In what has already been an incredible year for eSports, the phenomenon of competitive gaming has taken another large step into mainstream media, as the BBC has announces it will be covering the League of Legends World Championships.
In collaboration with BBC Sport, all four days of the quarter finals, commencing on Thursday 15th October, will be watchable online, as BBC Three utilises technology reserved for live sporting events and Glastonbury coverage.
Hosting the coverage will be BBC Radio 1 DJ Dev Griffin and frequent Gfinity host, Julia Hardy. The commentary team will consist of the talented duo Leigh ‘Deman’ Smith, who has previously covered Seasons 2 and 3 of the League of Legends World Championship and James ‘Stress’ O’Leary.
Regarding the big announcement, the Controller of BBC Three, Damian Kavanagh stated:
“We jumped at the chance to collaborate with BBC Sport and bring this massive UK event to a wider audience. BBC Three will always experiment with new ways to deliver content that young people want, in ways they want. I think this is an exciting way to cover something millions of young Brits love, in a BBC Three way.”
With BBC Three due to become a fully online service at some point in 2016, this could pave the way forward for more eSports championships to be hosted by large mainstream companies.
We've already seen DOTA2 receive coverage on ESPN, so it is highly possible that eSports will become more and more popular in mainstream media as we enter 2016. While there is currently no confirmation whether BBC Three will continue their coverage into the latter stages of the tournament, if the coverage is received well, there's every hope it might.
Looking forward to the BBC's take on eSports? Or want it to stay on Twitch? Let us know what you think!
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