The secret world of eSports stages

With eSports becoming a multi-million dollar industry, players, prize pools, production values and sponsorships all take centre stage.

But what about the massive venues and stages that host these crazy events?

“Looking at a bunch of players in a plexiglass box isn’t that interesting on its own”, Zam reports. “These days, eSports event stages are making things a lot more exciting.”

Despite the massive amounts of cheers, jeers, music and more – there is still a very obvious disconnect between what’s happening on a player’s computer screen and the outside world.

For one, their headphones and sound-proof booths block out anything but game audio and teammates, but perhaps the bigger issue is that “watching someone huddled over a computer in a locked pod is not very interesting from the third balcony cheap seats”.

The production companies that run esports events have started to realize they no longer have to mimic the presentation of traditional sports.

Theatrical tricks and technical wizardry can actually create new ways for live spectators to experience these games.

Perhaps the best example is Riot Games’ in-house studio where they play the numerous weekly matches for League of Legend’s Championship series.

Each team is seperated and seated on raised booths, with a massive projection monitor hanging in between them.

However it’s the over 30-UHD TV’s surrounding the stage that really define the area, all displaying the game at once.

DOTA 2’s stage for the 2015 International tournament could not have been any more different from the LoL studio stages.

The stage was located in the middle of the floor of a large basketball stadium with the audience seated 360 degrees around. The broadcast game footage was displayed on the stadium monitors suspended dozens of feet above the court

The stage itself was raised about three or four feet off the ground, and was shaped like a roughly hundred by hundred foot square with cutouts and protrusions that gave it the same silhouette as the game’s map.

Since DOTA2 is played on a diagonal with home bases in the lower left to upper right, the booths were located in same two opposing corners of the stage matching the starting locations for the teams in the game.

This is only the tip of the iceberg however, with VR headsets around the corner we could see a whole new way to consume these sporting events live.

As their success comes from creating their own new areas rather than mimicking those seen in “traditional” sports, we can’t wait to see some of the incredible eSports stages in the years to come.

Do you watch eSports regularly? Let us know in the comments below and in our forums.