Tennis fans hitting YouTube to see live matches from the Australian Open could be forgiven for thinking they’ve accidentally clicked on a channel recreating the tournament in Wii Sports, but no. It turns out the event’s official channel has taken a novel approach to getting around broadcast rights issues.
As noted by Kotaku, the official Australian Open TV YouTube channel is broadcasting live games from the tournament with a twist. Lacking the live broadcast rights for matches, a workaround which involves capturing the player and ball movements live on the court and rendering animated versions in real-time is giving a Mii-esque spin to the Grand Slam event.
As you can see in the screencaps below from the “AO Animated” match between Botic van de Zandschulp and Alex de Minaur, the player avatars bear a striking resemblance Nintendo’s Miis – or more specifically the Sportsmate versions from Nintendo Switch Sports.
Now, the real-time implementation here is a bit rough and ready: the oversized balls often flash in and out of existence, players’ clothing can look a little ragged, and the racquets have a habit of floating beside the players’ hands. But the overall effect? It’s fairly impressive; easy enough to follow and, along with the live commentary, entertaining enough to not feel like you’re missing out too much because you can’t see the real Carlos Alcaraz.
For tennis fans eager to watch games live but without access to whatever channel has the broadcast rights in their region (and without the knowledge or patience to hunt around the web for dodgy, unofficial feeds), this animated, Mii-like reskin works well enough.
The live matches are streaming on the Australian Open TV YouTube channel, so check that out if you want to have some compelling live tennis with a side of amusing digital jank. And feel free to take to the comments if you’d argue that these avatars more closely resemble Rare’s Xbox 360-era avatars.
All this tennis talk has us jonesing for a match. Time to dig out the Wii!