EPT
I also made this as a VLOG first with the intention of releasing it just as that, but decided to make an actual post with it, first to clarify and restate some things for those that don't want to watch and those that do, and to wrap it up a little better as post 18 minutes we sort of devolve into rambling.
*note I left out the part about casters in the video because I thought I included it and had only done so in the first two renditions. >.<
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Video format in spoiler:
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Storytelling is one of the most vital things that forms an emotional connection between a fanbase and events. It creates interest, hype, excitement, and attachment. It is something that the Starcraft 2 scene basically doesn't have in any capacity.
There are three parties that share the responsibility for creating hype outside of the actual event: the tournament itself, the community, and the tournaments in relation to one another.
1. Tournaments
I started with this thought: Let's pretend I have no idea what's coming up or who is in it, and I want to be interested in an event. What tournaments are coming up, and when? So I went to liquipedia and got a list of upcoming tournaments, and then decided to pick MLG Dallas because it's in four days.
The Liquipedia article on MLG Dallas lists information about the event: the location, the prizepool, the bracket format, and then a list of players divided by what they were seeded from for group play and those in the open bracket that are notable. If I go through liquipedia for a few hours I can find everything on that players past events and who they beat and the map score and the tournament date and a lot of raw information; that's liquipedia's purpose, to provide information. They're good at it, but it isn't their job to provide hype. So I look at the general player list and say, "Oh, okay, a bunch of players seeded from other events." Did I watch these events? If the answer is no, so far there is no significance at all from these events happening. They literally could be invites and it makes no difference at all.
So I go to MLG's main page. It's their event; surely they've tried to create excitement for it! Ticket information, stream information, a huge list of players, some pictures...nothing hyping up their own event. I was surprised to find a list of player profiles. GSL has them too. Basically MLG has profiles for each of the players that have participated in their tournaments so that you can look at that information and find more about the player within the confines of what they've done in MLG. If you choose to. Again. You. Just like you can look at the brackets and choose to get exicted about Scarlett vs Bomber first round, or Grubby vs Flash.
Also the information is not remotely helpful or relevant when it comes down to it because again, it's within the confines of MLG. So we can take a player that's appeared at MLG 8 times (I picked OZ), and look at his win-rates and things and it's nice to have and if MLG existed as it's own entity and there weren't fifty different events between those eight appearances he'd had it would matter. But they have.
I'm still looking around MLG's site. I still haven't seen anything from them promoting their own tournament. Maybe they've decided people don't like their site. I go to reddit. I go to reddit starcraft. Front page. Surely an event in four days would have some sort of hype video, trailer, preview, discussion...something? Maybe it fell off the front page. I search. I search and I find that the closest thing to MLG promoting their own tournament, a stacked tournament with KESPA involved at the first live event where they intermingle with other pros of it's kind. The closest I can find is Clutch discussing the event on Shifting Gears.
I sound like I'm picking on MLG, but the stark reality is that it's not unique to MLG by any stretch. IPL started making top ten play videos, and then eventually we got a "sort of" trailer by IEM and then IPL about their event that was a compilation of previous footage that showcased that the event was this awesome thing and functionally contributed nothing to developing any hype or story line about what was going on in that event.
The closest any events come to developing story lines at this point revolves around hoping the community does it for them, and hoping their casters carry all the weight during the event itself. Casters have started to do a great job of it, and it's awesome that they do it, but they're the only ones. The only way you're going to see it though, is if you bother to turn the thing on. If tournaments want people interested in their event, they need to promote their own events.
2. Secondly, it isn't just the tournaments jobs to promote their events, to promote story lines, to promote hype. Two and a half years ago the community at best could provide a thread to discuss things and occasionally a post about a specific match-up on reddit. Two and a half years later I still can't say anything has changed with a very few exceptions. TL making a preview thread for every major tournament is not the community doing anything.
I go on reddit, again, with the intention of looking for MLG Dallas, the event that's in four days. I search MLG DALLAS. I hit new so I don't find the tournament from a year ago. Anything? Any discussion, and hype, and trailers, any fan-made content whatsoever? Anything at all. The answer simply is no.
I'm going to keep this section short because I don't like coming across as just bitching without reason, and creating content on your own is scary, but what it comes down to is that if you want your scene to be exciting you have to get excited about it yourself and make it exciting. That's not creating a pillar for something that doesn't actually deserve it, it's saying directly, "I want interesting content and I know it's interesting, I need to develop it!"
3. The third part, which is also the part where I go into rambling insanity is that it's really hard to get hyped about individual events. I can genuinely not give a shit about this MLG and still watch Starcraft 2 next week in GSL, IEM, and WCS two weeks later. I can watch NASL the next day. I can watch streams. I can watch whatever. We complain about a lack of content, but the lack of content is not from tournaments, it's from everywhere else. The bloat is enormous, and even if you wanted to get hyped or produce content I'm not sure how you would.
I'm not sure how you would because I'm not sure how you would decide what to follow, and I'm honestly not sure how you would track and justify the performances of what you were tracking.
Do I follow MLG? How about X player at MLG. Between last MLG and this MLG he's been in 8 tournaments. He's been in a half season of NASL. He's been in GSL and GSTL. He's not had the same performance in each one. Jetlag? The metagame? The simple fact that it's impossible to look consistent when you're under the spotlight that frequently, and the reason that literally MVP is the only player that looks remotely stable for any length of time?
The end answer is that there is too much stuff. It's hard to get interested in your event over any other when the main and only real draw you have is that you have players playing starcraft. So does everyone else. It's hard to stay interested in events as a whole because there's soo many that it's just suffocating to follow all of them. I hope that changes soon. I don't know what will happen or how.
I have no TLDR, and I hate ending a blog sounding like I'm just whining. I really hope that events start producing more content supporting their own events and drawing people to them. I hope the community gets brave and starts to step up more too. I hope half the events kill eachother off or work something out so that things aren't so frequent and overwhelming and saturated.
I hope the realization doesn't hit me that that was all way too long.
<3 Angel
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also,
always awesome and thanks for sotg and clutch and apollo for doing their best, and anyone else who does who i casually didn't mention. It's awesome that you all try, and that effort is increasing.
