ESL recently sold exclusive broadcasting rights to Facebook. A platform which is highly unpopular with the average Gamer Facebook has been trying to get into esports for quite sometime. They started with Paladins, Hearthstone and now CSGO.
The ESL Genting platform saw the first tournament being hosted on Facebook. the results were drastic and the viewership numbers were too small for any company to run off profitably. It has been a disappointment so far and we will wait to see the impact of the Facebook deal on ESL tournament viewership in the future.
Here is how many Dota tournaments there are going to be in the future if noone is taking money for broadcast rights anymore: Exactly one (The International). Having your cake and eating it too never works.
— Ulrich Schulze (@theflyingdj) January 23, 2018