Norway's TV 2 Station is cooperating with House of Nerds to work on a new eSports league beginning in March.
Initially the focus is on three games in the "League of Legends", "Starcraft 2" and "Counter Strike: Global Offensive." The season will go over ten rounds. TV 2 will stand the editorial and technical expertise, and the House of Nerds for infrastructure and technical skill.
The broadcasts come primarily to go on TV 2 Sumo, but viewers will also get some e-sports on TV 2 Sport.
I always love the way Robert Ohlen spoke about the popularity of eSports. He said something like "We don't want to become mainstream, mainstream is going to become us".
And slowly but steadily I see this becoming more and more true.
On February 18 2015 01:59 IcookTacos wrote: I always love the way Robert Ohlen spoke about the popularity of eSports. He said something like "We don't want to become mainstream, mainstream is going to become us".
And slowly but steadily I see this becoming more and more true.
I wonder if this will be a bit more like Germany's leagues or if they'll make the prize pool/entrance qualifications big enough and open enough respectively to allow for foreign talent.
I personally know some of the people involved with this, and I can assure you they are competent and skileld at what they are doing. The initative takers are well known characters in the norwegian esport organizer scene, and they have done several big tournaments in the past. I am sure these are the best people in Norway for the job, and their #passion is real.
On February 18 2015 05:59 hewo wrote: I personally know some of the people involved with this, and I can assure you they are competent and skileld at what they are doing. The initative takers are well known characters in the norwegian esport organizer scene, and they have done several big tournaments in the past. I am sure these are the best people in Norway for the job, and their #passion is real.
Norway seems to be closer than any other country with this, since they have been broadcasting quite a lot of chess on TV the last year and it's really gotten to the wider audience. Hoping we get some kind of effect out of this like that
On February 18 2015 10:20 ThePhan2m wrote: Norway seems to be closer than any other country with this, since they have been broadcasting quite a lot of chess on TV the last year and it's really gotten to the wider audience. Hoping we get some kind of effect out of this like that
Eh, I'd say South Korea is the closest.
ESPN has done some online streaming / TV finals for a couple events IIRC. Hopefully this keeps the EU scene alive, they pretty clearly have the best foreigners currently.
Have to mention btw that NRK3 (public broadcaster, usually has a very good production) showed quite a lot of Battlefield 2 tournaments back in the days, so it's not a completely new thing here in Norway.
Try not to take this post the wrong way, but eSports has been broadcasted on TV since at least 2010 here in Taiwan, and only a few months ago did it make TL front page news when I announced the English stream.
LoL is also broadcasted on a few select 1080P television channels here in Taiwan as well.
I guess you guys could say my point is, "Why not announce this when there is official news regarding the prize pool, players, etc. etc."
EDIT: none the less, it is good to know that there will be more SC2 and CS:GO content coming out from Europe in the near future.
Try not to take this post the wrong way, but eSports has been broadcasted on TV since at least 2010 here in Taiwan, and only a few months ago did it make TL front page news when I announced the English stream.
LoL is also broadcasted on a few select 1080P television channels here in Taiwan as well.
I guess you guys could say my point is, "Why not announce this when there is official news regarding the prize pool, players, etc. etc."
EDIT: none the less, it is good to know that there will be more SC2 and CS:GO content coming out from Europe in the near future.
I see it in mainland all the time too, though mostly League
On February 18 2015 10:20 ThePhan2m wrote: Norway seems to be closer than any other country with this, since they have been broadcasting quite a lot of chess on TV the last year and it's really gotten to the wider audience.
I wonder if they'd have bothered if Carlsen was Russian
sweet, though for all the norwegians who point out "this isnt the first time", Id like to point out that compared to this its miniscule. Not trying to piss anyone off, but the fact that no one have heard of earlier smaller "happenings" points out that it wasnt as much of a big deal as this is right now.
Especially at a time like this in 2015 (compared to 2004 and so on) esport is at its biggest potential and so for norway as a small newcomer, a tournament hosted by a commercial channel is huge. Much because its responding in competition to other norwegian tournament hosts which is healthy for the esport crowd because they have to offer quality tournaments.
Actually, for those that dont know - a Norwegian won the Starcraft: BW world championship in Korea (at the time called KBK) already in the year 2000, by [GG]Slayer, previously known as =[aBs]=Slayer. As far as I know the ONLY "foreigner" to win a major tournament in Korea. One of the most interesting part of the win was that a film crew was already making a documentary of the Starcraft community in Bergen, Norway at the time that he qualified for the tournament, so his success was actually recorded into a documentary that was a great success on Norwegian Television. It goes to show that Norway, even though a country with only about 4 million people, have a long history of eSports.
There have also been attempts to show gaming on TV in Norway, with little or no success - mostly because of the lack of serious support and engagement from the broadcaster. This time around it will be more serious I think.
If anyone is interested in watching the Slayer documentary - you can view it with English subtitles here:
On February 27 2015 02:31 Driblus wrote: Actually, for those that dont know - a Norwegian won the Starcraft: BW world championship in Korea (at the time called KBK) already in the year 2000, by [GG]Slayer, previously known as =[aBs]=Slayer. As far as I know the ONLY "foreigner" to win a major tournament in Korea.
EPT
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#firstworldproblems
