How to Watch Esports Tournaments Safely While Traveling
Esports doesn’t only happen in your home. The big events will be hosted throughout the world and as such, there will be many people from all over the world. Qualifier rounds may start really early in the morning, a decisive match can even happen while you are at an airport, a hotel, or on a train. The ease to watch esports on the go has definitely increased, but you still have to do a little more preparation than just popping a stream five minutes before the first map.
Whether it’s a Counter-Strike playoff, a VALORANT international, a League of Legends final, a fighting game major, or a sports simulation event, this travel guide will tell you how to safely and reliably watch esports tournaments on the go.
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Why travel changes the viewing experience
Besides the main point that we can only play esports online, if you stay at your home the only thing you can worry about is your internet connection.
Home is where you are at your most comfortable. Your internet speed is pretty much the same each time, your device of choice is already logged in to the account of your choice, you’re watching on your TV or monitor, everything is set!
If you are not at home then it is a big challenge and things are no so clear and secure anymore.
Your device time will adjust automatically when you land and if you are traveling through different time zones there is a good chance that the time and timezone of the tournament will be different from your local one.
To give it a try: Imagine that you have a very nice flight to your hotel which lasts about three hours and you finally arrive there just at midnight.
You then get a message on the tournament’s group that a game is going to be on in 3 hours from the tournament time or so (maybe they are going to start at midnight in their time but it is just the 7 p.m. in your actual local time) and you don’t even know that! So, you don’t get the chance to watch esports because, for example, you went to bed, you have already missed your train, or, in short, your time management was off. Planning a bit, you will be able to overcome many of these issues.
Start with the tournament schedule, not the stream
Before you travel, download the official tournament calendar and determine whether it is displayed in another time zone than yours. Adjust the match times for your destination time zone, and set reminders in your agenda.
Social platform posts may not be reliable since the game could go longer than planned. Therefore, if you just read a status message several days ago, start time might have been changed.
It’s good to have a sense of the tournament stage. A single match can be over in about 60 minutes, whereas a deciding final can take the whole day. You’ll be able to plan better, whether you prefer to watch esports games live, just a bit of the stream, or you want to keep the highlights for later.
Deciding which sports to watch is easier after COMPETIZE provides a helpful rundown of major global sports and gaming titles. Once your event is picked, favorite the official homepage, brackets/results, and streaming channels.
Use official broadcasts and verified apps to watch esports
Oftentimes, e-sports games are being showcased in various streams such as game publisher channels, tournament organizers accounts, regional partners, and co-streamers. Instead of relying on an unauthorized video stream found through a Google search, make sure to use the organizer’s page or publisher’s site.
Some unregulated web pages could be very disturbing with pop-ups and fake buttons or they may ask you to download stuff for the game. Also, sometimes the cheap clones vanish in the middle of the match. Only the authorized websites provide you with the updated game times, the best streaming quality, the staff monitoring, the game replays stored, and the possibility of playing in a language of your choice.
Install the game streaming apps on your device prior to the flight and login using the secure internet. Check if you are properly authorized and you can accept login codes if the app requires it. In the case where you have the account registered with a mobile phone number that is invalid for use abroad, set up an alternative verification mechanism in your app before the trip.
Prepare every device before departure
Phones are good for short matches, but long series might be better watched on a tablet or laptop. No matter which one you choose, make sure you have it updated before leaving. Updating system, browser, and app could take lots of time and may also cause problems when doing it on hotel Wi-Fi.The fundamentals to your preparation:
- Make sure the device is fully charged, carry the necessary cable, adapter, and power bank.
- Make sure that your OS, browser, streaming apps and security programs are up-to-date.
- Delete any extensions or apps that you no longer use and are also no longer in your trust circle.
- Check that display brightness, audio, subtitles and data saving functionalities are all in working order.
- Prepare your travel documents and download authentication codes for offline use.
- Set your device to lock screen automatically and utilize device encryption, whenever possible.
