In case you didn’t know we have a massive power struggle that has already started in the world of live streaming Esports and Gaming content. YouTube Gaming announced yesterday that they have partnered with FACEIT in a multi-year deal that will bring the ECS(Esports Championship Series) to YouTube.
You can say this is a black eye for Twitch seeing how ECS was created out of a partnership between Twitch and FACEIT less than a year ago. You can read about it here in case you missed that announcement last year. Now, between you and me, I have no idea if YouTube just outbid Twitch to make this happen or if Twitch thought it wasn’t worth the investment and decided to pass, on the surface, it seems that they’ve lost something they put a lot of time and money in.
The next 12-24 months will be very exciting when it comes to streaming. I think it’s obvious that Twitch is way out in front of everyone else. But, after YouTube making this play for ECS I’m certain you will see other big moves very soon. For now, I think we should all pay close attention to the following sites.
1. Twitch
2. YouTube
3. Beam
4. MLG.TV
I can hear you now… “Scotty, what are you on about mate. Beam is new.. and MLG pretty much has nothing going for it other than Call Of Duty events.” Yes, you’re right. Microsoft acquired Beam late last year, and I can tell you they’re putting a lot of time and effort into the platform.
What’s important to note is that Beam is a Microsoft product. That matters because of Esports titles like Halo and Gears Of War. Why would Microsoft want to allow the impressions/ad revenue that Halo/Gow generate go to Twitch’s coffers when they now own a site like Beam? Now, I’m only speaking to this in regards to Esports Lan Events that would normally be streamed on Twitch for example.
MLG.TV gets a ton of shit from people within the Call Of Duty community. Everyone use to say that “MLG killed COD” when streamers like Nadeshot and others made a move from Twitch to the MLG platform. This is simply a load of bullshit. COD was hitting some tremendous numbers on MLG.TV. Fast forward, and most everyone is back to streaming on Twitch, and a lot of them have fewer viewers now than when they were on MLG.TV. I still believe MLG.TV will be the exclusive home for all ATVI/BLIZZARD Esports streams in the future.
Let me know what you think about streaming sites, which site is your favorite and why?
Gaming and Esports 
Its going to be a race alright! I’m currently on YouTube and it really depends on what games people want to see sometimes. I agree cod heads go to MLG and most pc money games are crowned on Twitch. Hopefully YouTube can catch up by taking some viewers from these two streaming sites. It feels amazing to see the video game revolution before our eyes and my goal is to be apart of it with others.
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Good post. I’m dealing with many of these issues as well..|
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