FEED Issue 18

36 ESPORTS BANG Electronic Arts

ESPORTS ON THE BAY The EA esports studio in Redwood City was completed at the beginning of this year and began broadcasting in March. “It’s given us a place to really hone the craft and not have to spend all the time going venue to venue, city to city, building up, tearing down and wasting time on the logistics of an event or show. Now we have our studio, we can just walk downstairs and go to work,” enthuses Lynch. With its own studio on-premises, it means Lynch and his team can devote more time and energy to creating content. Without the risk of the investment in time, personnel and hardware that doing esports shows on the road would entail, they can experiment with different show formats and different ways of engaging with fans. “We can start playing in the studio; we can take things that work in traditional TV and then build things in for a digital audience,” says Lynch. “What is that community interaction like? How are we working with chat? How are people engaging in the show? Can we Skype in viewers from home to play games against people? What tools do we have in our toolbox that aren’t restricted by a one-way linear conversation or a Twitch stream?” The new studio was outfitted by local San Francisco Bay Area systems integrator,

FAR FROM THE MADDEN CROWD The Madden Bowl tournament is filmed from EA's Redwood City studios in California, which opened in March

“We have everything we could possibly need to create a world-class broadcast. We’re happy with the results,” says Lynch. Broadcasts naturally include a lot of content around Fifa, Madden and EA’s battle royale title, Apex Legends, but content around other EA games is also being produced.

ASG (Advanced Systems Group). The space itself is not a massive esports arena, but a working broadcast facility, with two spaces, one at 2500 square feet, and the other 1500 square feet. To maximise space, and to be able to shoot from any angle, the studio is designed to work in 360. The studio includes an Acuity switcher and XPression motion graphics system from Ross Video and 12 channels of EVS. The sets were designed by LA-based company, MKPscenic.

There are genres of games that are ready-made for the world of

competitive sport and that have the same uncomplicated, high-conflict appeal many

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