After a three-week break away from action, the LCS returned to its regularly scheduled competition this past weekend, but fans quickly realized players and on-camera talent were placed in a way-smaller setup than the usual roomy studio that fans and players have been accustomed to seeing since 2023.
If you’ve been watching professional VALORANT at all in the last two weeks, you may have noticed the VCT Americas Kickoff tournament was occupying the space in the Riot Games Arena that’s usually dedicated to the LCS. Yesterday, the scheduling conflict between week five of the LCS and the Grand Final of VCT Kickoff caused League to take a backseat, playing from an undisclosed, smaller, and private part of the arena that was only meant to house players—and no fans.
The league made the best out of the less-than-optimal situation, though, billing the weekend’s event as a “cage match.” The face-to-face nature of the small setup took players to within literal touching distance of each other, and the tiny setup was made to look like a rustic garage, complete with chain-link fences and a gritty look that encouraged trash talk (which, albeit, there wasn’t much of outside of some light ribbing).
Opinions on the change in appearance ranged across the board, with the LCS community mostly being divided into two camps. One half of the fanbase questioned Riot’s decision-making process regarding the scheduling of the LCS, and why pro League and VALORANT had to take place on the same day, with the former of those two entities taking a two-week break while the VCT invaded the arena. Other fans, though, applauded the league’s ability to turn an otherwise-unfortunate situation into something
“Gonna be honest, I kinda like the vibe of it,” one fan said on the official League subreddit. “Shoutout to whoever put this together, they made the best of the situation they were presented with.”
Shopify Rebellion support Zeyzal went as far to quip in a post-game interview that it was his “first win in a storage closet.” Many League fans were quick to piggyback on that statement after Zeyzal made it on Saturday, with fans on Reddit jumping on the setup, calling it “pathetic” and “embarrassing.”
And sure, one could argue those reactions might be a bit too intense, but it’s still worth questioning why the LCS and the VCT were meant to share the same building on Sunday. My only guess is that the LCS believes being trapped in the Backrooms on the weekends is a more worthy, and likely profitable, venture than being on the main stage on the middle of a weekday (been there, done that, and no one watched).
For as much flack as the close-quarters event might have gotten from the community, it didn’t change the quality of the play (take that how you will), and plus, if you survived the totally online, completely detached fanless era of 2020-22, you have no right to complain about the stage taking on this more condensed look.
If anything, this setup reminded me personally of the really old days of the LCS; we’re talking that 2013-14 era when players in both the EU and NA LCS were playing live from underground bunkers where if someone on the other team so much as breathed, you felt it on the back of your neck. The cage match setup brought an air of intimacy—something the league has been desperately missing in the 2020s—back to the forefront, even for at least a weekend.
