How ESL FACEIT Group Produced Three Esports Events Across Two Continents in One Epic Weekend Multi-day competitions took place in Japan, Poland, and Spain By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 - 3:08 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In late January, ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), an esports and videogames entertainment company, achieved a monumental feat in the esports universe, producing three global competitions in three countries across two continents - in one weekend.
This is one single weekend when a lot of major events essentially happening at the same time were pulled off by an internal core team, says Fabian Leimbach, VP, production technology, EFG. That is definitely big for us.
In Japan, the five-day ALGS (Apex Legends) Year 4 Championship started on Jan. 29, becoming the country's third-most-watched esports competition. In Europe for the first time in five years, the four-day Call of Duty Major I began in Madrid on Jan. 30. In Poland, IEM Katowice, a Counter-Strike tournament, began on Jan. 29 and, over its 10-plus days, logged 30.6 million hours watched, setting a viewership record for any esports event in Poland.
In Japan, the five-day ALGS Year 4 Championship started on Jan. 29.
Naturally, logistics - such as shipping hardware and equipment across the world and appropriately staffing such global events with the right personnel and expertise - can be the biggest challenge, according to Leimbach.
Here is how it works: the EFG production team comprises a global unit, which breaks up into speciality divisions based on the event, location, and the game itself. For example, for the CDL Major I in particular, EFG deployed key the North American production-team members who have a familiarity with the Call of Duty game with members of the Swedish production team.
In Poland, IEM Katowice, a Counter-Strike tournament, began on Jan. 29
As EFG technical lead, Leimbach oversees all events and manages everything with a cable attached to it. While each event gets the full support of our global leadership, he explains, they're also led by a duo of experienced professionals with a background working on each game, as well as local crews who have a regional expertise.
For the three events, EFG relied on flight-case setups instead of mobile production units. He notes that, for the ALGS championship, the company had several distinct control rooms, each with its independent production lines. However, they shared the same camera and audio feeds to ensure that each control room was as efficient and aligned as possible.
For the ALGS championship, EFG had several distinct control rooms, each with its independent production lines.
In Spain, EFG had a combined control room for Call of Duty Major I, deploying the custom in-game setup to produce the event at every in-game angle imaginable. The setup directly collaborated with the English-broadcast control room to form one unit that assembled the main PGM broadcast feed.
The IEM Katowice production featured an offsite control room. The English-broadcast control room handled the host-broadcast feed, collaborating with an in-game control room to capture key moments in real time. This is crucial, says Leimbach, because our in-game control room runs a submix of game angles - each linked to in-game data - to give us more control and visibility over what happens every round.
Livestreamed on YouTube, the Call of Duty competition, featured 19 cameras, including one jib, one Steadicam, eight point-of-view and small cameras, and three handhelds. The production also featured 12 replay channels, seven graphics channels, and eight observer feeds to capture the in-game perspective. The more observer feed we have, he points out, the more angles we can offer.
Viewers could livestream the IEM event on FACEIT Watch and the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels,
For IEM, which viewers could livestream on FACEIT Watch and the ESL Counter-Strike Twitch and YouTube channels, the production comprised 29 cameras, including 10 point-of-view cameras, one longshot, six handhelds, one spider camera, one Steadicam, and two cameras mounted on an automated slider system triggered by in-game data. Additionally, there were 22 replay channels and six graphics channels. Leimbach says that EFG created an immersive in-arena audio experience and transported the in-arena vibrance from the game to the online viewers.
Japan's Apex Legends event had 78 total cameras - including 60 point-of-view cameras, four rail cameras, two jibs, and one Steadicam - and 34 replay channels, 14 graphics channels, and 11 observer feeds. The production also featured seven stations for live editing.
In Japan, the five-day ALGS (Apex Legends) Year 4 Championship became the country's third-most-watched esports competition.
For us, Leimbach says, it's all about how we can leverage what technology has to offer and customize our own solutions for the game titles. That's the most important fact here.
More than 300 people were involved in IEM Katowice and more than 1,000 the ALGS Year 4 Championship, encompassing project operations, broadcast production, IT, stage setup, media services, and postproduction and comprising full-time staffers, third-party vendors, part-time professionals, and freelance support. EFG's 100-plus-person staff for Call of Duty Major I handled only the broadcast production.
The IEM production comprised 29 cameras, including an army of speciality systems.
EFG worked with third-party vendors and directly with hardware providers for the events' equipment needs. Gravity served as the major full-service vendor. EFG also collaborated with Grass Valley, Panasonic, and Sony on speciality equipment.
Leimbach says EFG is definitely interested in another three-event weekend across multiple co
North America Stories
29/10/2025
ESPN said it will produce animated telecasts for NFL, NHL, NBA and WNBA games across The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN platforms during the 2025-26 season under an a...
29/10/2025
WASHINGTON Despite the government shutdown, the Federal Communications Commission has passed, with some revisions, a previously announced Notice of Proposed Rul...
