It’s not like this is ESL’s first gig in Counter-Strike, but they are still making significant mistakes that fans don’t appreciate. The Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 started on January 7, and the fans can’t help but notice the lack of coverage on the biggest and most anticipated matches.
On its first day, the first round of the North American Closed qualifier only broadcasts the match between Chaos EC and Furia. And while no disrespect is directed towards the two teams, there are other noteworthy games from the big names of CS:GO.
The new ESL Pro Tour structure boasts its open ecosystem linking all ESL and DreamHack competitions from NA, EU, and Asia. With this said, something’s not right with the decision of how and what to stream. Cloud9’s old roster that includes Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta is debuting under Gen.G uniform versus Complexity. C9 is also going to premiere their new team for the FPS game. Fans are more than eager to watch how these teams gel and cooperate.
What the fuck are you thinking? There are members of the community actvitely wanting to broadcast these matches for you. I'm sure they'd even use your overlay with sponsor roll if you made that a condition.
— Chad Burchill (@SPUNJ) January 7, 2020
Reddit’s r/GlobalOffesive have fans left and right upset that they weren’t able to watch the matches they were waiting. “Don’t know why they can’t just give the GOTV. I waited so long not to get to watch complexity vs. gen.g. What a joke,” one user complained. Another doesn’t have words for ESL, “I’m so confused what ESL is doing.”
Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, former Australian CS:GO pro player turned analyst, voiced out his concerns regarding the issue on his Twitter account as well. He described the situation as “absolutely pathetic” for failing to provide IPS and the inability to cover the fan-favorite matches. Burchill also pointed out that there are active steamers who are willing to use their channels to broadcast wanted games. “There are members of the community actively wanting to broadcast these matches for you. I’m sure they’d even use your overlay with sponsor roll if you made that a condition.”
Popular Brazilian Twitch streamer Alexandre ‘gAuLeS’ Borba took it upon his hands and streamed HLTV’s game logs of the matches for over 30,000 fans. One viewer pointed out how insane the viewer count was at its peak, “This is ridiculous. At one point, he had 30k while the official stream had 4.5k.” Those who are watching on ESL’s channel are spamming MiBR on the stream’s chat, too.
GAuLes said that there was nothing more the Brazilians wanted than to watch their country’s supreme CS:GO team. “And I would definitely use any HUD/overlay and promote any and all sponsors needed,” he further states.
For American fans, they are thrilled to watch their prized team for the first time. After winning the Boston Major in 2018, the line-up struggled to find footing and balance among their characters and later drifted apart. Autimatic, who was the last standing member of the said roster, left the white and blue squad for another. After rumors and reports, C9 has officially adopted the lineup of ATK.
Jack Etienne, C9’s CEO, said on the roster announcement, “I think everyone in the community has been impressed with what these players have accomplished, and we’re thrilled to be welcoming them to C9.”
