EPTOn a personal level, Dreamhack is the most incredible event I've ever had the honour of being a part of. This sprawling LAN of a scale you won't find anywhere else in the world, is filled to the brim with everything that makes gaming the compelling hobby and lifestyle it is. Needless to say I'd like to focus on the SC2 aspect of things.
Firstly let me thank the admin team for Dreamhack, it was the best adminned tournament I've ever been involved in. Admins were easily reachable and helpful, efficient and consistently effective in their roles. As a result, downtime was kept to a bare minimum and disputes never reached the public eye. Delays in the schedule were to be expected. The running joke is that we need to adjust the tournament for GMT (Goody Median Time), though some credit has to be given to Xlord as well for playing exhausting stamina games as Zerg. We were not thankful for not getting a lunch break at all on the second day as a result, but Xlord and Goody made up for it with entertaining play.
The player area was nicely situated, with the admins on location as well for easy access. The player area was equipped with large screens either side, out of view of the players but viewable for spectators. It was cordoned off but spectators could watch the game either from the pros point of view or the cast (needless to say without the audio). Players were often applauded by the spectators and fans around them as they played. I can't say whether or not that was distracting for them but I didn't hear any complaints and often saw many smiling faces as players frequently interacted with fans. The vast majority of players were exceptionally outgoing in that regard and the sense of community and mutual respect was palpable.
I was given my own small stage with stadium style seating and a projection screen by Asus and Steelseries. Unfortunately our PA system was not up to scratch and had difficulty in the loud exhibition hall. This will no doubt be resolved next time, but even the audio problems didn't stop the stage from being full to capacity at all times, with plenty of standing overflow. The projection screen worked very well and was clear and high definition. This was one area where Day9's tent suffered since the canvas was white and the glare made the screen difficult to see. While a darker coloured tent would have resolved that issue, it would have also made armies of nerds die of heat-exhaustion. Even with the white tent, it still heated up quite badly there and Day9/Apollo were suffering as a result. Day9 was constantly being fed tea by an assistant to keep his voice in shape, never would he be seen without a cup. What the tent lacked in visual quality it made up for in clear sound and an exceptionally produced stream as a result of the dedicated production team. They should be commended for producing a professional and slick piece of work and maintaining that quality over the 30 hours or so of casting that was done there. The atmosphere in the tent was also exceptional, as you no doubt saw and heard, fans screaming at the top of their lungs and GGs and particularly great plays, as well as sometimes randomly bursting into applause for no appreciable reason, much to the amusement of Day9. I think we had the tent beat in our downtime music though (which we weren't able to use during Day 1 due to technical problems). They had trance, we had Hellmarch and VGM soundtracks, much to the delight of passersby as classics like Command and Conquer, Warcraft 2, Dune 2000 and Streets of Rage pumped out at obnoxious volumes :D
What is certain is that more people wanted to watch SC2 than could comfortably fit into our two stages. The 1,200 capacity Dreamarena also had a queue stretching from the escalator all the way to the Dreamhack lobby, several hundred metres and every seat was taken, to the extent that ogsMC actually sat on the stage near the Teamliquid guys for a while since there was no seat available for him. The Dreamarena itself is incredibly impressive, with very comfortable, theatre-style seating, a MASSIVE, high-fidelity screen, good sound quality and of course, the slick looking player booths on either side, which were even mounted with large lights on the top which matched the player's colour in-game. Spectator eSports in the west just got a new benchmark.
Any doubts in the minds of organisers or sponsors about the viability of Starcraft 2 as a spectator eSport must have been washed away. The sponsors of our stage were vocally thrilled about the amount of foot-traffic and exposure they received, blowing away their expectations and hopefully ensuring a larger Stage B for next time, which I'll hopefully get to participate in. As for Day9's tent, well, I think they're gonna need a bigger boat, particularly since Dreamhack Winter is a much larger event.
Some personal criticism of my own performance. More often than not I was solo-casting, which is not optimal. This was mostly due to the short notice nature of my attendance, which until about 2 weeks before the event, was not going to happen due to space issues. At the last minute, I was offered a space by Asus and Steelseries if I would cooperate with Nordrassil Radio and assist them by co-casting and presenting 2 live World of Warcraft raids with the world's top-guild Paragon, as they demonstrated and defeated the hardest content in the game. These two events were very well attended, dwarfing even the SC2 at Stage B, which is to be expected since WoW as a spectator event is fairly rare and unique. This should also answer the question as to why League of Legends had so many viewers. Due to it's lack of casting interface but large playerbase, being able to see a LoL tournament is rare and as such a novelty. Anyway I'm going off-topic, TLO heroically agreed to co-cast some of the tournament with me. He was engaged in casting WCG on the first day so that was all solo from me aside from July vs Hasuobs at the very end of the evening. He cast with me for about half of the Day2 matches and the two remaining matchs on Day 3 in the RO8. TLO is an absolute pleasure to work with and the knowledge he acquired during his career as a Random player makes him a very unique co-caster in the analytical role, easily able to analyse scenarios between all 3 races that other casters might struggle with. His laid back nature and good humour help out a lot and it'd be a pleasure to co-cast with him in the future. He easily took up the analysis role and talking over each other was a non-issue, as I yielded the mic to him for analysis and he would immediately hand back the reins during high-action moments. I hope this demonstrated the viability and robust nature of the play-by-play/analysis model.
