In the e-sports of League of Legends, the highest professional league, the LEC, dominated events in Europe for years. But in 2022, the “regional leagues” are making headlines. Here in Germany, people are suddenly talking about the Prime League with the team “Eintracht Spandau” of the YouTuber HandofBlood. But that’s not an isolated case: similar projects are running in France and Spain, driving the new regional leagues.
This is how it has been for years:
- LoL consisted primarily for many years of the 4 major professional leagues: the LCK and LPL in Asia, the LCS in North America, and the LEC here. In the LEC, German teams like Schalke or SK Gaming played in the midfield, while the top teams G2 and Fnatic competed for the championships among themselves. Nevertheless, a team from Asia won at the World Cup.
- There were also other foreign leagues and smaller regional leagues, but few were really interested in them. Among others, youth teams from professional organizations played there.
- Everything below the 1st league seemed confusing and chaotic. It evidently did not have the necessary “value” and faded in comparison to the top leagues. The environment wasn’t really attractive for sponsors either – companies preferred to chase their money to the “big teams.”
Riot restructures the European Regional Leagues in October
What has changed? In October 2021, Riot Games announced an initiative to enhance the “European Regional Leagues.”
Essentially, they reduced it to 5 “recognized” leagues:
- the Superliga in Spain
- the LA Ligue Française (LFL) in France
- the Prime League for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
- the Ultraliga for Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
- the “Northern League of Legends Championship” for Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland
Riot Games wanted to support, coordinate, and promote these leagues more strongly, connecting them with sponsors and creating a better environment.
The upgrade evidently had a clear goal: to make the leagues more attractive for teams and investors, generate more viewers, promote and engage them more (via lolesports). The leagues were to become more relevant, not just serve as the foundation for the professional league where youth teams play, but to be able to function on their own.
3 “Super Teams” with YouTubers, Twitch Streamers, and Football Stars emerge
What is the fortunate occurrence? The exciting thing is that within a few months, three large and prominent teams have emerged in Spain, France, and Germany. Apparently also because this environment now fits better:
- Here in Germany, the popular YouTuber HandofBlood founded the team “Eintracht Spandau” in 2021, which is dominating the Prime League in 2022 and currently sits in 1st place.
- In France, the team “Karmine Corp” was formed in November 2020 by two Twitch streamers. They have secured a legendary LEC star, “Rekkles,” for 2022 and are currently in 2nd place in France.
- In Spain, one of the largest Twitch streamers in the world, Ibai (9.6 million followers on Twitch), together with football star Gerard Pique, founded the team KOI in December 2021: They are in 3rd place in Spain.
Suddenly, the Regional Leagues in LoL have a lot of reach
What is so special about this? These 3 teams are all “fan favorites” that push their leagues extremely and attract attention.
- The team KOI already has 450,000 followers on Twitter in Spain – and that with a second-league team. The average viewer numbers of the league have increased by 50% on Twitch.
- Karmine Corp. is such a hit in France that the broadcasts of the LFL have exploded. The French league is currently considered the big winner in LoL. “Otplol_”, the French channel on Twitch, has increased its viewed watch hours compared to the previous year by 384%.
- And HandofBlood is also extremely successful with his project “Eintracht Spandau” in Germany. The YouTube video “I am starting an e-sport team” has over 925,000 views. The audience for the Prime League has increased by 20%.
Star Influencers return to their roots
How did this happen? All 3 influencers behind their teams began their careers with League of Legends. HandofBlood and Ibai have become huge influencers in their countries over the years and now apparently saw the opportunity to return to their roots under the new conditions.
The advantage is that they now have the resources and reach to build up “their” LoL teams big.
HandofBlood, for example, is directly seeking “proximity” on-site and wants to establish a connection from his team to the fans.
While the professional teams of the LEC often seem far away and as if they don’t belong to a country at all, but are entirely “European teams,” the new teams and regional leagues now have much more of a local flair.
This is a remarkable sign that even an established e-sport like League of Legends can still set new accents and attract target audiences in 2022. It will be interesting to see how the concept develops in the coming years, as the “new” teams apparently push into the 1st league.
Why someone like Rekkles switched to the 2nd league, he explained himself in an interview:
