A solution to the "Spectate Faker" Debate
Dear Riot Games,
One of the things I love most about Riot Games as a company is the company's propensity to compromise and commitment to the players that contribute to the League of Legends community. As one of your devoted Season 1 summoners, please allow me to suggest a diplomatic solution to the hotly debated "Spectate Faker" streamer. I recommend that the spectate feature change the name displayed above the champions and the names displayed in the scoreboard from the summoner's name to the champion's name. This change will accomplish the following: respect Faker's privacy from third party streamers; respect the community's creative endeavors and free speech; respect Azubu's contract with Faker to the rights of Faker's professional e-sports brand; and enable the community to continue to learn from high elo solo que games.
As we all know, Azubu's complaint against the Spectate Faker streamer is that Azubu holds a contract with Faker that Faker will only stream on Azubu's streaming website. As the Summoner's Code and Terms of Service indicate, Faker cannot sign the rights of his account or his games to Azubu since Faker does not own his own account. Riot Games owns all player accounts. Riot Games also own all the games once the players start playing on the Rift. Faker owns his own image as an e-sports player.
My solution--changing the spectate mode to show only champion names--will take all private summoner names out of the spectate feature. Players will be able to watch high elo games while respecting the rights of said high elo players to have "privacy." Players will still be able to learn from watching high elo games even if they do not know which high elo player is playing jungle Lee Sin or mid Zed. Azubu wishes to have the rights to Faker's brand, and my solution will give Azubu the right without infringing on community members to broadcast high elo games via the spectate feature.
Practically, a "spectate faker" feature might not be as popular if players do not know for a fact if it is Faker playing, but we as a community maintain our freedom spectate high quality solo que games while respecting the privacy of professional players. Faker is a very mechanically skilled player, but let's not forget that the vast majority of us can still learn a great deal from MANY different mid laners. Can we--as a community--really complain if we think we are spectating Faker, but we are instead looking at another skilled Korean/EU/NA professional mid-laner? I know I could learn a lot from any professional mid-laner in the NA/Korean/EU LCS; I'd wager that most of you could as well.
This change would not effect streamers who broadcast their own games as they are not spectating themselves. Several streamers offer "sub-wars" where they spectate matches played by their subscribers. This feature will change their display; however, it will not adversely affect their ability to cast or offer analysis of game play as most streamers refer to players by champion name anyways (Trick2G and TheOddOne for example).
The only other party affected by my proposed change would be individuals spectating people on their friends list. You already know which champion they are playing from your friends list and if you have any questions, you can always whisper to them while they are in game.
To conclude, Riot, I strongly urge you to take this compromise to the "Spectate Faker" debate. You will respect a professional player's rights to privacy from third party broadcasters, respect contracts made between professional players with their sponsors, allow community free speech and creative liberates, and allow the community to improve by spectating high elo solo que games.
Respectfully, A concerned player
TL;DR: Riot does not have to force the spectate faker broadcaster to respect Faker's brand/personal identity. Changing the spectate feature to only show the champion names and not the summoner names will have the same effect while allowing players to spectate high quality elo games.
