OpTic NaDeSHoT says leaving Twitch for MLGtv is one of his ‘biggest regrets’
In a new Q&A video, OpTic Gaming’s co-owner and former pro-player, NaDeSHoT, says one of his biggest regrets is leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on MLG.tv. Over a year ago, Matt Hagg announced in a video that he had signed a contract with MLG.tv to stream exclusively on their new platform. Call of Duty eSports was on the rise on Twitch, with viewer counts increasing, but the switch to MLG.tv seems to have stopped much of the progress.
“I just feel very responsible for the decline in viewership in competitive Call of Duty,” Haag said. “When I left Twitch, I was really at the forefront of competitive Call of Duty. The viewership was thriving, other e-sports and the players and the casters and the analysts were giving our game more respect than we had in previous times.”
“We had strength in numbers,” Haag said. “People were watching our streams. We had thousands of people showing up to our tournaments, and we were just in the best position that competitive Call of Duty has ever been [in],” Haag recalls.
Hagg says that a lot of the viewership he had on Twitch did not move over to watch him on MLG.
“And then, in one day, flip of the switch, I go and stream on another website—and basically it caused all the other pro players to go and sign on and stream on MLG TV. And it basically alienated competitive Call of Duty away from all the other e-Sports when we were trying to climb out of that hole in the first place.”
Watch his video (starting at 1:57 mark):
All Call of Duty eSports events since the start of Call of Duty: Ghosts have been streamed exclusively on MLG’s http://MLG.tv platform. At the start of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the first event have over 250,000 viewers, while this weekend’s last event had 99,000. This is not just because of the streaming platform; it is also about the game itself and fans wanting to watch Advanced Warfare.
With Black Ops 3, Activision has taken charge and is running their own League for Call of Duty eSports. As of this writing, they haven’t officially announced their broadcast partner for the league, but it seems as if ESL is getting more involved over MLG, and ESL events are all streamed on Twitch.
SOURCE: Kotaku
