As announced by Max “Atlus” Anderson on Twitter, the upcoming KeSPA Cup tournament will also be cast in English. Even though an English cast wasn’t planned, the South Korean organization changed its mind following incentive by T1 and Gen.G. The tournament will be cast by LCK casters Atlus, Nick “LS” De Cesare, Brendan Valdes, and Seth “Achilios” King. That last name is especially surprising, as Achilios hasn’t cast a single League of Legends game in the last year. He spent his time in the Overwatch League, casting games alongside Wolf “Wolf” Schröder.
An endorsement from the big guys
Prior to this year’s KeSPA Cup, it seemed like there would be no English cast for the tournament. While the KeSPA Cup isn’t seen as a major competition, it comes at a time when there aren’t any other League of Legends esports events. This is especially true for western fans, who certainly enjoy the KeSPA Cup in the LCS/LEC’s absence. Sure, you have the Chinese Demacia Cup, but the KeSPA Cup is often far more competitive and the quality of games is just overall better.
So naturally, once the news of no English broadcast arose, fans were visibly upset. A Reddit thread exposing the issue came up and quickly gained a lot of traction. It gained the attention of T1 and Gen.G, two South Korean giants, who in a Twitter conversation with each other and KeSPA agreed on sharing the costs of the English broadcast, saving Christmas for all League of Legends esports fans.
Let’s make this work @kespa! @T1LoL & @GenG agree to share in the cost of the English casters with KeSPA for KeSPA Cup! @KeSPAen
— Joe Marsh (@JoeMar) December 20, 2019
An ulterior motive
Although we’d like to believe it was all done in Christmas spirit, esports is still a business. Both T1 and Gen.G, arguably the biggest South Korean esports organizations, have been making an effort to reach the western market in the past year. It started off with both organizations bringing on numerous streamers that streamed entirely in English. Furthermore, both organizations work hard on keeping their western audience intact by running social media channels in English. And lastly, it’s efforts like the English KeSPA Cup broadcast that, although probably small in terms of expenses, means a lot to the western fans, bringing them even closer to the seemingly distant South Korean teams.
The 2019 KeSPA Cup begins tomorrow at 9 a.m. CET / 12 a.m. PST. Catch all the action live on YouTube.
Do you think the KeSPA Cup broadcast will attract more viewers with its English cast? Let us know in the comments! For all League of Legends news, stay in touch with Daily Esports.
