The leading Twitch streamers for League of Legends in Germany, NoWay, Agurin, Karni, and Tolkin are playing in a team (NNO). However, after trouble with the German League, the Prime League, they are now openly contemplating the idea of leaving the league. There is too much bad blood between the Twitch streamers and the German LoL league.
This is the situation of NNO:
The influencer team NNO surprisingly ascended from the 2nd league to the 1st league in 2022. But they did not compete themselves in the 1st league, but rather hired LoL professionals to play for them. The team competed as NNO Prime.
This experiment has ended in 2024: The team NNO Prime is too expensive and will be dissolved. The streamers want to play themselves again.
But now they are contemplating the idea of not competing in the German Prime League anymore, but rather finding a spot in another European league.
Conflict with the Prime League escalates after decision against team NNO
Why doesn’t one want to play in the Prime League anymore? As streamer NoWay explained in a Twitch stream, there were repeated frictions with the Prime League (via youtube).
The last straw was probably the decision by the Prime League last Saturday to annul an ongoing game of NNO against the Unicorns of Love after a sound bug occurred with the champion Sion.
The decision caused a lot of misunderstanding and criticism among the Twitch streamers and their community.
NNO apparently aims for the island
Where does one want to go? NoWay is still keeping this a secret. He says he knows that another European league is strongly leaning towards “influencer teams” and it would make sense for him to switch there.
If one reads between the lines of his statements, a switch to the English-speaking league, NCL, or maybe to the Spanish league, LVP Superliga, seems likely. A switch to the French league, LFL, which is considered the strongest regional league, is ruled out by NoWay. First, they cannot get a spot there, and second, they would definitely finish last there.
However, it is not entirely certain that NNO will leave the Prime League, as NoWay explains. He really likes the idea. Although they owe a lot to the Prime League, and it definitely does a lot right, perhaps it is time for a separation after there have been repeated frictions.
Apparently, they want to at least explore the possibility of leaving the Prime League and joining another league.
English streamers plan their own version of NNO
Why England, of all places? There are rumors that some of the major English-speaking influencers are planning their own team in England. These would be Twitch streamers such as Caedrel, Baus, and Nemesis (via youtube).
The currently leading streamer worldwide for LoL, Caedrel, toyed with the idea several months ago – and it seems to be serious now. At least serious enough that the idea has also reached NoWay.
What’s behind this: The Prime League is in a difficult situation, which is not necessarily the league’s fault. Esports has been in a crisis since 2022. It is referred to as the esports winter.
From a competitive standpoint, the league apparently does not make sense for the participating teams, as the generated revenues are too low to finance a professionally working team.
In the attention of fans, and thus also sponsors, LoL teams that focus on content creation and entertainment dominate.
From social media, one hears repeatedly: No one is interested in the Prime League, but only in the two crowd-pullers: The team of HandOfBlood, Eintracht Spandau, which regularly sets off a fireworks display on social media, and the streamer team NNO. The team NNO with the leading streamers in Germany managed to create such a crazy hype in 2022 that the 2nd league had significantly more viewers than the 1st league.
If the team is lost now and the top streamers no longer cover the Prime League, but perhaps shift their focus to Spain or England, it would be a difficult situation for the German LoL scene: LoL: 100,000 watch as 5 German Twitch streamers work on their esports miracle
