The LCP region is facing a “harsh” reality
As known, in 2026, not only in the competition format of major and minor tournaments worldwide, but Riot also made changes to the schedule of matches across all regions. Specifically in the LCP, matches are held on weekends, but the time slots fall during the afternoon to evening (4 PM and 7 PM – Vietnam time). Recently, according to statistics from the Esports Charts, LCP is the only region that has seen a drop in viewership in the entire professional League of Legends scene at the beginning of the season.
Accordingly, compared to the late 2025 season before the new calendar year 2026, LCP experienced a catastrophic drop in viewership. Last year, the peak viewership was around over 5 million, but this year it has plummeted to just over 143k viewers.
Riot is one of the reasons LCP is struggling
First of all, we must mention that teams like GAM, CFO… have lost their clear appeal. For GAM, the absence of captain Levi combined with the team’s unacceptable performance recently has made even VCS fans less enthusiastic. Another “viewership magnet” name, MVK, is not doing any better than GAM. Even with SofM playing, the situation hasn’t been salvaged.
Not only GAM, but CFO also “vanished” after the “heroes” HongQ – JunJia left. Since then, less well-known teams like DCG or SHG have excelled in performance. However, these teams are not enough to attract viewership for the LCP region. For SHG, Japan has never been a region with a large League of Legends community.
Additionally, as mentioned above, Riot’s change in scheduling has made it more difficult to follow LCP matches. In LCP, Vietnam has the largest League of Legends audience. But the time slots coincide with the hours when Vietnamese people are returning home after a long workday, or during dinner time on weekends with family. Therefore, the drop in LCP viewership in 2026 compared to the same period last year was a predictable outcome.