The League of Legends LCS controversy: Examining the backlash surrounding the TSM broadcast

To keep the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) interesting, the league unveiled a new segment format before the start of the 2023 season. However, prior to the start of the match between 100T and TSM on February 4, a broadcast piece was shown that sparked widespread outrage.

LCS created this new format to cover information other than League of Legends-related content. Another reason for this was to provide supporters with a different type of entertainment than the normal post-game analysis portions. While their initial goal was to provide a better overall viewing experience for the community, they did not anticipate such a reaction.

LCS organized a broadcast segment for fans prior to the match between 100T and TSM to make the next matchup more engaging. This section, hosted by Le Tigress, focused on a significant narrative. It involved Doublelift's first match against TSM since his retirement, as well as his tumultuous relationship with the organization's founder, Andy "Reginald" Dinh.

The broadcast went over Doublelift accusations that the TSM CEO and founder Andy Dinh abused and verbally assaulted players to the point of mental collapse.

This, however, did not sit well with the community, with LCS and Le Tigress receiving harsh criticism. Fans, in particular, believed the piece was handled in a lighthearted manner, which was termed improper given the issue of alleged abuse of multiple TSM players and staff members.

The majority of the audience thought this part was insulting and unprofessional of the LCS for not considering what the people engaged in the TSM conflict went through.

Others believed that leveraging the issue to hype up this match was inappropriate and insulting to people who worked with TSM and witnessed the scene firsthand. This was especially important given that LCS is a subsidiary of the parent corporation, Riot Games, and the manner in which they were discussing a franchised team, as well as the situation at hand.

Fans of LCS didn't shy away from expressing their disappointment. A highly upvoted Reddit post on the League of Legends subreddit’s front page talked about this issue. The post managed to get over 7.1k upvotes and almost 1.1k comments, showcasing that a majority of the community engaged with the post.

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Le Tigress and LCS apologize, reactions from Jackie Felling, Doublelift, and Caedrel to League of Legends TSM-DL controversy

Following the public uproar, Le Tigress provided an apology in which she stated that she and the LCS team had clearly missed the target. She acknowledged that the outpouring of rage was both understandable and repulsive.

Le Tigress went on to say that while she recognized how contentious the piece was and how many people were upset by it, she appreciated those who spoke their opinions respectfully. She also said that the bulk of the fanbase had been targeting her only because she was the presenter, which resulted in abuse and hostility aimed at her.

On February 7, the LCS also issued an apology on Twitter. They expressed sorrow for having missed the point since their original intention was to explore TSM and Doublelift's long history. The statement confessed that the part did not satisfy their content standards and genuinely apologized to all current and former TSM personnel and players.

They also promised to do better in the future and wanted supporters to recognize that when a mistake is made, it is communal, not an individual one. Further, they stated that they will continue to support Le Tigress, and apologized for the terrible impact that she had to face as a result of their error.

Jackie Felling, League of Legends LCS Commissioner, also posted a message on Reddit thanking fans for providing input and stating that they were in direct touch with the TSM and the LCS internal staff. However, it is reasonable to assume that fans were unimpressed by the commissioner's remarks, claiming that it was too late to act, with the message having over 800 downvotes.

It's also reasonable to say that Doublelift had nothing complimentary to say about the matter and questioned the segment's integrity. In his reaction to the League of Legends LCS piece, he claimed that if the average age of an LCS fan was much younger, this part would have been far more amusing.

This portion makes no sense at all, especially given that the bulk of devoted fans are either teenagers or individuals in their 20s, or even close to 30s, like Doublelift himself.

On Twitter, Doublelift responded to La Tigress' apology, saying that she should apologize to everyone who has been subjected to verbal abuse and workplace harassment. He then asked her to remove the unnecessary false equivalency in which she saw herself as the victim, that perhaps it would approximate as an apology.

While other League of Legends personnel, such as Isaac CB and Sjokz, expressed their sympathy for her, Doublelift was plainly unimpressed with Gabby's apology, since he had quite a few words to say.

Doublelift, a League of Legends professional player, appears to believe that a certain part of Gabby's apology acts as the victim in this situation. This is regarding the paragraph in which she requested people to stop tormenting her for being entirely at fault.

Caedrel, a former League of Legends professional player and current LEC commentator, also expressed his thoughts on the LCS dispute. He advised viewers to first understand how a studio broadcast segment works.

The former player explained to his League of Legends audience that if a concept is being evaluated to be used in a broadcast, at least 10 individuals, including the producers and writers, are present at the meeting.

He reprimanded the League of Legends LCS team members who worked on this part for not thinking it through. He also indicated that he did not feel Le Trigress was solely to blame and sympathized with her because she received most of the severe criticism from the community.