It is no wonder that Mr Biostar here thinks this way, you only think viewerships can easily swings with dramas and other shit like that.
When I said PR risk I'm talking about Riot. I'm sure you've heard about segmentation. Since you and riot care so much about those oh-so-precious international games I will fucking spell things out for you:
No matter the language , region etc, there are 2 types of viewers, international-regional viewers and international only viewers. And both have the same sub-segments , just start your way from the earliest game all the way to grand finals i.e; first stage watchers+ quarters only + semis only + grand finals only. Regional watchers is still a huge chunk of international viewers.
The same applies for international only viewers.
International viewers = international only + international-regional viewers.
Now remove one from the equation ( more importantly regional ones) and you get a disaster. And how to make sure that one does not remove themselves ? By not making them upset. How do you not make them upset ? Stop tampering with the region.
Riot can get away with tampering with T2 since barring few regions no one watches those anyways but what you shouldn't do is to anger your most loyal fanbase. This is what I meant with PR issue.
Or do I have to enlighten you what will happen when riot loses a huge portion of their international viewers?