The DFL opened the 2023/24 VBL season with an offline matchday. However, viewers had to resort to a stream that was not really well received by some professionals and fans
Bremen’s Berkay ‘BerkayLion’ Demirci openly expressed his dissatisfaction. He had been in action himself in the North-West Division on Saturday before watching the action in the South-East Division from afar on Sunday. “The VBL stream just feels like a talk show with a bit of gameplay in the background,” he said, describing his impressions of the broadcast via X and hoping the “boring” stream would improve.
Too much trivia, too little expertise?
According to the comments of other users under Demirci’s post, however, the desired improvement did not occur. “If the games aren’t commented on, or only when a goal is scored, then there’s no need to sit anyone down,” was the assessment of user “Backfisch”, who wasn’t the only one to wonder: “Why are they talking about CoD and food?”
But it wasn’t just off-topic excursions by the presenters and guests that fell flat with the commenting public. A lack of analysis was also criticized. “At least one gameplay expert is simply missing,” said user ‘Julian’ in support of Demirci’s assessment, who found the omission of Erhan ‘Dr. Erhano’ Kayman “incomprehensible”. He would have “brought emotions and the perfect expertise”, which the VBL preparation on the first matchday would have lacked.
eSportsmen and VBL host show their approval
With his criticism, ‘BerkayLion’ doesn’t just seem to speak from the soul of viewers. Numerous eSports fans also expressed their approval in the form of a like. Among others, FOKUS pro Dylan ‘DullenMIKE’ Neuhausen, reigning individual champion Antonio ‘AntonioRadelja’ Radelja from VfB Stuttgart, Kamal ‘FCSP_Kamal’ Kamboj and Leverkusen’s Marc ‘Marc_ldw23’ Landwehr marked the post with a virtual heart – with some of them having close, sometimes contractual ties to ‘Dr. Erhano’ and his player agency.
Nevertheless, the VBL still seems to have some catching up to do in terms of presentation, after a study by auditing firm PwC identified wasted potential back in September. It remains to be seen whether the latest criticism will lead to a rethink among those responsible. Niklas ‘NiklasNeo’ Nörenberg also gave the Demirci criticism a “Like”. The content creator from SK Gaming is the host of the VBL. However, it is unclear whether the Like is meant seriously – Nörenberg likes to post satirically
