ELeague, a new e-sports venture backed by Turner Sports and WME-IMG, yesterday "began pitting well-known gamers" against one another on video platform Twitch in the first-person shooter "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," according to Herrman & Wingfield of the N.Y. TIMES. Announcers "in suits and headsets sat behind a polished black desk," but a majority of the programming "showed an individual player's point of view -- often, that meant quick and brutal clashes." Twitch videos were "accompanied by an anarchic stream of text comments from viewers." Comments about the overall production "ranged from supportive to mocking -- especially during commercial breaks -- but remained focused, mostly, on the competition at hand." Viewership "fluctuated between 50,000 and 100,000; before the stream ended, total viewers passed the million mark." Turner Sports Chief Content Officer & Exec VP/Production Craig Barry said that he was "cautiously encouraged" by the debut. He said, "Everyone’s walking around here feeling comfortable that we have some positive feedback. I feel as though we’ve approached it correctly." One commenter said, "It’s so awesome to see CS in a TV-quality production!" But others "criticized the broadcast’s pacing, commentary and music." ELeague's next test "comes on Friday, when the tournament hits TV." If all "goes as planned, ELeague on TBS will be TV created in the image of successful online e-sports, rather than the other way around." SuperData Research co-Founder & CEO Joost van Dreunen said, "E-sports doesn’t need TV. TV needs e-sports." The e-sports competitions "may be used as a carrot to attract that audience to TBS." Van Dreunen said, "It’s a very clever way for Turner to stay relevant. This is where the audiences are" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/25). e-sports writer Callum Leslie tweeted of the debut effort, "Seeing ELeague in that first Turner Sports open was a real trip. It was a very impressive debut."
BEHIND THE MIC: ESPN.com's Jacob Wolf wrote the announcing team of Anders Blume and Auguste Massonnat has "casted nearly every major event" in "Counter-Strike Global Offensive." Presenting the game to viewers who have never seen it before "may prove to be difficult," but Blume and Massonnat are "confident that their fluency in their commentary can hold its own on national television, with a few minor changes" (ESPN.com, 5/24). ESPN e-sports editor Darin Kwilinski liked the rotating desk used by the ELeague, tweeting it was "really sick." Kwilinski also tweeted the ELeague victory music was the "strangest I've heard I think. Sounded like an 80's keyboard synth.”
THE NEXT BIG THING: The AP's Paul Newberry wrote of ELeague's debut, "The stakes are even higher for those who believe a bunch of headset-wearing guys sitting at computer consoles clicking a mouse can carve out their place alongside those viewed as legitimate athletes." Video games are at the point in their development "that extreme sports were some two decades ago, a hodgepodge of disciplines played in a largely underground world until they were brought together and legitimized for the general public by the X Games." Much like their extreme-sport counterparts, there are "plenty of gamers who don't want to cave in to the lure of fame and fortune, who feel it will ruin the purity of what they have built" (AP, 5/24).
FOR THE KIDS: CNBC's "Fast Money" examined e-sports yesterday, with reporter Julia Boorstin noting Turner is "chasing a younger demographic desirable for advertisers," while also branching off from the network's "reliance on traditional TV content." Barry said, "Not only does it offer legitimacy for the hardcore fan, but it also opens the door for a casual fan and the potential to grow the audience." Former NBAer Rick Fox, who owns an e-sports team in the League of Legends, said of having an e-sports franchise, "Your ticket sales, your media rights, sponsorship and merchandising, all the ancillary and traditional ways you would see a professional sporting franchise capitalize on their investment.” Immortals CEO Noah Whinston, whose team also plays in League of Legends, said, “What a lot of brands are realizing is that if you're trying to reach an 18-to-34-year-old male demographic, it's this or Netflix, and Netflix doesn't sell advertising" ("Fast Money," CNBC, 5/24).
