The LCS gets the short end of the stick again as Riot reveals the League Season Kickoff schedule

Last night, just a few days ahead of the 2023 League of Legends Season Kickoff, which replaced previous All-Star events, Riot Games revealed a video teaser and the official schedule for each participating league.

Taking place on Tuesday, Jan. 10 and Jan. 11 across nine leagues, the Kick Off event will give fans a first taste of the new season and its meta through showmatches.

Each event will solely consist of a single showmatch, and once it’s over, the broadcast will jump to another league until all participating competitions are covered.

In total, the Riot Games’ channel will be live from 3:30am to 4pm CT on Jan. 10 and 11. Unfortunately, America is the clear loser of this schedule as no match will be hosted during primetime hours in the continent’s time zones—which is especially unfortunate because the event takes place during weekdays.

The LCS showmatch will be the last one to be played on Jan. 10, but it’ll still be during the middle of the day for Western fans. In addition, the LPL and LCK events will happen during the night, and the LEC showmatch will be live in the morning.

Here is the schedule of all events:

Day 1, Jan. 10

3:30am to 7am CT: LCK
7am to 10am CT: VCS
10am to 1pm CT: CBLOL
1pm to 4pm CT: LCS
Rebroadcasts from 4pm to 11pm CT.

Day 2, Jan. 11

1am to 4am CT: LJL
4am to 7am CT: LPL
7am to 10am CT: PCS
10am to 1pm: LEC
1pm to 4pm CT: LLA
Rebroadcasts from 4pm to 10pm CT.

On the other hand, the LEC showmatch will start at 5pm in Central Europe’s timezone, and the LCK and LPL around 6pm in Korea’s timezone, which should allow the target audiences to watch it more easily.

This schedule is another blow to LCS fans’ faith in the future of the longstanding league after schedule changes have jumped from primetime hours to weekdays, and its biggest face, James “Dash” Patterson, revealed he won’t be returning to the desk this year.

Meanwhile, the showmatch’s participating teams roster has yet to be revealed for the LCS Season Kickoff event. More information is likely to be revealed by Riot Games in the coming days.