The Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen is the premier esports industry show that reacts to important news and critical conversations across all major titles. Esports veterans Duncan "Thorin" Shields, Richard Lewis, and Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles use their decades of experience to shed light and debate on key esports topics as they emerge. Each episode they are joined by an expert guest to help further provide insider information on the topic at hand.
Episodes
StarCraft 2 reduced its starting workers to 8, the community revolted, and tournament organizers started running events on their own unofficial patches. MonteCristo and Thorin are joined by RotterdaM and SCHistorian to explain how a balance change nobody asked for exposed how little communication Blizzard has left with the StarCraft community.
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The LCS just hit its highest viewership peak since 2022 and FlyQuest CEO Brian Anderson joins MonteCristo, Thorin and Richard Lewis to explain why that number says more about the League of Legends calendar than it does about North America.
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Riot has canceled LEC Versus barely a year after announcing it, and MonteCristo, Thorin and LPL caster Jamada open by asking what that says about a League of Legends league whose salary cap is also being cut.
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Valve replaced the Counter-Strike major capsule system with a dynamic sticker market and team revenue collapsed by as much as 90 percent, so Legacy Founder and CEO Ricardo Sinigaglia joins MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis to explain what that actually does to a roster's budget.
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Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo break down Team Spirit's wild TI title run and Dota's collapsing China scene, joined by SVG.
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Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo unpack Dota 2's biggest scandal in years as LGD's TaiLung gets banned from TI 2026 over match-fixing, and then share stories from their long careers in esports!
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Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo dismantle the Esports World Cup's Saudi sportswashing playbook and Riot's quiet complicity in it.
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There are big problems with Valve's VRS system in Counter-Strike esports, so messioso joins Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo to discuss on a new episode of The Four Horsemen!
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Richard Lewis calls the completion of the Cologne Major one of the darkest days in Counter-Strike history. Thorin and Mauisnake are not sure they agree.
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Richard Lewis, MonteCristo, and Thorin discuss with former Fnatic GM and FACEIT exec Roald Van Buuren about the future of esports.
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The Esports World Cup 2026 will not be in Riyadh, and the industry that couldn't stop tweeting five years ago has gone completely silent.
Thorin, Richard Lewis, and MonteCristo reunite to break down what the EWC's last-minute move to Paris actually reveals about the Saudi Arabian sportswashing project. The official line is that this was always part of the plan. The reality, per Richard's reporting, is that boots-on-the-ground staf...
MonteCristo and Thorin lay out why co-streaming isn't new, and why esports never really left it.
Richard Lewis does not appear in this episode, but will return next time.
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Richard Lewis, Thorin, MonteCristo, and DoA go deep on how the Overwatch League went from a billion-dollar promise to an industry cautionary tale — with Jeff Kaplan's Lex Fridman interview as the jumping-off point.
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New York just sued Valve, and Harris Peskin breaks down why the CS case gambling lawsuit could reshape how video games make money.
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What actually happened to 2XKO? Rooflemonger joins MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis for a deep dive into Riot Games’ new fighter: 2XKO. We discuss its rocky launch, confusing name, use of the League of Legends IP, small roster, monetization strategy, and why expectations may have been wildly misaligned with reality... leading to layoffs. We also explore how the broader gaming industry’s shift toward legacy IP affe...
Should Riot Games remove franchising from League of Legends? In this episode of The Four Horsemen, Monte, Thorin, Richard Lewis, and Guest Horseman/esports attorney Harris Peskin break down why franchising was created, what the teams actually demanded from Riot, how Overwatch League accelerated the timeline, and why dissolving franchising today would be far more complicated—and far more damaging—than many fans realize. ...
The esports model for teams is broken! We break down why the current esports ecosystem is financially broken for teams and how publisher-controlled revenue models have created deep misalignment. Featuring Gen.G CEO Arnold Hur, the conversation explores why previous league revenue models failed, how Riot’s approach in League of Legends and VALORANT differs, the rise of “moneyball” roster building, and what a future...
The Four Horsemen deliver their annual State of League of Legends! PapaSmithy joins MonteCristo, Thorin, and Richard Lewis begin by discussing the LCS and its troubled recent history. They react to "The Data" that convinced Riot Games to switch the LCS to weekdays and bemoan the missed opportunities that the league ignored for years.
The crew also dives into topics surrounding League of Legends as a game, including the upcoming Clie...
The Four Horsemen return with their annual State of Counter-Strike special, featuring messioso (now Head of CS Operations at 100 Thieves) to break down the health of North American and global Counter-Strike in 2025. They dive into 100 Thieves’ re-entry into CS with a European-based roster, the impact of betting sponsors, and what Rain, gla1ve, and a rumored device pickup really mean for the scene. They also debate expectation...
Join esports analysts and industry veterans as they unpack the shocking demise of theScore Esports YouTube channel, dissect Twitch’s ongoing struggles, and expose the shifting power dynamics fueled by Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in competitive gaming.
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