ESPN and Riot in talks to broadcast League of Legends for $500 million, per report

>ESPN and Riot in talks to broadcast League of Legends for $500 million, per report
riftherald.com/2016/5/23/11746788/espn-riot-league-of-legends-broadcast-rights-500-million-dollars-lol-esports-twitch

Is this the future of sport?

Other urls found in this thread:

hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/espn-asked-pay-more-15-874330
gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-developer-denies-active-talks-wi/1100-6440085/
youtube.com/watch?v=hKsIgcgSewE
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

>watching video games

Cuck

I don't care if these losers want to broadcast their shit to other nerds, but why don't they just start their own network dedicated to video games?

Why do they so desperately want their games to be shown on a sports network?

I wouldn't mind if they weren't playing such a shitty game.

I do not believe it will ever get past anything but a "fun" past time but will never be accepted as a sport because
>champions get nerfed on the whim of the game company
Literally no sport has changes this big every year, basketball/football/hockey are practically identical every year with little if not no rule changes
provide """""legitimacy""""" as a """"sport""""
same here, I still don't think any video games would fit on TV
>csgo
too violent
>dota2
too complicated
>lol
made for babbys

They literally have to trick people into watching this shit

If it had its own network, it would die instantly

my only complaint is that it's fucking league of legends, the toddler moba with viewbot inflated twitch numbers

>too violent
what

it's tame compared to how violent vidya can be

>this kills the E!SPN

itt: butthurt valvedrones

lol I hate vidya but this helps e!spn. yes they will become total sellouts just like MTV but they will get a lot of people to watch the network

ESPN probably sees potential in the broadcasting rights and wants to get in on the ground floor
and considering how profitable the company is, they can afford to take risks

well I mean like I don't think E$PN would want to show a game about shooting and warfare
>promoting a shooting game in america without SJW backlash

why the fuck would loser neets stop watching LoL streams for free and buy a cable subscription

Your average League of Legends viewer is a kid who watches on Twitch.

There's no fucking way they get a cable subscription to watch Teemo pentakills or whatever.

This is nothing but ESPN burning money.

Last time ESPN tried to do shit like this they literally ran commercials in the middle of StarCraft games and some dota 2 games I think. Literally a train wreck

If I though dota 2's meta was boring this will be even more of a snore to watch.

but isnt LOL popular in asia? its a move not just in the usa. this is a move made to proliferate and make espn a more global company.

As far as I understand the article, this is only for the western LoL leagues and the Asian leagues aren't part of the deal.

Nobody in Korea or China cares about western shitters and they have their own leagues that are already broadcast on TV in those countries.

Isn't ESPN losing viewers by the millions? I'm surprised they have money to burn on stupid video game shit.

>espn still blowing huge wads of money on rights fees that no one else wants

Why is Disney intentionally trying to kill it?

you're suggesting that ESPN has the same broadcasting licenses in every country, which isn't true
if they can get their ratings up during off times with more live events - especially ones with huge online presences - then it's just good business to get involved

>they literally ran commercials in the middle of StarCraft games and some dota 2 games

Just like handegg?

korea has their own tv stations and channels to watch esports
china also has their own online streaming service (which is much larger) and specifically for video games
>implying espn is relevant outside of US

Yugioh rights when?

Handegg has timeouts and commercial breaks. Dota 2 and StarCraft games do not stop besides for technical difficulties

Imagine watching a premier league game, or whatever, and as a team is attacking it just cuts to a 30 second ad

He meant with no pause you satanic autist

but that's a sport
starcraft isn't

Ummmmmm

Why?

Most people are fucking homers and will get disinterested after koreans are the only international teams remaining in int tournaments like always.

I'm just playing America, you know I love you.

ESPN is bleeding subscribers and is trying random shit to see what sticks.

jews are getting really desperate

I would be excited for a change, watching soccer could be the most life wasting event in existence

Poor humanity

ESPN have been publishing a gorillian League articles recently. This isn't e"""sports""" trying to get their shit on tv, it's ESPN desperately courting esports in an attempt to counter their growing irrelevancy.

>>Sup Forums
Not a fucking sport neckbeard virgins
Only thing gayer than playing video games is watching someone else play them, literally a cuckhold

Nope, viewership is up. Cord-cutting means they're making less money though, as they make something silly like $10/mo from every cable subscription, so it only requires a few mil people to cut the cord for the huge sports fees to fuck them up

hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/espn-asked-pay-more-15-874330
lololol

i wouldn't actually care if e-"""""sports""""" didn't pander to obnoxious virgin redditors tbf

>Literally no sport has changes this big every year
Truth. They might see a big change every era, but definitely not every year.

Feels good to know that all you sports cucks are this mad about the increasing popularity of e-sports

>my moba is too sophisticated for broadcast

This.

Start your own network. Make your own website. Its fucking annoying to scroll through ESPN and see a Curry article, a Yankees article, and then a Why equipment matters on esports article. I cant wait for the day I watch ESPN baseball and see "BREAKING NEWS: Jin Moon Nguyen wins eSports athlete of the year"

gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-developer-denies-active-talks-wi/1100-6440085/

Story was fake.

more of a sport than poker

>sport

Sports. Plural, not singular. You talk about the sport of soccer, the sport of baseball. When you talk about sports as a whole, you say sports.

Get. It. Right.

ESPN will do anything for ratings at this point.

I want Sup Forums to fuck off

"Sports" is American, "Sport" is British, my good man. It's like "math" and "maths" but in reverse.

>No one's watching our bullshit, what do we do?
>Well we could always show baseba-
>-NO GOD NO AAAAA ESPORTS YEAH ESPORTS

>They're buying into the esports meme
K E K
E
K

they already show soccer and poker. and sometimes even pool. why not?

lol no-one watches nationally televised baseball anymore you fucking dofus.

