Some good news for cord-cutting esports fans: You won’t need a cable subscription to watch the first Counter-Strike league to be broadcast on a major American TV network.
Turner Broadcasting’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, ELEAGUE, kicks off on Tuesday and viewers will be able to watch the competition from start to finish on Twitch, the two companies announced today.
ELEAGUE is a joint collaboration between Turner and talent management agency WME | IMG. Two 10-week tournaments will see 24 of the best CS:GO teams from around the world competing for their share of $2.4 million, or $1.2 million for each season. Teams will be competing live from the new ELEAGUE studio in Atlanta.
Turner and WME | IMG have reached a multi-year agreement with Twitch to distribute on-demand content as well as the live competitions.
Competition will be streamed on the ELEAGUE Twitch channel every Tuesday and Wednesday from 12pm ET, with six games played per day. Thursday will see best-of-three coverage from 2pm ET. The Friday night best-of-three weekly finale, which will be broadcast on national television station TBS, will also be broadcast on Twitch starting from 10pm ET. The first six weeks will see four teams compete each week in a group stage, with the winners heading through to the playoffs.
“Twitch has become the live streaming destination for millions of gamers on a global scale and we’re looking forward to directly connecting ELEAGUE with its passionate community,” ELEAGUE’s general manager Christina Alejandre said in a statement.
Twitch boasts more than 100 million unique viewers every month. Broadcasting the games on Twitch is a smart way for Turner and WME | IMG to ensure that their league lives on the same platform as its fans.
