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NBC Sports to televise Rocket League Tournament

C

CountAntonius

Member
Mashable
Rocket League will make its television debut this summer thanks to a new partnership with NBC Sports Group, the companies announced today. This new partnership marks NBC's first big step into the world of esports with the potential for more NBC Sports/esports mash-ups to come.

The $100,000 2v2 Rocket League tournament will kick off in July through the online competitive gaming platform, FaceIt, and move onto regional finals through select NBC Sports regional networks including New England, the Bay Area, and other non-NBC regional networks around the world — a first for Rocket League. The grand finals in August will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network in the U.S. and on Syfy in a handful of other countries.

Along with the TV broadcast, the tournament will be streamed live on the NBC Sports and Telemundo En Vivo apps as well as other unspecified social media platforms — traditionally with esports this includes Twitch, YouTube, and potentially Twitter or Facebook.

For the uninitiated, Rocket League is basically soccer except the players have been replaced by rocket-powered cars and the playing field is completely enclosed. Players use their cars to push and launch the game's giant ball past opponents and into the opposing team's goal to get as many points as possible in intense, five-minute rounds.

Josh Watson, the head of esports at Psyonix (the developer of Rocket League), said last week at E3 that Rocket League's ease-of-access could help it reach a wider audience than most other esports.

"We really believe the game is super accessible," he said, comparing it to fighting games like Street Fighter. "Our goal is to get Rocket League esports to everyone."

"We thought that [Rocket League] had some sports DNA to it, which would be a good fit for us and for our audience"
Some of the most popular esports in the world, like League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, require a deeper understanding of the games and their mechanics. Most people can't tune into a League of Legends match and immediately understand what's happening, whereas most people understand the basics of soccer and can apply that same knowledge to Rocket League and get the gist of it immediately.

Counter-Strike has already been featured prominently on TV through Turner Broadcasting's esports division, ELeague, which has also broadcast Street Fighter and Overwatch tournaments in the past year.

Rob Simmelkjaer, senior vice president of NBC Sports Ventures, said Rocket League's proximity to traditional sports made it a draw for NBC Sports.

"We looked at lots of different games in lots of different genres," he said. "We ultimately landed on Rocket League for a number of reasons. Number one, it's growing at a nice clip. We see its audiences are growing. It's got great buzz out there; the [Rocket League Championship Series] did pretty well this summer."

Rocket League has already proven itself in the esports community with dozens of community-run competitive tournaments and its own international Rocket League Championship Series, which recently concluded its $300,000 third season with 2.29 million unique viewers.

"Number two, we thought that it had some sports DNA to it, which would be a good fit for us and for our audience — our sports-loving audience," Simmelkjaer said. "It's obviously got this sort of soccer mash-up with with motorsports, which are sports that we cover extensively on NBC Sports Network."

That sports DNA could be a draw for sports fans that haven't really dipped their toes into esports yet.

"We figured someone who is used to tuning into one of our networks for baseball, basketball, hockey games, soccer games, or a motorsport race would look at this this and say, 'Oh, this is interesting, it's cars playing soccer,'" he said. "We thought there would be some translatability to the non-core esports fan with the game."

Rocket League also isn't as violent as other esports titles. Sure, cars can be blown up in Rocket League, but there aren't any guns or real deaths during matches.


Simmelkjaer said NBC Sports' staffers were fans of Rocket League's developers, too.

"Frankly, we just really like the Psyonix people," Simmelkjaer said. "We had really good conversations with them, they seemed really excited about working with us."

Psyonix particularly liked the idea of having more regional qualifiers through NBC Sports' regional networks, Simmelkjaer said.

If things go well with this tournament for NBC Sports, that could mean more esports on NBC.

"I don't think it'll be the last thing you'll see us doing," Simmelkjaer said. "This is one format that we think is repeatable and we can do it with lots of different games. We're always looking at other areas of the ecosystem and other ways to play in it. Hopefully it's just the beginning."

NBC Sports has been aware of esports' growth for years — they've been talking to all sorts of people in the space, including game publishers. The company seems poised to push onward with esports, using its first Rocket League tournament as a stepping stone.

"I think that we are going to look to make this our foundation as we build a house, and we'll add on more, whether its expanding this format to other games and other times, or whether it's also branching off into other formats," Simmelkjaer said. "We have relationships with all the publishers, we're aware of everything going on, we are regularly talking to pretty much everybody in the industry about what they're doing."
Click to expand...

Well damn. This is interesting. People have long said RL is one of the more spectator friendly Esports.Hope it does well.
 
O

ornery

Member
Never got into Rocket League

With that being said, good work to the devs and hope it all works out for the best.
 
