Blizzard partners with ESL TV for Blizzard eSports Channel
by Michael Sacco 
May 12th 2009 at 7:00PM
Blizzard has announced a partnership with ESL TV to bring streaming footage of eSport competitions of Blizzard's games, including Warcraft 3, WoW, and Starcraft. The service has been dubbed the Blizzard eSports Channel, likely due to its preponderance of Blizzard, eSports, and channels (but no man can be truly certain). The service is accessible for World of Warcraft subscribers through the Account Management page of WoW's main site.
This is pretty cool news for the type of people who like to watch really, really good players have it out, replete with commentary. I visited the site today and found that there was not only a ton of archived games to watch, but there was a bunch of live games going on too. You can filter the videos and live channels by the game or game type, too, in case you hate watching Starcraft players practice their uber micro but just love Sentinels on Scourge action.
I imagine the chances are pretty good that we'll see Starcraft 2 added to the list of games available for viewing once it's launched, too, as well as future titles that make their way to Battle.net.
Given Blizzard's years-long push now for better representation in the eSports world, this is a neat step in the right direction, even if it might not be everybody's cup of tea. If you love eSports, it's worth a look; if not, then OMG! No rush.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
havitech May 12th 2009 9:59PM
In the words of Mugato, "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"
Rich May 12th 2009 11:55PM
That about sums it up.
barth May 13th 2009 8:50AM
For those of us who like playing competitively, it will be nice to watch some of the better players to get tips, etc. Not sure how it will work though, I don't see any Arena matches on the page yet. All the WoW stuff is just two guys sitting around BSing.
AlexW573 May 12th 2009 10:27PM
To those wondering what people see in this sort of thing:
Personally, I'm not too interested in WoW Arena, or Warcraft. However, I love the Starcraft matches, and the commentary make them more interesting.
It isn't the sort of thing I can sit and watch focusing completely on it, I usually run this sort of thing on one computer while working on something on another. I love watching the strategies unfold, and try to guess what the players will do next. Also, rooting for one side is also fun, just because it's someone to cheer for :)
ROFLAMO May 12th 2009 11:38PM
I pay 10$ a month to watch people play video games. I SWEAR ITS COOl. No seriously this sort of garbage may online interst people if high end players do the arenas to learn some techniques etc. Random dk/dk or resto druid/holy paly teams with200resilience acting like old timers is just fails.
Suzi May 13th 2009 2:45AM
Thanks for the article. I've got to admit I'm useless at Arena and most RTS games I ever play but... I like to watch them.
I also found some Blizzcon 2007 clips on there. Pretty cool.
Bossy May 13th 2009 3:07AM
A very NICE feature and long overdue.
Only idiots don't want to learn from others.
It shows.
Drago Dracini May 13th 2009 12:33PM
so, it's only available on EU accounts? failure.