32 ESPORTS FOCUS Production
“Viewers are quick to point out technical difficulties in the production and will move on when presented with a poor experience,” says Waters. “HD in 1080/60p will dominate for now, but as bandwidth and computing costs continue to fall, more viewers will look to UHD streams of their favourite esport event.” Production Associates and Fanview used Forbidden Technologies’ Blackbird Forte cloud video platform, for pre-, live and post-event production for an Epic Games-hosted Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am tournament at E3 in LA. The core technology is the Blackbird codec which gives producers the ability to ingest video and edit in the cloud with little if any latency. DRAWING FROM TRADITIONAL SPORTS There is some evidence that esports are most successful when they draw directly from the editorial presentation and style of mainstream sports. Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBA) games for example account for more than half of Twitch’s esports viewing and take the lion’s share of tournament prizes – The International 2017 had a prize pool of $24.69m (£18.68m). “Much in the MOBA world will seem alien to fans of traditional sport but ignoring the specific rules and instead looking at movement, balance, objectives and map design, some familiar themes emerge,” observes Jonathan Broughton, lead analyst for the Insight arm of Broadcast Intelligence. These include designated boundaries (like the markings on a football pitch); player positioning; and team tactics (when to defend or attack).
punditry are now staples of ESL’s events. At the same time, the nature of internet- only delivery and the pace of many of the games being played, means the speed of program production is very important. “During a live esports game, anything three-minutes old is forgotten,” said Simon Eicher, executive producer at ESL. “Our live programming and our social media content is what engages the fan base. Therefore, we need to be reactive, creating and delivering these supplementary assets as quickly as possible.” Statistics are another inseparable component from the games. Tools like recorded replays and match histories create an abundance of data, all instantly available for public consumption. As in-game events occur, they are recorded and logged, and different programs or models can scan those logs for information. Every swing of an axe, movement around the map, and coordinate location can be noted. “Personally, I wouldn’t even try to compare esports with actual sports,” says Leimbach of ESL. “I’m not talking about quality but production technique. We don’t want to be a sports broadcaster because we would lose a lot of the things that make esports dynamic and unique.”
Esports fans have also begun to mimic the habits of traditional sports viewers. “Teams are more important than players, transfer windows are eagerly watched, and a significant proportion of audiences now comprise non-gamers who are simply fans of the format,” suggests Broughton. “Friendly areas must be defended and opposing areas attacked – leading to a balanced approach that normally results in offensive and defensive player roles being assigned.” Waters identifies the “drama created by rivalry, tension and release between players as they interact with the game, announcers that narrate the gameplay and commentators that analyse the player choices. These are the elements that great video directors use to create narratives that capture viewers and make them eager for more.” There is a lot more involvement with the live event, too, that in some cases includes covering live bands at the finale. “Esports is truly a hybrid of both sports and entertainment from the facility perspective,” declares Genin. To broaden its reach, ESL has evolved the live programming of the IEM events to feature elements similar to those in television sports. Pre- and post-game programming, halftime shows and expert
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