Converting high quality esports content to quantity due to the pandemic

This article will consider: the growth trend of streaming platforms during a pandemic crisis, its impact on competitions and the consequences of the absence of LAN tournaments and international clashes between teams from different regions.

Special thanks to Stream Hatchet for providing the information.

Lockdown, bankruptcy of enterprises, and massive job cuts led to two consequences: a huge amount of free time for the previously employed population and the search for cost-effective leisure by these people.

As you can see from the graph below, streaming platforms have become this leisure.

You can clearly see the growth of the 20th year and the current normalization caused by less global quarantine measures.

This phenomenon cannot be fully attributed to the streaming platforms themselves. It's just that people are left alone with themselves. Simply, people left alone with themselves faced first with gaming impotence. And then they realized that the resource of series are finite, even on the Netflix platform. Moreover, taking into account the suspension of the filming process. Top 100 world blockbusters have also come to an end. An attempt to delve into, for example, Italian classics like «City of Women» by Federico Fellini and discuss it, in nowadays «civilized» society will be condemned.

People immediately needed a lot of easy enjoyable free content. And they got it and made a new community where everyone can relax from quarantine.

Above you can see a comparison for the second quarter 2021. The top is occupied by just chatting and multiplayer games, where people can talk with each other.

But for many, this was not enough. People need drama, conflicts and confrontations - sports and competitions, but the stadiums are closed. Viewers began to take an interest in esports and online on streams increased.

Feelling the trends, the organizers reinforced their activities in the online segment. WePlay is a good example, who immediately organised the online marathon WeSave! Charity Play. The total volume of original content shot in 2020 has more than doubled compared to last year.

Such labor is worth it. Even within the more conservative Western eSport community, the increase in demand for niche content from US, COD Warzone, has almost doubled.

This was then the general trend of the entire market.

Any outside observer could track the nominal growth in the amount of content, but as you know, quantitative ones turn into qualitative ones only on the pages of thick books on diamat.

During the lockdown, face-to-face confrontations and other large pandemoniums became impossible, just forbidden. Only Riot Games, thanks to China which progressed in solving the problem with COVID-19 on its territory, were able to hold League of Legends LAN-tournaments. Dota 2 did not have such an opportunity, The International and other major tournaments were canceled.

Not only players, even the commentators, worked from home for a while. Pros lost their bootcamps, it became more difficult to control their regime, the quality of training and technical support. Even the usual moments of team cooperation, such as the dormitory and eating together, were lost along with live communication. They had to work harder, since in order to keep the required level of income, they had to participate in a larger number of less significant competitions.

The discipline and motivation of the players was put to the test.

The most insurmountable problem of that period was interregional tournaments. When the top player of the NA-region in Dota 2 due to ping, catches his team in the Faceless Void`s Chronosphere twice in one game due to a remote server. Once upon a time, tier 1 teams from different continents have already refused to take part in major online tournaments due to such conditions, and they refuse once again now.

The organizers tried to get around this problem by increasing the number of major competitions within individual regions.

It worked. The content was produced, and the eSport segment received an unprecedented economic development even taking into account the crisis. But the competence of the players in some regions began to degrade, which was noticeable during less global quarantine measures, when players from China came to compete with players from CIS region.

It was a sad sight.

Athletes from the CIS region simply lost the habit of strong rivals, since they could not go to a bootcamp in China or northern Europe. In order for even the warm-up rating games before training to take place in a tougher environment, in which they could literally come across the reigning champion in the stack of opponents.

This example also showed that the environment of each region has its own skill-edge, even within the same discipline on the same rating indicators. Literally the same thing happened many years ago, when it turned out that people with a gaming background experience in HEROES III were mechanically losing in MOBA format to those who devoted their entire childhood to playing Starcraft. Only now we have a situation when e-sportsmen in their regions, during the training period, face rivals of different levels. Moreover, they get used to their pace and style of play, after which it is much more difficult to adapt to the opponent`s game who is training in a different environment.

Each region has a unique background - its own gamer culture, formed depending on which disciplines were more prevalent and considered «worthy» to master. For a professional who grew up in such an ecosystem, this factor is almost as important as the training regimen.

It’s impossible to fill this gap at skill-edge without regularly practicing at international arenas. But it is necessary for high quality performance from different but equal skilled athletes. Without the confrontation between same level teams, the quality of eSports content will continue to decline.

It’s still hoped that when the borders will be opened, organisators will solve the problem of international tournaments instead of investing money and time into the regional dota. 

If they push the players who are sitting in comfortable homes comes into foreign ecosystems, it helps them get in shape faster. In this system players can meet high skill players and TI champions as an opponent even in rating games during bootcamps. Only after this changes viewers will get a great tournament with different but same skilled players.

A lot of content brings money, but when people ask for the quality, it can’t be bought for any money.