28/10/2025
ESPN Announces Monsters Funday Football', Its Latest Real-Time Animated Bro...
28/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Catherine Chalfant, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe Ole Miss alum is an operational force behind ESPN's extensive college-football catalo...
28/10/2025
Elevating the experience: AI and data take Ryder Cup to the next level By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 10:25
Print This Story
NBC produced th...
28/10/2025
Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Priva...
28/10/2025
World Series 2025: Spectrum SportsNet LA Brings Dodgers Fans Closer to the Actio...
28/10/2025
Dylan Southern and Benedict Cumberbatch at the premiere of The Thing with Feathers (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
28/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has announced an agreement to sell WRTV, its local ABC-affiliated station in Indianapolis, to Circle City Broadcasting for $...
28/10/2025
Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia Named to Billboards 2025 Top Music...
28/10/2025
NEW YORK As AI usage continues to spike, a new study from IAB delves into an important aspect of how AI is transforming the advertising business with new data s...
28/10/2025
Charlie Jablonski, a broadcast tech pioneer who helped shape the modern era of Olympics television coverage, died Oct. 25 at his home in Lake George N.Y., the N...
28/10/2025
VIENNA, Austria Bitmovin has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insights into video playback. The so...
28/10/2025
LOS ANGELES LucidLink, the file streaming platform, has announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities at Adobe Max....
28/10/2025
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced that it has joined the Ama...
28/10/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in connectivity and signal management solutions, has announced a major update to its Taurus
platform, which now delivers flawless...
28/10/2025
Following a successful mid-September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Hiltron Communications will promote its full range of satellite communi...
28/10/2025
Open Broadcast Systems has chosen MC&S (Media Consulting & Services) as a reseller to help strengthen its presence in France.
With over twenty years of experi...
28/10/2025
Bitmovin, leading provider of video streaming solutions, has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insi...
28/10/2025
Ease Live, the leader in interactive TV technology, today announced the successful launch of interactive graphical overlays for UEFA Champions League matches fo...
28/10/2025
LucidLink, the file streaming platform, today at Adobe MAX announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities, streamlining collaboration and hel...
28/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Nick Hasenecz to general manager of WNDU, its NBC affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., market....
28/10/2025
Applications Open for Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant Boston nonprofits can apply by December 12 for funding to support community projects that ...
28/10/2025
Governments everywhere are racing to harness the power of AI - but legacy infras...
28/10/2025
AI is moving from the digital world into the physical one. Across factory floors...
28/10/2025
NVIDIA is delivering the telecom industry a major boost in open-source software for building AI-native 5G and 6G networks.
NVIDIA Aerial software will soon be ...
28/10/2025
The race to bottle a star now runs on AI.
NVIDIA, General Atomics and a team of international partners have built a high-fidelity, AI-enabled digital twin for ...
28/10/2025
Along the Pacific Ocean in Monterey, California, the Naval Postgraduate School (...
28/10/2025
To democratize access to AI technology nationwide, AI education and deployment c...
28/10/2025
Leading technology companies in aerospace and automotive are accelerating their ...
28/10/2025
Scripps Research awarded $4 million to advance platform for neurodevelopmental disorders The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant support...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
27/10/2025
Reid Davenport attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Life After at The Ray Theatre on January 27, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by Robin Marsha...
27/10/2025
UPDATE: Both parties have reached a new carriage agreement....
27/10/2025
LONDON As Hollywood jumps into the production of mini-dramas, a new study from Ampere Analysis finds that more than one in 10 internet users have watched drama ...
27/10/2025
LONDON Yealink, a provider of unified communication and collaboration solutions, has joined the NDI ecosystem with the availability of its SmartVision 80 premiu...
27/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has named Chris Conroy as general manager of its stations in Cleveland, leading WOIO, a CBS affiliate, The CW station WUAB and Telemundo outl...
27/10/2025
ESPOO, Finland European connectivity leaders Nokia and Ericsson, have partnered with Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), to shape and drive ...
27/10/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast has expanded NOW TV Latino, its Spanish-language live TV and streaming offering, adding five more channels from Univision, ViX Premium with...
27/10/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, will present its latest products and solutions at InterBEE 2025 (Hall 5, Booth 5218) Makuhari Messe in Chiba, ...
27/10/2025
Back to All News
City of Shadows, the New Netflix Thriller Arrives on December 12
Entertainment
27 October 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Downl...
27/10/2025
Back to All News
City of Shadows, the new Netflix thriller arrives on December 12
Entertainment
27 October 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Downl...
26/10/2025
Obituary: Charlie Jablonski, Industry Leader and Long-Time NBC and NBC Olympics ...
26/10/2025
Back to All News
Hiroshi Abe Joins All-Star Cast in Newly Revealed Main Trailer...
How ESL FACEIT Group Produced Three Esports Events Across Two Continents in One Epic Weekend Multi-day competitions took place in Japan, Poland, and Spain By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor 
