This year\u2019s League of Legends <\/em>Mid-Season Invitational was a roaring success. <\/p>
With the format change for the tournament fully settled in its second year, a lineup of teams with strong, supportive fan bases, and a host time zone that favored the teams that made it furthest in the bracket, the tournament\u00a0naturally etched itself into the professional\u00a0League\u00a0<\/em>history books for all the right reasons. <\/p>
But while MSI cemented itself as one of the most-watched League <\/em>tournaments<\/a> in recent years, fans of the game are divided down the middle as to how much that actually matters. In a thread posted to the official League <\/em>subreddit<\/a>, players debated just how important it is that the game\u2019s esports scene is experiencing some type of growth, even years after its initial surge of popularity in the mid-to-late 2010s.\u00a0<\/p>
The big accolade that MSI 2024 took home was the title of being the most-watched non-Worlds League<\/em><\/a> <\/em>tournament of all time. The event peaked at just under three million concurrents, according to viewership stats site Esports Charts<\/a>, maintained a consistent average of over one million, and was supported by over six dozen co-streamers around the world. \u201cThe \u2018League <\/em>is dying\u2019 crowd has been very quiet lately,\u201d one user named Liewvkoinsoedt said<\/a> on Reddit.\u00a0<\/p>
The fact that MSI 2024 was the most-viewed non-Worlds event in League <\/em>history holds some negative and positive connotations. While it\u2019s clear that Worlds is in an echelon of its own when it comes to viewership numbers,\u00a0MSI is <\/em>the only other international League <\/em>tournament on the esport\u2019s annual calendar\u2014at least for now<\/a>. The competition isn\u2019t exactly stark in the \u201cnon-Worlds\u201d category. But last year\u2019s MSI was trumped by the 2023 LCK Spring Finals<\/a>, so it\u2019s not that wild of a concept for a domestic tournament<\/a> to outperform an international one.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cRealistically though, this is what success looks like for a video game,\u201d one Reddit user named Calvinee said<\/a>. \u201cEsports viewership peaking 15 years after its release. For a competitive game, the playerbase is never going to get bigger than its initial years of hype. [It’s] not exactly reaching new, unexplored markets. Most people who are able to play League <\/em>have either played or decided not to play the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Another massive reason why this tournament was able to draw in so many viewers was something the League <\/em>community is referring to as the \u201cT1 Effect,\u201d an occurrence where more fans tend to tune in when a popular team (like T1) is playing. Faker is undeniably a draw<\/a>, and if he\u2019s not on the Rift, many casual fans would much rather watch something else. This type of phenomenon occurs relatively often in traditional sports, especially when stars like Shohei Ohtani, LeBron James, and Travis Kelce (although there are likely some other reasons at play<\/a> for that last one) take the field.\u00a0<\/p>
Some fans are convinced, though, that the team will lose some level of appeal (like they did last summer when Faker was injured<\/a>) whenever the GOAT eventually decides to hang up his mouse and keyboard for good.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI agree and I think it’s inevitable,\u201d one Reddit user appropriately named SKTT2Dyrone said<\/a> on Reddit. \u201cThe league that started the Faker legacy probably allowed a strong player to actually 1v9 and he was really leagues above competition for the cherry on top; while it’s less possible in the pro level now, so I’d bet that it’s almost impossible to have another Faker.\u201d<\/p>
