When it comes to League of Legends, China is one of the most powerful regions in the world. But their first league, the LPL, will see its English broadcast closed in 2025.

With teams like BLG and Weibo consistently making their mark in international competitions in recent years, there is no doubt that China is the only region capable of competing with South Korea. The biggest LoL competitions.

However, interest from Western fans has waned. The sheer number of game days combined with time zone issues has made following the league very difficult for all but the most dedicated. The average audience hovered around just under 10,000 for most of the regular season on the main broadcast, with co-streamers holding much of the fan base in their own streams.

As a result, Riot has decided to stop the official English broadcast and give the keys to co-streamers. The LPL itself isn’t going anywhere, but broadcasting is gone.

Even IWDominate, one of League of Legends’ biggest co-streamers, was saddened by this change, and he could benefit from it. Now, people who want to watch the games will have to go to him or others who choose to co-stream.

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

However, many took issue with the way he was presented as being good for fans, as League pitcher Cubby pointed out.

“Nothing about this is good for the fans, it’s a cheap ‘solution’,” he said. He went on to explain that this change would give co-streamers a worse product to work on, now forcing them to create each section of the stream themselves.

“The voices and people who are dedicated to following and creating storylines for players in your language are out of work,” he said. replied to a fan who thinks this change can be positive.

Dagda, a caster who went from the LPL to that of a pillar of the LEC and a caster at the 2024 Worlds, had this to say:

“To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement. Some of my fondest memories of my career are casting LPL with my best friends.

And while other major regions still have their broadcasts intact, it remains to be seen whether or not Riot takes more steps to reduce costs.

This change could be partly due to the poor financial situation of the LPL, with list leaks claiming that one of the teams will probably have to withdraw and that others will have had to spend much less to secure the players.