Interview with Simon Sunden and Isabelle Ewert of Viagame: “We see huge potential in Hearthstone within eSports”

Hearthstone is one of the fastest growing eSports in the world, and it's no surprise that Dreamhack have recognised it and put up a staggering $25,000 prize pool for their Hearthstone tournament at Dreamhack Summer. That being said, the Hearthstone tournament is unique compared to any other event at the largest LAN event in the world - it will be the only one played on iPad. The group stages and grand finals of the event will all be played on Apple's mobile tablets, and this is a first within the scene. With Hearthstone being one of the best selling apps on the iOS App Store, the tournament is being used to promote the game as the world's first fully recognised mobile eSport. The tournament will be exclusively streamed on the new streaming platform Viagame, ran by Swedish group MTGx. onGamers reached out to Viagame's Isabelle Ewert and Simon Sunden, product manager and content manager at Viagame, for comment.

For those people out there who aren’t quite familiar with the MTGx group, could you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Isabelle: MTGx was launched in June 2013 as a subsidiary to Modern Times Group (MTG). MTG is an international media company with operations spanning four continents and include online, free-TV, pay-TV, radio and content production businesses. The goal of MTGx is to enable MTG to accelerate the pace of its digital innovation and expansion, with products including Viaplay and Viagame.

What made you decide to create the Viagame platform?

Isabelle: We are really passionate about gaming and eSports and wanted to have a dedicated platform for our eSports content, where fans could reach it globally. The idea of building a new global eSports platform was just too exciting to resist!

MTGx has previously worked together with DreamHack in producing Swedish eSports content through TV6. What did you learn from this experience?

Simon: We definitely learned a lot. The most amazing thing has been the support from the community from the start. We started with The International and since then broadcasted everything from web shows to tournaments and the community's response has only been positive.

What made you decide on Hearthstone as the game of choice for the official unveiling of your platform?

Simon: It’s one of the fastest growing games and we see huge potential in Hearthstone within eSports. It’s also a game that with the availability on iPads and possibly other devices in the future can reach new audiences for eSports.

What other eSports titles are you considering? By the looks of the website, Dota 2 and CS:GO as well as an eSports talk show. The GD Studio are already given their own categories.

Simon: We are going to broadcast from all of the major eSports titles. Starting from DreamHack we will broadcast HearthStone, CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota2 and we will add more content and games going forward.

If users accept the service and are happy with it, are we going to see potentially more of DreamHack’s content moved over exclusively to Viagame?

Simon: You will see more content from not just DreamHack but also from other leagues and tournaments.

The Viagame company description seems to indicate that you view yourself as more of a production company than as a platform for others. Are there any plans to allow users to stream through your platform, or will it all be about homemade content?

Isabelle: The platform is intended for premium eSports and casual content at firsthand. This is what we want to focus on at start in order to get really good at delivering this and become the go-to platform if you’re looking for high quality entertainment. That said, we’re always interested in getting contacted about some good content that would be relevant on our platform!

How do you view the live streaming landscape? Where is it now and where do your projections show it going over time?

Simon: The live streaming landscape is evolving very fast. It was just a couple of years ago we saw the first boom and it’s only going to increase even more in the future. I think we will see more live streaming services and capabilities in the future.

You may have heard the rumours of Google considering acquiring Twitch. How does this impact new movers such as yourself?

Simon: It’s amazing to see the interest from giants like Google in services like Twitch. It will only help the growth of gaming and eSports streaming.

I’m sure you are aware of the “interesting” subculture that is Twitch chat. How is Viagame approaching the community interaction issue, and what role do you think it plays in viewer engagement?

Isabelle: We think this plays a major role in viewer engagement and it’s a really important feature to have. We decided to launch our beta version without it as we wanted to get our content out on the new platform, but it’s definitely something we’re working on. We would be happy to get insights from the community on what they see as the ultimate chat functionality.

What do you see as being the role of television in the future of eSports content? What challenges does the prevalent all-day tournament format with frequent delays in between present in terms of the conversion for a TV audience?

Simon: ESports is a bit different than traditional sports but can be compared to a sport like tennis. You never know for sure how the Wimbledon final will take and you also have external circumstances like rain which will delay the tournament. From that perspective it’s pretty similar to eSports but there’s still TV channels broadcasting Wimbledon.

It is a challenge but it’s something that you can work with and get good broadcasting. We already broadcast eSports on linear TV in Sweden and it’s worked very well.

What are the major areas that need to be improved in terms of making eSports more TV friendly?

Simon: We still think eSports has a lot to learn from regular sports broadcasts with highlights, analytical desks as well as regular sports shows. With eSports growing we will see more eSports shows that are similar to regular TV shows.

The Dreamhack Viagame Hearthstone Championship will be live streamed on www.viagame.com at 18:00 CET. You can find our full coverage center for the event here.