Swisscom is establishing a Swiss eSports league in cooperation with ESL, both for professionals and for the general public. Swisscom TV now includes several game channels and in the future a game theme world will be available.

Gaming has become a national sport in Switzerland; Over 3 million people regularly play on their PCs, consoles or mobile devices.

“eSports is a global trend, so it’s time for this sport to become a major Swiss league. With the Swisscom Hero League, we want to offer a professional platform for eSports and also make it accessible to the general public”, said Michel Siegenthaler, responsible for offers and marketing at Swisscom.

Swisscom has chosen ESL as its professional partner, the world’s largest eSports company with almost 20 years of experience.

“It goes without saying that we would like to support the increasingly popular gaming scene in Switzerland to the best of our ability”, says Torsten Haux, VP Global Media Rights & eSportsTV. “Our concept From Zero to Hero offers the casual player the possibility to turn his hobby into his profession. The best Swiss eSportsman is probably still sitting on the sofa, and we want to give this person the opportunity to compete internationally with top gamers. With the Swisscom Hero League powered by ESL, we are laying the corner stone for professional gaming in Switzerland”.

In addition to a professional league, there will also be Go4Cups for casual gamers.

Stadiums in the USA and Asia are not the only ones filled with gamers, as the demand in Europe is growing massively – for live streams and TV broadcasts as well. Swisscom TV will therefore be the first in Switzerland to bring the special-interest channels ESL.tv, ES1 and ginx to Switzerland, which will start October 16th; and it also intends to create a new theme world for gamers by the end of the year. The theme world will bundle programmes, videos and apps on the subject from all sources available on Swisscom TV. Furthermore, Swisscom is continuously optimising all network components to meet the needs of gamers. In addition to high broadband coverage, fast response times (ping) and high upload rates – and ideally symmetrical bandwidths (same bandwidth for upload and download) – are especially important for streamers.

“We see games not only as a social trend, but also as drivers for the introduction of new technologies such as 5G and as an economic factor for Switzerland,” explains Michel Siegenthaler. “According to surveys conducted by the Swiss Game Developers Association and Pro Helvetia, the total turnover is estimated at CHF 50 million. And that’s remarkable, considering the fact that most of the companies involved are start-ups.”