Huya used AI to redo the live broadcast of an esports event.
E-sports events are the traffic peak of game live streaming, but it's not easy to reach this peak nowadays.
In recent years, as the leading e-sports games have gradually formed a standardized event system, the relevant content ecosystem has become more mature. In the traditional e-sports event live streaming mode, the gameplay is determined by the game version, the bullet comments are written by the audience, the pictures are presented by the players, and the audio is created by the commentators.
How can we spark new creative ideas from the "unchanging" combination of text, pictures, and sounds? How can we meet the increasingly strict experience requirements of mature users in aspects such as event content, live - room experience, and even post - event video clip distribution?
As one of the leading enterprises in the game live - streaming field, Huya's answer is to reshape e - sports event live streaming with AI. On the one hand, it integrates AI into all aspects of event live streaming to improve the presentation efficiency of event content and increase user interaction options; on the other hand, it challenges to integrate real - time AIGC content into the already real - time live stream. The live - streaming platform in turn enriches the event content, adding new AI interaction highlights beyond the "text, pictures, and sounds".
"Hu Xiao Ai" Debuts at the Legend Cup
For a good drum, a heavy hammer is needed. The first scenario where Huya implements AI technology is its core event.
The event where Huya's intelligent agent "Hu Xiao Ai" first appears is Huya's most important self - organized "League of Legends" event, the "Legend Cup S3". This also means that "Hu Xiao Ai" makes its debut under the most critical eyes of the platform users.
Judging from the actual combat effect, AI can be seen in all aspects of the event: team - captain player selection before the game, Ban & Pick, in - game commentary, and post - game review. It's worth noting that "Hu Xiao Ai" has a very fast response speed with almost no delay, and the form of its output content is not single.
In the team - captain player selection stage, due to the participation of AI, there is "player auction analysis" content. By analyzing players' historical data, hero pools, team suitability, etc., AI can provide real - time player selection strategies for team captains. The content is output in the form of posters, including elements such as the potential value, estimated combat power, and popularity of players that both team captains and the audience are concerned about. At the same time, the collision between AI's views and team captains' views, and the audience's discussion of the collision content in the bullet comments add a major highlight to this stage.
Image source: Huya Legend Cup
The Ban & Pick stage is also full of topics because of the addition of AI's views. By analyzing game version data and real - time battle situations, AI outputs BP strategies and can predict the strength, advantages, and disadvantages of line - ups. This gives the audience a "god's perspective" and undoubtedly brings pressure to coaches and event commentators. In the in - game bullet comments and post - game reviews, it's common to see the audience discussing the comparison between the heroes selected by AI and the actual heroes selected in the game.
Moreover, "Hu Xiao Ai"'s actual analysis ability is really excellent and it understands e - sports well. For example, in the key game between BL and CS, when the BL team locked in the strong combination of Galio + Ambersa + Viego, "Hu Xiao Ai" accurately recommended "Corki - The Daring Bombardier" as a Counter Pick. Eventually, "Corki - The Daring Bombardier" contributed the highest 84% team - fight participation rate and 28% damage share of the whole team, helping the BL team win this game.
Image source: Huya Legend Cup
In the commentary stage, sharp, interesting, and highly stylized commentaries like "AIW just wasted this Ancient Dragon team fight! AIW's base exploded faster than some people quit the game! Congratulations to OP for completing an epic comeback. The AIW coaching staff should stay up all night to write a self - criticism tonight!" are all generated in real - time by AI and mainly presented in the live - room in the form of real - time text.
In the review stage, "Hu Xiao Ai" realizes full automation of "data collection - content generation - distribution and interaction". It automatically identifies key events such as "kills" and "team fights" and generates text - and - picture battle reports and video clips, which has become a common practice. After the game ends, it immediately generates a doggerel for MVP nomination with "meme" elements based on the event data, which triggers heated discussions among the audience.
Image source: Huya Legend Cup
The accurate and interesting commentaries, text - and - picture materials, and videos enhance the audience's motivation to share and reduce the editing pressure. "Hu Xiao Ai" also realizes full - scenario empowerment from tactical analysis to real - time interesting commentaries and the production of high - quality distribution materials.
Why did Huya take the lead in launching an e - sports AI intelligent agent?
Today, when AIGC is on the fast track of scenario - based implementation, almost all products are worth being redone with AI. However, for vertical - domain AI large - model products, the Internet's large - scale approach does not guarantee success. Understanding the industry is the most important thing.
