Esports Production Summit: How Observers' and REMI' Define the Breakout Era of Live Esports Production Experts from Riot Games, ESL Gaming, Twitch, and more share experiences in high-end esports production By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, December 6, 2019 - 2:52 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
As esports rises in prominence as a live-sports property, the most common question from broadcasters - especially those accustomed to a traditional sports environment - is what are the differences between broadcasting a virtual sports event and a physical one?
Sure, an esports event feels more like a rock concert than, say, a baseball game, but the differences actually aren't all that many. As was evident at SVG's recent Esports Production Summit in Los Angeles, it all comes down to a common foundation that any broadcaster or content creator can agree on: storytelling.
At SVG's Esports Production Summit, experts in of live esports production shared their opinions on the current state of the industry: (from left) Riot Games' Matt Donovan, ESL Gaming's Simon Eicher, FACEIT's Andrew Lane, Twitch's Mitch Rosenthal, Do Not Peek Entertainment's Scott Smith, Next Generation Esports' Andrew Wagnitz, and SVG's Jason Dachman.
We don't have just a hardcore audience anymore, noted Simon Eicher, executive producer/director of broadcast, esports services, ESL Gaming, which produces major global esports competitions like the ESL One series, which spotlights games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. [Esports is] becoming more and more casual entertainment, so replay features and different angles help break up the game and [make it] more explanatory and educational. [That] becomes more and more important.
The Observer Function
Besides some core technological tenants of broadcast -camera angles, replay, graphics - a high-end esports show features a significant position known as observer. The role of the observer is basically to drive the views of the action from inside the game itself, choosing the shots that will ultimately tell the story of the action within the game, a camera operator inside the videogame. In the early days of esports, it was a task reserved for the on-air talent on a show, but, as productions grew larger and more complex, the role carved out its own valued place in the crew list.
Determining the number of observers on a production and what their assignments are is an ever-moving target. Like the number of camera operators on a traditional show, it largely depends on the game itself.
We almost always approach it from the ground up, said Andrew Lane, director, broadcast, FACEIT, an esports-production house whose biggest projects include this year's PUBG Global Summit in April. We take the game and, looking at what are the core philosophies of the game, work it backwards. We need to know what we want to show and what our core aims are to build storylines throughout the game. Then we'll work that back to work out a process that will work, which isn't always having a lot of people but sometimes is.
The role of the observer has further evolved as a newer genre of esports has gained favor with both players and viewers: the battle royale game. Games like the super-popular Fortnite fall into this category, and what makes them challenging to broadcast is that many solo characters are competing across a vast map: ultimately, countless scrums occur in different places simultaneously.
Telling a story [in battle royale] is more like golf, says Andrew Wagnitz, director, broadcast and technology, Next Generation Esports, a Burbank, CA-based white-label production company that helped produce the big Fortnite World Cup held in New York this year. You're covering Hole 17. Then you're covering Hole 14. And you're trying to build a story around the whole day. We're telling a story around specific players or really good kills.'
From a storytelling perspective, he continued, the big hurdle right now is educating people who are watching this story. How can we simplify some of the information that's being passed?
In addition, the battle royale format and its scoring also offer difficult wrinkles to the storytelling process.
There's, oftentimes, no perfect winning moment, said esports-business veteran Scott Smith, co-founder/managing director, Do Not Peek Entertainment, a new esports-focused production company located within the Scottsdale, AZ facilities of video-production service Sneaky Big Studios. They have to go back and add up scores because they played for eight or nine rounds. So part of the challenge in that genre is how you tell an exciting story of the winner. We've had some big battle royale events where the desk has had to say, We'll be right back. We have to go tabulate the scores to tell you who won.' You lose that trophy moment. They're getting better at it. It's such a new genre.
Storytelling in esports has been evolving into new stratospheres, thanks to the growing relationship between game publishers and esports broadcasters.
A game like Counter-Strike actually has really good spectator tools built into it, said Lane. It has fantastic camera planning. You can map a jib movement and bind that to one of the keys on the keyboard. But that's something that has just been released. The developers often don't think about these things until a few years afterwards when they realize [their game is] actually going to be an esport. So we have to adapt and sometimes build a custom solution from scratch.
Added Wagnitz, What we pride ourselves in is partnering with the publishers and asking them for specific tools or adjustments in the UI. That's where a lot of the success is. As the broadcast experts, we can share
North America Stories
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
12/11/2026
Ben Winston, Glenn Weiss, and FIFA's Jenni-Lee Van Gelder headlined a day fo...
12/11/2026
Free interactive platform visualizes team tendencies, formations, and schemes, updated weekly...
12/11/2026
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Jablonski's broadcasting career is...
12/11/2026
Gracenote's 2026 State of Play report signals a rising retention risk: More ...
Esports Production Summit: How Observers' and REMI' Define the Breakout Era of Live Esports Production Experts from Riot Games, ESL Gaming, Twitch, and more share experiences in high-end esports production By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
