Sergey Barkhudaryan: «The audience hasn`t gone anywhere, during this period it only grew»

Sergey Barkhudaryan - Commercial Director of ESforce Holding, spoke about how the esports industry is coping with difficulties during the coronavirus and holding of offline tournaments in 2021.

Compared to traditional sports, in general, esports has suffered less, since we organically went offline and the return was natural. But self-isolation still affected offline events - our EPICENTER Major was canceled, and such rating events as The International were postponed for the next year. In the context of general indicators of numbers, we are losing the offline audience, branding, promotion in arenas, etc. But the big advantage of esports is that the same tournaments can be transferred to an online format. Team members play from home, our commenting and analytics studio also works remotely. We can say that the product has changed in style, but the events took place anyway. Again, the audience has not gone anywhere, during this period, it has only grown.

By 2021, we are negotiating certain locations where offline events can be held. In case of a complete lockdown, studios are already being created where teams can play in compliance with security measures and from which can be broadcasted. Of course, from the point of view of further development, it will be difficult without offline events - even when watching online, they fully convey the atmosphere of the sport itself, and also allow you to increase the indicators and audience volume. But we are ready for any scenario, our partners and teams are set to continue working.