The first match of the inaugural League One Volleyball season kicked off at the Gateway Center Arena. LOVB Atlanta and Salt Lake earned the honor of becoming the two teams to participate in the first LOVB clash in history. The league also secured ESPN+ as one of their live telecast partners to stream this historic event to volleyball fans across America. However, there’s a hitch.

“I don’t know who at LOVB needs to hear this, but please stick with the sideline cameras. it is crisp and good. The cuts, the switches, the missing plays… its BAD,” Avid Volleyball posted on X while watching the telecast. However, the X-page wasn’t the only one who had this opinion, as fans soon filled the comments section to share similar opinions about the game.

“This is really rough. You can’t miss play for a graphic or replay. Also, these camera angles are so bad,” commented one fan. The netizen pointed out the glaring blunder that the LOVB telecast was missing out on showing crucial moments of the clash to show stats on the screen. The fan also found it unacceptable that the telecast mistimed the replays, missing out on snippets of the live action.

LOVB aims to revolutionize every aspect of the sport. Besides their mission to develop young players and continue to assist them beyond turning pro, the league is trying to do more in every aspect. This is also apparent in the league’s live ‘Match Central’ page. Besides giving users the ability to stream, the page has every stat a volleyball fan would ever need.

Even the play-by-play got live updates through an intuitive graphic layout as the match progressed. However, some things, like the well-established and liked broadcast structure and camera angle, may not require changing. “Production of the match does not need to be ‘Extra’,” pointed out Avid Volleyball on X. However, the broadcast hiccups aren’t the only issues fans have faced.

More bugs hit the first League One Volleyball match during the telecast

Fans continued to leave comments online about how the multiple cuts and camera angle changes have turned an otherwise regular game hard to watch. “I can’t do the shaky camera. It gets me nauseous,” commented one fan, highlighting how even the smallest of changes can affect the viewing experience. Meanwhile, those looking for a closer look ran into another problem.

Avid Volleyball once again initiated a discussion when they posted about the stats on the Match Central page not returning any results. “Are LOVB stats working for anyone?” asked the handle, and many people answered, saying they couldn’t see the stats either. So the people who went to the page after the streaming woes were once again left disappointed.

While the LOVB fixed the issue and the stats did start reflecting, one fan explained just how disruptive the broadcast/online streaming experience was. “I think I’ve only seen 5 serves since the beginning of the game,” commented one netizen after Salt Lake had already won the first set of the LOVB debut match. It also became clear that not many enthusiasts were big fans of the end-line camera angles.

Some downright refused to acknowledge any merits of the particular angle. “Camera angles from behind are so useless,” commented one fan. While Avid Volleyball argued that they were not useless, the page also admitted that LOVB may have overused the perspective. However, even those who preferred the end-line angle agreed that LOVB should also prefer sideline views.

“I think if you’re going to be on ESPN+ you should offer sideline view and end line view… I’m definitely in the minority, but I love endline view if I’m watching a specific team,” confessed the fan. So overall, while League One Volleyball is trying to innovate, their experimentation with the live telecast didn’t work out the way they’d hoped. What did you think of the telecast? Tell us your views in the comments.