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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
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 
