The abrupt end of NASL's StarCraft coverage (not just of WCS, but period) seems to echo MLG's decision after season one in 2013 (keeping in mind MLG still does cover SC2, but not carrying the weight of a WCS season). ESL (covering Europe) has shown no difficulty in carrying the WCS banner, so what differences are there between the approaches? I'm not an insider and can only speculate as a fan who has watched all three, but a few things spring to mind:
Casters
While I'm not the biggest fan of Madals/Pengwin (who covered Challenger for Europe this year), there's no question that the casting coverage in Europe is much better than what MLG offered last year (Axslav/Axeltoss). Rotterdam and MrBitter are among the better casters however, so this difference really only applies to MLG's initial coverage.
Host
Only ESL has a host. This might seem like a small change, but having Redeye handle introductions, down time, and interview people makes an enormous difference. Casters can focus on what they need to do and there aren't dead air pauses whereas (ala NASL) Rottedam and MrBitter have to tell stories for as long as it takes while apologising for technical difficulties.
Audience
While ESL's audience never looks like it's more than 20 people, it does make a difference--their very presence give the event some gravitas that was lacking for both MLG and NASL. It also makes ESL's broadcast look more like an event than just two guys sitting at a desk talking to themselves.
Coverage
ESL has always done an excellent job at covering the Challenger league and the qualifiers, while MLG's coverage was awful and NASL's, while better, could have used a little more pizazz. Challenger is a great place to build up players who make it into Premier and give them both exposure and recognition. ESL also allows for regional casting which for some reason NASL never embraced--a puzzling choice given that their region includes Asia and Latin America, where opportunities would presumably be ripe (a simple example: IEM was in Brazil recently, so why not have a Portuguese cast to take advantage of whatever hype exists from that?).
Regional Strength
There's no question that the European scene is stronger than the North American. The reasons for this are complex (just one: strong national scenes help the draw--think of the hype behind HeroMarine, whose distinguishing accomplishment was winning the EPS--something I don't think a state champion could achieve in NA), but it boils down to ESL having a more dedicated audience to draw from--NA broadcasters have to work harder to generate interest. It's also worth remembering that the biggest remaining non-WCS tournaments (DreamHack, HomeStory, ASUS ROG, and IEM) are either completely or largely European events--all of which helps build the brand. The days of big stage MLG and IPL events are (for now) of the past (only Red Bull remains).
Schedule
This only applies to this year, but I think when Blizzard spread out its schedule NASL did itself an enormous disservice by packing in its games back-to-back. ESL's format, with a break between sets, is a much better way to build up hype and avoid audience exhaustion. I also think NASL should have gone on opposite days to ESL, making them the only broadcast of the day.
The Numbers (rounded, all via Conti)
Given that the round of 32 is what's currently on (or just finishing), here's a comparison over the four WCS seasons to get a sense of how each group has done. I don't have complete numbers available for the current season, so it's not comprehensive, but it's a useful snapshot of overall trends:
2013
Season One
ESL
Group A 30,000
Group B 34,000
Group C 23,000
Group D 31,000
Group E 34,000
Group F 29,000
Group G 39,000
Group H 33,000
Average 31,000
MLG
Group A 15,000
Group B 16,000
Group C 26,000
Group D 19,000
Group E 13,000
Group F (I couldn't find it on Conti's list)
Group G 21,000
Group H 13,000
Average 17,000
Season Two
ESL
Group A 31,000
Group B 34,000
Group C 32,000
Group D 29,000
Group E 26,000
Group F 29,000
Group G 31,000
Group H 25,000
Average 29,000
NASL
Group A 18,000
Group B 15,000
Group C 12,000
Group D 18,000
Group E 12,000
Group F 17,000
Group G 16,000
Group H 18,000
Average 15,000
Season Three
ESL
Group A 28,000
Group B 24,000
Group C 24,000
Group D 27,000
Group E 25,000
Group F 26,000
Group G 25,000
Group H 26,000
Average 25,000
NASL
Group A 13,000
Group B 12,000
Group C 12,000
Group D 10,000
Group E 13,000
Group F 11,000
Group G 10,000
Group H 14,000
Average 11,000
2014
Season One
ESL
Group A 32,000
Groups B-E 24,000
Average 25,000
NASL
Group A 15,000
Group B 16,000
Group C 13,000
Group D 23,000
Average 16,000
So a quick look at trends of the averages over all four seasons:
ESL 31k-29k-25k-25k
MLG 17k-NASL 15k-11k-16k
The release of HOTS gave a big boost to numbers, but ESL was able to retain 80% of that initial audience and their viewership does not seem to require a big name (as can be seen by the steady numbers this season). MLG's number bump was not large and I think much of that was their fault (they had both HOTS and many more NA players participating than what NASL had to deal with). Interestingly enough, NASL had almost recouped MLG's initial numbers before pulling the plug, albeit they remain over a third less than ESL's.
Just an afterthought: there's a theory (with good substance) that argues there must be foreigners in these tournaments to generate interest. I think NASL's work illustrates that even with a massive influx of Koreans it's still possible to get people to watch so long as you work at building up the players involved. I don't think the big difference in NA and European numbers are directly tied to Korean participation.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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