VSPO Co-founder Danny Tang: Half of VSPO’s Esports Tournaments Now Assisted by AI

Leading-edge artificial intelligence algorithms are now powering production at nearly half of VSPO’s esports tournaments, dramatically reducing content creation time and enhancing fan engagement, said the company’s co-founder Danny Tang at the New Global Sport Conference 2024 (NGSC) in Riyadh this August.

At a panel discussion with other industry leaders including Ahmad Alabduljabbar, Craig Levine, Jean Mariotte, Penny Diao and Shay Segev, Tang said nearly half of the esports tournaments VSPO produces are now leveraging AI to assist key production tasks such as live highlights capturing and post-game replay editing, markedly boosting the efficiency and agility of the company’s tournament operations.

VSPO, Asia’s biggest esports company, organises and produces more than 80 tournaments and 7000 matches every year, captivating an online fan base of over 800 million.

“Over the past couple years, we have developed a lot of AI tools to allow us to better produce esports tournament content in a much more efficient manner. For example, our ‘AICam’ now allows us to turn hours of game footage into viral social media content in mere seconds,” said Tang, who is also VSPO’s CFO and head of global strategy office.

As the leading conference for the Esports World Cup Foundation, the NGSC 2024 hosted a global delegation of over 1200 industry thought-leaders at the Kingdom Centre on August 24-25.

At the event, Tang introduced VSPO’s two proprietary AI tools, “AIOB” and “AICam”, which have been instrumental in streamlining esports production process. AIOB, an algorithm trained on extensive tournament data, assists directors in identifying and broadcasting the most thrilling moments in real time. AICam, on the other hand, automates the selection and editing of highlights, turning them into viral video clips with unprecedented speed and precision.

Another VSPO’s key AI project Tang shared was VSPO’s partnership with Qualcomm on the Snapdragon “Faith of Victory” initiative, an esports athlete emotion detection system capable of providing real-time insights into an athlete’s state of emotions by studying their facial expressions and heart rates. The AI system has been trained with data from 175 professional players across 18 top teams in the King Pro League, and VSPO continues to refine it for improved performance on a frequent basis.

Furthermore, Tang said that VSPO is also in the process of integrating its proprietary AI technologies into its signature, award-winning “4K OB Truck,” a patented mobile production unit designed for on-the-go creation and broadcasting of top-tier esports events.

This innovative vehicle was a standout feature at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, where esports was recognised as a medal sport for the first time, as a significant portion of the esports series was produced using VSPO’s “4K OB Truck,” showcasing its capabilities on an international stage.