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Great ideas everyone  In regards for budgeting, I think that it is quite likely that an up-and-coming community caster would gladly accept exposure as payment for his/her services. Also, for the cameras, the many issues you brought up Peter definitely might be a problem. I was thinking that perhaps handheld cameras could be used however, to avoid the cables and stuff? The footage would then be transferred to a computer for some short editing before putting it on stream. Lighting I think does not have to be too big of a deal, as I don't think HSC has controlled lighting everywhere I think. However the issue about other games maybe needing more as well is definitely a valid argument. I think that in the future, ideally all the games should be getting this kind of pervasive coverage however
Your suggestion for player submitted bio's is one I think it great, it could be a small self-interview introducing someone to the crowd, or just a little written stats thing that can be shown on stream. Perhaps there could be some GSL style facts listed. I'm thinking some cool thing where the player's little interview is shown, and then kinda like in the World Series of Poker where they zoom in on that table, afterwards the camera could zoom in on the player pit if that person is playing and show him playing his match just for a few seconds, and later they could update the score or whatever.
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On November 06 2012 17:38 Superiorwolf wrote:
Your suggestion for player submitted bio's is one I think it great, it could be a small self-interview introducing someone to the crowd, or just a little written stats thing that can be shown on stream. Perhaps there could be some GSL style facts listed. I'm thinking some cool thing where the player's little interview is shown, and then kinda like in the World Series of Poker where they zoom in on that table, afterwards the camera could zoom in on the player pit if that person is playing and show him playing his match just for a few seconds, and later they could update the score or whatever.
Now the problem with this self-footage is, it costs money, also. The quality in those contents would differ greatly and its more likely that better known teams with probably more money could produce better quality in those contents. This would lead to more exposure to known players instead of rather unknown ones.
Maybe MLG could have one guy interviewing players before or after games, but not live. I think of the Grubby interview that was postet here on TL. It was a much better interview than those "how-do-you-feel?" on stage interviews right after a game.* Of course, the games are important, but for me the personality of players is as much important if I am supposed to cheer for them.
* And there was certainly no controlled light. In fact, it was filmed by a shaky hand camera if I remember correctly.
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Even with bringing in a community caster, it will also be an issue of quality assurance. I'd imagine MLG wants to make sure MLG branded content meets a certain production standard, and that requires oversight and more resources.
It may come down to community orgs stepping it up and going the extra mile to bring us game reports. But the issue is will a big org like TL or ESFI deviate from really big stories to take a risk on up and comers, and will the community as a whole embrace it?
I think everyone knows what they want, but getting the right group of people and the right execution is the trickiest part. You might need a major org to really dedicate themselves to the task of covering up and comers just to see how it goes and what can be done.
Still 100% agree it needs to happen, and I would propose that it would benefit MLG a great deal.
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On November 06 2012 18:42 shindigs wrote:
Even with bringing in a community caster, it will also be an issue of quality assurance. I'd imagine MLG wants to make sure MLG branded content meets a certain production standard, and that requires oversight and more resources.
It may come down to community orgs stepping it up and going the extra mile to bring us game reports. But the issue is will a big org like TL or ESFI deviate from really big stories to take a risk on up and comers, and will the community as a whole embrace it?
I think everyone knows what they want, but getting the right group of people and the right execution is the trickiest part. You might need a major org to really dedicate themselves to the task of covering up and comers just to see how it goes and what can be done.
Still 100% agree it needs to happen, and I would propose that it would benefit MLG a great deal.
Branching off of that, even third party coverage of mlg on another stream could be beneficial, but it would need to be through a well respected org, and even then they may want to keep the monopoly on advertising, justifiably.
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Agree with this. Also, amazing job Suppy! I didn't catch much MLG this weekend but it is always awesome to see you perform so well when checking the brackets. Going through that open bracket must be so daunting.
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
On November 06 2012 15:01 phodacbiet wrote:
How about fixing that shitty connection so the people that paid can actually watch starcraft 2 instead of a powerpoint presentation of starcraft.
I live in Sweden, I have mediocre internet and hardly experienced any lag after the switch from Own3d to Twitch. Obviously, that's only me, but I hardly believe a significant amount of people were watching a "powerpoint presentations of Starcraft"
On-topic: I agree that more could be done to show more games, from more players. Some players, like you say, had amazing runs but were hardly noticed at all despite great runs. This is a problem, I think.
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Actually if they wanted to run a roaming camera that wasn't attached to the mixer/stream and bring back the footage for super-quick editing I could see that working. I remember doing something pretty similar for CSL Grand Finals - while we didn't have the best equipment we actually managed to output a lot of content, and we weren't even all that coordinated. Of course MLG could also look into stuff like LiveU which works really well for IPL.
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First off - Great run at MLG man, it was really awesome to watch you move up the brackets.
Secondly, I completely agree. Viewers should be like gold dust to tournaments. If you get people to watch your stream to catch a game, you don't want to give them a chance to leave, bombarding them with constant content to keep them interested. Instead, they have long downtime where people will switch off the stream and move to do something else instead. It's a real shame and they need to switch it up.
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Perhaps something MLG could do is outsource downtime content to many of the eSports sites - Cadred, Teamliquid, ESFI World and so on - where they produce an interview, roaming report or whatever that gets played in between matches.
Win-win for both?
