The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Hoyts teams up with Riot Oceania to broadcast League of Legends at selected cinemas

Legacy eSports in their OPL semi-final victory (Photo: Legacy eSports)
Roar Pro
1st April, 2016
0

Hoyts and Riot Games have announced a partnership that will see selected Hoyts cinemas air League of Legends events.

Some of the confirmed events to air will include the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League grand finals (April 5), the International Wildcard Invitational, the Mid Season Invitational, the Oceanic Pro League grand finals (August 13), the International Wildcard Qualifiers and the League of Legends World Championship Finals.

The selected Hoyts cinemas who will participate in these viewing parties include Broadway (New South Wales), Stafford (Queensland), Highpoint (Victoria), Norwood (South Australia), Carousel (Western Australia), as well as two locations in New Zealand, at Sylvia Park (Auckland) and Riccarton (Christchurch).

Depending on the reception of these viewing parties and feedback, more cinemas could potentially be added.

“We look forward to working with Hoyts and extending our esports viewing experience to the big screen for our players. Throughout the year, players will now be able to attend community cinema events across Australia and New Zealand to watch local and global esports broadcasts live among friends in an electric cinematic atmosphere that they wouldn’t necessarily experience at home,” said Mark Cox, Riot Games Oceania Marketing Director.

Viewing parties for major events are becoming increasingly popular for League of Legends events. Broadway recently showed the World Championship Finals as well as the OPL Split two grand finals.

This partnership marks a significant improvement to the previous viewing parties. In the past, the big screen was only used as a ‘second screen’, where a PC was hooked up to the movie projector, and the games were broadcast via a shaky internet connection.

This makes it prone to lag and buffering issues. Other previous complaints were that they were somewhat unorganised. A viewing party watching the World Championships did not have the main window maximised, leaving a giant white space around the video.

Advertisement

Hoyts have confirmed that the World Championships will be broadcast via satellite, removing the possibility of lag from an online stream. The method of streaming the other events have yet to be confirmed.

Tickets for the OPL split one grand finals can be found here.

close