Evil Geniuses & TeamLiquid to Produce English Proleague Broadcasts
Today, Evil Geniuses & TeamLiquid are excited to announce that we have received the rights from the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) and International eSports Group (IEG) to broadcast Proleague matches in English on Twitch.tv, beginning with tonight's matches between KT Rolster/Team8 and WoongJin/SKT1.
To say that it's very important to have readily-accessible English-language Proleague broadcasts would be a massive understatement. Proleague is a unique competition with a storied history, and by all accounts, International StarCraft viewers are very much ready to welcome Proleague into their rotation of regularly-watched matches. Obviously, everyone's best-case scenario for English-language Proleague broadcasts would be to have English commentators present on-site in the Proleague studio; however, for now, that is not possible, and we have accordingly decided to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring that International viewers have access to a high-quality Proleague broadcast in English.
In terms of production quality, you can expect the live studio shots, intense player close-ups, and professional observing that have become hallmarks of the Proleague. Our broadcasters will be commentating remotely, but will have access to a "clean feed" of the Korean broadcast (the same video feed, and a modified audio feed which includes all sound except for the Korean commentators). This will allow us to add our own design and English commentary touches to the already high-quality Korean broadcast production.
Speaking of broadcasters, we're very pleased to have John "TotalBiscuit" Bain and Ben "Mr. Bitter" Nichol as our commentating duo for tonight's and tomorrow's matches, with Dario "TLO" Wünsch and Mike "Adebisi" Van Driel casting Monday and Tuesday's matches. We'd like to thank them for agreeing to participate, and we're certain that they'll do a wonderful job. Proleague's match schedule is very intense - both for players and commentators - with 4 broadcasts per week (Saturday-Tuesday, Korean time) and 2 matches per broadcast. As such, you will all likely see a healthy rotation of commentators going forward as we do our best to accommodate the Proleague schedule within the context of an already-busy StarCraft tournament and broadcast schedule.
The task of producing 4 broadcasts per week is a difficult undertaking, but both EG and TL are prepared for the challenge. We're not sure how long we'll have the opportunity to produce these broadcasts for you - it will likely depend on both how well we execute them, in addition to other factors outside our control - but we hope you'll tune in while we do indeed have the broadcast rights. In particular, we'd like to thank Hyeong Seok "Aficionado" Seo of KeSPA and Vincent Oh of IEG for giving us this opportunity. We're going to do our absolute best to give the International StarCraft community the high-quality, English-language Proleague broadcasts it deserves.
This Weekend's Proleague Schedule (Stream: SC2 Proleague)
Saturday, Dec 15 2:30am GMT (GMT+00:00): KT Rolster vs. 8th Team, Cast by TotalBiscuit & Mr. Bitter
Saturday, Dec 15 5:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): WoongJin Stars vs. SK Telecom T1, Cast by TotalBiscuit & Mr. Bitter
Sunday, Dec 16 3:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): STX Soul vs. Samsung KHAN, Cast by TotalBiscuit & Mr. Bitter
Sunday, Dec 16 5:30am GMT (GMT+00:00): EG-Liquid vs. CJ Entus, Cast by TotalBiscuit & Mr. Bitter
Monday, Dec 17 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): KT Rolster vs. WoongJin Stars, Cast by TLO & Adebisi
Monday, Dec 17 10:30am GMT (GMT+00:00): 8th Team vs. SK Telecom T1, Cast by TLO & Adebisi
Tuesday, Dec 18 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00): STX Soul vs. CJ Entus, Cast by TLO & Adebisi
Tuesday, Dec 18 10:30am GMT (GMT+00:00): EG-Liquid vs. Samsung KHAN, Cast by TLO and Adebisi