Riot Games will boost the League of Legends servers to meet increased user demand.
As announced on Twitter (below), last week, the servers in North America hit 90 per cent capacity. Due to the demand, the company expects queue and login times to increase.
However, all League partners and pro-player accounts have been whitelisted. This means those players get to bypass all queues.
This is larger-than-normal demand is no doubt due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic which is seeing people around the world encouraged or told to stay indoors in order to stay safe and slow the spread of the virus.
"Our thinking is, even if you can't get into the game, at least you'll be able to watch your favourite players. We'll be working hard to expand capacity and reduce queue times for everyone as quickly as possible," said Riot Games associate programme manager Mel Capperino-Garcia.
"The rollout of this has already happened in North America. It will be rolling out over the next 24-to-48 hours in all Riot Regions for pros and LPP. Thank you for your understanding."
While not all players will agree with Riot's decision, it has been made to allow people to watch matches still even if they are unable to play.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the American firm was reworking the League of Legends client. The company's upcoming tactical shooter – Valorant – is being released in Summer 2020.
In February, it was reported that 79 per cent of LoL players had faced harassment.
Today NA servers hit about 90% max capacity. As a result, we expect login queues and extended queue times. While we rush to scale up server capacity, we've whitelisted all League Partners and pro-player accounts, allowing these players to bypass queues. (1/3)
— Mel Capperino-Garcia @Never going outside again (@Riotswimbananas) March 19, 2020