RIot doesn't make money off Esports

Guy Fox Teemo·Nov 7, 2015·4 votes·2,669 views

This is a FACT, ask any Rioter that works with E-sports.

Is doesn't advertise the game more, since only people who play League of Legends watch the E-Sports scene. The ticket selling doesn't bring in much profits considering the HUGE costs, of buying out all sorts of stadiums all over the world. And no, people "buying" champions and or skins, because they saw them on the LCS. Doesn't make them much of a profit either because. 1: Most people would buy the champion with IP anyway, (RP is a waste on champions), and I doubt very much would ACTUALLY buy the Skin just because they saw the champion.

So please, stop using the argument in so many posts that Riot, pays attention to E-Sports a lot because L$C BIGPLAYS, isn't true.

4 Comments

ErgonoNov 7, 20151 votes

This same post came up last year.. It seems like it's a revolving door. First of all if there is one thing I have learned about asking Riot any question is that the way you phrase your question heavily dictates the answer you get. So if you ask them does Riot make money off of LCS then the answer is no.

BUT!!! what you are forgetting is that $$$$ and making money isn't a straightforward concept. TLDR: Return on Investment (ROI).

Riot wants to extend LoL's presence as much as possible and would like to not develop LoL 2 anytime soon.
LCS is Riot's way of not only gaining increased exposure because let's face it BBC had an article about LoL Championship. It does get attention outside of its current fanbase. You can easily check this with the growing numbers over the past years.
In order to extend LoL presence and avoid the game from A) Dying, and B) developing LoL2 is supporting the game, more importantly supporting the community aka Prize Money. This keeps people invested, helps secure your market share and potentially grow it. If you want an example look at Capcom, Street Fighter and the Capcom Cup which is their global tournament. Now look at Marvel vs. Capcom 3.... which is dead. Capcom decided to put their marbles into Street Fighter and now it's the most dominant fighter. If you are going to play one fighting franchise in your entire life in this era 7/10 it's going to be Street Fighter.
Professional players are role models plain and simple. When you play Ryu you want to be Daigo etc. etc. that's keeping you invested keeping your buy in. Showing that the impossible is possible makes people want to attain it.

This is the same logic with Riot, LCS is an investment to keep their community engaged, invested attracting more people and putting up with Riot's cyclical bullshit from time to time ,and continuing to buy content.

So for you to say Riot does not make money off ESports without actually understanding how Investments pay off is foolish. Imagine if Riot didn't have LCS or if DOTA's prize money far exceeded LoL year after year I am sure I wouldn't be tearing down your post, because LoL would be dead aka no $$$$$$.

TLDR: Esports makes Riot money over time, which is better than money up front.

Guy Fox TeemoNov 7, 20151 votes

:l, No they don't, barely even 25% of League players even pay attention to the LCS. Let alone watch it.

Even if they lost 25% of there player base, they'd still have 50.25 Million players, and would still make it the most played in the world :L (Which would still make them enormous amounts of money without LCS)

ErgonoNov 7, 20151 votes

Based on your numbers if 50 million people = 75% then 25% is roughly 16 million people. Hmmmm.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/esports/esports-editorial/one-world-championship-32-million-viewers

This article dated two years ago would argue that more than 50% tuned in at some point in time. And we can estimate that its much larger than that due to clone streams and groups of people watching together. But the quote below from Riot themselves proves my point. If you can't see this growth as $$$ then I don't know what will.

"Over 32 million fans watched SK Telecom T1 earn the Summoner's Cup in front of a sold-out Staples Center. At peak, more than 8.5 million fans were watching at the same time. To put those numbers in context, the Season 2 World Championship was watched by 8.2 million fans, with 1.1 million watching at the same time. In short, we're beyond humbled by your passion for and commitment to League of Legends."

niggasDHApr 18, 20161 votes

Im pretty sure that every company in this world is looking to make profit out of anything, if not directly maybe on long term. And Im pretty sure that Riot isn't an exception. Kids, just wake up. Nobody can afford to make such a big investment every now and then to not even break even. If they only make profit from the actual game itself and lose enormous amounts of money from the e-Sports scene then why are they constantly changing the game towards the e-Sports scene and make it e-Sports "safe" (removal of dfg, removal of Elixir of Agility, etc)?