Skip to main content

TBS will air eSports starting with regular Counter-Strike tournaments in 2016

Counter-Strike player aiming with an AWP weapon.
Previously relegated to the occasional confused (and often dismissive) segment, eSports are about to have their day in the sun on television.

Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and WME/IMG have partnered to create an eSports league that will broadcast 20 live events over the course of 2016, exclusively on TBS. The yet-to-be-named league coverage will feature high-level competitive gaming, wrapped up in all the bells and whistles you would expect from televised sports. The league and all of its live events will operate out of Turner Studios in Atlanta.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s extremely popular team-based first-person shooter, will be the featured game of the first season. The season comprises two full tournaments, each broadcast over a ten-week period that features a regular season, playoffs, and championship. Live games will be broadcast on Friday nights, which was apparently chosen in order to accommodate the athletes playing in other tournaments on the weekends.

Additional digital content, such as team profiles and more live games, will be released Tuesday through Friday during game weeks, up to and including live during the TBS broadcast Content will be accessible through Bleacher Report’s Team Stream app.

TBS is the first major television network to roll the dice on whether a mainstream American TV audience is prepared to accept video games alongside conventional sports. ESPN 2 broadcast a tournament of Blizzard’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm earlier this year, but received a very mixed reception. The numbers are encouraging, however. According to data from research firm NewZoo included in the league announcement, the current American eSports audience is around 32 million viewers, and is expected to grow to more than 50 million by 2017.

Fans are watching largely through established online players such as the Amazon-owned Twitch, Major League Gaming, and YouTube. Over half of them are under 35, making the eSports audience an especially juicy prospect for advertisers, ever-eager to court millennials.

Turner Sports president Lenny Daniels told Variety that the deal to create the league started to form about a year ago, really moving forward when Kevin Reilly took over as Turner chief creative officer and president of TNT and TBS in November. Reilly believes that their multi-platform approach and established expertise in sports coverage will allow TBS to tap into the large and passionate extant eSports audience, in addition to drawing new people in.

“The level of rabid fandom and engagement that we see in this world is extraordinary,” Reilly said, “and we aim to up the experience for both the players and fans alike and provide a cutting-edge live experience on both linear and digital TBS platforms.”

Turner and WME/IMG will announce further details later this year, including teams, commentary talent, and schedules.

Editors' Recommendations

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Valve responds to requests to shut down 'Counter-Strike' weapon skin trading
valve

Two weeks ago, the Washington State Gambling Commission demanded that Valve cease the transfer of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins via Steam, citing links to illegal online gambling. Now, the company has responded with an outright denial of any wrongdoing in the matter.

Various third-party gambling sites offer Global Offensive players the chance to gamble real-world money for the opportunity to earn rare weapon skins. While these services are separate to the game itself, the Washington State Gambling Commission argues that Valve is aiding their operation, because the skins are transferred via Steam.

Read more
eSports athletes welcome Logitech’s G Pro gaming mouse to their arsenals
logitech esports pc gaming mouse g pro

This week during the Gamescom gaming trade show in Germany, Logitech introduced a new gaming mouse designed for eSports “athletes” called the Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse. This new peripheral for PC gamers can be pre-ordered now direct from Logitech, packed with an advanced optical sensor, onboard memory, and a lightweight and durable form factor. The device is slated to land in the U.S. and Europe sometime this month.

According to Logitech, the new mouse was inspired by its G100 and G100s models made popular by eSports players. The specifications show that the upcoming mouse has a DPI ranging from 200 to 12,000 thanks to the peripheral’s PixArt PMW3366 optical sensor. This sensor has a maximum acceleration of around 40G and a maximum speed of around 300 inches per second. Additionally, LG states that this sensor has zero smoothing, filtering, or acceleration across its entire DPI range.

Read more
Twitter tackles eSports streaming this weekend with ‘Counter Strike’ tournament
twitter tackles esports streaming this weekend with eleague eleaguecsgo

Twitter will host its first-ever eSports stream this weekend in partnership with Turner's recently established eSports organization eLeague, and fans can expect up-to-the-minute coverage of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in Atlanta.

Event coverage begins Friday night, with eLeague's Twitter profile @EL providing live-streamed footage, play-by-play commentary, and score updates throughout the weekend.

Read more