Riot Games has announced plans to run a co-streaming pilot during Rift Rivals 2019: North America vs. Europe.
Riot Games first trialled co-streaming during the 2018 NA Regional Qualifiers. For this trial, a number of NA LLP (League Partnership Program) members have been chosen to co-stream the event.
In an effort to test the impact co-streaming will have on the main Riot Games stream, this second trial will be limited to just seven NA LPP members including Yassuo, Scarra, Shiphtur, TFBlade, YourPrinces, Luxxbunny and LS. The co-streaming pilot will also be opened up to select LCS teams.
Rift Rivals is a yearly celebration of regional rivalries in League of Legends. With two events taking place over the next two weeks. In the West, we have NA v EU which takes place this week, whilst over in the Asian region we have a four-way affair as Korea, China, Taiwan and Vietnam all do battle. The event sees the top 2–4 sides from each of the regions do battle in a group stage Bo1 followed by a blind pick knock ‘Relay Race’.
Aside from standard 5v5, Rift Rivals will play host to a number of less traditional formats. The event kicked off with a Classic Showmatch which saw former pros and regional casters go head-to-head, including TSM owner Reginald and G2 Esports’ Ocelote. The event will also play host to a number of 2v2 to decide the seeding when two teams are seeded the same. Finally, Saturday, June 29th will see the Relay Race take place to crown the winner of Rift Rivals 2019.
Esports Insider says: Co-streaming is likely to become more common across esports in future, allowing amateur casters to co-cast events or communities to host streams in their native language (much like the EU already has with French, Spanish etc). With streamers being invited, it also allows Riot to focus attention on its professional scene, rather than streamers who might take eyes away from its big events.
