Today an interview with Major League Gaming’s Co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni found its way onto an unlikely website, the national business magazine Forbes. Discussing everything from the validity of eSports to the recent GOMtv GSL partnership, the Forbes article gives gamers a unique look at the competitive gaming scene from on outsiders point of view.
The response for the last MLG event in Dallas was so overwhelming, it caused a lot of technical headaches for both you guys and the viewers. Can you talk a bit about what exactly went down then, and what lessons you guys have taken into MLG Columbus?
The tune-in numbers for the Dallas event were amazing. Unfortunately, we weren’t prepared for that level of traffic. A couple things happened: First, our websites were overwhelmed with the demand for our live streams. Our development team was able to spin up capacity very quickly to meet the demand but the initial load dramatically exceeded our expectation. Secondly, the local network suffered a series of failures which circumvented our backup precautions. We’ve now adjusted our network planning to account for the scenario in Dallas and several other issues. More importantly, we’ve dramatically upgraded our stream delivery infrastructure in partnership with Streamworks who recently handled the streaming for the Royal wedding. Using a unique technology solution, Streamworks delivers seamless cross platform video with dramatically increased picture and audio quality so our community can count on a great viewing experience. Additionally, the HQ stream will be available in up to 720p and there is no download required; you can watch both the standard and HQ streams directly from the video player on majorleaguegaming.com.
How did this newfound partnership with Korea come about? How much overlap do you think there will be between the American and Korean Starcraft scenes, and how is MLG helping that union?
We’ve been fans of GOMTV and the Global eSports League (GSL) in Korea for a long time now. Blizzard, who has been a great partner to work with, made some formal introductions for us earlier this year and our conversations clearly indicated an alignment of strategic global initiatives. The two scenes have some cross-over today, but nowhere near the level required for the sport to truly advance at an international scale. Our partnership with GOMTV is going to accelerate that growth in some really powerful ways, in addition to giving professional players in both regions the opportunity to compete globally on a regular basis. This can only lead to a more integrated global scene for competitive gaming.
The full interview can be seen here.