>2025
>No kickoffs
>Screens mandatory in single seater motorsports
>NBA is now 50% flopping
>fighting is 20 game suspension in hockey now
>Chinks playing video games on E!SPN is now the most popular program

If our grandfathers were part of the greatest generation, our children are going to be part of the most pathetic

Cue the obligatory "Is E-sport a 'sport' ?"- discussion

>Clickshit

Trash it goes.

They seriously need to do something about educating casuals about LoL gameplay.

I've been playing vidya for 26 years. But I fucking hate MOBAs. Thus, never play MOBAs. And the broadcasters are absolute ass at actually explaining strategy beyond U GOTTA KILL DA TOWERZ.

There's obviously a reason these players are better than the idiots in /lolg/ or something. But it fails to be articulated to a MOBA hater like myself. Now imagine the people even more casual than me that have literally no idea what's going on.

Twitch MOBA tournaments are a clusterfuck to someone that doesn't play. They will be unwatchable to someone that doesn't even play video games. You don't have to play football to understand/watch it.

Same. Its one of those games where you need to play at least 50 hours to even understand which is really shit. If they are going to televise video games they should just stick to something many people can relate to like CSGO

>Sup Forums is now sports because ESPN
>Sup Forums is now sports because Condi Fucking Rice is on the cfb playoff committee
>Sup Forums is now sports because Sup Forums

WHAT THE FUCK, Sup Forums

>log onto yahoo sports website
>esports is the top listed sport on the menu options
>listed above NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL

and that's when I stopped using yahoo sports.

Bros. its time. We have to go to declare war on nerds. Nerds are everything wrong with this board, sporting culture and society. They need to be forced back into their basements and back onto Twitch tv for good

>ESPN
>profitable
Pick one m8, their last earnings report tanked Disney stock

this coupled with the black "sports" only website ESPN has will finally finish them.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion being a high level gamer requires far more nous, skill, and natural gifts than being a high level athlete in a single sport.
Consider it this way; Usain Bolt is good at the running events, and not even all of them. He cannot compete in long distance running, nor can he compete in swimming, fighting, or even more basic events like shooting.
I am a professional Counter Strike player. I can still play less tactical shooters like Halo and Timesplitters to a high level, and have a level of mastery in fighting games, strategy games, and most other genres. Obviously I cannot win fighting game tournaments, but what I can do is equal to Usain Bolt swimming the 300 meter butterfly in an Olympic level time. If Bolt could do that he would be considered a remarkable athlete so why am I not, considering I have mastered several disciplines? I also think that I could defeat Bolt in many physical sports. Playing Counter Strike has given me the dexterity and intelligence to believe I could beat him in fencing or boxing, whereas my diet of gaming has given me the needed size and power to defeat him in a boxing match.
In short, I am a better athlete than Usain Bolt in most ways. I will never run the 100 metres in 9 and a half seconds but will Bolt ever put together a 200 hit combo on Street Fighter 4? I doubt it. Bolt is akin to a bedsheet designed for a single bed and nothing else. I am more like a convenient sleeping bag, just as comfortable as the bed sheet but more versatile, however, less accepted by society for nothing more than aesthetic reasons.

4/10

there are lots of casuals in this world. game is such a piece of shit and dated. would neve rin my life give this game another play

I'm 5-4 and 315lbs

Am I in good enough shape to go pro in LOL?

TBS is airing a CSGO league starting this week it should be legit

Overwatch launches in 15 mins lads. Let's all practice hard so we can become professional athletes and finally make our fathers proud.

If your finger is slow as fuck then no

That shit will only last a month or two with a "competitive" scene before blizzard stops dumping money into it. No way a game can have a sustainable pro scene with no scoreboard and 20 tick servers

NASCAR does it, they just put the race in another little window while the ad airs, then back to fullscreen race after the ad.

babby MtG? never

VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT SPORTS

I'm trying to figure out how this is a good idea for anyone, and it's hard.

>Disney/ESPN
already bleeding money due to cord cutting en masse and spending way too fucking much on the CFP rights
>typical sports fans
probably offended at even knowing this exists, let alone that they call it a sport. seeing it on ESPN or espn.com is gonna piss off their primary market before they even factor in potential new markets
>typical competitive gaming fans
will watch stuff on streams
>casual viewers who check it out cause it happens to be on
won't have a clue what is going on
>average cable subscriber
possibly more of an excuse to cord cut than before if this means a price cost down the line

so who exactly wins here? how is this supposed to actually WORK? it seems like ESPN should be practicing addition by subtraction rather than the other way around, and by understanding and improving why people even watch their stuff in the first place. seems like they're undergoing an identity crisis, and this is a pure desperation move born from that.

Babby MTG (Hearthstone) already surpassed MTG's popularity.

Git mad nerd.

p.s. rip combo (not really)

>LoL
>not OSRS

youtube.com/watch?v=hKsIgcgSewE

Who /watchingtheNBA2k16Finals/

fuck the real nba

>Isn't ESPN losing viewers by the millions?
no
people just are paying them shitloads of money to watch it like they used to

>premier league
>attacking

Obviously fake, 500 million dollars? Riot as company are only worth a few billion and this ignoring their main base which is located in Asia.

I've only ever seen ESPN report on Dota too.

>late night ESPN just turns into quiet Minecraft streams

>some guy is drunk at 1am yelling about how this noob is trying to build outside creative
>the guy triggers a chicken bomb and he laughs himself stupid before throwing up

>going to ESPN.com

You deserve it desu