PGL bar casters, players from streaming Bucharest Open Qualifiers

In two separate instances, PGL have made the decision to bar third-parties from streaming the PGL Bucharest qualifiers, with stories popping up in the Danish and Brazilian communities. Over in Denmark, PGL admins told a number of community streamers that they would not be granted CSTV links for EU open qualifiers, while over in Brazil Seleção do BT, a stream team like Mythic, were barred from doing POV streams of their matches.

Overall, it appears that PGL are taking a fairly hardline stance on allowing third-parties that are not partnered with the Romanian tournament organizer from broadcasting matches from their events. This is evidenced by a message spotted by Seleção do BT player Lucas "CutzMeretz" Freitas in a PGL-affiliated Discord which explained that PGL would only be giving out CSTV links and allow streaming from a list of partners that had been finalized ahead of the open qualifiers.

This decision has already led to backlash in the Danish community, with Danish caster 7ri telling Dust2.dk that he feels it needlessly stifles his ability to make a living while also denying small organizations and casters exposure in a scene that increasingly prioritizes big names and ranked teams.

This decision also led Seleção do BT to pull out of the South American Open Qualifiers, as the team does not see the value in playing the matches if they cannot stream them.

Over in North America, the first Open Qualifier started last night, but due to similar restrictions on streaming the matches or gaining access to CSTV links, the only way to follow the qualifier was via tournament platform Esportal.

Dust2.dk reached out to PGL for comment on behalf of the Danish streamers but did not hear back ahead of publication on February 14th.