DOTA 2 Tournament Hires Satellite to Stream Event from Cruise Ship

Not all gaming competitions are set on equal stages, and the latest DOTA 2 tournament is the perfect example of this. The Nanyang Cruise Cup will be set out in the Pacific, while the Chinese teams battle it out for a $50,000 prize pool. Of course, they’ll be playing via LAN, as broadband isn’t always going to be the best for online gaming in an ocean, but what about the increasingly popular live streams?

With a guest capacity of 3678, the Sapphire Princess will be sailing from Shanghai to Jeju, South Korea via Fukuoka on October 13th. 2016 champions Wings Gaming, as well as the Newbee gaming team are already taking part, with two more teams to be selected to be decided via qualifiers.

“Cruises are not very popular among young people, no internet on the high seas, slow pace of life etc. We decided if we could solve the internet problem, and add some activities that young people like, the cruise journey will be interesting,” Zilin told joinDota. “As far as I know there have been some attempts to use a satellite for an online stream, but no one has ever tried to host an Esports tournament and Esports Festival on a Cruise ship before.”

KeyTV is on board and the group has hired a satellite to stream a broadcast-quality event from the ship. Hopefully, this will be smooth sailing in more than one regard, and it’s certainly a nice twist on the usual gaming event setups.