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I think it's pretty awful what MLG is doing:
- Charging for a peer-to-peer "HQ" stream at above-market rates
- Not using available technology (justin.tv and other scalable streaming sites) ostensibly to make more money from their own ad revenue
- Not responding to the fact that nobody can watch their stream
- Playing ads when they are having trouble streaming the game
I want to know this:
If you bought an MLG HQ pass, are you satisfied with your purchase?
If not, did MLG refund your HQ pass money?
Any other thoughts on the quality of the MLG Dallas stream are welcome
  
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The quality is down this time, but I have a feeling it is just a small glitch with their hardware. MLG in the past has always been great so i am still optimistic about this one. Glitches always happen on the first night.
Maybe you should go ask MLG for a refund and see what they say and then add it to the blog so other people will not have to do the leg work for you.
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I didn't pay $10, because it's not a fair price given what they provide, and this isn't the first time they've had stream issues. MLG events are consistently the lowest quality of all major LANs.
EDIT: And mostly I'm curious to see if MLG is really as terrible of a company as I think they are, or if they actually care about their customers.
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The only good thing I am finding with the HQ pass is that I can rewind the stream and watch the parts I missed when it was down. That and I can actually see the resources of the players now.
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The only actual problem you have raised is the fact that they're not responding to the issues, but I'm not even sure of that, they have acknowledged problems and are working on it.
There is nothing wrong with charging "above-market rates" (what the hell is the market rate for this anyway), if you don't want it, you don't have to buy it, and there is a perfectly serviceable free stream anyway. There is nothing wrong with not "using available technology" to avoid a middleman. In fact, Teammliquid does their own ads, without going through some agency or whatnot. Playing ads when people are having trouble watching the stream? What on earth is wrong with that? Is this a despicable insult compared to watching a black screen?
The real problem is that the stream doesn't work, but of course that is a huge problem.
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I did not buy one this time
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Hi, long time lurker, first time poster here. I also spent 10 dollars on the HQ pass and am disappointed. But now that the streams are up, I was really excited to start watching high level play. When I try to change the tab to HQ I get a weird message saying "This service requires the Octoshape Infinite HD optimizer.Get the Infinite HD optimizer." I already have this downloaded and I even clicked the button to re-download and my computer tells me that octoshape is now enabled, but the problem is that the HQ stream still doesn't work for me. Is this happening to anybody else? How do I fix it?
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I agree with OP, I'm a big fan of eSports and consistently purchase GOM season tickets. They are the benchmark for me. @ $10 for GOM if you aren't coming with GOM style production quality then you are just not charging the right amount.
I considered purchasing a pass for MLG, but I couldn't even get the free stream to work. If the free stream doesn't work WHY would I assume the one you pay for will? I mean you put out the free stream to give a taste, and they can't even get that working.
I'm all for eSports growth, however I'm with the OP on this. Day [9] isn't quite as good as his brother Tastless and you can't compare DJ wheat to Artosis. So the commentators aren't going to be as sharp either.
Sorry MLG.. not feeling ya.
NASL I hope you take notes from GOM.
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Hyrule19210 Posts
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I'm not disappoint, since I'm used to the delays from MLG. The first day is always the hardest and they've always stabilize after that. It's perfectly understandable that you are upset, but as the day ends and Saturday and Sunday's matches conclude you'd probably just forgive the issues from the first day. Happened the same with Dallas last year.
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I can see the resource and food count, LQ can't
Worth 10 bucks for 3 days, given this many games.
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i bought hq for last time, but i didn't observe a difference in stream quality so I won't buy one this time.
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I bought an HQ pass, and i'm relatively satisfied with the quality. Pretty pissed about the downtime/issues though. If there are similar problems tomorrow and/or sunday i'll be getting my money refunded.
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On April 02 2011 10:27 ChThoniC wrote:
- Not using available technology (justin.tv and other scalable streaming sites) ostensibly to make more money from their own ad revenue
it IS a business
On April 02 2011 11:53 GenoZStriker wrote:
I'm not disappoint, since I'm used to the delays from MLG. The first day is always the hardest and they've always stabilize after that. It's perfectly understandable that you are upset, but as the day ends and Saturday and Sunday's matches conclude you'd probably just forgive the issues from the first day. Happened the same with Dallas last year.
also happened even in the most recent IEM and probably a lot of other lans no?
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I bought the pass, the stream was down for ages, and then when it was up, it was for the most part stopping and starting every 20 seconds or so.
If it is a traffic issue there is no excuse. A little research would've easily prepared them for the large number of viewers they were always going to recieve, especially after they've taken money for HQ passes from a lot of people expecting a good service.
The only positive is the great commentary team when it's actually working.
I am not satisfied lol.
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On April 02 2011 14:05 SlapMySalami wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2011 10:27 ChThoniC wrote:
- Not using available technology (justin.tv and other scalable streaming sites) ostensibly to make more money from their own ad revenue
it IS a business
If you think providing a poorer service for more immediate revenue is good business, you have a lot to learn.