The reason why Huya took the lead in launching an e - sports AI intelligent agent can be seen from a speech by Huang Junhong, the co - CEO of Huya, in early 2024: The reason why the Huya platform can rely on AI technology to innovatively empower game live streaming and bring revolutionary experiences. First, it has in - depth cooperation with game manufacturers, especially Tencent's leading games, to achieve real - time access to game data; second, by leveraging its in - depth understanding of game live - streaming content, Huya has built its own game live - streaming AI model, which can dynamically understand game content based on real - time data; third, Huya has top - tier game streamers and a high - quality user group in the industry. Its self - developed intelligent live - streaming assistant can provide real - time commentaries and analyses for the audience through technologies such as natural language processing and image recognition.
Therefore, Huya's exploration of the combination of AIGC and live streaming, especially game live streaming, is highly anticipated. It is expected to bring some classic cases or inspirations for the pan - entertainment live - streaming industry to embrace AIGC. Huya will innovatively integrate AI technology into the game experience, realizing the functions of watching and playing simultaneously, instant interaction, and co - creation of watching and playing to meet users' personalized needs.
Image source: Huya Legend Cup
It can be seen that elements such as technical reserves, event experience, data accumulation, user understanding, and cooperation with manufacturers are all indispensable. To use AI to empower all aspects of event live streaming and integrate real - time AIGC content into the live stream, Huya needs to overcome many difficulties, including the accumulation and analysis of players' and events' historical data, accurate recognition of picture content, and training of large language models in the game vertical domain.
Judging from the effect of its debut at the "Legend Cup S3", by deeply integrating technologies such as event data analysis, player behavior research, and natural language processing, Huya has successfully upgraded the role of AI from a traditional "auxiliary tool" to a "content co - creation partner", creating a closed - loop ecosystem of "technology empowering content, and content serving users", which brings important innovation to the e - sports live - streaming model.
What kind of platform is Huya becoming after AI innovation?
The current innovation continues Huya's concept of creating a "game - stylized live - room" in the current version. With the in - depth combination of AI and live - streaming business, its application scenarios will also increase.
A relevant person in charge of Huya said that after the relevant product functions mature, they will be gradually promoted to more game categories and extended from professional e - sports events to the daily live - streaming field of streamers. Virtual avatars + voice commentaries are also in the product plan.
If so, with the launch of "Hu Xiao Ai" combined with functions such as AI interesting broadcasts, game data display, highlight replays, and streamers' interesting videos in the previous version, Huya will create a complete and inclusive "intelligent live - streaming and directing system" for platform streamers, presenting live - streaming details in a more diverse and interactive way, and making users' experiences more interesting and immersive.
At the same time, for Huya, an important position for game distribution and marketing, the AI innovation of product technology will strengthen all of Huya's attribute values.
From the perspective of the live - streaming attribute, hardcore functions and experiences naturally attract hardcore and professional users. Currently, Huya's content covers live - streaming and video platforms across the network; the mobile - end user scale is stable, maintaining over 80 million; although the Web - end user scale has not been disclosed, this is an advantageous area for game live - streaming, and it has a natural appeal to e - sports users in the PC scenario. Therefore, AI will continuously enhance the live - streaming attractiveness of the Huya platform.
From the perspective of the community attribute, the collision between AI and live - streaming, commentaries, and bullet comments will bring new content, new topics, and new videos, continuously enriching the community content and increasing user activity. Moreover, functions such as the e - sports encyclopedia, hot topics, game guides, and ratings in the Huya live - streaming community may be "accessed with one click" through AI's efficient dialogue and retrieval, reducing the product learning cost for live - streaming users to transform into community users.
Image source: Huya Live
From the perspective of the Tencent e - sports ecosystem, both Tencent Games and Huya are accelerating AI exploration. A Tencent executive said at a previous earnings conference, "Artificial intelligence can make long - standing games more vibrant. We have seen how artificial intelligence helps us implement and strengthen the long - standing game strategy. As people use artificial intelligence more widely, users will have more time and willingness to participate in highly interactive activities."
Previously, based on functions such as "one - click live - streaming and team - playing", Huya Live had good interactions with games such as Peacekeeper Elite. With the birth of "Hu Xiao Ai", users' experiences may not be limited to live - streaming and team - playing. Professional and stylized AI commentaries and videos have the potential to stimulate the upsurge of civilian e - sports events, allowing users to experience the professional e - sports commentary atmosphere brought by AI in events. This is a great technological boost for the "user co - creation" prosperity that long - standing game publishers and distribution channels want to achieve.
It can be seen that Huya's reshaping of e - sports events with AI this time is not just a concept but accurately meets user needs and penetrates deep into the industry.
Ten years ago, bullet comments stepped from the niche to the forefront, becoming the starting point for the rise of live - streaming and building a bridge for real - time interaction between users and creators; ten years later, the in - depth combination of AI and live - streaming may become the turning point for the revival of live - streaming, creating a new bond among games, platforms, creators, and users.
This article was first published on "36Kr Games".