Guild Wars 2

This seems like a pretty big deal. ArenaNet should jump at this window of opportunity as well.
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http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/22/espn2-will-air-a-live-e-sports-match-this-sunday-for-the-first-time-ever/
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E-sports is making the big leap to mainstream cable.

Publisher Blizzard has announced that the Grand Finals of its collegiate tournament for online multiplayer arena battler Heroes of the Storm will air live on ESPN2. At 6:30 p.m. Pacific (9:30 p.m. Eastern) on Sunday, the final two teams in the “Heroes of the Dorm” tournament will face off against one another to win the top prize. This is an example of how e-sports games, like Heroes of the Storm, are establishing themselves as huge spectator events along the lines of traditional sports. Analysts predict that pro-gaming, with its advertising, ticket sales, and more, will make around $465 million by 2017.

The Heroes of the Dorm event’s final four, which Blizzard is calling the “Heroic Four” to avoid getting sued by the NCAA, will kick off their first match at around 2:30 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, with Arizona State taking on Boston College. At 4:30 p.m. Pacific, Illinois Urbana-Champaign faces Cal. Both of those matches will stream live on ESPN3.com, which is the sports network’s online-only “channel.” But after that second match, ESPN2 will pick up the action live as if it were a college basketball game.

This will give the millions of people who have ESPN2 the chance to tune in and watch a pro-gaming event at its best.

Heroes of the Storm’s college tournament marks one of the first times that an e-sports tournament has made it onto a platform as huge as ESPN2. Disney’s sports division has previously worked with developer Valve on airing its tournament The International for Dota 2 last year on ESPN3.com, but that only ever made it to ESPN2 in the form of a preview show for the finals.

This shows that ESPN is definitely interested in e-sports, which is a market that is growing as a rapid pace. Millions of young people — often in the key advertising demographic of 13-to-35-years-old men — regularly tune into watch livestreaming e-sports matches on sites like MLG.tv and Twitch. And professional gaming could even dig into the NFL, MLB, and NBA over the next few decades as young people decide to stick with e-sports as they grow older.

ESPN likely knows that is a possibility, and it is establishing itself as an outlet to watch e-sports content despite recent comments from its president saying that games are not a sport. But even if he feels that way, he obviously sees the money potential by embracing this new market.

Nobody else thinks this would be a frikkin cool opportunity for us to push sPvP on to TV with collegial competitions?

Anet dont care.

Gw2 just isn’t ready for it. Pvp is very unclear and proccy. It might be okay for the player who is seasoned, but it’s hell on viewers who never played.

ronpierce.2760:

Gw2 just isn’t ready for it. Pvp is very unclear and proccy. It might be okay for the player who is seasoned, but it’s hell on viewers who never played.

What would it take for them to be ready for it?

I’ve been following/playing Heroes of the Storm and I love it!

(And it’s honestly way more fun to watch than sPvP. GW2 PvP got no chance compared to HotS).

HotS not even the same type of thing….

GW2 isn’t ready. It needs a much bigger sPvP scene at the very least, and it needs to be made much more watchable.

For reference, League of Legend’s World Championship grand finals pulled in over 10 million viewers, GW2 might bring in, what, 10,000 if they are lucky? There are more people that watch random streamers than the biggest tournaments that GW2 offers, it just isn’t big enough for ESPN2 to even consider it. The only reason Blizzard is up there is because they are Blizzard.

The gameplay and action is fun to think about, and play, but unfortunately there hasn’t been a way to really fully enjoy watching a match. Even as players who know what all the skills and strategies are, we as an audience won’t even know what clutch moves are being made. With things like MOBA’s, its top-down and you can clearly see who is going where, what moves they used, and the teamwork involved.

With GW2, the action is so much more fast paced and there are so many more skills and abilities being used, you may notice someone skillfully dodge a Mighty Blow, yet miss 10 other things that happened at the same time.

Turk.5460:

The gameplay and action is fun to think about, and play, but unfortunately there hasn’t been a way to really fully enjoy watching a match. Even as players who know what all the skills and strategies are, we as an audience won’t even know what clutch moves are being made. With things like MOBA’s, its top-down and you can clearly see who is going where, what moves they used, and the teamwork involved.

With GW2, the action is so much more fast paced and there are so many more skills and abilities being used, you may notice someone skillfully dodge a Mighty Blow, yet miss 10 other things that happened at the same time.

Agreed. Still things can change and be improved. If anything HotS shows that at least it is possible to make it to the big times (sports networks). And sport networks is whats going to broaden the scene. unlike the twitch and other gaming sites that only cater to gamers. Also GW2 need to work on their DC and other problems that happen during major events. Both WTS has been plagued by DC and other fumbles. the second definitely showing improvement.

Your out of your mind if you think sPvP of all things will ever make it off twitch.

Jasher.6580:

ronpierce.2760:

Gw2 just isn’t ready for it. Pvp is very unclear and proccy. It might be okay for the player who is seasoned, but it’s hell on viewers who never played.

What would it take for them to be ready for it?

For starters…

• The support: LoL, WoW, Smite, SCII and even Counter Strike: GO, all have a very huge crowd base. GO itself had a million dollar tournament at one point. That’s how big these game’s fanbase are.
• The resources: WoW has spent millions on not just their pvp infrastructure, but also to showcase the game’s PvP on ESPN2 as well. How much do you think ANET has to spend to air GW2 on a high traffic network like ESPN? This isn’t a “anyone can come” kind of gig. WoW will probably spend $500,000 per air time because they know they’ll get million+ worth of viewership. Gamer and non gamer alike.
• The leverage: Everyone knows how big of a game WoW is. The CEO probably got with ESPN with cash in their pockets, telling them how many potential viewers they’re going to get if they air their game.

Anet isn’t exactly at that level but as the game grows there’s a chance that we could get air time on ESPN. Even if it’s a once a year kind of gig.

GW2 pvp is just not fun or addictive anoth for ESPN. You only need to see the numbers on the streams.

maybe not espn 2, our best chances are espn 8 ‘the ocho’