ESPORTS Freaks 4U Gaming 30
FREAKIN’ OUT Freaks 4U has partnered with Riot Games to run a League of Legends championship
HUMBLE RADIO Freaks 4U was founded following this fallout in 2002 and would run competition brands, such as Netzstatt Gaming League (NGL), a LAN-party League in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and NGL One, an international Warcraft III and Counter- Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Broadcast was virtually impossible to do with video at the time, since the target audience only had dial-up a connection, but there was a way of getting around this. Matthias Remmert, senior VP, TV & media production at Freaks 4 U Gaming, explains, “We started audio shoutcasting. Viewers would need to use Waaagh!TV [a third-party software for Warcraft III], to go into the game and sync the audio stream with the live feed from the game.” In 2003, the company started trialling more broadcasting options; cooperating with local internet providers to create their own IPTV streaming. But it wasn’t until
variety of esports content ranging from small web studios, where their influencer clients can produce channel content, through to Twitch Rivals contests, where the team handle multiplayer, multi-layer live gameplay, interspersed with caster and presenter content from its studio space. The team also delivers livestreaming production at esports tournaments and contests through Europe. “Alongside producing channel content for 99Damage [a CS:GO website for the German market], we covered the league’s first major offline final at the Warsteiner Music Hall in Dortmund in December last year. The LAN tournament was livestreamed in front 2500 on-site visitors, as well as tens of thousands of online viewers on Twitch,” says Remmert. “We also recently partnered with Riot Games publishers to launch a national League of Legends league for the DACH region [Austria, Germany and Switzerland].
2011, when Freaks 4U Gaming split off from its own entity, with Freaks 4U maintaining the computer store in Berlin, that the company started to prosper in esports broadcast. “That year, we were responsible for broadcasting the very first edition of Dota 2’s The International Gamescom, which had a money prize of $1.6 million,” says Remmert. Since then, the company has grown from having nine employees in Berlin to over 190 employees in Europe, the US and Asia, and now identifies itself as a 360˚ marketing agency, providing services such as brand and marketing consultancy, social media and community management, editorial services, event management and logistics and creative services, as well as TV and media production. CONTENT On the TV and media production side, Freaks 4U gaming produces a wide
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