Six quick ways to improve the League of Legends Championship Series

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

The League Championship Series is great, but it could be a whole lot better. We love the LCS. In the past year, the production value has skyrocketed, the quality of casters has improved immensely, and the players are just as great as ever. Riot’s professional league has become the premier esports production, and for good reason. It’s accessible, easy to follow, and looks generally great.

However, there’s always room to improve. Here’s some very simple ways that the LCS can take its broadcasting to the next level.

More Analysis Desk

Ah, the analysis desk. We came to love Krepo, Doublelift, and the boys during the World Championship tournament this year, where the addition of that little extra bit of analysis was exactly what we needed during the downtime in between games.

But that doesn’t mean it was perfect. There were still too many inside jokes between the players and casters, making the broadcast a bit too inside baseball for those who aren’t familiar with all the ins and outs of the interpersonal relationships between all the people on the desk. By all means, keep it up with the friendly rivalries and banter, but keep it to what’s actually happening in the series. In short, Montecristo’s Korean hype train hat is good, sick burns about a failed play from two seasons ago, not so much.

Oh, and put players in suits while they’re at the desk. Those jerseys don’t look too great.

Better Outfits

Look, I get the whole blue and purple shirts thing. Those are the colors of the two sides on Summoner’s Rift. But I’m not entirely sure they work. You know, fashion wise. The casters are the public face of the games here, and it’d be nice if we worked on their outfits a bit.

Now, I’m not great fashion icon myself, but I’m sure we can get someone who knows what they’re doing with clothes to make Kobe and the guys look just as good as the rest of the production. It’ll probably involve a tie or something.

Ditches the Aliases

Oh, just read this.

Fewer Delays

As it stands, there’s way too much downtime in between matches. It makes sense that players need time to rest up and talk about the strategies for the next matchup. But man, breaks upwards of 45 minutes can just get rather tedious after a while. And for broadcasts that can already last upwards of six (and up) hours, that’s a little much. We’ve got to figure out a way to cut that back.

Or at least having the delays filled with something a bit more productive. The analysis desk is a great place to start, and the interviews with players are alright. But that brings me to the next request.

Better Interviews

Interviewing is a tough job. Just ask onGamers’ very own Travis Gafford or Rod Breslau. It takes a ton of time and effort to get really good at it. Luckily for the LCS, between the casters and Sjokz, they’ve got a good lineup of folks able to ask really good questions. They’re not the problem here.

The players aren’t holding up their side of the bargain. Sure, we’ve got guys like Doublelift and

Dyrus firing shots from time to time, but for the most part the interviews feel fairly stilted and boring. It may be asking a bit too much, but why not send a couple players from each team to some media training, where they can learn to do well while on camera?

More In-Game Chat

Here’s one last easy one: Let us hear what the players are saying in-game more often. The little snippets of what they hear in their headphones before going to break are fascinating, and it’s be great to hear more of that.