Twitch To Launch ‘Rocket League’ To eSports Arena, eSports Ecosystem To Evolve?
Social video company Twitch is planning to expand the Rocket League series into eSports. With the support of parent company Amazon, Twitch has partnered with Psyonix, a San Diego-based developer, in creating the Rocket League Championship Series.
According to Fortune, Twitch will be opening the registration for the Rocket League Championship Series on March 25. The series will be open to PC and PlayStation. However, eSports director at Twitch Nick Allen noted that they will also add Xbox One later on.
The Rocket League Championship Series will be open all over the U.S. and Europe. The three-month series will have a $75,000 prize money and the event will have a livestream feature. Twitch expects about 100 million gamers to watch the event.
“We’ll be focusing on online play for the early stages of the competition (qualifiers and regional finals), with the capstone event being a live, international championship,” said Nick Allen.
Nick Allen added that the Rocket League Championship Series is their first eSports partnership after their Capcom Pro Tour venture back in 2014.
eSports Evolution Is Taking Place
As more and more games develop into eSports, this platform is expected to evolve the modern notion of gaming.
With over 67 million gamers, Riot has successfully transitioned League of Legends from a hobby MOBA into a professional gaming platform, according to OC Register.
Now, players are getting funded and championship series are getting harder.
Noah Whinston was one of those guys. He is a 21-year-old Northwestern drop out who got funded by big venture capitalists to create an all-star team.
“I mean, we didn’t even exist three months ago, and we’re already the best team in North America,” said Whinston who is now the general manager of Immortals, an eSport champion team.
“The ecosystem is definitely changing.”
Teams like Immortals play and practice like pros. They have their own training house in West Los Angeles and they have a “performance coach.” They undergo psychological training and they practice their game plays. Gamer teams in South Korea reportedly practice about 12 to 14 hours in aday.
eSports Arena CEO Paul Ward is even surprised with the shift.
“You look at the viewership numbers, it’ll blow you away. And here, it’s just like going to a sports bar to watch a game. There’s the experience, the camaraderie, the culture that you want to be around.”
Though Paul Ward does not think the traditional sports bars would convert into eSports fanatics, the mainstream fans are continually growing.
Whinston added that they are expecting a big addition to the current eSports fans. He said that “there are going to be more of them watching eSports than there are watching every other traditional sport combined.”
“Young adults today, they don’t want to just go and watch a baseball game,” added Tobias Sherman, an eSports agent with IMG.
Whether it’s alien or foreign or absurd to us, it’s eSports that’s going to be second nature.
[Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images]