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I'd be willing to buy a HQ pass because the tournament is obviously awesome as a competition and this new format is really getting quality games streamed, although I don't know about the delays between matches if that's a result of the format or just more problems.
That being said there are simply to many technical problems to justify to my self the purchase of a pass and at this point it's going to take a lot from MLG to show that their streams are stable because this is a recurring problem at this point through out many of the their competitions.
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I bought a HQ pass and I regret it. The quality is absolutely horrible, in HQ you can barely make out the units that are on the map. The stream is constantly down, as is the website. It's basically a write-off of 10 dollars. I'm embarrassed for mlg and I will never, ever pay them money again. It's basically theft.
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If it was 3-5$, I might consider buying it. GSL season ticket is less than 10$ and provides entertainment for weeks.
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On April 02 2011 11:23 Tumba1 wrote:
I agree with OP, I'm a big fan of eSports and consistently purchase GOM season tickets. They are the benchmark for me. @ $10 for GOM if you aren't coming with GOM style production quality then you are just not charging the right amount.
I considered purchasing a pass for MLG, but I couldn't even get the free stream to work. If the free stream doesn't work WHY would I assume the one you pay for will? I mean you put out the free stream to give a taste, and they can't even get that working.
I'm all for eSports growth, however I'm with the OP on this. Day [9] isn't quite as good as his brother Tastless and you can't compare DJ wheat to Artosis. So the commentators aren't going to be as sharp either.
Sorry MLG.. not feeling ya.
NASL I hope you take notes from GOM.
oh how quick we are to forget.... I'm a GOMTV fanboy and I'd be the first person to admit that GOMTV was complete shit when they first started with the GSL. Remember how nobody can even open the LQ or HQ stream because it would hit the (super low) cap? That and stream was prone to dying randomly and I literally had a list of 10 different server opened on notepad so I can swap between them whenever they crashed. and there was a time where europeans had a lot of problems watching their stream because it would lag like hell.
GOM is doing a lot better now, but they had a lot of problems when they started too.
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Yeah but the difference is that MLG isn't just starting, They have been running these for YEARS!
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On April 02 2011 20:25 crazeman wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2011 11:23 Tumba1 wrote:
I agree with OP, I'm a big fan of eSports and consistently purchase GOM season tickets. They are the benchmark for me. @ $10 for GOM if you aren't coming with GOM style production quality then you are just not charging the right amount.
I considered purchasing a pass for MLG, but I couldn't even get the free stream to work. If the free stream doesn't work WHY would I assume the one you pay for will? I mean you put out the free stream to give a taste, and they can't even get that working.
I'm all for eSports growth, however I'm with the OP on this. Day [9] isn't quite as good as his brother Tastless and you can't compare DJ wheat to Artosis. So the commentators aren't going to be as sharp either.
Sorry MLG.. not feeling ya.
NASL I hope you take notes from GOM. oh how quick we are to forget.... I'm a GOMTV fanboy and I'd be the first person to admit that GOMTV was complete shit when they first started with the GSL. Remember how nobody can even open the LQ or HQ stream because it would hit the (super low) cap? That and stream was prone to dying randomly and I literally had a list of 10 different server opened on notepad so I can swap between them whenever they crashed. and there was a time where europeans had a lot of problems watching their stream because it would lag like hell. GOM is doing a lot better now, but they had a lot of problems when they started too.
MLG has been running for years and almost every time I would watch there was always some technical problem. Plus why didn't the MLG SC2 people anticipate this? They must have checked out other tournaments where tens of thousands of people would watch at the same time.
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On April 02 2011 14:16 ChThoniC wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2011 14:05 SlapMySalami wrote:On April 02 2011 10:27 ChThoniC wrote:
- Not using available technology (justin.tv and other scalable streaming sites) ostensibly to make more money from their own ad revenue
it IS a business If you think providing a poorer service for more immediate revenue is good business, you have a lot to learn.
Exactly! This is what I was going to tell him. MLG is obviously taking advantage of die hards they will pay to watch just out of pure love for SC2. Bad business choice for sure. Why is it bad business? Because people like me with disposable income still expect a certain production quality. I don't care if it's day 1 of the event or not. Hire smarter people so your stuff works, now that is GOOD business.
NOW MLG has a REPUTATION for BAD streams. Once you develop a bad rep in something pertaining to entertainment it is hard to come back. Just ask Vanilla Ice. So MLG right the ship before it ends up sinking in a sea of wrong..
I also heard NASL is $25 for 3 MONTHS! If they have the production quality of GOM I will be pleased.
I heard the temp. CEO of MLG on state of the game. He sounds like he is in way over his head.
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I paid for the stream, and I'm kind of miffed so far, but I went to bed early last night after giving up on the stream, and have no idea whether they got it working or not. Today will decide my satisfaction.
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Maybe next time I'll buy a HQ pass. I've paid GSL season passes and GSTL and I only had problems in the beginning of GSL 1 and always enjoy the HQ vods :D
MLG right now reminds me of GSL 1 so I'll be waiting till next time I watch the streams if it's good or not to buy the HQ pass. From what I gather so far from others is that they've had issues for years when it comes to streaming so this already isn't good publicity to me as it seems they don't listen to the customers or atleast try to improve their streaming services.
