FACEIT, the competitive platform for the Esports Championship Series, has announced a new multi-year partnership with YouTube Gaming as its exclusive streaming partner. Starting on March 25, fans will be able to watch ECS' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitions on FACEIT's YouTube channel.
"We're very happy about this partnership. first off all because YouTube Gaming, and YouTube in general, is the largest video platform in the world when it comes to consumption of gaming content," said Michele Attisani, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at FACEIT, in an interview with ESPN. "We see a great opportunity to see, not just to retain the current fans, but also to tap into a completely new audience."
Ryan Wyatt, Global Head of Gaming Content at YouTube, said "This is our most significant investment into esports to date and illustrates our continued commitment to growing esports with the hundreds of millions of gamers watching YouTube each day. The ECS revenue sharing and co-ownership structure reinforces our belief that all players should have a voice. We know the CS:GO community is already watching clips, highlights, and rebroadcasts on YouTube, so we are excited to be able to bring them all this same action live."
But making the jump from Amazon-owned video game streaming giant Twitch will come with its challenges. Twitch is currently the largest platform for streaming games, with most esports competitions being hosted on the site.
Attisani, however, is optimistic that FACEIT's new found marketing muscle will bring in viewers over from Twitch. "We're going to have the YouTube and Google salesforce entirely dedicated to marketing, bringing ECS content to market," said Attisani. One way YouTube will do this is by advertising ECS across the entire YouTube platform.
Attisani also touted YouTube's streaming technology, being able to bring competition in high bitrate 1080p at 60 frames-per-second. YouTube's Gaming platform also allows for DVR-like functionality, allowing viewers to pause and rewind.