JUNE | FEATURE
applied that motion to a 3D avatar,
so we could recreate the dance in a
3D space,” he says.
Thinking in weeks, not years
Irving believes that sports
organisations have a lot to learn
from e-sports, and that the
Covid-19 crisis will narrow the
gap between them. E-sports
organisations, he says, are
naturally more receptive to
innovative technology and
broadcasting methods due to
their digital nature. They are
also usually unencumbered by
expensive brand deals, which
discourage broadcasters from
experimenting with risky new
tech.
“We are at heart an innovation
business, and people in traditional
sport are normally quite cautious.
But necessity is the mother of
invention, and people are forced to
be more innovative now because
they have to be,” says Irving.
“While physical
sport has spent
two months
languishing in
lockdown and
figuring out how
it can safely
resume, e-sports
has continued
almost unimpeded”
The flexibility of e-sports
organisations has proved a huge
asset in 2020. While physical sport
has spent two months languishing
in lockdown and figuring out how
it can safely resume, e-sports has
continued almost unimpeded.
Electronic Sports League (ESL),
the world’s largest e-sports
organisation, recently finished
broadcasting ESL One: Road to Rio.
This tournament series for shooter
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
regularly pulled in over 100,000
concurrent viewers over the
course of two weeks in May.
Players who would usually
compete in packed out stadia made
a seamless transition to competing
over an internet connection. With
stock footage of previous ESL One
tournaments in between rounds
and live interviews from player’s
homes, viewers could hardly tell
the difference. “It’s much easier
for [e-sports] to migrate into the
cloud,” says Irving.
“E-sports organisations tend to
think in weeks instead of years.
They’re more open to new kinds
of production and broadcasting
because they want to constantly
offer something new to viewers,”
he adds. “Covid-19 has forced
everyone to tear up their threeyear
plans and create threemonth
plans. Those that do so
successfully will come out of this
really well, and those that don’t
will struggle.”
On the rise
The global e-sports
industry has expanded
hugely in the last decade.
An October 2018 report
by Goldman Sachs
predicted the industry
would be worth just
under USD$3bn by the
end of 2022. The sector
captured the attention of
nearly 400 million viewers
in 2018 – four times as
many as the Superbowl
attracted in February
2020.
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