The ESL LoL Premiership pulls in a record 21,000 viewers as XENEX secure first place

Tonight’s ESL Premiership League of Legends matches peaked at more than 21,000 viewers on Twitch.
The stream started off smoothly with around 1,000 viewers as usual throughout the evening.
However, at about 10pm an influx of viewers hit the ESL LoL UK channel. The reason? The main ESL LoL channel began hosting the UK stream, straight after it had finished streaming the Intel Extreme Masters matches from Katowice.
You might think that’s not newsworthy. However, those numbers stayed at around 18,000 for a short while, before dropping to around 16,000, then up again to 18,000.
From our observations it peaked at 21,551 viewers this evening. As we understand it, that’s a record for ESL’s UK League of Legends streams.
ESL UK’s most-watched domestic esports league event is still the 2016 Spring UK Hearthstone finals, however, which pulled in more than 26,000 viewers. And the 4Nations from late 2014 drew around 26,000 viewers too.
 

“We’re glad people stuck around to watch the games. There’s some great play on display in our leagues and we’re all glad to be a part of it.”
Will Attwood, ESL UK

 
After half an hour or so, the stream suddenly dropped from 18,000 to around 11,000 viewers, where (and this is the key thing) it stayed for the remainder of the night.
Many IEM viewers were interested enough in the UK scene match to stick around and watch, and that’s certainly no bad thing at all.
Will Attwood, ESL Premiership product manager, told Esports News UK: “We’re glad people stuck around to watch the games. There’s some great play on display in our leagues and we’re all glad to be a part of it.
“And of course – come back next week at 7pm for the final games!”
Why the viewer count dropped so suddenly at one point, we’re not sure, but XENEX support player Prosfair has an idea.

Those extra viewers got to watch the second end-to-end Cyclone versus Bulldog game, which Bulldog eventually won 36-36 after 47 minutes, tying the series 1-1.
And, for the viewers who watched IEM, they were also in for a UK esports treat, with British casters covering the IEM games including Munchables, Excoundrel, Dezachu and Vedius.
 

Results recap

This week started off with an exciting match-up between Enclave and MnM, with MnM putting in a dominant 24-3 performance in the second game to take the series 2-0.

Was that the most dominant @ESLUK LoL Prem game this split? @MnMGamingUK tearing apart @EnclaveGamingUK with 3 perfect kdas #ruthless pic.twitter.com/jF25WYUrBp

— Esports News UK (@Esports_News_UK) February 22, 2017

Jungler Candyfloss (Evelynn), Larssen (Zed) and ADC Luddehz (Jhin) went 8/0/12, 9/0/4 and 5/0/5 respectively, with Candyfloss making some lovely stealthy plays as Eve with a fully stacked Mejai’s Soulstealer.
Elsewhere, GLB drew 1-1 with xL, XENEX beat Paria 2-0 and as we mentioned Cyclone tied 1-1 with Bulldog.

Oh baby, a triple! Ziviz and @exceL come in with the damage and defeat @GLB_Esports! Round two coming up! #ESLPremhttps://t.co/zEDK81Dl9n pic.twitter.com/3AtreKJ7cj

— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) February 22, 2017

That is game! @GLB_Esports wins in a huge comeback from their first game vs @exceL, tying the night 1-1! #ESLPremhttps://t.co/zEDK81Dl9n pic.twitter.com/xJwkhPAJTQ

— ESL United Kingdom (@ESLUK) February 22, 2017

This leaves the current standings as follows, and means that XENEX are have secured first place in the group stages. They already qualified for the LAN finals last week.

We’ll find out who will join them in the final this time next week – follow the ESL LoL channel next Wednesday from 7pm.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.