Needless to say more game knowledge will help my casting. I feel that it has improved significantly but still needs a lot of work, particularly on the issues of the meta-game. Not having time to watch GSL really hurts me in that regard. It is a weakness that can be minimised by co-casting and I hope to avoid solo-casting whenever possible in future. I'd also like to apologise for a few production faux-pas. I produced the entire event myself and as a result did slip up on a few occasions, including leaving an overlay up for the entirity of a July vs Hasuobs match which thankfully was only around 8 minutes long. On my home setup I would have immediately noticed this since I cast in a window and can see my Xsplit viewport as well to check for such things, however fullscreen had to be used on Stage B because the projector was being powered by the HDMI port on my laptop, so anything that was on my monitor was also on the screen. There was also one occasion where the mic was muted for the first couple of a minutes of the cast, once again a problem that is easier to notice and solve when you can see the Xsplit program. On the subject of observation, I missed one key battle in the 6'o'clock position that I was made aware of and a few drops. Some of the games were unbelievably hectic and difficult to observe, particularly when Moon was applying 3 way pressure to Naniwa, striking 3 bases simultaneously and rotated forces in and out to lessen pressure in one area but increase it in another. More minimap awareness is required on my part and perhaps my Daily ladder stream is a good place to learn that, since it'll also help my play. On a final note it's become apparant that using the army visual overlay during a battle is a dumb idea, as is in fact any visual overlay that blocks the screen. Pulling back the UI rather than cluttering it more seems like the optimal thing to do and relying on quick mental counts of the units still alive in the fight rather than focussing on army supply numbers, which can be analysed after the fight is over, not during it. On a lighter note, my chair should NOT have wheels, as I managed to catapult myself away from my computer after seeing Sen kill approximately 40 zerglings at once with a perfectly placed Baneling strike. The mouse fell off the desk, the camera spun off in a random direction and I was left looking very very silly.
Ok, back to more positive stuff. The fans are incredible and I think what I've learned from this event is that these guys represent the true face of the eSports community. All of the negativity and arguments that happen on the forums are made irrelevant by the beaming smiles and screaming excitement of the spectators. Day9, Apollo and myself did a signing session after the finals which lasted for 4 hours, hundreds of autographs, photos and hugs later, we were left feeling very tired, happy and completely awestruck and humbled by the outpouring of love we all got from the fans. These guys are the future of eSports and they are the reason SC2 will continue to be successful. Nothing can stand in the way of that kind of unbound enthusiasm. Also Day9 is the friendliest and one of the funniest guys you'll ever have the pleasure to meet. More than one photo was ruined by his terrible puns and jokes that saw everyone burst into fits of laughter as the flash went off. Notable moments during the signing session was a shaking girl on the verge of tears as she hugged Day9, overwhelmed by actually getting to meet him, signing a guy's digereedoo (sp?), a couple of fans with a massive folder of noteable players and casters with their heads photoshopped onto Pokemon (IdrA is Mewtwo) and Day9 receiving a pillow with a pin-up picture of Tasteless on it from a particularly crafty fan. It makes me realise the absolute truth of the people that say paying any attention to the haters is unprofessional and harmful, not because fighting on the internet is stupid (though it is), but because it takes away time that could be spent interacting with these guys and making their lives just a little bit more fun. They deserve that time.
I was glad not to be casting the finals, because if I had I would have missed out on my first experience of spectating SC2 in a live environment and the Dreamarena was the ultimate place to do it. I felt that familiar pit in my stomach as HuK fell behind. The last time I felt that way was an England World cup game many years ago when we lost on penalties. I felt the pure adrenaline of the tense moments where HuK either succeeded or failed by mere nanoseconds and the nail-biting finale which I won't spoil for any of you if you haven't watched it. The crowd roared, 1,200 screaming eSports fans as loud and proud as any sports event and there was not a man in the audience who didn't roar and applaud with them. HuK taking that well deserved win was a moment of elation for him his team and the fans. As the members of Teamliquid picked him up and threw him into the air over and over again, the crowd applauded and began chanting "HuK! HuK! HuK!". The thought running through my mind at that moment was "and where are the doubters now aye?".
One last but certainly not least thing to mention, oGsMC. I cannot imagine how much courage it takes to come and do your first ever cast, in your non-native language, in front of a live audience. I had no idea what to expect after he came up to me and asked if he could co-cast. His English has improved so much lately and what people should take away from this is that not only does he have unparalled knowledge of the game which eclipses ANY current caster, but that he is one of the few Koreans who genuinely want to engage with the foreign SC2 scene beyond merely playing in it. He's said in previous interviews that he thinks the foreign fans are better than the SC2 fans in Korea and always seems genuinely appreciative and humbled by their reaction. It was the same as he cast HuK vs Tarson and returned for Bischu vs Tarson. He too now knows the reason behind the phrase "Tarson holds!", as one of the most resilient and stubborn Terran in Europe overcame Bischu and he was very respectful and complimentary about both players, even if his skills surpass both. He's welcome back any time and it was a pleasure to have him there.
In total I was casting SC2 for 30 hours, 10-midnight on days 1 and 2 and 10-12 on day 3, thankfully my voice held up, though it's shot to hell today. I can take a couple of days rest before starting heavily on IPL 2 recordings with dApollo. Thanks vocalcords, I know you get abused very frequently but you rarely fail me.
So a few quick thanks in no particular order.
Asus, Steelseries, Sapphire, Eizo, TLO, oGsMC, Day9, Apollo, all the admin staff including but not limited to bobhund and Hellspawn, all the volunteers who made Dreamhack possible, the players who provided us with such fine examples of eSports entertainment, all of the fans both at the event and watching on the streams, Nordrassil Radio for arranging the opportunity to be at the event, Tranceh and Simon from Joinsimon.se for providing some transport, all of the guys I met at the afterparty and to my Centrance mic preamps for not melting and of course, Sweden for being such an amazing place with welcoming people.
See you at Dreamhack Winter.
VoDs - http://www.youtube.com/totalhalibut - Check the Latest Starcraft 2 playlist to see what we've got up so far.
Your casts solo, with TLO and with MC were very good too. Awesome event \o/
