Riot receive backlash for “extremely underwhelming” LEC & LCS drops

League of Legends developer Riot Games has received some backlash for the way they’ve brought drops to their esports streams, where fans could earn rewards for watching live LCS and LEC matches.

Earning in-game rewards for watching livestreams has become quite a popular feature that many different game developers have introduced to promote their titles, as was seen with Riot’s efforts during the Valorant’s beta.

League of Legends has previously offered rewards, in the form of emotes and icons, for watching matches from any of their esports leagues. But they’re now looking to improve on that system, after announcing on June 4, that they would be revamping their drops to include more in-game rewards.

The LoL devs have now finally made these new drops and rewards live for LCS and LEC viewers, which started in Week 5 of the 2020 summer split.

Unlike the previous system, which would reward you after watching a few minutes of each game, these new drops are much more interactive and can be claimed after incredible plays take place in-game, such as one team stealing a Baron or a player earning a Pentakill.

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However, it was seemingly just the rewards that players were unsatisfied with, as plenty of players, such as u/Galactos1, have now voiced their criticism over the new drops.

“I have to say, they have been extremely underwhelming so far.” the League fan wrote in Reddit, “watching a 50 minute game of fiestas just to get 50 (Blue Essence) is absolutely disgusting.”

Skin shards, Prestige Points, and more were all expected to be included in these esports drops but Galactos1 claimed they are much harder to get, adding that the “majority of drops have been awful.”

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Riot Games have not yet responded to any backlash around the new rewards and it is unclear if they will make any changes to the drops in future.

They have also previously revealed their plans to expands this new system into the two other major leagues, the Chinese LPL and the Korean LCK, although they have not shared just when that might occur.