Over 100,000 people are in Katowice, Poland right now to watch the best eSports players in the world compete across games like League of Legends, StarCraft II, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), which is produced by ESL, is celebrating 10 years of global eSports. And the biggest event on the calendar is the IEM World Championship in Spodek arena March 4-to-6.
It’s more than just a showcase of eSports across three huge stages. Other games such as Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege are being played competitively throughout the arena. And it’s also a gaming festival with plenty of hands-on opportunities for attendees, who travel from across Europe for the event.
This year, even more people will be watching the livestreams of the professional gaming matches. ESL has opened its content to Twitch, Azubu, Hitbox and the new Yahoo eSports streaming platforms.
Jesse Sell, senior manager of pro gaming and business strategy at ESL, explains the importance of Katowice in the eSports ecosystem in this exclusive interview.
What separates Katowice from other IEM events when it comes to the sheer amount of live attendees?
Katowice is the IEM World Championship — it’s got the top eSports titles, the greatest teams and a fantastic venue; it’s always going to draw a big crowd. Beyond that, we go all-out. It’s the biggest event in the city for the weekend. We’ve got events and activations going on in three separate locations with seven live tournaments. In terms of scale, Katowice is the most gargantuan event we put on all year. We try to make sure our attendees have plenty to do when they’re on-site at these events. IEM Katowice has become something like a gaming trade show in its own right.
How have you seen attendance there grow over the years (and how does that attendance compare to other tour stops)?
We’ve seen massive year-on-year growth. With our fourth trip to Katowice we’re expecting an even bigger turnout than ever before, and we’ve amplified the event accordingly. Every IEM stop is a bit different, we can’t have seating for the same number of people at IEM Cologne or IEM Taipei that we can at stops like IEM San Jose (at the SAP Center) or IEM Katowice (at the Spodek arena). If you look at IEM San Jose though, we saw over 100 percent year-to-year growth in attendance. Every time we return to a location, the crowds get larger. It shows the growing appetite for these events in the markets we’re hitting.
What was the live streaming number from last year’s Katowice and from the last San Jose stop?
In terms of single-stream viewership, we peaked at over one million concurrent viewers with over 75 million sessions over the course of the weekend for Katowice in 2015. IEM Katowice is still the most-watched esports event of all time on Twitch. For the most recent IEM San Jose event, we had over 17 million sessions, but it’s important to note the sheer amount of content coming out of Katowice, which features more games over more days than IEM San Jose.
How far away do you see IEM being able to attract 100,000 attendees in the United States?
The U.S. is a rapidly growing eSports market. The year-on-year success of both IEM San Jose as well as ESL One New York show that growth in raw data. We can also point to Riot’s show at Madison Square Garden as an indication that eSports is ready to pack U.S. stadiums. It’s just a matter of patience. Getting 100,000 attendees isn’t something that will happen overnight. It’s not a ‘if you build it they will come’ mentality that’s going to fill seats. As an industry, we’ve got a lot of work to do to ensure that attending an eSports event in the U.S. is a truly unforgettable experience worth traveling coast to coast to see. That’s the sort of work that we look forward to in the off-season; honing in on what makes folks enjoy attending these events and making sure we’re catering to their wants and desires.
How has the prize pool for IEM grown over the last decade?
In season one we had 160,000 Euro on the line. Last year we awarded 535,000 and this year we’ve increased the number yet again. (The prize money for all seasons can be found here.)
What impact has the popularity of CS:GO had on IEM’s growth trajectory?
IEM will always feature the top eSports titles in a season. Any time one of those titles performs extremely well, IEM is better off for it. With CS:GO in particular it’s clearly had an impact on our attendance numbers and viewership numbers. We’re really in a scenario where all boats rise. The better the games perform, the better our product can be.
What do you feel separates IEM from other ESL eSports tournaments?
IEM is our only global circuit of events that culminates with a world championship at the end of a season. ESL One events are each massive stand alone events. They’re not connected in the same way as IEM. Both models are successful. As the market continues to grow and diversify, it’s important for us to have products that tell different stories. IEM is more like a Grand Prix, while ESL One is more like a The Kentucky Derby.
