1. VR in Spectating Esports
Christian F. Merced-Cruz

2. Why Esports?
Growing trend of viewers, from 20 million unique viewers [The International, DOTA 2 (2014)] to 46 million unique viewers [Intel Extreme Masters or IEM (Katowice), Counter Strike: Global Offensive or CSGO (2017)]
Along with setting a record audience of 46 million unique viewers, IEM Katowice had 173,000 viewers (Stadium and Festival) present.
Far reaching broadcast, across outlets up to 19 different languages which streamed the matches for IEM Katowice.
Sliver.tv had up to a total of 340,000 concurrent viewers at a time for the IEM Katowice Major.
Most viewed event in Esports History,

3. What Works
Apps like Sliver.tv allow the spectator to view interactions within each game in a unique way, through the lens of VR.
Allows streamers and content creators to display their gameplay to fans in real time VR.
Other apps allow streamers and content creators to interact more closely with spectators and fans.

4. What doesn’t work
Less than 1% of the audience for these events is a VR audience (~300k VR spectators)
Out of 92.5 million VR units supplied last year, 88.4 million were Google Cardboard units.
The affordability of VR headsets detriments the amount of esports spectators that can afford such a feat.

5. Competitive analysis/Overview
Different purposes, similar audiences.
Sliver.tv employees had some level of gaming background, along with engineering / business backgrounds.
Teams consist of 4 to 5 people at the start, hiring more employees as the market demand increases.
Companies like Vreal are looking for potential employees to work as senior design engineers, among other fields.

6. Sources/articles used