Everyone gets their chances so I'll just wait untill next MLG event.
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5003 Posts
Welcome to esports guys !_!
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We're currently experiencing some internet issues in Dallas. The tournament is on hold while we work this out. We apologize for the delay.
That's from the live blog on the SC2 Stream. The COD and Halo streams don't seem to be suffering from this major infrastructure trouble that tiny podunk town seems to have. They're still running pretty well smooth. Soooo, since SC2 is their lowest priority, MLG will be my lowest priority as far as events to support.
Edit for update: MLG Statement about the issues.
The highlight: Last night, as we began our live broadcast, our site crashed due to high traffic. Following the site restoration, our streams remain difficult to access. We offer our sincere apologies for the issues you experienced last night and are continuing to experience.
Notice the direct implication that all the streams are broken, and SC2 isn't being singled out to keep the other games going? This is the exact opposite of the case as far as I can tell, as every time the SC2 stream dies for more than a few seconds, I check at least one shooter stream, and they're still up.
MLG is giving SC2 fans the middle finger, and insulting us by trying to feed us this.
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How has today gone, guys? I haven't even bothered trying to watch.
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MLG has always had a fun rep of having some problems on the first event of the year every year with them trying something new and then running into some problems.
I've personally never had any real problem with this though. Its a growing company thats really trying out there to grow something big. I've always ALWAYS have been able to see the Sunday stream in perfect condition. I even remember the bad old days before they even had a stream. They've always posted their vods for free so you can catch up if you missed Friday night.
I went onto the stream and it was just fine after a couple refresh's and the same with today. I consider this a good thing considering the massive hits mean that esports have grown a lot. I can understand if you feel bad about wasted money but they've already said that everyone gets another pass for the next event.
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On April 02 2011 20:25 crazeman wrote:Show nested quote +On April 02 2011 11:23 Tumba1 wrote:
I agree with OP, I'm a big fan of eSports and consistently purchase GOM season tickets. They are the benchmark for me. @ $10 for GOM if you aren't coming with GOM style production quality then you are just not charging the right amount.
I considered purchasing a pass for MLG, but I couldn't even get the free stream to work. If the free stream doesn't work WHY would I assume the one you pay for will? I mean you put out the free stream to give a taste, and they can't even get that working.
I'm all for eSports growth, however I'm with the OP on this. Day [9] isn't quite as good as his brother Tastless and you can't compare DJ wheat to Artosis. So the commentators aren't going to be as sharp either.
Sorry MLG.. not feeling ya.
NASL I hope you take notes from GOM. GOM is doing a lot better now, but they had a lot of problems when they started too.
Yea, but MLG isn't just starting, they streamed last year as well. $10 for how many matches have been streamed (and longer than that for non-sc2 related things)? Like 5 the first day and a handful today? The price is well over industry standards for HIGH QUALITY production. I understand production for this won't be as high and that of course there will be more issues, but they're charging more than any other company is for the games currently and they're putting forth the worst product.
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Now that it's all over, I'd like to hear. Did anyone ask for a refund? If so, what was MLG's response? I'm really curious about this.
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I bought an HQ pass and i was extremely displeased with the stream, i think there were 6 series that were casted live on friday and 3 live series casted on saturday with a few replays being cast that day as well. sunday i didnt even get to see any of the games because i finally got fed up with waiting for them to fix something every game. i think it was a good idea to make it just standard qualitiy so at least you could see the games but the reason i bought the HQ pass in the first place is because i cant see wtf is going on in the games because the SQ stream is terrible. i still have not seen the sunday games and im pretty upset about that considering that mlg said they would get the vods up as soon as possible. i really hope they dont mean that they will restream the matches all over again because i dont want to have to sit here and wait for certain games i would really just like to pick the games of players i enjoy watching.
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On April 05 2011 08:24 Nazeron wrote:
I bought an HQ pass and i was extremely displeased with the stream, i think there were 6 series that were casted live on friday and 3 live series casted on saturday with a few replays being cast that day as well. sunday i didnt even get to see any of the games because i finally got fed up with waiting for them to fix something every game. i think it was a good idea to make it just standard qualitiy so at least you could see the games but the reason i bought the HQ pass in the first place is because i cant see wtf is going on in the games because the SQ stream is terrible. i still have not seen the sunday games and im pretty upset about that considering that mlg said they would get the vods up as soon as possible. i really hope they dont mean that they will restream the matches all over again because i dont want to have to sit here and wait for certain games i would really just like to pick the games of players i enjoy watching.
Have you tried asking for a refund? You werent delivered the product you thought you were getting, and they ended up wasting a lot of your time.
If you do this, please post the response here. I want to know if MLG cares about their customers or if they care more about your $10.
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The only real thing I can say on the matter is, I tried to tune in five different times over the course of the weekend. Four times the stream provided me an ad, and never loaded up the actual MLG stream. The fifth time the quality was so absolutely poor. The second I went into full screen mode, I thought I had sudden onset Cataracts or something. Not too good of a start. I'm sure they'll work things out.
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EPT
