EPTRegular casual sc2 tournaments amongst friends are very good. We are approaching the grand final of our 5th tournament. We have drama and story and metagame massively superior to my ladder experience.
Details:
A few of us were looking forward to the game when it came out. We played the single player and it was fun but our early multi player games didn't really have longevity. a few nights playing random games against each other soon got dull. A couple of us settled into playing regular 2v2 and our mini aim was to try and get into gold. researching 2v2 strategy and media lead us into most of the main sc2 content (teamliquid, day9tv, husky). The content is good, it makes you want to do 1v1 but with the small pool of people there was just not that much to hold us to the game.
We would play each other on a night but the games didn't really mean anything, the better players would offrace or try daft stuff to try and make it more even. Some people would ladder with an aim to getting to a particular league. We were all spending less and less time playing.
We decided to organise a small tournament amongst the people who played. No prize or anything, just kudos and bragging rights. Suddenly everything was exciting and interesting. I had played against and alongside these people loads of times before but once you say "on monday i am playing a bo3 against x for the tournament and most of the other lads will be spectators" then its a whole different experience.
I plan for the games, i try to analyse how my opponent plays and what he usually does, i arrange practice games with people who play the same race to help me try certain things out. Every time i see a cheese in a tournament or read a strategy post on tl I am thinking about if i can use it in one of my games.
We are all low leagues but I claim we have all developed as players over the course of the year. I have seen bronze league players beat gold and platinums just because they know the gold guy only plays one strategy so they can work on blind countering it. our tournaments have seen 7rr and 6raxx come and go as very strong strategies that now most of us have practiced defending.
Each time we start a new tournament we invite other people we game with. (wow guildmates, bf3 buddies, etc) our endorsement and its continued success keeps bringing new players in. they are usually new to sc2 and they don't do very well on their first tournament but they can soon catch up.
Our first tournament had 5 players in group stage leading to the top two seeds playing a final.
we are about to finish the 5th tournament. This one had 11 players seeded into an 8 place elimination.
Even at low level, there is an opportunity for a lot more excitement than just "grind ladder, do safe builds, improve your macro, don't do anything cheesy". I would recommend that anyone who finds they have stopped playing 1v1 due to boredom should consider setting up a friends tournament.
