That's LIT, the brand new Italian ERL

Once upon a time, there was the PG Nationals, the Italian ERL which has been held since 2018 with 12 splits being held. Last November with two announcements made in Lucca and Milan, the Italian tournament organiser PG Esports introduced the new LIT - League of Legends Italian Tournament through a partnership with Riot Games itself. The main goal is to revitalise the Italian league which struggled in the last few years after a strong start.

According to the platform EsportsCharts, in 2023 the average viewership fell compared to the previous years. Up to and until 2022 the number of spectators of the PG Nationals grew, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, But since then the esports industry has been experiencing a so-called “esports winter”. Numbers have since started to go down; the 2023 Spring Split had a similar average viewership (2,341) as the 2019 Spring (2,390), while Summer critically dropped to an average viewers of 691 with a peak of 2,171. The Grand Final between Macko and Dsyre had a peak of 1,428 viewers, an alarming drop.

Now with LIT, tournament organiser PG Esports wants to get closer again with the Italian viewership, also thanks to the partnership with Riot Games. “LIT should be a journey for our players”, said Marco Soranno, PGE Esports Product Manager, in an interview on YouTube. “The competitive scene is a road which starts from the Tormenta Circuit and ends with LIT on top. We want to tell this journey and make it a unique experience for all: viewers, fans, players and teams”.

One of the most popular criticisms towards the Italian league according to viewers is the lack of Italian players. In recent years the number of Italian players has become less and less, dropping to 8 out of 40 in the entire 2023. In this first split of LIT the music won’t change with just 9 Italian players, led by the veteran support Vittorio “Click” Massolo, who, despite some good offers from foreign teams, will continue with Macko. Click is the most winningest Italian player of the PG Nationals with six titles (1 with Team Forge, 1 with Samsung Morning Stars and 4 with Macko), including the last three splits, and the first Italian player to reach the semifinal of the EMEA Masters.

On the topic of nationalities, Poland and France are the most represented. Among the eight Polish players the biggest name is Mateusz "Kikis" Szkudlarek, the former EU LCS winner who had stints with G2 Esports and Fnatic, he will compete with Atleta Esport for the second split in a row, his third in the Italian ERL. Five will be the French players, followed by 4 Turkish ones, including the young jungler Enes "Rhilech" Uçan of Dsyre, one of the most promising players as the “next big thing” in the ERL scene. There are also great expectations for the Austrian-Indian player Gurjot "Nan0" Singh of Macko; the former Austrian Force Willhaben midlaner, who won the Prime League 2nd Division in 2023, has been scouted by Andrea “Korax” Planamente, Macko Esports Director who, among other talents during recent years, brought to Italy in 2020 the mid laner of Mad Lions KOI, Bartłomiej "Fresskowy" Przewoźnik.

This would be the 13th split of the Italian ERL. Five out of the last six splits have been conquered by Macko Esports, which is the leading organisation in the Italian system. Compared to the 2023 Summer Split, we will see just one change among the participating teams: Cyberground Gaming, one of the longest-lived organisations in the tournament, has recently merged with another esports company making a new one, EKO. That will be the 29th name/brand to join the Italian ERL, with just one ever present org always there on the Rift; Outplayed, one-time winner in the 2018 Summer edition, but 5-times finalist of the PG Nationals.

So, in the end, who has the drive to win it all? Looking at the rosters, the most anticipated favourite is Dsyre who maintained two members of the roster who reached the Grand Final last Summer: Empyros in the toplane and Rhilech in the jungle. SlowQ, a well-known Korean-Swedish mid laner, while Polish ADC Zamulek and Efias, the Ukrainian/Italian former Barça Esports support. Behind them, several people around the Italian scene believe Macko and Atleta are ready to fight for the title too, while Outplayed, who brought back to Italy Cristofaro “Cristo” Di Maggio, one of the most winningest coaches in Italy, is probably one step lower. Then, the other four teams are probably very behind: Enemi3s, Axolotl, EKO and Dren are more or less all on the same level with a predicted bottom four standing that will be really scrappy. If one team on the anticipated Top 4 won’t “click” or struggles for some reason during the regular season, maybe we could see a surprise coming from the anticipated bottom 4. Will it happen? We just have to wait until the 25th of January when it all starts.