Do Not Peek Entertainment Creates New Esports-Production Workflow for Odyssey Invitational

Live Fortnite tournament featured 100 players, 50 streamers battling for $100,000

Founded in 2019 by esports-production veterans Scott Smith and Jason Baker, Do Not Peek Entertainment (DNP) operates a full studio in Phoenix, producing live broadcasts and original programming and postproducing content for esports and gaming.

Do Not Peek Entertainment’s productions run out of the BitFire Studios control room in Phoenix.

Smith and Baker are legends in the esports-production space with more than 20 years of experience apiece. As co-founder of GotFragTV (which was acquired by MLG), owner/COO of team Evil Geniuses, and on-air host/broadcast analyst for more than two decades, Smith is one of the most iconic faces in esports broadcasting. Baker, also a co-founder of GotFragTV, helped launch Turner’s Eleague as a producer and Blizzard’s Overwatch League as a director.

“After living through and pioneering the origins of esports broadcasting and watching the influx of corporate forces into the space,” says Baker, “we wanted to combine top-notch production with the sincere joy and excitement of gaming. We founded Do Not Peek to tell authentic stories about the most exciting entertainment on the planet and to make cool stuff with cool people.”

Odyssey Invitational: Creating a Workflow for 100 Players, 50 Streamers

DNP took its live-production capability to new heights this month with the $100K Odyssey Invitational, a Fortnite tournament in which a total of 100 players, including 50 celebrity streamers, battled for $100,000 in prize money.

DNP had to build a system that could capture each stream and be able to switch between them at a moment’s notice. Integrating a cloud solution with its switching system, the production team was able to capture all 50 Twitch feeds, allowing observers to use Elgato Stream Decks to select which 12 would be visible on the multiview. From there, the director could see which players were in the action and switch to their POV at any time or to the free-cam observers.

The Fortnite tournament featured 100 players, including 50 celebrity streamers, battling for $100,000 in prize money.

“This is the first time we’ve done a show like this,” says Baker. “It is certainly one of the most complex. We had been contemplating how to engineer something on this scale, and this show gave us the opportunity to go all-in and develop our own solution.”

In addition, DNP provided its LED Stage setup for hosts and casters as well as the full control room at its Phoenix production facility.

DNP provided its LED Stage setup for hosts and casters as well as the full control room at its Phoenix production facility.

Streamer events like the Odyssey Invitational have grown rapidly in popularity in recent years, thanks in large part to Twitch Rivals events like the Streamer Bowl. However, although Twitch and other high-profile streamers boast high-end API tools to boost their productions, DNP built a new production workflow from scratch for the Sept. 8 event.

Without the API tools available to streamers like Twitch Rivals, DNP needed to figure out how to adequately browser-source-capture 50 streams at once. Baker and company came up with a solution that includes switching, automation, fonting, and multiple data flows. He says the biggest challenge was testing everything and combining them into a single workflow for the ultimate end-to-end solution.

The Odyssey Invitational took place on Sept. 8.

“The biggest challenge was testing everything and combining them into a single workflow for the ultimate end-to-end solution,” says Baker. “This event proves that we can solve big problems from ideation to execution.

“The feedback from the client,” he continues, “has been extremely positive so far, with all signs pointing to the broadcast being a success for them. The fans that tuned in seemed to enjoy the show as well, although, with this type of broadcast, most of the viewers stay on the streamer’s stream and do not often venture to the main broadcast.”

On the Horizon: With New Production Model, DNP Sees Big Things Ahead

In 2021, DNP moved into BitFire Studios, a newly opened 16,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Phoenix offering a cost-effective solution to the high prices of the East/West Coast production hubs. The turnkey studio with multiple stages features a broadcast-control room with full Ross suite: Carbonite Ultra switcher with Tria+, XPression graphics, and Mira+ playback/replay system. Although the new digs have served DNP well, Baker says, the production model used for the Odyssey Invitational marks a new chapter in the company’s capabilities.

Do Not Peek Entertainment believes its new production workflow will be a hit with future clients

“Ever since moving into BitFire Studios,” he explains, “we’ve had access to some incredible toys and powerful technology. But this is something we designed from the ground up. There’s no hard limit on scaling this solution up. We did 50 streamers this time, but, next time, a hundred? A thousand? We’re eager to push the medium as far as it’ll go.

“Now that we’ve put our massive streamer array through its paces,” he continues, “we’re eager to bring this large-scale creator collaboration model to other clients and games. We’ve also got some remote-production [projects] coming up for some very important causes.”