Riot Games bring back Twitch subscriptions for LoL esports

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 14/01/2026

Riot Games has announced that Twitch subscriptions are returning for the League of Legends 2026 esports season.

However, this will only apply to some LoL esports events and broadcast channels.

This will allow fans to watch and support their favourite teams with no adverts and custom emotes for Twitch Chat.

Currently, Riot has not confirmed which channels or tournaments this will apply to.

Though sticking with the Demacia theme for 2026, Riot has brought back the “Bring it!” Pengu Garen emote.

Purchasing a subscription for a participating Twitch channel will earn fans the emote based on last year’s April Fools skin.

However, the campaign is only available until 6 pm GMT on January 26th.

After that, the “Hmmph!” in-game emote featuring Sona will be available until March 9th under the same conditions.

For both of these emote campaigns, subscribing to a Twitch channel or gifting a subscription through a Prime subscription will not count.

There are two other Demacia-themed LoL emotes currently available through Twitch Drops.

The “GarenHype” emote is available through subscription purchase of a channel that’s part of the League Partner Program.

Meanwhile, Lightshield Stonks will be given once a viewer has watched a participating channel for at least an hour.

Riot Games Removes Regional Prize Pools

Riot Games is making big changes to the financial structure of LoL esports for 2026.

As announced last week, regional LoL esports tournaments will no longer feature prize pools.

This means no prize money will be given out to LCK, LEC, or LCS winners this year.

However,  Brazil’s CBLOL and Asia-Pacific’s LCP will keep their prize pools to fit with their different partnership models

Instead, Riot promises to redistribute this money in better ways in order to “better support the future of our sport.”

One example of this is that the best-performing LCS teams in the Spring Split will receive Riot-funded bootcamps in Korea during MSI.

Meanwhile, international events like LoL Worlds will still have prize pools be funded by Riot’s Global Revenue Pool (GRP).

The GRP  distributes digital LoL esports revenue amongst top teams around the world.

The aforementioned new Demacia-themed emote Twitch drops are one example of revenue sources for this GRP model.

The GRP shares finances through three factors: Tier 1 teams, best-performing teams, and teams that develop strong fandoms and brands.

Other ways that Riot are distributing the removed regional prize money remains to be seen.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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