EPTPre
+ Show Spoiler +
So this was written on Wednesday 2/22/2012. I have not listened to SOTG #63 but I have listened to Live on 3 and Stimcast last week where both shows brought on Sundance to interview.
To be frank, I do think that Winter Arena is worth $20. No, I don’t like the high price point but for the quality matches that MLG has always given me, I stand by my opinion. On the flip side, I was in a Toys R Us about 2 weeks beforehand with an MLG Gold Membership card in my hand and I was wondering if it was really worth it. If I had bought it instead of waiting, I would’ve been livid that there was no discount or anything until recently. Since it is a trial run, I think that the PPV price should’ve started at $10. And the Gold members should’ve gotten it for $5.
I’m not exactly sure why people are outraged by this PPV. I know lots of the SC2 community is college students or even high school students. I’m in school too so I know the pain of being broke. But at the same time, I thought this was a site called TeamLiquid. It was my impression that there were tons of diehards and that helping SC2 by spending $20 would be a good thing, instead of just talking about how much we love StarCraft2 and how we deserve all these things. We can vote with our money and help the scene grow. And MLG never said that this would become the norm for their tournaments.
So this was written on Wednesday 2/22/2012. I have not listened to SOTG #63 but I have listened to Live on 3 and Stimcast last week where both shows brought on Sundance to interview.
To be frank, I do think that Winter Arena is worth $20. No, I don’t like the high price point but for the quality matches that MLG has always given me, I stand by my opinion. On the flip side, I was in a Toys R Us about 2 weeks beforehand with an MLG Gold Membership card in my hand and I was wondering if it was really worth it. If I had bought it instead of waiting, I would’ve been livid that there was no discount or anything until recently. Since it is a trial run, I think that the PPV price should’ve started at $10. And the Gold members should’ve gotten it for $5.
I’m not exactly sure why people are outraged by this PPV. I know lots of the SC2 community is college students or even high school students. I’m in school too so I know the pain of being broke. But at the same time, I thought this was a site called TeamLiquid. It was my impression that there were tons of diehards and that helping SC2 by spending $20 would be a good thing, instead of just talking about how much we love StarCraft2 and how we deserve all these things. We can vote with our money and help the scene grow. And MLG never said that this would become the norm for their tournaments.
During
+ Show Spoiler +
While I was watching, I made a list of pros and cons.
• The fact that there were 4 simultaneous streams was amazing. I love not missing any match ever again. And the split views were amazing. I think I consumed most of my Winter Arena in Quad View
• The ability to focus the sound on one stream and watch another was so sick. This allowed me to follow 2 games at the same time.
• Dropping in the streams into the grid was a cool feature.
• That “main” button was so awesome. I also found out that space bar did the same function. Regardless, I enjoyed how the player auto switched the main screen in the Quad View to 720p and then kept the other 3 streams at 240p.
• At the bottom, there was this ESPN style news feed that would tell us about the paywall, upcoming matches, and results. Pretty awesome. It’s sick on ESPN, and for Winter Arena, It even gave fun facts such as the nukes that were going off during
meRz vs 
Socke.
• It was incredibly hard to find the stream for Winter Arena. And it was twice as hard for me to log in even though I paid. I really wish this could be smoothed out. The button that said “Watch Winter Arena” led to this huge wall of text and the stream with the Quad View was hidden in a random paragraph. I had to bookmark the site because there was no other way for me to return to the page later.
• The Dr. Pepper stream was ridiculous. I wasn’t that happy that I had to watch an ad even though I had already paid for Winter Arena. And after the ad? I just saw a bunch of people sitting on couches staring at TVs with dubstep playing in the background. Not a fan.
• Right after the paywall kicked in, I had to log in multiple times on multiple streams. Infuriating.
• If Robin rotates the camera one more time during a fight, I’m going to smash my monitor. I cannot follow a huge engagement if my traditional orientation is spun and I have to reorient myself. This is probably my biggest gripe about the streams.
• The tabs on the right side were really cool but the brackets from the MLG site were still atrocious. It was also a little confusing to figure out who was playing on what stream.
While I was watching, I made a list of pros and cons.
Pros
• The fact that there were 4 simultaneous streams was amazing. I love not missing any match ever again. And the split views were amazing. I think I consumed most of my Winter Arena in Quad View
• The ability to focus the sound on one stream and watch another was so sick. This allowed me to follow 2 games at the same time.
• Dropping in the streams into the grid was a cool feature.
