Riot Games

Riot runs some of the most-watched esports in the world—but fans were fragmented across Twitch, YouTube, and third-party sites. Riot Esports Network (REN) was the ambition to bring them home. I joined as part of Riot's acquisition of Kanga.gg, where I was lead designer, and took on the live watch experience from brief to shipped components.

The design problem

Twitch and YouTube solve distribution. They don't solve context. A first-time viewer has no idea what the gold differential means. A hardcore fan wants real-time data without leaving the broadcast. Neither is served by a video player with a chat sidebar.

Users

Two users in constant tension: a casual fan who watches Worlds once a year and needs just enough context to follow along, and a hardcore viewer who wants data density and zero friction. Every layout decision had to serve both without splitting the product.

Every layout test confirmed the same thing: anything competing with the broadcast felt wrong. We landed on an opt-in panel architecture—broadcast always center, with two collapsible side panels for context on demand.

The left panel shows real-time game state (gold diff, per-player stats, team comps) and a live event feed. The right panel houses chat and a rewards system where watching earns in-game League items—a loop only Riot could close, and a core reason to build platform-native viewing habits.

REN Homepage

Drops Gallery

Navigation & IA

Riot's portfolio spans multiple games and dozens of regional leagues. The solution was a two-tier structure: a top-level game switcher with a contextual secondary nav, and a "My Leagues" dropdown that surfaces what the fan actually follows—bridging a sprawling platform and a viewer who cares about one or two leagues.

In early 2024, Riot discontinued REN before public launch due to a shift in company priorities.

The panel density problem came from designing for comprehensiveness before essentialness; a cleaner MVP scope would have produced a stronger v1. I also came in as a Riot esports fan, which helped intuition but required discipline to not let familiarity become assumption.