ro gaming has weathered the past year better than most other activities. Esports is inherently decentralised, plus
the industry has an ingrained willingness to be flexible about how it uses tech. With the pandemic potentially on the wane, this year ’s esports calendar is bringing back in-venue productions. This spring kicked off with the ONE Singapore Major, the first offline Dota 2 major since the beginning of the pandemic. Organised by ONE Esports, the Singapore Tourism Board and esports content producer PGL, the event featured 18 teams, competing from 27 March to 4 April at the Fairmont Singapore hotel. It was the first Dota 2 major to be broadcast in 4K/60fps, and the second-most successful Dota 2 major ever – peaking at 605,335 concurrent viewers. QUALITY VS COVID Romanian event broadcaster PGL was founded in 2002, before becoming a pioneer producer in the early days of Eastern European esports. “We are very proud to say that several generations of gamers have countless memories of PGL from the dawn of the Romanian esports scene,” says PGL CEO and founder, Silviu Stroie. “At some point, we realised that we had a lot to offer the global esports family. Subsequently, the past five years have been incredible for us. We’ve managed to host numerous events and, across a couple of games, some of the most successful tournaments ever.” EACH INDUSTRY EXPERIENCED A SERIES OF CHALLENGES THROUGHOUT THIS PERIOD – WE HAD TO ADAPT
MAJOR PLAYER With nearly 20 years at PGL, Silviu Stroie is proud to have served Eastern European gamers
Like every other broadcaster, PGL was affected significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic. Travel stopped, venues shut down and esports was forced to revert to its all-digital roots. The company ended up going to online delivery for most of its schedule in 2020. “Each industry experienced a series of challenges throughout this period – we had to adapt,” says Stroie. “This wasn’t a big problem for us, because we are known for our innovative way of doing things. The biggest difference is that we were doing a lot of remote production, with talents and teams being localised all over the world.” Maintaining quality, despite the challenges, was PGL’s priority. It hosted successful online events, including the FIFA Summer Cup Series for Middle East/Africa and Asia, Quake Pro League Season 2, plus the PGL Apex Legends Showdown.
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