. We’re working in tandem with members of the on-air team on how to nail our segments in the weeks ahead.
Finally, we also want to acknowledge that we did not do the best job at setting TheSushiDragon up for success as part of Friday Night League. We initially thought to treat him as a house band, similar to what you'd see on a late night talk show, and intersperse his segments throughout Friday's broadcast. It was clear, however, that the way this segment was set up made it feel disconnected from the rest of the broadcast. We recognize that TheSushiDragon excels in a space that he’s able to fully own for an extended period, like the LCS Finals After Party, instead of in short segments. We’ll be moving him to be the end cap of Friday Night League as an aftershow to close out the night.
**HUD:** We received a wide variety of feedback on the new LCS HUD, which we’re taking into account, but there are two priority issues with certain design elements and data inaccuracies that we are immediately focused on addressing. On the creative side, we’re implementing changes to reduce the size of the top bar and improve clarity on stats in the top bar. [As we mentioned when we previewed the HUD last week,][3] we’ll continue to monitor viewer sentiment and feedback to make small improvements as needed - ultimately, our goal is to ensure the HUD makes it easier to track information during LCS and Academy matches.
From the technical side, we’re aware and actively working to fix the issues around HUD data being inaccurate or slow to update. The issues we experienced with the HUD this weekend did not appear in any of our rehearsals or playtests where we normally can fix or troubleshoot issues before it makes it on-air. This week, we were able to deploy a fix that should allow for our HUD to report more quickly and accurately. However, we’ll continue to monitor the HUD for potential issues around reporting so we can continue to resolve.
We’d like to take a moment to thank players for spending their time with us during Week 1. Despite these bumps, Week 1 was the most viewed summer split regular season week since 2016, with **AMA (Average Minute Audience) up 20% from 2019 and peak concurrent viewers (338K) up over 40% from 2019**. We’re working as hard as possible to deliver the broadcast experience that you expect of us, and we’ll continue to implement changes to ensure the best possible broadcast across the Summer Split. We appreciate your support and feedback. We look forward to sharing the rest of the split with you!
*Chris “Riot Commish” Greeley is the LCS Commissioner. Dave “RumbleStew” Stewart is the Executive Producer of the LCS.*
[1]: https://watch.lolesports.com/article/summer-broadcast-updates-the-hud/blt5b7c19a53cb0d7c9
[2]: https://watch.lolesports.com/article/welcome-to-the-virtual-lcs-dome-powered-by-alienware/bltf1db333a4aad3823
[3]: https://watch.lolesports.com/article/summer-broadcast-updates-the-hud/blt5b7c19a53cb0d7c9
