Acer has unveiled the SigridWave In-Game Live AI Translator for Planet9, its next-generation eSports platform. Acer also announced a number of updates for Planet9 targeting competitive play, namely the ability to establish team or brand clubs and the implementation of a framework for hosting tournaments.
Planet9 – Acer’s Next-Gen Esports Platform
Planet9 is a next-generation eSports platform, partly competitive and partly social, designed to provide an open community for casual and amateur players who want to improve their skills and take steps towards going pro. The platform helps players to connect with others, via teams and social clubs; to improve their skills, via in-depth feedback on gameplay in the form of statistics and coaching; and to experience organized gameplay, via casual or ranked scrimmages and competitive tournaments for most games. In-game overlays will be supported for League of Legends on launch in late 2020 or early 2021, and support will be made available for additional titles in the future.
SigridWave – An In-game Live AI Translator Trained With Game Jargon
SigridWave is an in-game live AI translator that leverages deep learning technologies to break language barriers and facilitate communication amongst gamers around the world. Integrated into Planet9’s desktop client, SigridWave is booted up while in a game lobby and then functions as a customizable in-game overlay. When in-game, SigridWave employs Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to recognize utterances and convert them into strings of text. This text is then run through a Neural Machine Translation (NMT) technology, enabling it to understand the terminology associated with specific games (such as “ADS” or “camping”) and learn how players express themselves.
Intended specifically for gaming, SigridWave’s AI has so far been trained with over 1,000 hours of game-centric speech (voice + transcript), enabling it to accurately relay detected messages back to users in a language that they can understand.
SigridWave will have a closed beta in Q4 2020, during which time it will be available for two-way translation between English and Mandarin in a number of major FPS titles such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.
Teams – Connect With Likeminded Players
An inherently social platform, Planet9 strives to help gamers connect with others who have similar skill levels and aspirations. From there, players can create a team to be registered on the website or search for one to join. Planet9 will also help recruiting teams to fill their rosters, considering factors such as game played, rank, region and language in order to identify potential teammates. Once a team is established, a private team page is created on the platform to function as a central hub for all involved. In addition to keeping track of match history and statistics for later review and discussion, the team hub includes a number of features to help keep everything organized: a board for discussion and polls, a group calendar for scheduling scrimmages, a tab to keep track of team funding and a directory with basic stats on all members.
Clubs – Keep Up To Date With Your Favorite Teams
As many people play games not only for fun, but also community, Planet9’s Club feature is intended to help players keep up with groups they like or admire, whether they’re major names in the industry or a local university team. Clubs consist of two parts, a public “home” page for followers and a private “lounge” for members. The home page is a place to share content (posts, polls, videos, etc) in order to engage with the community, whereas the lounge is a place to relax and discuss club-related content with a smaller circle of more dedicated members.
Businesses, influencers and public figures are also capable of forming a club on Planet9, creating a unique new touchpoint for brands that wish to connect with gamers. Whether professional or amateur, each club is granted access to a variety of tools to host tournaments in order to grow their own community.
Tournaments – Chase Fame or Build Your Audience
Planet9 includes a significant amount of infrastructure designed to make the process of organizing and hosting tournaments as seamless as possible. An extensive UI ensures that a successful tournament can be put together even by those with no experience, while a number of automation features (registration, bracket mastering, etc.) enable experienced hosts to minimize time spent on tedious activities and focus on providing as enjoyable an event as possible. Tournaments are highly customizable, featuring a number of preset brackets and privacy modes, opportunities for sponsored branding and club-determined rewards. Come game day, an all-in-one “Bracket Master” console makes it easy for judges and organizers to communicate, configure matches, broadcast to an audience and more.
