EMEA Masters Winter 2026 saw a significant decline in viewership with no official English broadcast for the final of the tournament that dragged on for almost two months.
The League of Legends event is the pinnacle of the esport’s Tier 2 scene in EMEA with the best teams outside of the LEC.
Yet, the moment Solary finally won the EMEA Masters trophy wasn’t even in the top five most-watched series of the tournament.
According to Esports Charts, just over 56,000 viewers tuned into the all-French team final, which was a rematch of the LFL Invitational final.
This resulted in the final being only the sixth most-watched match of EMEA Masters Winter 2026.
The most-watched series came during the group stages as more than 137k viewers tuned into G2 Nord versus Witchcraft.
That is no surpirse considering Nord is the academy team of G2 Esports and Witchcraft is the successor to Los Ratones, associating both with two of the most popular LoL teams in Europe.
Four of the top five matches all featured the Witchcraft content team, though LEC Versus competitors Karmine Corp Blue vs Barça eSports also drew in a peak concurrent audience of just over 67k as the France vs Spain rivalry continued.
Lack of English Broadcast Hurts EMEA Masters Winter
The fact that the series only featured one region and was a quick 3-0 certainly impacted the final’s viewership.
However, the biggest contributor was possibly the fact that Riot Games didn’t even host an official English broadcast for the EMEA Masters final.
While LoL fans rage that co-streamers are killing LoL esports, constant budget cuts also pose a huge threat to the health of the scene.
Georgia ‘Troubleinc’ Paras, who formerly cast ERLs and EMEA Masters before being let go from the NLC earlier this year, lamented Riot’s decision:
“First time in history that Emea Masters has not had an official English broadcast. We are so blind sided by the whole co-streaming ‘debate’ that we completely forget where the roots are.
“We have one of the best Tier 2 systems in the entire world, and it’s currently left to rot. So much culture, personality, skill, and stories behind all those players that nobody will ever know.”
The Importance of EMEA Masters Broadcasts
While some have complained that declining viewership is due to current LoL pros creating less content and showing less personality, Troubleinc argued that players aren’t being set up for success:
“‘We are lacking personality from players and story lines from the broadcast’, but when was it made easily accessible to get those storylines? To have the players make content that’s not generic and actually highlights who they are?
“EMEA Masters is the peak of League of Legends when it comes to player development, scouting, prospects and storylines. It is currently absolutely buried.”
Fellow caster Alex ‘Nymaera’ Hapgood agreed with this, adding:
“If you only start building stories and content around players when they get into a top team, you’re playing catch-up and losing out on a ton of potential. Start early with dedicated people from the scene, and you have a wealth of stories to pull from.”
Another former NLC caster, Adrian ‘Jamada’ Wharlton-Thorne, then argued that no Tier 2 broadcasts hurt more than just player stories:
“This impacts all aspects of our ecosystem.
“Player visibility is likely decreased when there isn’t a centralised broadcast and audiences are fractured. Less opportunity for production staff to get experience with higher-tiered events. Caster talent loses out on experience and potential visibility to move them up into Tier 1.
“Virtually all of your favourites likely started in Tier 2 or even specifically got valuable experience at EUM that helped propel them on to bigger stages.”
LoL’s grassroots and second-tier scenes are struggling; the UK and Nordics’ NLC is still suspended with no tournament organiser.
What needs to be done to tackle dying interest and investment in LoL esports? Share your thoughts with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.
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