I found the same thing happened to me. I didn't get to bed until after 0300. I couldn't stop watching it, I even tried to figure out what the attraction was during it (as I saw the clock on my computer getting later and later). I came up with two basic answers:
1. Was interested in seeing what the police would actually do. Interested in their approach and strategy. I was totally dependent on the one feed in saw in a thread (I think it was CTV) and what they showed "live" and on tape, but my assessment was that they waited far too long to make their moves to end the rioting (far too much damage was allowed to occur and potentially dangerous circumstances were allowed to exist too long). JMO. The CTV live feed went down just as the police were attempting to force the one of the larger crowds to disperse (South?) by closing off 3 other directions. I actually don't know how that tactic ended up playing out.
2. Was interested in seeing how the crowd of rioters (and what their composition was) would behave and what type of tactics they were using. It seemed to me that there was a core group of instigators (probably self-styled "anarchists") that cleverly made use of a large crowd of disappointed, inebriated people that were already out on the streets for many hours. From what I saw these instigators (that had absolutely no interest in the actual hockey game) were the ones that would start the trouble in various locations (e.g., breaking windows, looting, torching cars/garbage) and let the main crowd either join in actively or just cheer them on. I suspect that they succeeded in getting some number of the other drunken spectators to follow in a monkey see-monkey do manner.
I also realized that if I didn't think that there is a fair chance of that type of public rioting coming to the US soon, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching so long. (At my age getting less than 4 hours of sleep really gives me that "drag @ss" feeling all day!) I also figured that culturally those folks in urban Western CA were probably a good example of what we will see here (except of course in the US we can expect to see a more "diverse" group of rioters).
(If you've thought about it, I'd be interested in your assessment of why you found yourself glued to the live feed for so long.)
I was keying in on parts of the video that weren’t being showcased, looking at what was going on away from the focal point of the video.
I watched one sequence until the camera went to another feed. It was being shot from a helicopter, and showed the roof of a building with smoke swirling around. But if you watched the small forms of people in the street far below, they were clustered around a car. You could barely make out the forms of people, legs, arms, torso and head, but no distinguishable features, they all looked like they were wearing black clothes.
But what I saw was a damaged car with people around it parked at an angle in the middle of the street. One guy came up and kicked one side, and there were people clustered around the passenger side.
I saw one guy walk around the front of the car, and people stepped away from him, the same way a school of fish disperses slightly when you extend your hand to them.
The guy turned and walked towards another group, and they dispersed slightly the same way. There was another guy on the other side of the car standing close to it, and the guy walked around the trunk towards him. He retreated a few steps, but apparently had no intention of moving further, and the smaller guy (apparently defending his car) clocked the guy with a roundhouse punch.
The bigger guy staggered back but didn’t retreat further, and the smaller guy advanced on him and belted him again, after which the guy staggered into a larger group who clustered around him, then the camera switched.
I was fascinated, because I doubt any other viewers watching the feed saw it, it was so small, inconsequential and out of focus. With all the stuff, unless you happened to latch onto it like I did, you would never see it.
It made me resolve to conceal carry everywhere I go now.