Thanks for the great question. High-res broadcasts—YES! Absolutely on our road map, but it’s a little complicated and there are a few things to consider. First topic is bitrate versus resolution, and each have important roles in contributing to viewing experience. We live in an exclusively digital world, so the total bits/second is really important because it relates directly to the perceived crispness and detail of the Rift, especially during constant complex motion and champion ability particle effects. We hope you have noticed a marked quality increase in the last year. This is because we are now approved by the major platforms to dramatically increase the bitrate and have installed new equipment that can handle 1080p60 gameplay.

Next is resolution, which is tied to your question. Sure, we’d love to kick it up to 4k but there are a bunch of serious considerations. First is that the game itself is not natively in 4k, so we’d be up-converting from the start. We are investigating higher-res options but they’re not native yet. Second, without sufficient bitrate from YouTube and Twitch, there would be a huge 4k frame but look like a big mess. 4k also requires 4x the bandwidth to send to you at home and a lot more onsite with the number of cameras we have. Finally it also requires an overhaul of our control room switcher and equipment.

So yes, we are excited to see progress on resolution and are in fact testing it behind the scenes as we speak, but we are not ready to adapt it to bigger events like Worlds quite yet. Some of our studios are looking at UHD, so stay tuned because I promise we will get there in not too distant of a future.