League of Legends Is Adding a High-Elo Spectate Feature

League of Legends players will soon be able to spectate some top-tier gameplay once again by watching Challenger players through their profile pages.

The new changes will be implemented in the next update, Patch 7.23. The patch notes offered a short and sweet explanation of how it'll be done once the new patch goes live.

"LEARN FROM THE BEST: We're adding the ability to spectate Challenger-tier games through the Ranked ladder on the profile page," the patch notes read.

Those who remember the client from some time ago before we got the client that we have now will remember that there used to be an in-client spectate card that showed who was playing and what champions they were using. You could use this card to watch the games between your own matches or to seek out champions that you needed tips on and watch how it's done at high ranks.

However, this new spectate feature isn't the same as that one, so don't expect to see a new feature on your client's home page anytime soon. When the news of the spectate feature started making the rounds on Reddit and other forums, many players were excited about the prospect of the feature returning. After it was pointed out that the new spectate feature wasn't the same as the one that players had before since this new one instead runs through the Ranked ladder on the profile page, Riot NaKyle explained why the old feature isn't coming back now, if at all.

"Short version: This feature (Featured games card in-client) is not coming back anytime soon, if ever," Riot NaKyle explained. "It was originally taken down almost two years ago when we discovered some security gaps when switching around how Ranked queues work on the back end. Since then, we've switched clients and would basically need to reboot the feature from scratch and no one is focused on it. Making Challenger Spectate work through the Ranked ladder is our only planned fix for this."

The new spectate feature should be introduced alongside the next patch, so keep an eye on your favorite Challenger player to easily spot their games when the feature goes live.