If you expect to watch esports alone in a private room, it is still advisable to carry your headphones. Besides airports and staying at accommodations shared with others, you may also have to watch late-night games, and therefore, your headphones are going to come in handy. A good feature of the ones with wired connections is that they do not consume battery power and are not subjected to Bluetooth problems.
Though it is really convenient that the UK National Cyber Security Centre advises on the use of public Wi-Fi, one must treat it as a network which one has no control over. Legitimate networks with weak setup might be put in use by the hotel, café, airport, or venue, while attackers could create network names that are extremely close to the legitimate one.
Your best bet is to find out what is the correct network name from the staff rather than going in for a strong signal. Make sure your phone is configured so that it does not automatically connect to the open networks and remove the remembered network. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by certificate warnings that come to your phone when accessing the network. A configuration profile is not an option to get into the network just like that.
Web traffic and app downloads, which we do every single day, are generally encrypted thanks to HTTPS already. Of course, such protection is important, but there are things you do on a shared network that can still expose you to risks. So, don’t turn on device and file-sharing features and don’t trust any public charging cable that demands data access.
Where a VPN fits into an esports travel setup
The use of a good VPN ensures that a secure tunnel is created from your device to the server of the VPN service. You may not be entirely safe since the local network owner may still see what you are up to at all times, but you will at least avoid the network administrators’ eyes when you have to share the internet connection. Before leaving, you can grab ExpressVPN from their official site and install it on the phone, tablet, or laptop you plan to use.
Get the tool ready and do not just depend on the event day to figure out how things work. Login should be simple, a server choice is always a big part that one should have, and even after switching networks of both Wi-Fi and mobile data, the app should not drop connectivity. However, if the quality of viewing is degraded to a certain extent, it might not necessarily mean you would be able to get better results with a different setting, so rather test if there is any difference when a VPN is enabled or not.
Additional precautions to watch esports abroad
Although a VPN protects you a lot, it does not cover every vulnerability. It will still not make a fake website a trusted one, or prevent you from typing the password in a fraudster’s page, or substitute doing the software updates and multi factor authentication. It may delay your connection a bit because the traffic has to travel an extra route.
Rights to watch esports videos, platform regulations and local policies may depend on where you live. Go for legit ways, stick to the rules, and be very clear about the rules at your arrival destination. Having a travel secure setup is all about safeguarding your privacy and data but not getting around licensing issues or laws of the land.
Protect your accounts, not just your connection
A typical gamer who is also into watching the games online owns a lot of interconnected accounts, like the streaming site, the game company’s account, the chatting software, the social network, and sometimes the payment method for the subscriptions or event tickets. One hacked password could lead to lots of problems.
Create different passwords for important services, save them in a password manager, and do not use the same password for different systems. Also, you can turn on multifactor authentication through an authenticator application or a security key instead of simply being depended on phone calls and text messages. Moreover, do an examination of active devices before going on a trip and remove any devices that are unknown to you.
Never believe any emails or notifications that offer a free account verification, a new skin, a game or tournament access, or an exclusive deal. These are common messages used by scammers, especially when big game companies or publishers release some kind of major event like a new game season. Instead of relying on any links sent to you in such an unsolicited way, go to the official tournament or the publisher web page to get your freebies.
Make the stream reliable before the match starts
When it comes to a network connection for stream, speed in downloads is not the only consideration. If your internet provider allows sharing bandwidth you will have a more stable connection. It’s also important that the stream provider has a close proximity to you, so a smaller packet delay or latency is expected. Besides, a hotel network which is good at morning may be not so good later on when your fellow guests are all online.
First of all, try to do a few minutes of live test before going on-air. Begin with a medium video quality and, in case your network connection continues to be good and stable, raise its level. A convenient feature of automatic quality may save users a lot from switching back and fourth between high-definition image and buffering.
Tips to achieve stable connection
- It will be more helpful if you go near the Wi-Fi point or the hotel offers you a wire connection.
- It is very important to shut down cloud backups and/or game updates, or, simply put background downloads on hold.
