China is one of the strongest regions in the world when it comes to League of Legends. However, the English broadcast of their premier league, the LPL, will be shut down in 2025.

While teams like BLG and Weibo have consistently made their mark in international competitions over the past few years, there is no doubt that the only region that can rival South Korea is China. LoL’s biggest competitions.

However, interest from Western fans has waned. The multitude of game days, combined with time zone issues, has made keeping up with the league very difficult for all but the most dedicated. While the main broadcast averaged just under 10,000 viewers for most of the regular season, the partner broadcasters retained a large portion of the fan base on their own broadcasts.

As a result, Riot decided to shut down the official English broadcast and give the keys to partner streamers instead. The LPL itself isn’t going anywhere, but streaming is.

Even IWDominate, one of League of Legends’ largest affiliate streamers, lamented the change and looks set to benefit from it as well. Now those who want to watch the matches will have to go to him or others who choose to co-stream.

Many of the biggest names from other broadcasts like Dagda, Emily Rand, Raz, and Aux started in the LPL, and now the LPL is being unceremoniously shut down by an announcement tweet.

However, many people took issue with this being framed as a good one for fans, as noted by LoL host Cubby.

“Nothing about this is good for the fans, it’s a cheap ‘solution'” he claimed. He would explain that this change would give partner publishers a worse product to work on, as they would now have to produce every part of the publication themselves.

“The voices and people dedicated to tracking and crafting stories for players in your language are out of work,” he said. replied to a fan There are those who think this change could be positive.

Dagda, an emcee who went from working in the LPL to being a mainstay in the LEC and emcee at Worlds 2024. to say this:

“To say I am heartbroken would be an understatement. Some of my best memories of my career were starring in the LPL with my best friends.”

While streaming for other major regions is still solid, it remains to be seen whether Riot will take further action to reduce costs.

This change may be due in part to LPL being in poor financial shape. list leak claim one of the teams will likely have to exit and the others will have to spend significantly less to secure players.