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In this Blog, I'm going to quickly outline the good and bad of NASL Season 3. While what I say is my personal opinion, I'm not arrogant enough to believe that makes what I say immune to criticism. With some further adieu (seven words counting these): Let's get arithmetical!
Plus: Live games. Unless you're willing to wade through columns of Playhem and ladder streams, one of the best daily sources of truly live, high level games is the NASL.
Minus: The running ticker blocks the control group binds. BW professionals were asked in every interview what their hotkeys were because serious players really care!
Plus: Frodan and Gretorp. Ironically, putting someone charismatic with Gretorp made him more awkward, and putting someone awkward with him makes him more charismatic.
Minus: The Segments. While I recognize the work that goes into these, I find things like the Community and European updates bland; I much prefer quirky and fun interludes like When Cheese Fails provided.
Plus: The players. The NASL roster is good blend of North American personalities, European contenders, Korean ringers on foreign teams, and even a few Slayers players to boot.
Minus: Subscriber bets. The NASL needs to sell subscriptions, but having Bitterdam and Fretorp make zany promises after each game about what they'll do if they get 10,000 subscribers annoys me. STILL...
Plus: Fair paywall. I think MLG's PPV asks too much from the community, and Dreamhack's free HD might be irresponsibly generous; NASL provides a fair middleground.
Minus: Lack of references regarding Sundance being related to Giovanni from Pokemon.
Verdict: Before Season 1, I would've bet money NASL wouldn't reach it's third season. During Season 2, I would've doubled up on that bet. Now, I'm excited for Season 4. Of the "Big Five" leagues (GSL, MLG, DH, IPL, and NASL) only the GSL and NASL have been able to expand beyond weekend events. Season 3 has been great so far. Congratulations.
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I totally agree with most of what you said, I LOVE season 3 so far. If you were to ask me after season one if I would ever watch NASL and pay for it again, I would have just laughed, but I saw everything they were doing for season 3 and said hell, I'll buy the pass and see what happens, amazing decision. I totally agree on the euro updates, but I kind of do like the other segments. I would really like a break down segment, where its 4-5 minutes of a recap of an amazing game, why it was amazing, what that player did to make it amazing, and those kind of things. Yes gretorp and frodan can PLEASE shut up about "if we get to 10,000 subscribers we'll do something zaney!" We all know you will, stop bringing it up. All there is left for NASL to do to really SECURE them selves as THE Star League outside of korea, is to having freaking AMAZING offline finals considering the last 2 were miserable. Oh, and more chance the esports dog.
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NASL has vastly improved from S1 and S2
their production value and presentation is so much better and they've definitely learned from past mistakes
I think lack of star power in player lineup is hurting NASL the most atm, but if they can manage to stick around that will get rectified in future qualifiers
hopefully NASL receives enough support to be able to continue on to produce a S4.
adding Bitterdam and Frodan with Gretorp have been great moves by NASL and choosing Toronto as a finals location will be an absolutely great decision (assuming NASL doesn't get screwed by customs)
I really hope NASL isn't bleeding tons of money because I have no idea how they manage to be positive or even for that matter
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Can you explain a bit more in detail what you don't like about the segments? I'd be interested to hear more specifically. Our goal is really to not only be a hub of awesome games every night, but to give people a news source. No real broadcast news exists for Starcraft and we're aiming to fill that void. Not everyone gets to follow the scene as much as they want, so we hope that our news segments will be able to provide that to people in a quick and easy way.
If there's something you think we're doing wrong or something we could do to make them better - let me know!
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On April 24 2012 11:43 -_- wrote:
Verdict: Before Season 1, I would've bet money NASL wouldn't reach it's third season. During Season 2, I would've doubled up on that bet. Now, I'm excited for Season 4. Of the "Big Five" leagues (GSL, MLG, DH, IPL, and NASL) only the GSL and NASL have been able to expand beyond weekend events. Season 3 has been great so far. Congratulations.
NASL reached S3 because it has already been budgeted and funded for - the real test is to see if S4 happens.
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On April 24 2012 14:45 Azzur wrote:Show nested quote +On April 24 2012 11:43 -_- wrote:
Verdict: Before Season 1, I would've bet money NASL wouldn't reach it's third season. During Season 2, I would've doubled up on that bet. Now, I'm excited for Season 4. Of the "Big Five" leagues (GSL, MLG, DH, IPL, and NASL) only the GSL and NASL have been able to expand beyond weekend events. Season 3 has been great so far. Congratulations. NASL reached S3 because it has already been budgeted and funded for - the real test is to see if S4 happens.
Wasn't it just two seasons funded, third being contingent?
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On April 24 2012 14:25 Xeris wrote:
Can you explain a bit more in detail what you don't like about the segments? I'd be interested to hear more specifically. Our goal is really to not only be a hub of awesome games every night, but to give people a news source. No real broadcast news exists for Starcraft and we're aiming to fill that void. Not everyone gets to follow the scene as much as they want, so we hope that our news segments will be able to provide that to people in a quick and easy way.
If there's something you think we're doing wrong or something we could do to make them better - let me know!
The euro update isn't that helpful, nothing big or anything, as I said in my original post, some breakdowns of games and styles would be nice, beef up megumi's segment, it has great potential, but it covers alot of topics and is vague, cut out 2-3 stories and beef up the other ones with information.
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NASL has the leanest operation out of the majors by far (surprised that -.-'s list missed ESL/IEM). If this season goes well, my guess is they'd break even by season 4.
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On April 24 2012 14:25 Xeris wrote:
Can you explain a bit more in detail what you don't like about the segments? I'd be interested to hear more specifically. Our goal is really to not only be a hub of awesome games every night, but to give people a news source. No real broadcast news exists for Starcraft and we're aiming to fill that void. Not everyone gets to follow the scene as much as they want, so we hope that our news segments will be able to provide that to people in a quick and easy way.
If there's something you think we're doing wrong or something we could do to make them better - let me know!
it sounds pretty ambitious and that's cool. keep doing what you're doing. one of the reasons they're boring to me is because i do follow everything. still, i wonder how many people want starcraft news segments and don't read the forums 24-7.
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the "have you heard" segment brings a smile to my face every time
probably cause I watch anime and corny stuff is standard there
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I do admit I can be pretty awkward ^^ but so is anyone who tends to be talkative to an extremely unfamiliar audience. Each person has their preference like many ppl who love Day[9]'s corny sound effects or others who who Incontrol's edgy passive-aggressive impressions (I love both!). My mom thinks Artosis is the most awkward person alive with his nerd jokes ahaha. Totally cool though thanks for your feedback. I've seen you post a lot too so I know what you say is fair criticism :D
Our segments will only get better over time. Even watching the first community update to the most recent has been bounds of improvement!
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On April 25 2012 04:18 Primadog wrote:
the "have you heard" segment brings a smile to my face every time
probably cause I watch anime and corny stuff is standard there
♥
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EPT
