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BLAST (2021)

BLAST.tv: A superior stream experience

In a little less than a year, I helped BLAST build the foundation for their revolutionary online viewing experience BLAST.tv. This included both the consumer facing streaming platform and the backoffice platform to manage it all.

Context

BLAST is an esports organization renowned for organizing and producing high-quality esports tournaments, primarily focusing on Counter-Strike. For years, BLAST has been known for their events where thousands of fans gather in arenas around the world to watch their favorite teams live. BLAST.tv is the online extension of that experience: For fans at home, BLAST.tv offers an engaging and interactable live-stream experience, so users are closer to the action than on Twitch.tv or any other streaming service.

Backoffice

BLAST.tv is a combination of advanced features: Live-stream, chat, video library, community, event calendar and a webshop. I led the requirements specification and design of the backoffice platform where all of the mentioned features (and more) can be managed. Key design principles were scalability and customisation since each administrator would only have access to a specific set of sections.

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Consumer-facing site

The platform might seem like a fairly typical e-sports streaming experience, but BLAST.tv offers revolutionary functionality. Among other things, registered users can use the chat to:

  • Vote and influence how the event unfolds (and even have influence in-game using game API's).
  • Decide which questions the players are asked.
  • Spam emojis to turn on the pyro on the stage.

Additionally, the timeline below the video stream has visualisations of key events, so users can easily track back to watch specific highlights.

While I was not the primary responsible designer for the consumer-facing site, I did assist on important areas including (but not limited to) global navigation, chat + timeline, scoreboard and event pages.

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Results

In May 2023 BLAST.tv exceeded 100,000 registered users and peaked with 27,000 concurrent viewers. Shortly thereafter, BLAST.tv was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award in the category 'Outstanding Esports Championship Coverage'.

Since my foundational work, the platform has grown and now encompasses all of BLAST's divisions.

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