TL;DR

• Going forward, NA LCS Lounge will flex to prioritize a strong matchup and a wider variety of guests during the regular season.
• This week, NA LCS Lounge will move from Saturday for Game 5 to Sunday for Game 3, Cloud9 vs Echo Fox.
• This week’s episode will be hosted by Kobe and will feature TSM’s bot lane Zven and Mithy.

Hey NA LCS Fans – I’m Dave “RumbleStew” Stewart and I’m the Executive Producer of the NA LCS. I’m here to share an update on the NA LCS Lounge (including a change to our scheduling philosophy), and speak a bit about how we pick on-air talent (host and pros) for the Lounge.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NA LCS LOUNGE?

Heading into 2018, we saw an opportunity to revamp our secondary stream experience to consistently deliver additional access to the NA LCS pro players, on-air team, and other esports personalities. We wanted to create a more casual environment where our host and pros could balance being educating and entertaining when talking about a featured game. We initially prioritized a consistent, set schedule to ensure fans could find the program regularly, and ended up landing on Saturdays for Game 5. By using the last game in the day, we had a greater ability to book players after their own games on Saturday and to utilize freed-up production resources who had no game to prepare for next.

GIVEN ALL THAT, WHY MOVE AWAY FROM GAME 5 ON SATURDAYS?

We learned that locking in Saturdays Game 5 can be limiting for our pool of pro player commentators. Moving away from Game 5 makes sense for a few reasons: it’s typically our lowest viewership period, and we want to give the secondary stream a chance to be seen by as many folks as may be interested; it will likely push the stream to a more popular matchup (especially post flex scheduling) which hopefully gives the panel something more to talk about rather than blowouts; it will allow us to be more flexible with commentators.

HOW DO YOU SELECT PLAYERS FOR THE LOUNGE?

We look at a variety of factors when considering who should join the host in the lounge. When it comes to pro players, we always consider things like the storyline of their season (are they on an unexpectedly successful team? A struggling team? Is the player over- or under-performing?), their comfort on camera, and the rapport they might have with another guest or the host. We also try to balance between old favorites and newcomers to ensure that the Lounge feels fresh and allows new voices to break into the spotlight. We also have to be careful to not interfere with pros’ preparation for their games (so we only pick players who have already played before the Lounge goes live), and we want to make sure that it doesn’t cut into the fan engagement, so we usually need at least a one game buffer before a player is really free to participate.

WHY NO MORE PHREAK? WHEN WILL HE BE BACK ON THE LOUNGE? HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE HOST?

We didn’t fire Phreak, he just ran out of mana. Memes aside, we knew from the beginning that we wanted to have a rotation of hosts. We think several of our on-air team members can bring value to the Lounge casts, due to their various knowledge and personalities, so we try to match a host with pros with whom they’ll share good chemistry.

We also didn’t want to limit the NA LCS Lounge to just shoutcasters and pros, we wanted to make sure there were opportunities for personalities, analysts, coaches, and more to join us down the road. Don’t worry, Phreak will be back on the NA LCS Lounge at some point, but if you want to get your “Phreak” on, you can always catch him on NA LCS Tonight, the weekly recap show on Sundays after the games.

DO YOU PAY PLAYERS TO DO THE NA LCS LOUNGE?

Yes, we compensate pros for casting on the NA LCS Lounge because it’s a commitment above and beyond the normal expectation of a pro player. There are going to be shorter form commitments to the broadcast/league, like pre-game or post-game interviews or participation in league features like Eyes On, and we consider those to be within the context of fulfilling their role as a professional player. When we are looking at longer form content that is a bit more independent from their work as a current pro player, like the NA LCS Lounge, or if they join us on the analyst desk at an event like Spring/Summer Finals or Worlds, then we compensate the player.

WILL THE NA LCS LOUNGE CONTINUE FOR PLAYOFFS? WILL YOU DO IT AT WORLDS OR MSI?

For now, the NA LCS Lounge is a regular season show. We’ll continue it during Spring Split and plan to also produce it during Summer Split. However, we are not planning on firing up the NA LCS Lounge during Playoffs or Finals. As of now, we think it works better in a Bo1 format rather than series play. Casting is more tiring than it looks and we think our guests can deliver more upside in a hour than a potentially 5-hour commitment. That said, we know how much value these guests can bring, so we’ll keep an eye out for other ways in which we can utilize pros and coaches in other parts of the broadcast throughout playoffs.

WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS LEARNED SO FAR? WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE NA LCS LOUNGE?

We’ve done a lot of experimenting with the NA LCS and have enjoyed seeing your feedback to things like unplanned cameos from Olleh to dressing more casual on the Lounge. But as we continue to iterate and make sure we strike the perfect balance between entertainment and education, we want to know what kinds of things you want to see on stream. Do you want to see coaches and owners? Visits from League of Legends gameplay designers? Should we free MarkZ from his analyst responsibilities to host an episode or keep him chained to the desk? Let us know in the comments below, on Reddit, or on Twitter.

Don’t forget the NA LCS has a new start time on Sundays at 12:00 PM PT and to check out the NA LCS Lounge this Sunday, Feb 18 for Game 3 – Cloud9 vs Echo Fox with Sam “Kobe” Hartman-Kenzler and TSM’s bot lane Sven and Mithy.

 

Quick Notes is a NA esports series similar to Meddler’s where we’ll deep dive into topics that the community wants to know more about, discuss work in progress, and share our decision-making process. For more Quick Notes, check out Where NA LCS Finals will be and Moving the NA LCS start time.

Dave “RumbleStew” Stewart is the Executive Producer of the NA LCS. He leads the Broadcast team and is the casters’ most trusted source for insights about low elo playstyles. He also supports Riot Esports broadcasts of international tournaments, like MSI and Worlds. He’s a proud UCLA alumni (Go Bruins!), a former Riot Rumble champion, and when he’s not at the NA LCS studio, you’re sure to catch him on the Rift with his sons. Questions about the NA LCS Broadcast? Reach out to him on Twitter at @RumbleStew.