OpTic’s H3CZ breaks down perfect way to prioritize streaming during tournament season

As competitive gaming and streaming become more entwined, many professional players are opting to stay home and stream rather than travel in order to retain their viewership.

OpTic Gaming owner Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez and MLG co-founder Adam Apicella took to Twitter to discuss this phenomenon, with Apicella predicting that esports venues might implement special streaming stations to remedy this problem in the near future.

“As tournaments begin to lose high profile players due to fear of losing subs on their personal platform, I feel this will be another logistics advancement esports will incorporate,” Apicella said of the issue.

H3CZ went on to suggest a live, podcast-like production, with players streaming live at the event on their personal channels before switching over to host the main feed as they play.

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“This was discussed in early 2013 (6050 Days) during UMG events – a live, podcast-esque scenario with crowd involvement,” H3CZ commented.

The issue of streaming vs competing has plagued the competitive gaming scene for the past few years, with Smash pro Tempo ZeRo choosing to stop chasing the top ranks, as he needs to stream full-time to support his family.

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In a similar vein, FaZe Fortnite pros Tfue and Cloak declined to attend the ESL Fortnite Katowice due to its relatively low prize pool – likely in light of their immensely popular Twitch streams.

Even streaming giant Ninja suffered from a major loss of subs after taking a two-day break in June of 2018, dropping a massive 40,000 subs due to attending E3.

Streamers across the esports realm are made to choose between retaining their audience or competing in major tournaments – a problem that organizers like Hecz feel “should already be a thing.”

Disclaimer: Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez is a minority shareholder in Dexerto Ltd.