EPTThe Starcraft community has always been one of the most mature and sensible communities of gamers. We have prided ourselves on this, and lauded it as one of the reasons why Starcraft is better than other games. Our community has wonderful leaders who are intelligent, communicative, and do their best to educate those of us who are not privy to the insider information. If we wish to continue our claim to greatness, we must do more to demonstrate it. The excuse "It's the internet, what do you expect?" to justify the constant uninformed witch hunts is getting old, and as the professional esports scene grows, it becomes less and less acceptable. Often times, one person will voice and bland and generic complaint, and a thousand others will back it without any solid evidence. Even amongst our community leaders, we sometimes hear public complaints and arguments that are expressed without supporting details.
What I would like to see is a movement towards standards based judgments. That is to say, I'd like to hear "I disliked MLG because they did not give me enough warning before my match. I expect half an hour notice, and they only gave me five minute notice." instead of "I disliked MLG because they did not treat me well." When we hear comments such as, "An admin gave me the wrong time for my game, so I missed it and was disqualified," it sparks rage throughout the community, but it is wholly irresponsible to say such things. We should instead hear from players, "An admin told me my match was going to start in an hour, so I went to get a bite to eat. When I came back half an hour later, I had missed my match". This is a solid statement that gives good reason to spark rage and a good reason for the community to be upset. Without those extra details, we do not know if the case was really something more like this: "The admin told me my game was going to be played tomorrow at 4:00pm, so I showed up at 3:30pm and had missed my match," we have enough information to know that maybe the player is more at fault than he's letting on. Perhaps he should have checked in with the tournament earlier in the day to make sure the times hadn't changed.
So, from our players and leaders, I expect a great level of detail if they are going to lambast an organization or tournament. Inciting mobs for personal vengeance, while fun and satisfying, is wrong , and we should hold our players, our leaders, and ourselves to a higher level. When a player says, "MLG was bad. They didn't give me enough time before my match," before jumping on the "Crucify MLG" bandwagon, we need to ask the player, "How much warning did they give you?" Yes, it’s easy and fun to band together in anger and hatred. It's easy to bond with people over a common disappointment, but that doesn't make it right and if we want this community to be great, we ought to do better.
Recently we heard that all the players loved their treatment at LSC (Lone Star Cup). This is great and I am happy for them; however, with it came the inevitable complaint, "Why can't MLG take care of the players like LSC does?" This is a problem, because there is a lack of detail to compare the two. With what did LSC provide the players? Did MLG not provide something comparable? There are so many different ways that players need to be cared for at a tournament that I will not go into detail on all of them, but instead let us look at one specific example, and then extend the logic developed there to the rest of the issues. Let us use, "Warning time before a match" as an example.
If the players were given at LSC one hour notice before their next match, and then another notice at half an hour, and a final notice at 15 minutes, that would be great! (I am not claiming this is what LSC did. This is an example using generic data to make a point. Please be patient and hear the argument out). If we then hear that MLG is only giving players a half hour notice, we can compare the two and say "MLG's level of notice is inferior to LSC." However, if we hear that LSC gave players an hour notice and MLG gave players an hour notice, our argument that LSC is better than MLG is going to run into a problem (provided that time is sufficient for players to get to their booth. 5 minutes is enough for somebody to walk from back stage to their booth at LSC, but not enough time at MLG)
In the SC2 community, we love and trust our players; however, we cannot base our judgment on tournament treatment of players simply on the reactions of these players, simple because there are many reasons why a player may feel, unjustly so, like they're being treated poorly/well. Perhaps a player really dislikes the tournament format, and just got knocked down to the lower bracket. They're in a terrible mood, and may blame the tournament for their poor performance. Perhaps a player who is very well known expects some sort of special VIP treatment, and the tournament decides to treat them like a normal player, so they complain that they're not being well taken care of. Perhaps a player is expecting to be treated like a normal player, but instead they get pampered. These are just a few of the ways that players can have their view of a tournament become biased and unfair.
What I'm trying to say, and I hope this has been coming across well, is that we should have a set of standards against which to judge a tournament. These standards would be great to develop together as a community, but until that happens, we must develop our own individual standards if we wish to make a legitimate complaint or judgment. If you don't want to put in the effort to develop a set of specific standards and expectations for a tournament, then your complaints, judgments, and concerns sound uninformed, irrelevant, and make the community look bad. This is very similar to somebody who chooses not to vote, but complains about their government.
To further clarify, here are my set of expectations and standards for SC2 tournaments in relation to how they treat players.
Players will have a player designated area with physical barriers, including line of sight blocker, that is removed from the fans. Entrance is limited to players and coaches only. No fans. No media. No family. Strictly players, coaches, and tournament staff.
Players will be given a one hour notice before their match is to be played, provided that the player is within the player designated area. (If a player decides to go to the beach, the tournament is not responsible for heading out there and telling the player they have an hour to play.)
Players will be given a half hour notice, including location and station, before their match is to be played, provided that the player is within the player designated area.
Players will be given at least a 15 minute break in between Bo1, Bo3, and Bo5 sets. 30 minutes between sets larger than Bo5.
Players will have escorts available upon request in the event they need to move through the crowd of fans to get somewhere without being swamped.
Players will be permitted to eat in the player designated area, and be given at least an hour break for food and rest for every 4 hours they have played.
Players should be permitted to bring water into their playing area to have during matches.
Players should be permitted to bring a music player (ipod, zune, portable cassette player) into their booth and play the music they like. (This does not mean that they can play music through the tournament computer. They can bring their own personal device and use it.)
Players will know 1 month in advance what the map pool shall be.
Players will know 1 month in advance what the rules and regulations for the tournament shall be.
All players who enter the tournament through the same method, will be treated the same (i.e. Invited players are all treated alike. Open bracket players are all treated alike. Qualified players are all treated alike.)
Practice space and computers will be provided for players. If there are not enough computers for each player, a fair system for practice time should be implemented and clearly explained to all players <-- [this was edited in after half an hour]
If MLG is not meeting these standards, to me, that is a problem. If LSC is not meeting these standards, that is a problem too, even if the players were happy with it. If NASL is not meeting these standards, if GSL is not meeting these standards, if IPL is not meeting these standards, that is a problem. Let us judge all tournaments that wish to be taken seriously against the same stick. Here I am just talking about the treatment of players, but we should develop measures for all aspects of a tournament.
While I would love to see every member of the community take up this stance, I think it is unlikely to happen. As old as the excuse “It’s the internet, what do you expect?” is growing, it is still relevant and valid. There is a lot of maturing to be done.
However, amongst our leaders, our players, and our teams, I do expect this level of detail. I expect that every complaint fielded by iNcontroL, SirScoots, Nony, and Destiny to be coupled with supporting detail. (These names are used simply as a generic sample, I am not picking these people out individually based on past or present complaints or arguments).
Lastly, I would like to say that I am not affiliated with MLG, LSC, or any other tournament or team. MLG is used heavily here because it has been vilified greatly as of late, but without much supporting evidence. I am not defending the actions, practices or choices made by MLG or its affiliates. I simply want to raise the bar on what we expect from our community leaders and from each other when talking about important issues.
[Edit]all edits have served to remove typos[/edit]