C

CountAntonius

Member
Updated the article to mashable. It had more details. 2 v2 is a very smart move. It's less ping pong than standard and allows for a lot more creativity.
 
A

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Makes sense. I've never played/seen Rocket League, but I'm sure it's more entertaining than 90% of the Olympic Sports they devote their time to every four years.
 
K

Kayant

Member
We made it!

I feel they shouldn't have timed it around Season 4 RLCS if they could but I guess it's a good place we can see some rising talent. Although I fear the wow factor we would have gotten with RLCS level gameplay would be mostly lost because I would assume most team would be focusing on RLCS.
LiK said:
More entertaining than soccer.
Click to expand...
This so much.
 
L

LordofPwn

Member
Rocket League is more interesting to watch than soccer and it's the same basic concept of soccer, get the ball in the goal.

if i had to choose one game to be the face of eSports it would be Rocket League.
 
T

The_Darkest_Red

Member
It's the best multiplayer game ever and it's much more accessible for a viewer than any other esport. If Psyonix plays their cards right this game will just continue to grow.
 
J

JusDoIt

Member
Rocket League is hype to watch. It's the only competitive game I can watch others play for extended periods aside from fighting games and like CS:GO.
 
H

Hopeford

Member
I just can't get into esports to be honest. I know it takes a ridiculous amount of skill to do well in it, but even when it's a game I'm into like Rocket League I don't really get into watching people play. I think I need something physical in a sport for me to get invested in it, for some reason.

Hope the broadcast does well though, since people enjoy it.
 
Blam

Blam

Member
I hope this turns out well. CS did pretty good with E-League, and the company that did it Turner also liked it quite a lot. So I can only hope the same happens with Rocket League.
 
shira

shira

Member
Liliana Eileen said:
He's actually a decent host
Click to expand...
Golden Globes
bounty-wag.gif


Is he even hosting?
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
Super interesting. The article says SyFy will be televising it abroad, but is it confirmed where it's airing in the US? NBC Sports Network is a deep cable channel typically reserved for F1 races and Olympics coverage. eSports airing there vs NBC proper is two different stratospheres of relevance.
 
C

Cuburt

Member
Good choice. It's a competitive game that is fun to watch at high levels of play and, it's one of the few competitive games that aren't inherently about violence. That's a big reason for wide appeal that gamers don't often think about.

I remember seeing a lot of people that were just saying RL wasn't that big of a deal after the Switch port/crossplay announcement. The timing of this is too good.
 
K

King Gilga

Member
LordofPwn said:
No one said football, we said soccer.
Click to expand...

Same shit different name.

And only turbonerds would think rocket league is more exciting than either variation of football.

Like look at this:

CountAntonius said:
Also hype for telemundo streaming it.

Link
Click to expand...

There's nothing interesting about any of that.

And again, I don't even like either football and love playing rocket league, it's just not a very fun game to watch.

There's a reason it's basically dead on twitch even though it's such a popular game.
 
C

CountAntonius

Member
King Gilga said:
Same shit different name.

And only turbonerds would think rocket league is more exciting than either variation of football.

Like look at this:



There's nothing interesting about any of that.

And again, I don't even like either football and love playing rocket league, it's just not a very fun game to watch.

There's a reason it's basically dead on twitch even though it's such a popular game.
Click to expand...

We get it. You don't like it. Anything else?
 
V

v1lla21

Member
Sweet. If there was any game that deserved to be on TV it was Rocket league. It's the closest to any sort of gaming sport we've come not including the obvious ones.
 
V

valkillmore

Member
I will absolutely watch this. I was never a fan of watching 'e-sports' but the few Rocket League championships I've tuned in to I really enjoyed. Cool!
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
King Gilga said:
Same shit different name.

And only turbonerds would think rocket league is more exciting than either variation of football.

Like look at this:



There's nothing interesting about any of that.

And again, I don't even like either football and love playing rocket league, it's just not a very fun game to watch.

There's a reason it's basically dead on twitch even though it's such a popular game.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry that you hate fun that must be miserable for you
 
R

radioactivez0r

Member
Is the 2v2 scene still utterly dominated by Kaydop and Fairy Peak! ? Regardless, if I actually have some access to a regional NBC sports network I'd totally try and watch some to see the production. The RLCS production is slick as hell even if they refuse to stop calling each other by their god damn Twitter handles.
 
Falchion

Falchion

Member
Watching Rocket League is so much better and more accessible than most games. Hell I love Overwatch but it's not nearly as much fun as RL to watch competitively because there's so much going on and good plays happen way too fast to digest many times.
 
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