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Blizzard on why it picked Facebook Live over ESPN for Heroes of the Dorm 2017

Zorine Te

Earlier this week Blizzard revealed the details for its Heroes of the Dorm 2017 event, which will be exclusively streamed via Facebook Live this year.

Blizzard college esports lead Adam Rosen spoke to Yahoo Esports in an interview to discuss why Facebook Live was chosen over previous broadcaster ESPN, why Heroes of the Storm was favored over other Blizzard games, and how this year’s Heroes of the Dorm will improve upon previous iterations.

Heroes of the Dorm was broadcast via a partnership with ESPN in 2015 and 2016, but Blizzard opted to stream with Facebook Live this year.

“One of the things that we think is really special about Heroes of the Dorm is that it’s really an accessible program,” Rosen said. “If you look at Heroes of the Dorm at it’s core, it’s college competition. It’s storytelling, and what we found really interesting about the program is that even if you’re not the most hardcore esports fan at the start, Heroes of the Dorm is a program that you can tune into, that you can watch that you immediately pick up. There are some things that are really pretty relevant, right? It’s college teams, and even if I might not know what Cloud9 or Misfits are, I might understand what [UC Berkley] or ASU is… we wanted to take that really compelling and really accessible content and introduce it a wider group of fans around the world.

Heroes of the Dorm 2016 winners, Arizona State University. (Blizzard)
Heroes of the Dorm 2016 winners, Arizona State University. (Blizzard)

“So I think Facebook gives us a really good opportunity to expand our reach and to really engage on a deeper level as well. We’re also excited about some of the engagement opportunities Facebook offers us. So really, as a fan being able to not only interact with huge communities around the world, but also interact with my closer friends and be able to have some conversations that otherwise might not have happened.”

Rosen further revealed that Blizzard was working closely with Facebook to promote the event.

“Yeah, we are working very actively with Facebook,” he said. “We’re really excited about the ways that we’ll be able to really take esports and introduce it to broader audiences than I think really have been done before.”

Given that Blizzard’s Battle.net client features native integration with Facebook, give players the ability to stream gameplay straight to the social media platform, the partnership does not come as a surprise. Was this part of a push to grow the integration between Blizzard and Facebook?

“When we look at the partnership between Facebook and Heroes of the Dorm, really we’re looking at it in the lens of what’s the best thing for Heroes and what’s the best thing for Heroes of the Dorm,” Rosen said.

“Of course, at the Blizzard level we’re always looking at the streaming ecosystem and trying to find ways that we can let and allow our content to reach really broad audiences and reach new people, but also have these add-on tools and ways to engage. When we’re looking at this program specifically, there’s a ton of benefits. But really it’s [about] what’s best for the program Heroes of the Dorm.”

You can watch the full interview in the video embed above. For more Heroes of the Storm esports coverage, be sure to check out our hub.