eSportS Covered in MainStream News (eSpn2) - Page 2

On April 28 2015 16:09 Jibba wrote:
Colin Cowherd is a luddite and a douche nozzle. He's also just reaching for ratings cause he knows it'll rile up idiots. ESPN has been showing video games, MtG, paintball, etc. for over a decade. They had a whole show dedicated to Madden. It's the same thing people said when they first started covering WSOP, until they realized the WSOP was bringing in tons of viewers.

Also, he isn't particularly knowledgable about mainstream sports either. He's just an extremely skilled talker.

FWIW, Michelle Beadle (another host) enjoyed it.




Cause Blizzard paid $$$$$$.

On April 28 2015 18:40 Luiwtf wrote:
I've never understood why people on here want to even have eSports on TV. As HotD showed, TV only makes it worse than streaming due to having to have a worse UI, and stupid exclusivity deals where most of the world is locked out of watching the event (HotD was only aired in the US and Canada, for those with cable TV or however it works for them).

The argument that it will increase the viewer base meaning more money for prizes/better production etc doesn't really convince me, because even though they got some people watching that wouldn't have, how many of those will actually watch long term when they otherwise have no interest in video games? I can't imagine it would be that many, certainly not more than they'd lose from actual fans of the game due to issues like not being able to watch at all, or finding it annoying at the huge lack of information.

Then there's the fact that the actual target demographic of eSports is moving further and further away from actual TV, preferring downloading, TV on demand like Netflix/iPlayer etc on the internet more and more, and pretty much everyone who is interested in eSports already watches stuff on Twitch anyway (which is also now available on consoles afaik).

All this was IMO was Blizzard spending some money to advertise their new game, while annoying actual fans of the game by either not allowing a large portion of them outside the US/CA (or those without cable) to watch the tournament live (I think they're doing a rebroadcast on Twitch or something?) or having them watch a super low quality stream of it with a UI that lacked important information (imagine watching SC2 with no mini-map when there's action happening in multiple places on the map).

Personally I'd prefer it if eSports (the games I actually enjoy anyway :p) stayed away from TV, sticking with stuff like Twitch instead.

On April 28 2015 16:17 Karis Vas Ryaar wrote:
Colin Cowherd is one of quite a few espn radio show hosts who basically get paid to complain about everything and say whatever the heck he wants. I wouldn't take him too seriously.

Blizzard has a deal with ESPN I think.

On April 28 2015 22:01 Ayaz2810 wrote:
I watched it live when it aired, and even though I've never played hots, and the teamfights looked retarded, I enjoyed it. Being from Arizona, I really wanted ASU to win. Kinda cool that UC had EGSuppy on their team. Made the loss more bearable lol. Anyway, the production was very good, but I think we as a community are going to have a problem going mainstream because a lot of these games are so absurdly complicated under the surface, that the nuance of every decision will be lost on most people.

On April 29 2015 01:43 JieXian wrote:


I don't follow HOTS at all but I think you're being hipster about this. Blizz is dumping THEIR money (not yours) into increasing the popularity and legitamacy of their game and you're somehow against it?

But yes if they didn't restream it and instead kept it 100% exclusive to US and Canada it's not the right move.

On April 29 2015 06:58 Birdie wrote:
TV is a dying medium, I don't see how this matters at all. The currently rising generation doesn't get their news from TV, they don't watch movies or shows on TV, they don't watch sports or esports on TV, and when they are in their 50s and their children are growing up TV will be more or less "empty" with nothing but reality TV and ads for the most part. It's not far off that now.

On April 28 2015 16:09 Jibba wrote:
Colin Cowherd is a luddite and a douche nozzle. He's also just reaching for ratings cause he knows it'll rile up idiots. ESPN has been showing video games, MtG, paintball, etc. for over a decade. They had a whole show dedicated to Madden.