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I was fine with the setup of earlier MLGs with 2 streams with the main casters and then 2 more premium streams with community casters. The problem of this MLG was not just the fact that there was downtime, but more that there were very interesting matches going on while there was downtime. With other tournaments (that typically have far less games overall), downtime is typically when no games are being played. You still have to wait in that case, but at least you don't have that nagging feeling that you may be missing some exciting games.
With the community-caster-streams, there was (almost) always a game to watch and missing a good series rarely happened.
Of course, if the lack of community-caster-streams this MLG was due to logistical issues with Sandy and not a conscious decision by MLG then I'll withdraw my criticism on this point.
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Clutch does it really take much more budget to have 1 guy walk around with a camera filming the action in the player areas?
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Canada11044 Posts
On November 06 2012 15:01 phodacbiet wrote:
How about fixing that shitty connection so the people that paid can actually watch starcraft 2 instead of a powerpoint presentation of starcraft.
Yeah, they should definitely make sure to prevent any hurricanes next time.
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A 'hardcore' stream? LOL i just heard it --
ANyway, a stream that's "empty" & w/o casters that is there to have shaky cam footage of whatever cool matches that are going on would be cool. When I went to MLG in Anaheim, I enjoyed watching JYP vs Stephano behind a huge crowd (not casted); I wouldn't mind a video camera pointed at a screen w/o any casters, honestly. You'd get the 'hardcore sc2 fan experience thing' as well as the actual crowd reactions super close by.
Logistically however, I have no idea where their set ups are cause you'd have to hook up the camera to a feed somewhere, and I dont know how their cables are set up.
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I think it would be a great idea for MLG to get one guy to be sort of an "open bracket reporter." This guy's job will be to follow the open bracket results, ask players if there were any awesome/exciting games, and to take notes on everything that's going on. He can be the perfect filler for the downtime on stream as he can come on and basically tell some of the important results that occurred. In addition, he can go through the replays of the good games (think Scarlett's 3 spine crawler or goswser's proxy hatch win) and have a short clip created for each interesting game, and this he can show on stream while waiting for the next match.
Agreed, sounds like a great idea.
BTW I didn't experience any stream lag. Well at least no more than other streams. Lots of commercials though.
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On November 06 2012 16:52 GaiusBaltar wrote:Show nested quote +On November 06 2012 15:41 Clutch8 wrote:
This issue and these points have already been discussed with MLG for about a year. I know because I was the one presenting similar ideas and solutions, along with others. It all comes down to budgets. Sure it does, but I mean how much can it cost to get some guy to do what Suppy suggested? The open bracket reporter thingy. I'd bet you'd find a ton of people who would be willing to do this. How about yourself Clutch? Just don't ask for too much money ;P
don't know if you remember the old MLGs from 2011, but Clutch already did that job before. They used to cut to him standing in the crowd as he'd give the live score updates from the open bracket and other group matches that weren't casted on main stage or on blue stream. it was excellent filler between matches.
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Well written article about an issue that needs to be addressed during the upcoming MLG season.
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Man that would be my dream job, to go around picking open bracket matches to show on stream, I always go around finding the best ones as it is already, so fun.
Lots of good suggestions I totally agree.
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Could it be possible that they were undermanned due to Sandy and therefore couldn't put on such a smooth production?
FYI, Goswser vs. Rain was streamed. First game was super good, second was a bloodbath.
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I'm gonna respond to this here, because I was going to actually just make a blog on it, but this topic is already here.
There are many big problems for me with the way MLG handles downtime.
I remember a year ago or so when we were getting more streams. I remember all the hype with getting new streams. And then I remember spending at least a quarter of the tournament with red and blue mirrored and one of those two "extra" streams down. Maybe next event would be better. Next event was not better. Next event had two free streams + red and blue and one was down for two days and the other had an awesome kid playing with a rubix cube while really big names were playing because no one could move their setup over to them. Skip a few events forward, those new streams are now premium AND red and blue are still mirrored. All of this is going on WHILE MLG is hyping about their massive caster lineup so there's less downtime.
From another perspective if I'm watching for free, I'm advertised as getting two streams. Which I don't get for a good amount of time. If I AM paying a lot of the time all I'm really guarenteed is what the free people are supposed to be getting.
From yet another perspective...while the way all tournaments handle downtime is pretty bad still, mirroring streams is just confusing. If you stuck to your schedule religiously it might be okay. But for me to sit an extra 30 minutes and then go to some game magically that wasn't even scheduled and have to wonder if I'm on the wrong stream and then go through reloading everything and then sit through ads all over again because you all finally decide after an hour of nothing that maybe you can do something is just...bad. It's confusing and badly managed. There's no other way around it.
I understand casters need breaks. But I also understand if you're going to brag about having the biggest caster lineup continuously and don't use them you look like a fraud.
I understand technical issues happen. I also understand they happen every event.
I understand there's a budget concern. I also know there's ways around that. Does that mean hey there's downtime we should host 2GD and his crew and give them a channel? No. It means give clutch a camera man while he walks around. It means make that camera the blue stream camera. Forget clutch entirely and just have a guy walk around with a camera. You don't even need sound, and it'd still be more intelligent and interesting than mirroring things. There's lot of options that aren't budget eating.
Lastly the thing I see most is that I could have made this point a year ago, and I'm sure someone else did and many have since then. And it's still the same problem it was then.
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EPT
