ESL and DreamHack branded events will be exclusively broadcast on Twitch following this year, as the Turtle Entertainment companies have announced a partnership that turns the streaming platform options exclusive from 2021.

In an announcement today, esports giants ESL and Dreamhack have announced a three year deal with Twitch which will see CS:GO, Starcraft II and Warcraft III tournaments broadcast exclusively on the streaming platform for 2021 and 2022.

Whilst Twitch will operate as a non-exclusive partner alongside YouTube for 2020, this will see tournaments, such as the ESL Pro League, Intel Extreme Masters and DreamHack Open, move to a single platform for 2021 and 2022.

As well as their global tournaments, ESL also operates competitions within the SEA / OCE region, with the ESL ANZ Championships offering players from the three featured titles a chance at qualifying to international events to compete with the world’s best.

pic.twitter.com/hKoxKqQZSI

— ESL (@ESL) April 28, 2020

ESL teased the new partnership on Twitter

The plan is for Twitch to work directly with ESL and Dreamhack to provide a hub for their competitions. The partnership will springboard coordinated broadcasts and sponsorship efforts into the new decade.

Frank Uddo, Senior Vice President at ESL Global Media, said live streaming esports had belonged to Twitch in recent years.

“As we continue to host some of the world’s largest esports tournaments, it feels only natural to work even closer with Twitch to provide the best gaming experience for fans, as well as safeguard the future of the esports industry.”

Alongside the ESL ANZ Championships, ESL have also begun hosting weekly cups for Starcraft II and Warcraft III.

The weekly competitions are held Tuesday nights (for Starcraft) and Saturday days (for Warcraft). Both tournaments have a $100 prize pool and have open registration for anyone based within the SEA / OCE region.

As the battle for content access heats up and each streaming platform jockeys for positioning, this deal is one that stands out for the old guard of esports standing firm with each other.

In the current environment, it is noteworthy as well that Twitch has opted in with the TO that is promoting grass roots participation for those joining in from home. We’ll see as this deal plays out how this maneuvering benefits both sides.

Produced by Josh Swift

It was sad news for Australian StarCraft fans on Monday night as Sean “Probe” Kempen of Legacy Esports lost in straight sets in the IEM Katowice open bracket.

Facing a tough bracket in arguably StarCraft’s most prestigious tournament, Probe lost 2-1 to Russian Protoss SKillous, before losing to Russian Zerg player Vanya, 2-0 in the losers bracket.

The quick elimination means that alongside the two losses, Probe finishes just outside of the prize money distribution, sadly walking away with $0.

Preparing myself to be dominated by some young Russians.

Playing first game in 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/51SgE6kdz1

— Sean Kempen (@Probe_SC2) February 24, 2020

After the results Probe took to Twitter to state his thoughts.

“Sorry for always disappointing,” he said.

“But we grow from every fall. The season has just begun”.

Probe’s opening opponent was the highly ranked SKillous and in a fantastic long opening game we saw what the Australian Protoss was capable of, taking the game to his opponent and eventually overcoming him in a 15 minute long game.

• Read more: Blizzard unveils new home for StarCraft esports as three year deal with ESL, Dreamhack confirmed

It was sadly to be the highlight of the day, with SKillous taking the next two maps with an aggressive, proxy immortal based strategy.

It dealt decisive damage both games, forcing Probe into the losers bracket to face another Russian, this time the Zerg player named Vanya.

After game one saw Probe lose to swarm host and roach aggression, he took a significant worker lead in the second game.

Economically ahead, Kempen just had to hold the impending attack from his desperate opponent to survive in the tournament.

Hold our Australian Protoss did, but he took too much damage in the process, forcing him all in.

That last ditch attack fell agonisingly short, as Probe was eliminated from bracket B alongside names such as Liquid TLO, Korean Zerg Impact and 3x WCS champion of 2017, Neeb.

The IEM main event begins on February 27th, 22:00 AEST.

Follow Probe on Twitter.

Header image credit: ESL, Legacy Esports

All eyes in StarCraft will fix on Poland next week, as the esport opens up it’s 2020 season with their crown jewel tournament, IEM Katowice.

Competing as one in an exceptionally strong 76 player bracket, top Australian player Sean “Probe” Kempen will be looking to advance through arguably StarCraft’s most prestigious tournament of the year.

Probe won’t be the only Australian at the event however, with Australian casters Jared “PiG” Krensel and Leigh “Maynarde” Mandalov also flying the flag.

Their voices will soothe and excite the many fans watching in the arena, and from home, and while his 25 hour journey to Poland fills him with dread, Maynarde is always glad to go back.

“It’s talked about all year around as being the best tournament of the year,” the caster said.

“Even when BlizzCon rolls around ?— people are like BlizzCon is great, but nothing beats IEM Katowice.

“The games are of a level that you don’t see elsewhere, every player that’s worth their salt in StarCraft shows up for it.”

Maynarde is right. With 2019 World Champion Park “Dark” Ryung-woo attending, as well as 2018 World Champion Joona “Serral” Sotala and 2019 World Championship Runner Up Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti, Starcraft’s top dogs are hungry to add another trophy to their cabinet

These are just three names from the 76, other names including Koreans heavy hitters Maru, INnoVation, Rogue, Stats, sOs, soO and Trap to only name a small handful.

It’s a tournament which has captured the hearts and minds of StarCraft fans since its inception in the start of 2013.

