LCS fans can say goodbye to Monday Night League. Riot Games has moved the third day of games to Fridays, the league announced today.
Following the 2020 Spring Split, LCS officials looked at community feedback and decided to move the “primetime” matchups to Fridays. The league believes this move will allow more fans to watch the games across multiple time zones, pointing to fans on the East Coast and in Europe having more freedom to stay up late to watch the games.
This also means the LCS Summer Split will kick off slightly earlier than previously announced with games returning on Friday, June 12. The Bud Light League Lounge will be moved to Sunday nights, continuing to serve as the weekly sign-off segment.
While the night is changing, LCS officials don’t plan on making changes to the feel of what will now be called Friday Night League. The broadcast will continue to have a distinct tone and style compared to the Saturday and Sunday broadcasts. Gabriella “LeTigress” Devia-Allen will continue to host the broadcast and LCS officials plan to use the Friday games as a testing site for new segments and content.
This move also means there will be changes to the LCS Academy schedule. To start the season, Academy games will move to Thursdays and Academy Rush will continue to take place on Fridays. This is a big change compared to the Spring Split where Academy games were featured across four days with Academy Rush kicking off the weekends on Friday.
This won’t be the planned schedule all season, though. Once it’s safe to move back into the LCS Studios, the league will look to move Academy games to the weekend to give players stage time. The league will monitor health guidelines for Los Angeles and will announce when these changes will occur.
The LCS introduced Monday Night League before the Spring Split as the new marquee night. But viewership numbers suggested it was a flop with Monday Night League pulling in nearly half of the viewers on Saturday and Sunday. Commissioner Chris Greeley previously told Dot Esports that creating a third day of LCS matches would be valuable for the future growth and sustainability of the league.
The season is set to kick off remotely after the end of the Spring Split was played online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first Friday Night League match will showcase 100 Thieves taking on Evil Geniuses, followed by a Spring Finals rematch between Cloud9 and FlyQuest. The full week one schedule can be found below.
The 2020 LCS Summer Split kicks off on Friday, June 12 with the Friday Night League pre-show at 7:30pm CT.
