Allied Esports Leverages Xsens for First Professional Esports Tournament With Live Animated Broadcasters

Allied Esports has teamed up with Xsens, a provider of inertial motion capture products, to bring live animated casters to a professional esports tournament production for the first time.

“As gaming and esports viewership continues to grow, we need to push the boundaries of competitive content to provide new and engaging viewing experiences for our audiences and partners,” says Jud Hannigan, CEO of Allied Esports. “We’re thrilled to make history again with the Legend Series and use Xsens’ innovative motion capture animation technology to create a first-of-its-kind broadcast experience in esports.”

Through the use of Xsens’ MVN motion capture systems, used in popular films and series such as Black Panther and The Mandalorian, Allied Esports will transform its tournament casters into animated characters. The exclusively designed live motion avatars will provide fans with a fun and engaging viewing experience specific to the game being played, and create unique, innovative opportunities for brand and product integration.

“Allied Esports is taking live esports broadcasting to the next level by adding live animated casters to the tournaments,” says Rob Löring, Business Director at Xsens. “This is very challenging, and in such a demanding technical environment, Xsens is the only solution to give a reliable performance.”

The three-day, $5,900, winner-take-all CS:GO Legend Series tournament, featuring teams Apeks, Club Brugge, Nexus, and NLG, will be produced out of Allied Esports’ AE Studios in Hamburg, Germany, from April 10-12 and live-streamed on Allied Esports’ North American and European Twitch channels. Inside the motion capture suits will be casters Robert Jan Kortooms (@RJcasts) and Thiadrik Oldersma (@Toldersma), who will inject their personalities and CS:GO expertise into the animated characters and tournament broadcast.

“I can’t tell if I should be honored or offended by this historic request for my casting work,” says Oldersma. “Is having me on camera really so bad that they need to animate me?”

“I think this is quite the privilege!,” adds Kortooms. “I’m looking forward to seeing an even better version of myself on screen.”

Through its data and video rights partnership with GRID, an esports data provider that delivers official data to regulated bookmakers and sports betting platforms, Allied Esports’ CS:GO Legend Series live-server data will be distributed to participating sportsbooks, allowing bettors to engage with the event in real time.

The April tournament will be Allied Esports’ seventh edition of the CS:GO Legend Series. Previous versions of the series have included Overwatch, League of Legends, FIFA, COD Blackout, and VALORANT.