- If a data plan is still a good deal you can keep using it as mobile backup, but remember you need to check first if there are any additional roaming charges.
- If you are running a low connection or a not very stable connection in the background, it’s a good idea to lower the stream quality.
- Make sure to restart the app right before the game so you don’t end up having to do some emergency troubleshooting in the first half.
- In case of a total video feed break-down it could come in really handy to have the official event result page open.
A VPN is simply another program that provides an online private network, a safe, secure way of getting online. It is a false belief that it will enhance the speed of your internet connection in general. In situations of a congested internet route, the new different route that a VPN is taking could save you. Conversely, the time added for encrypting your data plus the longerdistancein some cases can lower the performance.
Plan for data limits and time-zone mistakes to watch esports
A real-life test of your system will definitely be more trustworthy and helpful than you trying to rely on marketing claims about VPN.
In a way or another, a streamed video can be very heavy in terms of mobile data consumption, particularly when playing at a much higher resolution. You should first find out what the amount of the data pack that you can use is and whether you are eligible to the roaming service in the case of mobile hotspot usage via phone. Besides, streaming at 480p or 720p could be totally fine for a small screen and will use much less data than a maximum setting.
If the game platform offers legal offline viewing or downloadable highlights, you can make copies of these files on a trusted connection. It is not always possible to watch esports offline; however, the post-match analysis or an interview and the previous matches can give you the feel during the flight or a situation where the connection is poor.
In order to keep the game suspense, do not let yourself know the match result by means of the score notifications so set them on and not to be alerted of the tournament-related keywords at least until you get time to see the match. Also, keep in mind that even if you have not been on social media, the winner can be given away by the replay page or the video thumbnail or the app notification.
Keep competitive integrity separate from access
There is a big difference between trying to watch esports live game and taking part in an online tournament. Gamers shouldn’t use network tricks to lie about their location, take part in region-limited events without being eligible or break the eligibility rules of tournaments. Besides being a participant, the organizers will verify the participants on their place of staying, their server region, their reaction time, their identity and account details.
In addition to location hiding, a VPN will probably raise the ping time and also cause a security check on a gaming account. So, you have to be aware of that fact if the idea is that you are playing a game during a trip, you should make sure that you fully study those rules and contact an event organizer beforehand about any changes you might be contemplating to your connection setup. Competition integrity and good communication count more than getting technical loopholes right, in case there are any.
For the viewers, the best method is still to stay safe by only watching the official broadcasts, following the platform policies and using security tools for the legitimate purposes of privacy and the protection of a connection.
A travel-day checklist to watch esports abroad
- Take the game schedule printed or saved from an offline copy and then change each match’s time into the time that you are going to be in.
- Make favorite the site where the matches are organized, the match grid, the results, and the confirmed source.
- Leave house having charged and upgraded your portable gadgets.
- Carry along headphones, charging cables, power bank, and necessary adapters.
- Do the logon to the streaming services and try out the two-factor authentication if they have it.
- Check that your mobile data and your roaming settings have not been exceeded.
- Ask the staff the right public Wi-Fi name.
- In a case of the streaming of the game, a virtual private network will be used or there is going to be a test match, the stream and the network will first be tested.
- To watch esports abroad, stick to the official pages for the purchase/drop of the game items or the tickets and the account-related notifications.
- Have a contingency scheme in case the first option fails. Examples could be mobile data, a play-by-play commentator like on the radio, or simply following the live score update page.
Final thoughts to watch esports abroad
It’s time for travel not to make an esports lover choose between watching a major final and running and unnecessary digital risks. The best solution is to have a plan including preparation, official sources, strong account, safe network habits and realistic backup plan.
Leave at the palnned time. If you travel, make sure that your devices are up to date, go through all logins and check the network that you’ll connect to. A VPN is one of the ways to protect your data while you’re sharing a connection, but a combination of HTTPS, strong authentication, up-to-date software, and good judgement is most secure.
Once those details are handled, the technology can fade into the background. You can focus on the draft, the tactics, the comeback, and the result, wherever the tournament finds you.
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