Since the announcement of the Major in France, many questions have emerged regarding the language that will be used for casting in the Accor Arena.

These questions seem legitimate as ESL - the organiser of the Major in Rio which will take place from October 31st to November 13th - has announced that Brazilian Portuguese will be used in the Riocentro Arena, the Jeunesse Arena, as well as in the fanzone hosted by Gaules, the famous Brazilian streamer. This choice from ESL can be understood for different reasons: the popularity of Counter-Strike in Brazil - which also influenced the decision to open the first phases of the Major to the public - the difficulty of access for foreign fans who will probably be less penalized by the absence of English, and the potential atmosphere set by the Brazilian fans.

This will be the first time that the casters’ voices in the arena won’t be in English at a Major. Will France follow this model, even though the Paris tournament organiser, BLAST, is a different one?

Some tweets and articles hope so, and others even assert it with a legal argument: the Toubon Law.

All is good with the Toubon Law?

The Toubon law is a law of 4th of August 1994 on the use of the French language. It follows the footsteps of the Villers-Cotterêts ordinance of 1539, which imposed the French language in administrative documents. According to Jacques Toubon - Minister of Culture at the time, who later became Defender of Rights and to whom the law owes its name - the law "provides for the use of French in the various circumstances of social life, such as work, consumption, advertising, the media, public services, teaching and research". Obviously, nothing was specified for online video game competitions - during which casters’ voices are broadcasted on site for the spectators - because, let's be real, this is a very specific situation mainly associated to esport, a field that nobody thought of in 1994.

Jacques Toubon : “Defender of Rights” and of the French language

Nevertheless, in addition to advertising, there are provisions that come close to what we are interested in. Article 20-1 of the Léotard law, created by the Toubon Law (this is getting technical), states that "the use of French is compulsory in all programmes and advertising messages of audiovisual communication bodies and services, whatever their mode of broadcasting or distribution, with the exception of cinematographic and audiovisual works in their original version". Admittedly, with this text, we are still not in the case of voices used during a tournament, but rather in the context of broadcasting. And Article 2 of the Léotard law only concerns audiovisual communication, and not physical events.

Ultimately, it seems that the Toubon law does not regulate the language of voices used in a venue for an event organised in France, which seems logical, since the same could be said if a foreign artist came to France to sing in their own language. 

Another law, the one from the developer

Valve does leave some freedom to the organisers, but a fairly complete RuleBook exists regarding the organisation of a Major, with an uncanny focus on the coaches’ behaviour. But nothing is specified about the casting or the language used. Here again, nothing.

“Gabe Newell holding the (surprisingly empty) rulebook” made by an AI

How was it with the previous esport events organized in France?

Other major esport competitions were set in France before, on Counter-Strike and other games.

If you’ve never been to a top notch esport event, here’s how it takes place: most of the time, one or multiple hosts are on stage to interview the players and to warm up the fans. At the same time, there are casters, similarly to traditional sports, but here we can hear them directly in the arena.

So, what happened with other games:

• For League of Legends, the League of Legends Worlds Finals (equivalent to a Major) was held in Paris in 2019, as was the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) Finals in 2018 and the European Tournament Finals in 2017. All three events had French-speaking hosts and casters

• For Rainbow Six: Siege, the 2018 Major was held in Paris, and their choices were a bit more unusual, especially coming from a French publisher (Ubisoft). Before the game, the introduction of the teams took place in English (even for the French line-up Vitality), while the casting during the games was in French. This combination allowed for a finished product for the webcast: on Twitch, the English-speaking audience was provided with content entirely in English, while allowing the audience in the venue to have the casting in French. 

As for Counter-Strike - since the 2023 Major won’t be the first large event held in France on the game:

• The DreamHack Marseille 2018 ran the same way as the R6S Major, a host in English and the casting in French within the venue.

• The DreamHack Tours 2017, won by shox’s G2, is the only event we found where both the hosting and the casting were in English, which confirms that the Toubon law doesn't really have an impact on esport events. 

• Finally, during the ESL Pro League S9 Finals organized in Montpellier in 2019, the entire event was in French.

In six of the seven examples, the on-site casting was in French, although English also had a role in three other cases.

You can hear the comments in English in the venue during the DH Tours 2017, around 1:15

We contacted Jean-Christophe Arnaud, former General Manager at ESL France and DreamHack France (and today, director of the agency Malorian), and the first thing to remember from this discussion, which confirms the global lack of clarity, is: there is no rule. The different choices depend on the situation - for example, if the seats are free or not. According to Jean-Christophe Arnaud, however, the French audience would be one of the rare ones to not be satisfied with an English cast on-site.

Other reasons may influence the language chosen. First of all, the organizer's desire to have a product immediately ready for international broadcast, i.e. entirely in English. For this purpose, the presence of an English-speaking host seems logical. Then, the concerns to have the public involved and warmed up during the matches. For this, native casters of the country where the event takes place may seem more obvious, except in territories where the percentage of bilinguals is high, or if the country does not represent a large enough community.

One important factor: the low number of English speakers in France

It’s also important to take into account whether the venue will be filled only by national fans, or foreign visitors will make the trip. There are some virulent reactions online, and the number of trips potentially cancelled in case of a French casting at the Parisian Major are enough to understand the impact of this choice, even if a reddit thread is obviously not extremely representative.

Finally, a last element to take into account is the presence, or not, of talents likely to assume the roles of hosts and casters for important events. On this last point, France does not lack candidates more or less legitimate.

BLAST is not ESL and has no previous history in France, so taking bets is risky. Nevertheless, considering the French craze around the announcement of the Major and the previous similar events that took place in France, it is more than likely that the cast in the Accor Arena will be in the language of Molière. As for the hosts on stage, who manage the pre/post-game interviews, the presentation of the teams, etc., the prediction seems more complicated in view of the heterogeneity of the situations that have already taken place, and the benefit that this brings to the organizer.

Translation by Miles and Stonz