ESL Releases Official Community Stream Guidelines for ESL One Germany 2020
Valve’s recent changes to its policies regarding DotaTV and streaming rights for competitive events have prompted ESL to release its first official community stream guidelines for ESL One Germany 2020. These guidelines aim to provide clarity and requirements for anyone in the Dota 2 community who wants to re-stream matches under Valve’s new policies.
Clear Requirements for Community Streamers
ESL has outlined a basic list of “community broadcast information” that will apply specifically to the upcoming ESL One Germany qualifiers, starting on Sept. 25. These guidelines serve as a test for the final policy set that will be released before the main event’s first matches on Oct. 5.
Here are the guidelines that community streamers must follow:
- Community streamers must strictly be non-commercial.
- Streams should be based solely on personally created or licensed DotaTV content, as stated by Valve.
- There should be an additional 10 minutes of delay on top of the DotaTV delay.
- Sign-ups for the qualifiers are not required, and people can re-stream freely as long as they adhere to the above requirements.
- These rules only apply to the ESL One Germany qualifiers, and a final policy set will be communicated before the start of the main event.
In essence, community streamers are not allowed to stream the tournament as if they were running it or for external profit. However, usual stream interactions like subscriptions, bits, and donations are permitted.
The most notable requirement is the mandatory 10-minute delay for all matches, in addition to the DotaTV delay. This means that re-streams will be slightly over 10 minutes behind the live broadcast. However, viewers of community streams are often more interested in the streamer’s personality and commentary rather than just the games.
Further Details to be Released
More details about the full community guidelines will be released closer to the main event in October. In the meantime, if you want an idea of what could be included, you can refer to the documentation for OGA Dota PIT Season 3.
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