League of Legends teams T1 and GenG have offered to pay for English casters to cover the KeSPA Cup in South Korea after they were told just days before the event that there would not be an English language broadcast.
Caster Max ‘Atlus’ Anderson had tweeted earlier today, December 20, that KeSPA (the Korean Esports Association) had made a last minute call to not have an English stream of the event, despite wide support from English-speaking nations for many of Korea’s biggest LoL teams. He also stated that English casting talent were “barred from restreaming the event from home.”
After a lot of complaints from members of the community and fans of Korean teams at the tournament, T1’s CEO Joe Marsh swooped in with a pledge that his organisation and fellow competitors GenG – both of whom have large English-speaking fanbases – would cover the costs of having an English casting team for the event.
“Let’s make this work KeSPA!” he tweeted. “T1 and GenG agree to share in the cost of the English casters with KeSPA for KeSPA Cup!” This was then backed up by GenG’s COO, Arnold Hur, who replied in festive spirit.
It’s Christmas and if we don’t have this otherwise we are pic.twitter.com/amHuIUJyai
— Arnold [COO @SeoulDynasty | @Gen.G] (@arnoldwh) December 20, 2019
While the KeSPA Cup isn’t a particularly big tournament in terms of prize pool or importance, it is the first chance to see some new-look LCK rosters in action and will feature all the big-name teams such as Griffin, DAMWON, and of course T1.
It also seems to be about proving a point to the Korean Esports Association that English-speaking audiences shouldn’t be ignored and are important to many teams in LCK.
KeSPA are yet to agree to T1 and GenG’s deal and haven’t confirmed whether there will be English-speaking talent at the event.
