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Following 2018’s first full season of the Clash Royale 
League (CRL), Supercell has made significant structural and presentational changes. The 2019 season, which began in late May, cut out a dozen teams by consolidating North America, Europea, and Latin America into a single CRL West region. Additionally, the previous portrait-style broadcasts for Western audiences—which received a mixed reaction from viewers and teams alike—have been replaced by landscape streams.
There’s another big change behind the scenes, too. Rather than continue handling production itself, Supercell partnered with veteran South Korean esports production company OGN to take over both the CRL West and CRL Asia regions, as well as this season’s World Finals (VSPN produces the CRL China region). Production for CRL West takes place out the OGN Super Arena in Manhattan Beach, California.
“We try to show more and more gameplay with less talking, and less focus on ancillary stuff.”
Taking on the Clash Royale League provides OGN another key partner as it continues its $100M+ USD North American push. During a recent visit to the OGN Super Arena, The Esports Observer spoke with OGN North America general manager and senior vice president Won Chung and executive producer and head of OGN production Gary Kim about OGN’s approach to the CRL and the tweaks still to come.
Entering the Clash
According to Chung, the partnership initially came about as Supercell sought a veteran partner that could bring more consistency with production to the Clash Royale League. Last season, regions outside of North America and Europe didn’t have the portrait-oriented broadcasts, and viewers weren’t getting the same kind of overall viewing experience across the board.
“Supercell did it on their own last year, and the people at Supercell knew OGN from Korea and all that; we have done this for 19 years,” said Chung. “They wanted the high production values and uniformity between CRL Asia and the West, as well as the World Finals. That’s the conversation we had, and then that’s how we got together as partners.”
Credit: OGN
Switching from a smartphone-centric portrait view to landscape is the most obvious difference, but the broadcast changes go well beyond that. The brand new CRL West set at the OGN Super Arena is larger than the one used in the first season for North America and Europe, with the modular stage setup tweaked from the one seen during OGN’s National PUBG League (NPL) broadcasts for PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS . The players stand atop large towers in the center of the stage, with screens surrounding them to create the illusion of the in-game battlefield. Augmented reality elements are used to enhance the broadcasts, as well.
“From the production side, we’re making a lot of new changes and improvements from last year. The first one to talk about is [augmented reality]. We embedded this AR feature where fans can get a better view of the game itself and the players actually playing. We’re utilizing this brand new studio and we’ve expanded the game arena itself for the league,” said Kim, via a translator. “There were some hiccups at first, but we’re constantly communicating with the fans and monitoring their feedback, and making changes almost every week—applying their feedback into the broadcasts.”
Making Changes
With the game still played on portrait-oriented smartphones and tablets, switching to landscape view for the broadcasts opens up additional space around the gameplay. This is something that Team Queso CEO Alvaro “Alvaro845” Gonzalez specifically wished for when speaking with The Esports Observer during December’s World Finals in Tokyo, as he said the portrait-style broadcasts didn’t allow much room to showcase players and their personalities.
“From the production side, we’re making a lot of new changes and improvements from last year. “
“We understand why [Supercell] worked with portrait because it’s a mobile game and that provides the best viewing experience. But at the same time, we wanted to show more than just the gameplay using the landscape mode,” said Kim. “It’s been great, and we wanted to focus more on the player side. We’re showing their hand movements and facial expressions; all of their emotions in the game as well by going wide. We’re especially focusing on more gameplay this time, so all of the direct transitions are faster. We try to show more and more gameplay with less talking, and less focus on ancillary stuff. Faster, more gameplay: we learned that that’s what fans wanted from last year.”
Related Article: How Clash Royale Followed Its Own Path in Mobile Esports
That’s accomplished by recording matches live-to-tape in advance, rather than broadcasting them live as they happen. Doing so ensures that there’s no dead time between rounds and matches on the stream, and no reasons for viewers to switch over to another channel or broadcast. It also significantly speeds up the time needed to watch a match, which is likely ideal for a mobile viewing audience, plus it gives OGN more flexibility to implement the augmented reality elements.
Credit: OGN
“We thought that it would impact the actual viewer experience with all of those breaks,” said Kim. “That why we wanted to get rid of that and focus more on the gameplay, with faster transitions.”
One of Supercell’s stated reasons for bringing on OGN as a production partner was to generate more shoulder content around the matches, to highlight the players and teams while also educating the audience. According to the executives, OGN has been experimenting with a fair bit of content around the league, and viewers should see more of that soon.
“We thought that it would impact the actual viewer experience with all of those breaks.”
OGN has also taken charge of seeking sponsorships and partnerships for the CRL West and Asia, as well as the World Finals. Chung said that things are in the works there and that announcements will come for the World Finals and the 2020 season. “We’re working closely with Supercell on that. We will have some announcements for the big event and next season,” he said. “It’s an ongoing process.”
It’s early still in OGN’s stewardship of those Clash Royale League regions, and there have already been some big shifts and changes—with more to come. The executives said that they’re watching closely to see how everything lands with viewers, to ensure that they’re making the most of the young league and meeting the shared goal between OGN and Supercell to convert more Clash Royale players into esports fans.
Be sure to check out our extended interview with Won Chung, in which we discuss the company’s North American expansion plans, the NPL, and the Super Arena’s role in OGN’s regional push.
