Kiswe and Rock Entertainment are going big to localize its esports tournaments in Asia Pacific.

Earlier this week, interactive video company Kiswe announced its new partnership with content distributor Rock Entertainment Holdings to broadcast the world's biggest esports tournaments in the APAC region. Their tie-up brings esports content from across the globe to deliver a fully immersive, customized gaming experience for players and fans, in any native language from Asia Pacific.

We're excited to be teaming up with Rock Entertainment and Blue Ant Extreme to localize the biggest esports tournaments in the Asia-Pacific region! https://t.co/WVfYKw0uIV pic.twitter.com/ZRw7czQkGN

— Kiswe 📹 (@KisweVideo) June 21, 2021

With this collaboration, viewers will be able to catch the 2021 Valorant Champions Tour Stage 3 Finals Challengers Hong Kong/Taiwan live this coming July 2021. The upcoming tournament takes place as part of Valorant's first anniversary celebration.

Esports producers and casters will also have the opportunity to work remotely, slashing out the need to travel, cutting down on equipment costs, and overall staying safe from any onsite risks due to the ongoing pandemic. Kiswe and Rock Entertainment's partnership also assists event organizers to cost-effectively localize game streams and open up new monetization avenues.

Bandwagon caught up with Harold Chan, Head of Commercial & Partnerships of Kiswe, to talk a little more about Kiswe's new partnership, ways viewers can enjoy the streams more, and how they learned from streaming concerts to further develop upcoming esports events.

Can you give our readers a better idea of what to expect out of your partnership with Rock Entertainment?

The partnership gives producers and casters the ability to work remotely and collaboratively, without having to worry about hardware, software, logistics, and cost. The partnership with Rock Entertainment will also allow us to bring top-level esports content from around the world, reaching new and wider audiences.

How different will streaming esports tournaments be compared to the virtual concerts Kiswe previously put up?

We have two core video interactive technologies—Kiswe Studio and Kiswe Concerts. They are different products but also have the ability to integrate to solve different business needs.

With Kiswe Studio, we work with broadcasters, networks, leagues, federations, and content creators to give them the ability to easily localise broadcasts to drive better fan engagements and monetization. 

Kiswe Concerts is our one-stop solution for virtual concerts, events, PPV, and much more. We apply our technological know-how with video and interactive experiences, offering entertainment artists, content owners, and event organizers the opportunity to scale and drive the most engaging virtual "like-being-there" experience.

We have the ability to take care of these end-to-end (encompassing multi-view, chat, streaming, ticketing, eCommerce, anti-piracy, data analytics, etc), eliminating the need for partners to try to patch together various fragmented point solutions. We can also bring a global virtual eSports event to fans using this platform.

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So you were able to give K-Pop fans lightsticks, private chat rooms, and even bring them onstage (virtually) at BTS' Map of the Soul ON:E and their 2021 Muster Sowoozoo concerts. What kind of fun features can gaming fans see at your upcoming Valorant tournament streams?

Gaming fans who are watching can share their opinions and thoughts socially and these can be shared with like-minded viewers in real-time. Other than localisation, Kiswe Studio allows us to bring in familiar and popular voices from the region to fans in APAC.

(Eg. Where we brought in Xyclopz who is popular in this region to be the commentator).

In what ways do you and Rock Entertainment plan to offer content to fans with inclusivity in mind?

This partnership helps with diversity and inclusivity in multiple ways. Producers and casters are no longer physically constrained, opening up a wider range of talent from anywhere. At the same time, content can be localised, helping to reach out to new and larger regional TV viewers in APAC.

How have Kiswe's earlier events helped in gearing you up for this tournament?

We have worked with many other esports broadcasters and this partnership only helps bring esports fans in APAC more exposure to tournaments from across the globe in a localised manner onto their TV screens.