League of Legends' new 'Pro View' mode gives me all the stats and POV options I want for watching esports

League of Legends' new Pro View mode won't make me a better player, but I sure appreciate Riot Games trying anyway. As someone who just started playing and is watching pro games to learn more, it's frustrating having no control over what players the camera is focusing on during big moments. Whether I'm watching on Twitch or at lolesports.com, I'm always at the mercy of what the commentators want me to see. That's what Pro View aims to fix by offering a customizable streaming client that lets you choose and arrange multiple cameras focusing on different players, rewatch big plays, and a bunch of other nifty features.

Pro View's biggest feature is multiview, which let's you arrange your window with up to four separate streams that each focus on different players, letting you not only see what they're seeing but also see their keystrokes and mouse clicks. As someone that's been struggling to learn jungle, a role that is often off-camera for much of the game during pro matches, it'll be cool to see exactly what pros are doing moment-to-moment. You can also share your Pro View setup with a friend—assuming you've both paid for the pass.

If you're used to watching on Twitch, it's also nice that team stats are displayed separately and are always accessible, making it easy to follow where certain players are in the game. Pro View makes it easy to rewind and watch parts of the match because the timeline uses symbols to note kills or when objectives are taken.

It's cool that League of Legends is finally getting a more advanced viewing experience even if it costs extra. Though Dota 2 has had an excellent in-game streaming client for watching pro games for years, Riot Games said the money from Pro View is split between the leagues and their teams. Each pass goes right back into strengthening League of Legends esports, which is cool.

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.