Previous winners include legends like sOs, Polt, Zest, and TY, but it was a victory last year for soO that really pulled on the heartstrings.

“I was starting to get choked up [when Smix went to interview soO after his victory],” said Maynarde. “I used to be a competitive esports player myself and I know what it feels like to be the guy that never wins, that always gets to the final but never goes that extra one step to win the final.”

“soO had been second place in six GSLs and a bunch of other international events…it was called ‘soOcend’ because he never won anything and then bam ?— he wins the big one.

“I remember talking to InControL being like ‘oh I got this frog in my throat man, I’ve got to go hide in a corner somewhere because I’m getting emotional.’”

It’s sure to be another long ride for these players over the next few weeks, with Australian contender Probe looking to make his dream run start with a match against young Russian Protoss SKillous.

Despite boot camping in California for a week prior, Probe is realistic about his chances, saying that with his first match being Protoss vs. Protoss, anything could happen.

“There’s no easy bracket [but] I didn’t get an impossible bracket which is nice,” he said. “SKillous is really good, way better than me I think, so he’s going to be really tough, but not impossible.”

Maynarde is a little more optimistic for our Australian Protoss, saying the week-long boot camp was a great environment to be in to sharpen his skills for Katowice.

“[Probe] against SKillous is a pretty good matchup for Probe but I’m a little worried for the next match… because INnoVation is a potential semi-finalist, rather than a potential open bracket quarter-final player,” he said.

“We have to hope Probe’s Protoss vs Terran is insane, or he has something cheeky planned for INnoVation, or he has a good run in the lower bracket. If he tries to play regular against INnoVation I think he’s going to get wrecked.”

IEM Katowice starts with the open bracket on Monday February 24, 9pm AEDT, with Probe beginning his campaign later that night at 12:40am AEDT.

Follow Probe & Maynarde on Twitter.

Header image credit: ESL

After seeing Park “Dark” Ryung Woo win the StarCraft World Championship late in 2019, StarCraft fans will be excited to hear their esport will continue for the next three years, operating under the new management of ESL & Dreamhack.

The announcement, which was made in early January, means the World Championship Series (WCS), formerly run by Blizzard, is disbanding.

It will be replaced by the ESL Pro Tour, run in a joint collaboration between ESL and Dreamhack.

The name is not all that’s changing though, with the ESL Pro Tour also set to feature an updated format for the next three years.

Despite Blizzard stepping back from the organisational aspect, they will still continue to fund the legendary esport, with a prize pool of over US $1.8 million ($2.6 million AUD) guaranteed over the next three years.

According to Legacy Esports star Sean “Probe” Kempen, the new three year deal was accepted with open arms by fans and professionals alike.

“We’ve now got confirmation for the next three years, all the pro players can have peace of mind about their situation instead of worrying and just practice and compete to the best of their ability.”

“Overall I think the deal is very very good for all the current pro gamers and anybody looking to get into the game,” Probe told Snowball Esports while preparing for his campaign at IEM Katowice in Poland

“Because [as a pro player] do you really want to invest time if you’re unsure if in a couple of years it won’t be around.”

Whilst the new three year deal has generally been met with optimism, it has come at a cost too. Some regional areas, including Oceania and South East Asia, have seen their automatic, paid travel qualification spots cut for the premier international tournaments.

From two spots for the region in years prior, it is now only down to one spot for the paid trip, with other scenes such as China and Hong Kong / Taiwan also losing paid player slots.

Probe says qualification shouldn’t be easy for these outlying regions and that reducing spots to regions isn’t necessarily bad, but something should be given back to help the regions grow.

“If you do take away spots you need to do something else to give us a chance to help us grow our scene. The reason why Europe has done so well is because they region locked out Korea, Europe really grew. That kind of stuff can be done in the other regions but you just have to invest in it but that’s not what’s happening and that’s slightly disappointing”, Probe said.

“I think overall it is a good thing for StarCraft and will grow StarCraft as a whole, which might improve our region indirectly. But I’m not confident that will happen and I think there’s things that can be done to help the smaller regions.”

The format of the new ESL Pro Tour stays mostly the same, with regional areas given a certain number of spots to qualify for international ‘Masters’ tournaments throughout the year.

A big change comes in the re-introduction of ESL weekly cups, which are open registration tournaments which provide a small amount of points to the finalists.

These tournaments happen once every week, with three cups being held on the American, European and Korean server.

The other big change will see a big change to the global finals. From this year onwards, the global finals will take place at IEM Katowice in Poland, rather than BlizzCon in California.

Probe says he likes the new format changes and added that he believes IEM will do the global finals justice moving forward.

“This will open us up to do different stuff at BlizzCon and have a true world championship [at IEM],” he said.

“The weekly ESL tournaments are really good, consistent. Consistent content is really key in my opinion. Whenever there’s an ESL cup on, there’s 5,000 viewers, they [broadcasters, fans] get weekly content.”

“These cups are really good, the general deal is really good and we have all of the old tournaments as well.”

With the foreign scene locked into these events, the community still awaits news about the Korean scene, with only a single GSL Super Tournament (which was postponed until March due to the threat of the Coronavirus) appearing on the ESL website.

Our first taste of the new StarCraft system is happening right now with the ESL weekly cups, before all eyes move to Poland, where IEM Katowice will start on February 24.

Find out more about the new ESL Pro Tour here.

Header image credit: ESL