• That “main” button was so awesome. I also found out that space bar did the same function. Regardless, I enjoyed how the player auto switched the main screen in the Quad View to 720p and then kept the other 3 streams at 240p.
• At the bottom, there was this ESPN style news feed that would tell us about the paywall, upcoming matches, and results. Pretty awesome. It’s sick on ESPN, and for Winter Arena, It even gave fun facts such as the nukes that were going off during
meRz vs Socke.Cons
• It was incredibly hard to find the stream for Winter Arena. And it was twice as hard for me to log in even though I paid. I really wish this could be smoothed out. The button that said “Watch Winter Arena” led to this huge wall of text and the stream with the Quad View was hidden in a random paragraph. I had to bookmark the site because there was no other way for me to return to the page later.
• The Dr. Pepper stream was ridiculous. I wasn’t that happy that I had to watch an ad even though I had already paid for Winter Arena. And after the ad? I just saw a bunch of people sitting on couches staring at TVs with dubstep playing in the background. Not a fan.
• Right after the paywall kicked in, I had to log in multiple times on multiple streams. Infuriating.
• If Robin rotates the camera one more time during a fight, I’m going to smash my monitor. I cannot follow a huge engagement if my traditional orientation is spun and I have to reorient myself. This is probably my biggest gripe about the streams.
• The tabs on the right side were really cool but the brackets from the MLG site were still atrocious. It was also a little confusing to figure out who was playing on what stream.
After
+ Show Spoiler +
Conclusion? I think the Winter Arena PPV was worth my money. I do wish it was a lower price point but I think this experiment was totally successful. The feature rich setup was insane. The chat/analysis in between all the matches was so entertaining. The little things like the NYC backdrop and spacebar/arrow keys ability to control the setup were awesome. Besides a couple of hiccups, the 720p stream was lag free . (I didn’t watch the final so I can’t talk about the supposed stream drop that happened.) I also liked how later in the broadcast, we started getting OGN style camera shots where we could look at the players.
My wishlist for future MLG streams/tournaments that use this setup:
• The ESPN-style ticker at the bottom should be constantly running and cycle through the scores of all the matches that are going on. It’d be great to see a little snippet that told me what matches was broadcast on which streams. It got a little confusing to follow 4 simultaneous matches.
• Please update the bracket system. Or link to the Liquipedia bracket.
• The schedule tab was updated very late on Saturday. I’d like to see a real time schedule.
• I wish there was more prepared content that could be shown on the Dr. Pepper stream. Those little videos about certain players were awesome. I want more of that. And less dubstep listening/couch watching.
• The price was a little steep considering this was the 1st PPV event. I hope to see the price scaled back to $10 in the future. Or create a subscription similar to the IPL setup. Maybe something tied into the Gold Membership that isn't a discount.
• Please make it more obvious where the stream is on the MLG website and where to log in.
• Please please please stop the rotating cameras. It’s incredibly distracting and annoying.
Conclusion? I think the Winter Arena PPV was worth my money. I do wish it was a lower price point but I think this experiment was totally successful. The feature rich setup was insane. The chat/analysis in between all the matches was so entertaining. The little things like the NYC backdrop and spacebar/arrow keys ability to control the setup were awesome. Besides a couple of hiccups, the 720p stream was lag free . (I didn’t watch the final so I can’t talk about the supposed stream drop that happened.) I also liked how later in the broadcast, we started getting OGN style camera shots where we could look at the players.
My wishlist for future MLG streams/tournaments that use this setup:
• The ESPN-style ticker at the bottom should be constantly running and cycle through the scores of all the matches that are going on. It’d be great to see a little snippet that told me what matches was broadcast on which streams. It got a little confusing to follow 4 simultaneous matches.
• Please update the bracket system. Or link to the Liquipedia bracket.
• The schedule tab was updated very late on Saturday. I’d like to see a real time schedule.
• I wish there was more prepared content that could be shown on the Dr. Pepper stream. Those little videos about certain players were awesome. I want more of that. And less dubstep listening/couch watching.
• The price was a little steep considering this was the 1st PPV event. I hope to see the price scaled back to $10 in the future. Or create a subscription similar to the IPL setup. Maybe something tied into the Gold Membership that isn't a discount.
• Please make it more obvious where the stream is on the MLG website and where to log in.
• Please please please stop the rotating cameras. It’s incredibly distracting and annoying.
Finally, did anyone else laugh at the lighting behind Artosis and Tasteless? I know they were talking about StarCraft2 matches but if I muted it, I could’ve imagined being sold timeshares or stocks. So hilarious.
