The biggest video game fighting tournament of the year, EVO, is set to start this Saturday.
Twitch will be experimenting with their innovative Cheering feature throughout the tournament and allowing users to Cheer for their favorite players or commentators.
They are also adding a new functionality, a hashtag system. By using a hashtag before your Cheer message (e.g. cheer1000 #gamerbee) you will be able to specially support them with bits.
When you Cheer for someone at EVO, 70% of the Bits are attributed to that person and 30% of the Bits go to EVO.
via Twitch Blog
FAQ
Q. Will this be available for other esports events going forward? (TI, Worlds, etc)
A. We think that Cheering for people who are featured on event streams has the potential to bring a new level of support, sustainability, and infrastructure to gaming communities on Twitch. We worked to get this ready by Evo to put it in the hands of the community and to find out if we’re moving in the right direction.
We have a lot more work to do to make this kind of experience available for all gaming events on Twitch, and we plan to tackle that work based on the kind of feedback we see at Evo. If you’re excited about this, let us know on social media, or better yet, tune into Evo and Cheer!
Q. I’m not familiar with Bits. How exactly do they support players, commentators, and TOs?
A. Twitch provides participating partners a share of the revenue Twitch receives from Bits equal to 1 cent per Bit used to Cheer for them, subject to certain terms and conditions such as our Bits Acceptable Use Policy. You can find more details on this blog post.
Just like the rest of Cheering, the Evo experience is a Beta, and we know that some featured players and commentators are not Twitch partners. Our dream is to allow viewers to Cheer for anyone who creates awesome moments on Twitch. For Evo, we’re going to try to get as close as we can to that vision. To make this work, we’ll be reaching out and working directly with all of the featured players and commentators on the Evo streams.
Q. Why are 30% of Bits attributed to the TO?
A. For many gaming communities, event organizers are the people who bring us all together, and Cheering as a product is about celebrating awesome moments in a way that supports the entire scene. We believe that Cheering can best contribute to sustainability and infrastructure if Bits directed towards players and commentators ultimately support that person, as well as the channel that brought the content to the viewers.
