Introducing WardiTV
It has been a long time coming, but it is with great pleasure and excitement that we can finally announce our new brand & future : WardiTV. This is a project that has been in the works for a long time, with many ideas that have come and gone. It was important that we enter this new era, our future, with clear goals and with something that has the potential to flourish in the years to come.
The end result of all those hours, teasers & hype is WardiTV, where we bring you high quality StarCraft 2 & Esports coverage. Our foundation has been built solely on StarCraft 2, a game that will forever be the greatest in our eyes. However we feel there are so many possibilities and unexplored avenues to be reached by delving into other Esport titles, hence we will be branching out over the coming months initially with video & written content, but hopefully with our own events in 2017.
At WardiTV we know that Esports is our passion, not just our jobs. We live and breathe these games, those epic moments, the highs and lows. From the greatest championships to the weekly cups, this is where we belong. We want to make Esports accessible, not just for those who want to watch but for those who want to be involved. With that in mind we are looking at creating opportunities for people who share the passion that we do, but need some help getting their feet off the ground in the world of Esports.
We know many, if not upwards of 90%, of our fans and followers are from the world of StarCraft 2. We want you to know that WardiTV is not leaving behind StarCraft 2 as we begin to broaden our horizons. In fact, we are going to be putting on our biggest and best StarCraft 2 events ever. Don't believe us? Well we'll start our major announcements with our StarCraft focused content.
WardiTV Team League - Season 7
The most successful event in our past years was the SC2Improve Team League, an event we know many of you loved and which was probably your gateway into our content. We are happy to bring Season 7 of the Team League to you all under the WardiTV name, only know we are going bigger and better than ever before.
If you are familiar with the Team League you will know we operate three divisions, targeted at European teams covering the entire stretch of different leagues & skill levels. With WardiTV we are proud to announce that Season 7 will be introducing a fourth division. We hope that you will be excited to welcome the $500 WardiTV Team League America to our line-up of events in the upcoming season.
The European divisions will also be receiving a lot of love, with over $2500 (and more to be confirmed) to be won during our seventh season of the event. Most importantly we are going to be focused on producing additional content, recaps, previews, interviews & more, to help tell the story of WardiTV Team League Season 7. This is something we have experimented with in the past and something we will put a lot of focus on in the coming months.
You can expect a full announcement of WardiTV Team League Season 7 in October, with qualifiers beginning at the end of the month and the season beginning during November.
WardiTV Open
If you have been keeping up with us lately, you will have seen the success of the Wardi Open, an event which has blown us all away with viewership, participation and just in general the interest of the event. We have doubled the prize pool and more due to everybody wanting to support on Matcherino, and we are happy that due to the new OSC-Matcherino partnership that we have new coupon codes available to further raise the prize pool.
As WardiTV we see how much you have all enjoyed this event and so we want you to know that if you show us that want it, you will get it. The first edition of the WardiTV Open is coming this December, with the idea of going above and beyond the Wardi Open. We'll see you all there.
WardiTV UK SC2 Championship (Offline Event)
We have heavy ties to the UK Scene, with our team (more on that later) being mostly from the UK and our ownership as well. The issue with the UK StarCraft scene is our distinct lack of events between LANs, which makes it hard for players to be motivated to practice.
We have ran UK events in the past, but we have decided it is time to really step on the gas pedal and to push UK StarCraft like we never have before. In 2017 we will be bringing the UK SC2 Championship, which will feature a live offline finals. This will be our first ever offline event and we are extremely excited to be able to provide additional UK StarCraft 2 content for players and fans alike. If you're a UK player it is time to get on that ladder and to get practicing for what promises to be one fantastic event, UK style.
WardiTV StarCraft 2 Team
As SC2Improve we were host of a StarCraft 2 team, Team SC2Improve. Team SC2Improve had a lot of great team and individual results, with two epic.LAN victories and a RO4 finish in the semi-finals of the SC2ITL Second Division, the roster had grown together as a strong group of friends from being Platinum and Diamond to now up to Top 50 GrandMaster.
