MOUNTAIN VIEW, California and COLOGNE, Germany — July 30, 2015— ESL, the world’s largest esports organization, and Plays.tv, the video-sharing platform for gamers, today announced a strategic alliance that will give esports fans unprecedented access to the best of ESL’s Intel® Extreme Masters in-game action. Beginning with this week’s Intel Extreme Masters competition at Gamescom, ESL will for the first time capture point of view (POV) recordings (complete with player audio) of every player and make them available shortly after matches finish, exclusively on Plays.tv, thanks to the new partnership.
“We’ve always wanted to have POV videos available for all our competitions, but previously it just wasn’t feasible. Plays.tv has made it fast and easy to capture and upload video directly from the tournament PCs and we’re excited to provide esports fans with a new viewing experience,” said Nik Adams, Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development at ESL. “Now, even if you followed the action live on Twitch, you’ll also be able to go back and see precisely what each player was seeing and clicking on, and hear what players were saying to their teammates.”
The traditional spectator-view VODs will also be available on Plays.tv first, along with exclusive highlight reels and top plays from the day’s matches. Unlike traditional replays, Plays.tv records matches in video format from a player’s POV, including in-game communications and mouse-clicks, and makes them almost instantly available to be watched online, from any device.
“ESL and esports are a perfect fit on Plays.tv, which already has a large, active community of pro and amateur players,” said Dennis “Thresh” Fong, founder and CEO of Plays.tv parent company Raptr and the original professional gamer. “We and ESL believe that the key to continued explosive growth of eSports is enhancing the spectator experience and creating new ways for fans to engage with the pros, and this is a big step in that direction.”
To catch all the IEM action throughout the current season, follow @ESL on Plays.tv at http://plays.tv/esl.
POV coverage on Play.tv for Electronic Sports League partners
