After 10 years, Summoner’s Inn announces its end. It has been the German website and Twitch channel for e-sports in League of Legends. The reason for the closure is cited as a changed market with altered broadcasting rights: Apparently, this means that they have lost the broadcasting rights to the LEC and the former employee Tolkin. He now broadcasts major LoL events like the Worlds on Twitch, which Summoner’s Inn had exclusively covered in recent years.
What is Summoner’s Inn?
- This is a German news website for e-sports of League of Legends, founded in 2014 by Freaks4U. Freaks4U is a Berlin-based marketing agency for gaming and e-sports, which operates the German LoL league Prime League together with Riot Games.
- In addition to the website, Summoner’s Inn is active on YouTube and Twitch: On Twitch, they broadcasted the LoL tournaments and leagues. Summoner’s Inn had approximately the exclusive broadcasting rights in Germany for the World Championship in League of Legends for years.
- Summoner’s Inn has made some casters in LoL well-known, who later became influencers. Among them are HandofBLood, Maxim, Tolkin, Sola, and Just Johnny. The casters gradually became self-employed and left the project.
HandofBlood now has his own team in LoL
Summoner’s Inn says it was no longer competitive
Why is the site closing now? Summoner’s Inn states in a statement that the changes in German-speaking broadcasting rights would have required significant adjustments to keep Summoner’s Inn competitive.
They tried to find a way to continue the project. But must accept that this is not possible (via Summoner’s Inn). The community’s requirements have also changed.
What will happen next? Summoner’s Inn writes:
Despite this decision, we at Freaks 4U Gaming, the company behind Summoner’s Inn, still firmly believe in the concept of projects like Summoner’s Inn, which are significantly shaped by the community. Therefore, we look forward to similar options in the future, as they have always been a way for us to contribute our passion and create a value-adding element in the ecosystem for all involved.
In the future, we will continue to actively seek new opportunities to support the growth and development of League of Legends, the community, as well as the entire German-speaking gaming and e-sports scene. Until then, we will maintain our focus on investing the same amount of passion, drive, and love into the Prime League while also looking for ways to collaborate with influencers for co-streaming. Of course, we will continue to work with Riot Games to also contribute to the scene in the future and advance opportunities in the ecosystem. We look forward to the next chapter of our journey!
Riot Games ends collaboration with Summoner’s Inn for the LEC
What broadcasting rights have changed? Riot Games has released a statement that they will no longer conduct the LEC 2024 together with Freaks4U. How exactly the broadcasting will take place will be announced at a later time.
It is quite possible that the new way to see the league in German will come down to co-streaming. Then German Twitch streamers like Tolkin, Just Johnny, Maxim, or NoWay would get the official LEC stream and comment live in German. But that is still speculation.
Former employees moved to the competition on Twitch
What’s behind it? In 2023, Riot Games introduced “co-streaming rights” for e-sports events in League of Legends for the first time. Previously, the broadcasting rights in Germany were solely with Summoner’s Inn.
Through the new co-streaming, for example, the final of the LoL league LEC was broadcasted by major German Twitch streamers NoWay4U and Tolkin.
Summoner’s Inn also did not have exclusive rights to the Worlds 2023, as Tolkin also broadcasted the official stream from Summoner’s Inn but provided commentary over the images and had significantly more viewers than his former employer.
It was sometimes bizarre to see the casters from Summoner’s Inn, but to hear Tolkin’s voice over them.
As streamer NoWay explained, it’s hard for a company like Summoner’s Inn to compete with Twitch streamers, especially since the company lost its popular casters that it had built up over the years as they became self-employed, presumably because they could earn more money that way.
The bitter thing about it: Summoner’s Inn explicitly thanks the casters JustJohnny and Maxim for launching the original concept for Summoner’s Inn. Both casted on Twitch in 2023 together with Tolkin the final of the LoL World Championship.
We had asked MeinMMO Summoner’s Inn for a statement in November regarding how they feel about competing with co-streamers. At that time, it was stated that they value Tolkin and his work very much but must find a way to create a healthy ecosystem where everyone has a place. This evidently has not succeeded.
How did Summoner’s Inn perform in 2023? The numbers on Twitch have dropped significantly in 2023:
- They had an average of 4,234 viewers, which is 15% lower than the previous year.
- There are 3.8 million hours of watch time missing – a deterioration of 54%.
- This was mainly because Summoner’s Inn was only on air for 895 hours compared to the previous year, a decrease of 46%.
“Best time of my life”
What are the reactions? On Twitter, many LoL fans express their feelings as they hear about the end of Summoner’s Inn. They emphasize what an important part of the community the site was. For many, Summoner’s Inn was their first contact with e-sports.
Streamers like HandofBlood or NoWay also express their sadness.
We have already reported several times on MeinMMO about the somewhat strange competitive situation that has arisen between Tolkin and his former employer Summoner’s Inn on Twitch:
