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TL:DR
+ Show Spoiler +There's too much SC2 content out there to keep track of. Nasl's drawn out regular season format ends up getting lost in the shuffle. They should scrap their current group format and play out their groups(or brackets) in the course of a week so that there is more at stake for each broadcast. For example in week one they can play out groups A and B to it's winners. Then week two you play out groups C and D etc. That way you're qualifying players each week instead of drawing it out.
P.S. And get those Koreans back.
So Nasl 2 has come and gone and it was the subject of a lot of criticism. Much of it was deserved but Nasl did some good things too: The games at the grand finals were quite good overall (the bo5 in the ro16 was a great idea imo), they brought in a great lineup of casters, the player entrances were pretty cool and the produced pieces/interviews were nicely done.
Unfortunately I think all of that was brought down by the low crowd turnout. Nasl had other problems (low quality free stream, lighting issues, lack of top Koreans) but the crowd was by far the most noticeable issue. The other issues could have been downplayed (the Nasl free stream is still much better than the GSL, the player lineup was comparable to Dreamhack etc.) but the low fan turnout made everything so awkward and depressing.
I think it has to do with the regular season nature of the Nasl. It's so drawn out and doesn't build up any momentum. I don't think a league format like this can work in SC2 when there's so much content out there. Between the GSL and other major tournaments, and online cups and streaming and regular content from IGN, Nasl just gets lost in the shuffle.
Also they had to change their playing schedule to accommodate the players or production, by playing multiple weeks at the same time. This really hurt their product by broadcasting games weeks after they've already been played. People don't want to watch games that are based around older patches and metagame. And if the viewer isn't hyped for your regular season then how can you sell them on your finals.
I think Nasl playing out their brackets/pools each week would solve a lot of their issues (week 1 play out groups A and B, week 2 play out groups C and D etc.). At the end of each week, you're qualifying players to the championship bracket, so the viewers are getting weekly satisfaction and can see that progress is being made in the tournament.
Also the players just have to devote one day to your tournament to play out their groups, and then they know if:
1. They made the final bracket
2. They need to go to the playoff qualifier bracket
3. They're out of the tournament completely.
It's much easier for player commitment. Which I'm thinking was one of the reasons why Nasl went to playing out multiple weeks on the same day.
I would suggest either a weekly 8 man double elimination or 10 groups of 4.
Weekly 8 man double elimination bracket
5 weeks, (40 players total)
Qualifying 2 players per week
Start out with Bo3. Then Bo5 for Winners Finals and Loser Finals
Broadcast schedule per week:
Day 1: Opening round. 4 matchups
Day 2: Winners R1, Losers R1. 4 matchups
Day 3: Losers R2, Losers R3, 3 matchups
Day 4: Winners Finals (Bo5), Losers Finals (Bo5), 2 Bo5's, no grand finals because you're qualifying two and double-elim finals are usually anti-climactic.
10 groups of 4 (40 players).
Qualifying 1 player per group
Bo3 with Bo1 tiebreakers (you could do Bo5 but that might be a bit much)
Broadcast schedule:
Two Groups a week
Day 1: Group A day 1, (3 matchups)
Day 2: Group A day 2, (3 matchups plus tie-breakers if needed.)
Day 3: Group B day 1, (3 matchups)
Day 4: Group B day 2, (3 matchups plus tie-breakers if needed.)
This would give you 4 broadcasts a week for 5 weeks for the regular season, while the playoffs and championship bracket remain unchanged. I think this would make it easier for viewers to follow the Nasl and give them more hype and momentum heading into their grand finals.
P.S. Try and get those Koreans back. Just take IPL's tactic of including airfare and hotel accommodations for each finalist. A lot of these Korean teams are barely scraping by and it's more important for them to minimize costs, than to bank on making it back in prize winnings. Just bring down your prize pool. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference to the players if the prize pool was 80k instead of 100k if you were covering hotel and airfare. And for the viewer the size of the prize-pool is just a means to an end. It's the player lineup and the quality of the games that people care about.
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On December 07 2011 10:46 cablesc wrote:
P.S. Try and get those Koreans back. Just take IPL's tactic of including airfare and hotel accommodations for each finalist. A lot of these Korean teams are barely scraping by and it's more important for them to minimize costs, than to bank on making it back in prize winnings. Just bring down your prize pool. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference to the players if the prize pool was 80k instead of 100k if you were covering hotel and airfare. And for the viewer the size of the prize-pool is just a means to an end. It's the player lineup and the quality of the games that people care about.
They did that iirc.
I do like the rest of your suggestion though.
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The west coast has seen a total of 3 major ESPORTS events: 2 NASL finals (one in the summer, season 2 just now) and MLG Anaheim.
NASL Season 1 and MLG Anaheim both took place during the summer in which a ton of kids/college students were out of school, and I saw a lot of them during NASL S1 and Anaheim.
NASL Season 2 finals took place literally the weekend before finals week for a lot of students. I know the CSL gave out a ton of NASL tickets but very few of those people showed up because of finals studying.
Having ESPORTS events on Friday morning actually isn't the greatest idea either. This goes for all events, as IPL 3 had a pretty low turnout as well. People kept citing NASL's small crowd, but I can confidently say IPL 3's was unfortunately smaller. People who are available on a weekday morning is pretty scarce, and venue restrictions can play a big role. The Ontario Convention Center is tad obscure, but its less restrictive than a 21+ venue, and there is a direct airport to the venue. Ontario city on the other hand isn't a nice a place as Anaheim, but its probably much cheaper. The press room in the Ontario Convention center was pretty kick ass though.
MLG can draw the big numbers on weekdays because a lot of the competitors can double as spectators, so that guarantees almost all your open bracket participants as spectators day 1. Also since MLG has done like a bajillion live events at this point that people will gravitate toward that brand since they've proven themselves in the live event market. Once more organizations like IPL and NASL can prove they can do a solid live event, more people may take the initiative to show up.
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United Kingdom20263 Posts
I know 4-5 people who specifically dont watch NASL because we dont know how long ago the games were played. I heard that some of the season 2 games were aired over a month after being played, and the MASSIVE delay moving to patch 1.4 seems to back that up. When a new patch hits that redefines a matchup, i dont want to sit around watching what people have been doing for the last year, i want to see what is possible with the ramp vision changes, etc. That is one example, but most people who play at even a kind of competitive level (masters) dont take NASL seriously at all, as games played 1 month ago do very little in helping a masters player advance his skill and gameplay. For this we have gsl, mlg, dreamhack etc all played live and with arguably better players (gsl is unquestionably better than all else) or even IPL with their far more recent replays.
All in all, games played 1 month ago can often hurt more than help players at masters level looking to improve, and when there are so many better alternatives out there, it just seems to be a joke league.
The finals are different, but all in all, it is still NASL, and when we compare it to IPL3, we have a ton of good players, a free 60fps 720p stream (more importantly, with far higher bitrate than nasl stream, nasl 360p has artifacts EVERYWHERE around moving objects) and even the option for a dual screen with both player cameras being streamed from seperate PC's with or without commentary overlayed. It is a different issue, but also another area where NASL simply does not compete.
They also scheduled their finals for 4am european time, which funnily enough, was late enough US time that liquid'tyler posted on twitter that it was too late for him to watch. Event-breaking failure.
"Bo7 finals at 10:15 EST on a Sunday night? I'll read about it tomorrow. GL HerO! =]"
There is also the issue that NASL uses twitch.tv resolution downscaling, which implements a 10-30 second delay, which means that if i am watching NASL with a group of 5 friends, and 2 of them have paid for the higher resolution streams, they will have to either be 10-30 seconds ahead of the 3 of us (and everybody who didnt pay) or not use the higher resolution options, the only reason they would pay to watch NASL in the first place.
There are so many issues this doenst even scratch the surface of what they need to fix to be competitive with others, and in this day where there are so many good tournaments, masters players seem more than happy to just drop NASL and use the time for practice instead, due to all of these issues, as everyone has limited time, even pro gamers, and following a sub-par league could actuly be detrimental to skill because of that.
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I honestly can't comprehend how time zone differences can be a complaint. Maybe this is why a lot of events aren't on the west coast? =S
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I think that the drawn out season with repeated play is something NASL is doing extremely right.
If it were live and had all the top players it would be such an amazing format/tourney.
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EPT
