36 ESPORTS FOCUS H1Z1
Words by Phil Rhodes
This year’s H1Z1 tournament gave broadcast production teams the chance to throw down in a new sector
or some, game streaming conjures up images of someone crouched in front of a webcam in an Ikea-furnished bedroom,
camera for each of the 75 players, while experienced gamers operated virtual cameras for in-game shots. Supervising producer Xander Denke notes that the sheer scale “is unusual. We had previously done an hour special for The CW here in the US which was called Fight for the Crown . That revolved around H1Z1 as well. We did a three-day event at TwitchCon 2017 where we took over the entire Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center arena and had three days of eight hours’ live streaming…So while something of this scale is rare in the esports ecosystem, for us, it was a natural progression to get to this point.” The technical package was supplied by GQC Entertainment. Marty Meyer was responsible for assembling equipment and crew. “When you think about having over a million dollars of equipment and a network sports team driving it,” she says, “to be doing something to Facebook Live is incredibly interesting, knowing where
LET THE GAMES COMMENCE With eight broadcast cameras and a fixed camera for each of the 75 players, covering the H1Z1 tournament was huge production for esports.
playing Minecraft and commentating on it for an audience of dozens. It’s been a while since that has been a fair characterisation. As this year’s H1Z1 Pro League (known as H1PL) proves, esports has thoroughly come of age. H1Z1, produced by Daybreak Game Company, is a battle royale game that was released to Steam’s early access program in 2015 and is currently available for Windows and PS4. Beginning in April, H1PL streamed matches weekly until the end of the league’s first split in June. Produced by Twin Galaxies, a veteran of the gaming world, the league’s streams were produced from a facility just off the Las Vegas strip, using equipment and personnel typical of a major outside broadcast. Eight broadcast cameras covered the action alongside a fixed
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