How to turn League of Legends recordings into Shorts

Why the usual way fails

Editing by hand means scrubbing through the whole recording to find the moments, then cropping, captioning and exporting each one in a video editor. Generic clip tools often pick moments by loudness, which in League catches a lot of shouting and very few kills. Vertical framing is its own problem, because a facecam and the game do not fit a phone screen without careful cropping. Then every platform wants its own upload, title and thumbnail, so posting one clip turns into four jobs. Most people who stream around a job do not have that time every day, so the backlog of good moments just grows.

How TCG Machine helps

TCG Machine is a Windows app that takes your MKV or MP4 recording and reads the kill and assist counter on your League scoreboard. Every time your kills or assists go up it opens a clip, and deaths never do. It builds the vertical frame for you, drafts a title, a description and a thumbnail line, and you set the start, the end and where the hook falls. You review and approve every clip, then schedule it to YouTube from the same screen.

Step by step

1. Join the free beta, confirm your email and install the app with the key you receive.
2. Drop in a recording from OBS, Streamlabs or any software that saves MKV or MP4.
3. Review the clips it found, and set where each one starts, ends and lands its hook.
4. Pick the facecam split or the no-camera layout, then choose or type a thumbnail line.
5. Edit the drafted title and description, approve the clip and schedule it to YouTube.

Tips

• Keep the scoreboard counter clear in your recording. A camera or overlay over it breaks kill detection, and the app warns you when your layout does that.
• Use the facecam split if your webcam is part of the show. It puts 35% camera on top and 65% gameplay below, and you can slide the gameplay left or right to keep the action in frame.
• Plan a few extra minutes for TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. YouTube is scheduled in the app, Facebook and Instagram open Meta Business Suite, and TikTok is a manual upload.
• Batch your reviews. Approving a handful of clips in one sitting is quicker than opening the app after every match, and it keeps a steady queue of posts.

Questions