The death of CBLOL

Esse texto também está disponível em Português: A morte do CBLOL

It was late afternoon on Thursday, June 6, when Ericat (CEO of Mais Esports) called me on Discord, a little disoriented after a conversation with Riot Games. Without waiting for him to speak, I asked: "They're going to merge the regions, right?"

It's no news that, since the VALORANT tests, the LCS decline and the CBLOL ascension, apart from the quiet Latin American LoL scene, Riot was adding more and more ingredients to a dish that would be difficult to digest.

I've been working with League of Legends since 2011, even before the Brazilian server opened. I casted first two CBLOLs, in 2012 and '13. I worked at Riot from 2014 to 2018, seeing the tournament go from only one split on each year to the two-split calendar and the creation of our broadcast studio. As a journalist, I experienced the transition to the franchise system. I understand the scene. It"s part of my job to study, research and create content about it.

But living it is a completely personal decision.

So, as much as my professional position is to understand Riot's decisions to make changes for 2025 and beyond, prioritizing sustainability and better results for the leagues, it's practically impossible to digest a large part of them.

Despite what Riot Games wrote in its official statement, the LCS has become a failure (in terms of audience, results and finances) due to the organizations' and the developers' greed. In looking the other way while the figures rose higher and higher, inflating an obvious bubble that was bound to burst. Money has created power for the few, broken the league and drove away those who the developer has always sworn to prioritize: the ordinary player, the fan, the pillar of League of Legends played from the top of Mount Olympus or from their bedroom.

Riot's decision, although it makes sense from the perspective of the market (financial) and the organizations (system/results), once again turns a blind eye to the community, and the result is the CBLOL's death and the LLA's entombment.

The CBLOL has never lived off international results and it won't if nothing changes, but the Brazilian League of Legends community has found a way among its ordinary people to transform a league that was falling apart into a league that is attractive to bigger audiences, brands and, in the end, organizations and the developer itself.

A community that not only accepted Riot's failure, but took charge of its destiny through engagement, interactions, content creation, memes and much more. It brought organizations and players back to the scene, created narratives embraced by teams and by the developer itself, which made its cry a beautiful song, despite successive failures in international results.

And that now, with a tweet and an official statement, dies in a message disguised as triumph to save from failure a system that went wrong.

Four franchised teams will be leaving the main stage, even if they're playing in Tier 2. From 30 captive slots for Brazilian players, we're down to 12. For our Latin American hermanos, who in 2018 had 80 players (between LLN and CLS), it will be down to four mandatory players through their two teams in the top leagues.

Hostages. Dark times. The feeling of “betrayal” hits the community because of the rebirth of the league through the hands of the community, which blindly entrusted Riot to continue working together.

What was at stake was not just a change of format, new Splits, international championships and more money.

Now I understand.

It was the story of a community that in recent years had saved their esports scene on its own. Despite years without international results, it was back to filling events in minutes, breaking audience records and innovating in content, tools and interactions.

It was the story of an AD Carry who came back after two years to try and return to the top. The story of a Top Laner who became a record holder. The story of the five-time champion that has been fighting its own demons. The story of the four-time runner-up who seeks revenge, and its opponent who wants hegemony. The story of people who cried at victories and defeats, who cursed their own players, and also embraced them when they came back on top. A story of caravans, epics, struggles, conquests, victories and defeats.

A story of TWELVE YEARS.

A story about CBLOL.

And no new league or better results will be able to fill that void.