We are happy to announce that WardiTV will pick up the Team SC2Improve roster, though without manager Jonathon 'Wardí' Ward who will be stepping down from leading the team, leaving for other opportunities. In his place Joshua 'RiSky' Hayward will step up as manager of the team as we had into the final UK LAN of the year : epic.NINETEEN, where a WardiTV victory is a high possibility.
“I’m looking forward to the manager position in team WardiTV, in my role i want to emphasise amateur play and giving opportunities to lesser known players in clan wars and other future opportunities.”
We will be providing support and promotion to these players, who do not currently receive the recognition that they deserve. Expect video content and more from the team as they continually strive to keep on dominating the UK StarCraft 2 scene while also pushing themselves to be more of a presence in the international scene
Continued StarCraft 2 Event Coverage
It should go without saying, but our coverage of StarCraft 2 events will continue as per usual with Jonathon 'Wardí' Ward on Twitch TV. We will continue to provide official & exclusive English coverage of the Leifeng & SGL Cups five days a week (Mon-Wed for Leifeng, Thur & Fri for SGL).
On top of this we will be broadcasting the rest of the events we usually cover, from Go4SC2s, online qualifiers, OSC tournaments and whatever else is going on that needs casting.
If you didn't already know, we also upload to YouTube two times a day, with the best matches we covered in the recent weeks. Stay caught up on all of the StarCraft 2 action from WardiTV.
We will also be aiming to increase coverage in the WardiTV Team League outside of the First Division. We are aiming to have one or two official streams per week to cover games from the Second & American Divisions.
Branching into other Esport Titles
Moving away from our StarCraft only related information, we want to quickly talk about our plans of branching into other Esport titles. We are aiming to do this initially through YouTube & written content and then branching into streams and our own events in 2017 if all is going well.
We are aiming to bring on people with passion who are interested in producing content for WardiTV. No matter previous experience, we believe that if you have the drive and the desire to create content then we can push you in the right direction to improve & produce your content while also bringing extra sets of eyes in its direction. If you are interested you can get in touch via the Contact tab here on the website.
This increased drive in content is expected to start towards then end of the year.
Partnership with Leeds Universty Esports Society
WardiTV aims to be a stepping stone into the world of Esports. Talking personally for a moment, I invested a lot of time during my University years to grow SC2Improve, which has eventually led me to where I am at today. It was not easy and I was very fortunate with timings and opportunities, while going through a lot of trial and error to find the right way to improve. While I was at University it was not until my last year when an Esports Society was formed. Since then the Leeds University Union Esports Society has been putting on small competitions and LANs as well as social events to help bring Esports lovers together.
It is with great pleasure that WardiTV will be partnering with LUU Esports Society to help provide students with opportunities and experience working in Esports, as well as opportunities to seek out advice on how to get into streaming, casting or other areas of the industry, pushing them in the right direction. It is truly difficult to break into the Esport industry and that is the gap we are trying to help individuals close. We look forward to the upcoming year with LUU Esports Society.
“Our exciting partnership with WardiTV offers our members a lot of Esport opportunities! Our members can now develop their streaming and casting skills, extending their experience in Esports beyond just playing their games!”
WardiTV Welcomes Mjolkie
As time goes by we will be hoping to continue increasing the staff list here at WardiTV. For now we would like to welcome our second in command, Lynne 'Mjolkie' van Vuuren, who will be assisting with the running of WardiTV content and events as well as other duties. Lynne has been a huge asset to us in the past and it is with pleasure that we welcome her on board officially for the foreseeable future.
“When Wardi asked me to be his 2nd for WardiTV, I was very happy to finally do something I love with an awesome, talented person like him. I’m excited to be a part of this amazing, new organization!”
With that we have exhausted our initial set of announcements. We hope you are as excited as we are for the future of WardiTV and that you are looking forward to all of our content and events in the coming months! Consider following us on our social media, linked below, to keep up to date with all WardiTV announcements, content and events.