LEC needs to hold more offline events across Europe to truly embrace the huge audience base

In esports, moments are everything. The shouts when a teamfight breaks out, the cheers when a player enters the arena, the explosion of joy in the audience when T1 wins the World Finals, these exciting moments never happen out of thin air. They come from the presence of people: fans, players, and the frenetic atmosphere that only offline audiences can bring.

However, most of the League of Legends events in the EMEA region are still held in a small studio in Berlin with a capacity of only a few hundred people. Although it can stably provide high-level production and smooth event flow, there are obvious limitations in the growth of the event scale.

This was clearly on display at the LEC Madrid Tournament, a tournament hosted by Movistar KOI that took place at the Arena de Madrid in front of thousands of fans, creating an atmosphere of excitement and adrenaline.

That kind of tension and shock can only be created by a large audience, just like in traditional sports events. The current Berlin studio obviously cannot replicate such an experience.

First of all, let’s be clear. Riot Games’ Berlin studio is still extremely important. Over the past few years, it has set the gold standard for the LEC, providing high-quality, cinematic live content every week, with a tight and orderly event schedule, creating one of the top competition environments in professional esports. All teams are stationed in Berlin, which not only greatly reduces logistical pressure, but also effectively controls operating costs and improves overall efficiency.

However, the number of e-sports fans in Europe and even around the world is growing year by year. Although the growth rate may not be as explosive as initially expected, it is clear that a studio that can accommodate 200 people has severely limited the ceiling of LEC's development.

During the LEC Tour in Madrid last weekend, veteran LEC host Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere also talked about why offline events are so important to the growth of the esports community: “It’s esports, but better… The atmosphere is crazy. It makes my job more fun and easier, it makes everyone’s job easier, and it’s incredible for the players, and even more so for the fans.”