Geschäftsführer der ESL-Partnerschaft mit Facebook

The managing director of pro gaming of ESL Ulrich Schulze has answered a few questions on reddit.com that relate to the contract between ESL and Facebook. He shared some of his thoughts about the failure of the broadcast of ESL One Genting 2018 and told about plans for the future.

See also: January 25 in the world of eSports.

- Do you stand by the idea that without selling broadcast rights then the dota pro scene will completely die (excluding ti)? And do you have any further information you are allowed to share (idk if youre able to make any kind of comments on esls overall financial going ons) to back this statement?

«Yes, I stand firm by that - every single tournament organiser does it if they host big events. It is just less visible if those rights to got Twitch for example. If that revenue stream did not exist hosting tournaments would not be viable.»

- How quickly do you think facebook will be willing to make changes to its player / streaming experience? Honestly after the first day which had its issues in how it looked and sounded iirc the facebook player has looked and sounded fine (to me anyway) but it could use a bunch of changes to the surrounding experience?

«They have a lot of resources working on this and we have a keen interest in resolving everything as soon as we can. I can't promise any timelines but we will update everyone on the things which are happening.»

- In the viewpoint of ESL, what would it take for you to stop treating viewers / fans as a product to be sold, and start treating us as consumers again? What I mean is, what kind of business model and/or level of profitability and/or change in viewer attitudes / behavior? That shift in philosophy has been taking place over time, but it is most acutely apparent with this Facebook deal.

«You are a consumer, but at the same time there is not a direct revenue stream to us from you as a viewer. That means we look at sponsorship potential, broadcast revenue, tickets etc. and based on that make a decision. That means it is not necessarily always the easiest for the viewer, i.e. platforms might change or formats. Unfortunately, that is just the reality of esports right now. It is different for someone like Valve who directly get money from players.»

- I realize this question is going to be difficult to answer to full extent, but I'm curious what made you choose the Facebook platform over its competitors. Money aside, what convinced you to go with this, after what I believed to be a successful EPL Season on YouTube?

«We believe in the long term value of this because Facebook is a platform which reaches more users than any other platform, and lots of players and teams have presence there already. While its streaming piece is just really starting out, we believe that it is a good place to further grow the audience granted that the streaming experience is no different than what it currently is on other platforms.»

- This question isn't exactly related to the FB drama, but with the recent Galaxy Battles drama in the Philippines, how confident do you feel about running another event in that country?

«We'd love to go back there - Manila was a great event for us.»

- What was the decision process and the reasons to choose facebook over other streaming services?

«It was both a business decision as well as a belief that long term it can grow the audience. Platforms buy streaming rights which allow organisers to finance events, but not every platform always has interest in the same games or the same tournaments. For Facebook, both things worked for the decision - we can make the events happen, and we also believe in the long term opportunity given what kind of platform Facebook is.Now how it worked for Genting was not great - too many things that still need to be improved.»

- Going by the stats on ecs.watch for 2018 the Russian figures have exceeded last years peak and the Chinese figures are close to it, despite not having the finals yet which will draw in a much larger crowd. The English figures for contrast are around 1/5th of the viewer peak from last year. This is peaks, not total views but one could argue this is showing an 80% drop in your reach for English stream. I've checked another e-sports stats site and can predict an equally damning drop in views. Can you share stats to confirm views are healthy if not totally equal to last years event. I appreciate the peaks shoudl rise for the final but these early indications are very damning.

«It was expected that there would be an initial drop. Facebook numbers are not in yet (the number you see does not count users who are not logged in) so have to wait for that, but again it was not expected to directly reach or exceed the 2017 stats.»

- Do you guys still think that exclusively broadcasting your event on FB is the right decision made after all this backlash?

«It wasn't the right decision the way it went down now, but we still believe in the platform long term.»

- How do Chinese viewers watch the tournament if Facebook is banned in China?

«We have other broadcast partners in China, like Humao.»