NA LCS will start earlier on Sundays beginning Week 5

The new NA LCS format is still a work in progress, so it’s no surprise to see some major changes part way through the year. In this case, the league’s start time on Sunday is being moved from 5:00 p.m. EST, to 3:00 p.m. EST.

According to Riot, this move was made in response to constructive fan feedback that was heavily supported by their own in-house metrics, which said that viewership was dropping substantially for the later games on Sunday, but not Saturday.

While the decision was originally made to ensure fans always knew when the NA LCS started, the trade off was pushing games into the late evening — especially for East Coast viewers — at the start of most people’s work week.

Riot’s statement also makes clear that this move was always something they were considering, as this was an issue they thought might come up. However, after this change in start time, the schedule is now set for the remainder of 2018 with any other changes taking place at the start of the 2019 season at the earliest.