Live From Little League World Series: MLB Lets Kids Go Yard With VR Home Run Derby The competition offers a unique multiplayer esports experience By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 12:06 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Every year at the Little League World Series, an overwhelming power hitter electrifies the viewing audience. This year, it's Mid-Atlantic's Yadi Mateo, a 5-ft.-11 231-lb. player from Elizabeth, NJ. Whether players can clear the 225-ft. walls of Lamade or Volunteer Stadium or can't, representatives of all 16 Little League teams joined the virtual world to hit dingers during the second consecutive Home Run Derby VR Little League Challenge.
The HTC Vive system allows Little Leaguers to step to the plate in professional baseball venues.
We have been activating our Home Derby VR videogame experience at ballparks and special events around the world and have been really pleased with fan response and engagement, says Jamie Leece, SVP, games and VR, Major League Baseball. This is our second year here, and the players have been great; the response from teammates, coaches, and family has been electric. It's such a cool vibe that brings you back to your younger years and where we all built our passion for baseball: playing the game with your friends for the love of the game. That connection came right through to the VR experience and was really cool to watch.
MORE FROM LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES
ESPN Grows the Game With 4DReplay, Kidscast
ESPN's Joe Rainey on the Network's Commitment to the Spectacle
From an Idea to a Biannual Tournament
With esports entering the mainstream, MLB wanted to get involved in this current trend. The initiative began with the league's partnership with HTC and its HTC Vive system, which includes an HTC Vive Pro headset, a custom-made bat with an attached HTC Vive tracker, and a connection to a high-end PC.
After the groundwork was laid, the MLB team wanted to create an environment that encouraged healthy competition, evoked a feeling of physicality, and immersed the individual who participated.
Engine Shop developed a split-screen layout to highlight the multiplayer aspect.
Last year, we thought it would be really cool to organize a competitive videogame contest at the All-Star Game in Washington, where the highest-scoring fans would face off bracket-style to crown a VR Home Run Derby champion, says Leece. The response was so positive, both in-person and viewership, that we wanted to bring it to Williamsport as part of our relationship with Little League.
When the program's testing was completed at the 2018 Little League World Series, the league and production partner Engine Shop took the process back to the drawing board with a litany of feedback and lessons learned.
It was an incredible eye opener for us to see how the participants interacted both within the events and, specifically, with the HRD VR tournament, says Jamie King, head of esports, Engine Shop. No one walks into the batting cage alone: each person, young or old, male or female, has the support of family or teammates behind them. Witnessing their excitement, encouragement, celebration, and consolation revealed to us very important human narratives that we looked to capture coming back for a second time. And understanding the importance of family, or team, at these events can be done only by personally attending and activating at one.
Inside the Game: Installing New Ideas, Designing a Lifelike Environment
With these new tidbits of knowledge, the project made its next appearance at this year's event. The concept of capturing the stories behind these one-on-one battles placed an emphasis on building tension and drama near the conclusion of the competitions.
The team leveraged game-day photos and past videogame designs to construct a virtual Progressive Field.
This year, says King, we made several visual changes to the in-game display to enhance viewers' experiences when watching two competitors simultaneously, as well as to bring to life interesting statistics and data that we could display in real-time. This enabled us to create a deeper sense of drama around the authentic athletic competition taking place, both for the friends and families in person at the tournament and for the wider online audience tuning into the live stream. We also added a second replay machine in order to recap all the action of two competitors hitting home runs at the same time.
One of the biggest elements of the contest that has raised the most eyebrows is the detailed virtual construction of the real-life location of the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, Progressive Field in Cleveland. The process is aided by experience in other forms of digital media.
At MLB, says Leece, we have been developing digital products, specifically games, for several years. All of the MLB Ballparks are represented digitally in our mobile and console games, such as R.B.I. Baseball and Home Run Derby mobile.
Furthermore, the basis of the animation is grounded by referencing a printed medium and is consistently adjusted to remain accurate.
We are fortunate to start with game-day photos of the ballparks, he adds. On an annual basis, we update the digital ballparks with any physical changes the clubs might make to the structure of the park. For Progressive Field this year, we also had knowledge of how the ballpark would be dressed graphically during All-Star Week and made those adjustments to the grass, bunting, and event signage.
MLB Network's Jackie Redmond and esports content creators RealShelfy and Fuzzy were on the mic for the live stream.
The workflow to bring one of those assets to a 3D VR environment involves a lot of optimizations, he continues. The No. 1 technical challenge when building experiences in VR is frame r
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...
18/05/2026
Delta Goodrem shines for SBS as more than 3.27 million Australians tune in for E...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
18 May 2026
Dubai and New York, May 18, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a glob...
18/05/2026
Monday 18 May 2026
Sky News offers ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes for just...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
15/05/2026
For sports organizations, the most valuable assets are often the most sensitive:...
15/05/2026
The NFL's broadcast partners released their 2026 regular season schedules ye...
15/05/2026
Besides drawing on experience with boxing, the production integrates specialty c...
Live From Little League World Series: MLB Lets Kids Go Yard With VR Home Run Derby The competition offers a unique multiplayer esports experience By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
