Former Fragdoll Morgan ‘Rhoulette’ Romine says the games industry must do more for pro gamers and esports.
She works for Red 5 Studios – the developer set up by a former World of Warcraft team leader, which has promised to offer $1m in prize money for its 2013 esports tournaments. It has also showed off the Esports Toolkit for its upcoming free-to-play online shooter Firefall.
“Red 5 is dedicated to supporting the future of esports and we believe that creating a more compelling experience for participants and spectators will further the cause of competitive gaming,” said Red 5 Studios’ Esports Maven and former Fragdoll Morgan Romine.
“The games industry needs to be able to support elite players a little bit better, so Red 5 Studios is doing its best to innovate and provide the tools necessary to do the best possible broadcasts.
“The newly launched eSports Toolkit is just the tip of the iceburg. We will be supporting this initiative with our Mobile Gaming Unit this fall and providing a huge payout for elite competitive gamers in 2013.”
Said Toolkit lets spectators customise their experience with two modes – Observer and Broadcast. Observer Mode offers the choice of watching gameplay through a range of in-game cameras, including the top-down Action Cam which automatically zooms in on the action. Then there are static cameras that can be switched on and player cams that follow characters around.
Broadcast Mode boasts replay controls – which allow users to rewind, pause, view the game in slow motion and fast forward. There’s a Multiple Camera Preview for linecutting into a broadcast, and built-in player stat tracking.
“At Red 5 we feel that it’s crucially important to esports and pro players that developers make their games fun to watch and easy to follow”, added Red 5 CEO Mark Kern. “This new Esports Toolkit provides an unprecedented set of tools that will help shoutcasters produce the best possible broadcasts of Firefall’s elite competitive gameplay, thus improving the spectator’s overall experience.”
Red 5 Studios is a California-based online game developer. It was founded by Kern – the former team lead for Blizzard’s smash hit MMO RPG World of Warcraft.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
