On July 10 2014 09:00 tomastaz wrote: TB there's no need to apologize we still love you! Also, I really want the Axiom Cherry Brown keyboard but it's all sold out =(
Same here - with Heart on the keyboard (or Ryung). Not sure what shipping costs to the UK are but I should be going to Milpitas on business soon and they can be picked up in person. Not going back to blues since I started using a CM Storm Quick Fire with browns.
Oh, I prefer Bo7 no ace revive. It is too forgiving to teams with superstar players.
I agree with the not so subtle protoss whine in OP, it's just frustrating to play against. Getting rax-CC and then deflecting the all in spam stalker, was still contained ruining early game macro and ending up behind attacking into 3 chrono colossus that wiped the bio force of mostly marauder built up to just go kill him for failing the all in. The most irritating part has to be the failed stalker push into attempt at DT cheese and still having an economy lead to early CC into double OC play.
all-kill was a great gimmick when it was used as that - a gimmick - in the old BW proleague days, where you had teams of genuine depth of quality so that actually all-killing a team was actually an achievement, and it was only actually used in 1 round of 5 throughout the season. in the current team environment it simply doesn't work because of the imbalance in skill level in many teams, resulting in a team game being decided by whoever wins the set between the teams' respective best players. i've always prefered the old dream league format (standard best of 5, then the winners of those sets play in an all-kill format until one team is eliminated), but don't think that'd work either, again due to current team compositions.
it definitely needs shaking up, and i think the poll in TB's OP demonstrates that, if only because you get interesting starcraft when you have players of similar skill level (regardless of actual skill level) - hired korean aces curbstomping EU pros simply isn't fun
On July 14 2014 19:29 SatedSC2 wrote: I actually think that the EG Master's Cup had the best team-league format (after they removed the 2v2s) and it seems to be overlooked a lot IMHO.
The format they used was 4 x Bo3 with the players in each Bo3 being announced beforehand. Because the players are announced beforehand, the players involved can still prepare for a specific opponent and they can still prepare "snipe builds" for specific maps, which is what I think most people like about the Proleague format. However, because it's Bo3, you also reward teams for having players who are better overall, which I think strikes a good balance between team preparation (snipers, all-ins, wonky strategies) and actually being better at the game.
If you play all four Bo3s and the score is tied at 2-2 then you have a Bo3 ace-match. The players for this obviously aren't announced to the opponents beforehand, which means an element of mind-games can become involved if teams try to counter-pick who they think the opponent is going to pick. However, because it's a Bo3 and because the maps aren't decided beforehand, counter-picking is a lot weaker than it is in the Proleague format. What I think this does is reward teams for having a stand-out ace-player, and I think it also leads to ace-matches actually being contested between the two best players on the teams involved. That's what I want to see in an ace-match, the two best players going at it!
Also, because this format only requires a minimum of 4 players, it's perfect for a tournament that already relies on a revive rule to help out teams with a small number of players
EGMC format is pretty good, though it does result in some fairly lengthy broadcasts.
On July 11 2014 02:33 Thalandros wrote: Does everyone really hate allkill? I love it. Especially the way GSTL did it of course, but that requires offline tournaments. I love the unpredictability of allkill formats and it kind of shows the ''pure, unprepared skill'' of any player. (unless you're talking about snipers.) It's always made matches so much more exciting for me, and also the reason I love GSTL over Proleague. Proleague of european/american teams might be an interesting twist though. Overall I prefer all-kill by far. I dislike revives though. They're kind of a gimmick and aren't really adding to the strategy, because you don't go into a match ''expecting'' to lose so that you can revive that player that lost. Maybe a mixup IS the best, get the best of both worlds.
Also, TB, sucks that you get another bad experience with ATC. Hopefully all will go right next time.
I have no idea why but All Kill has some ring to it that feels so Starcraft to me, like its a personal achievement that few can ever boast. Taking away AK is actually probably better for the viewership because we can see an entire teams roster. However, there is just nothing quite like All Kill for that epic hero type feel.
TB honestly really, your players have to have the responsibility, you inflamed the situation but its not really like NBA Playoff or something, you can't really 'reach another gear' in SC2 just because someone trash talked you on Twitter.
Also, should a coach really have an entire YouTube empire to run and a team to run and have cancer? I think you should bring a coach to one of your capable players if you aren't using it. Don't put too much of your teams success on your shoulders let them also bear the burden.
I think the problem is that if you mimic the pro league format, there isn't much reason to watch the tournament because you could just watch pro league. Now ATC does have other things going for it; fan favourites, favourable time zones, but does this alone make it a valuable investment of viewer time? I would argue that it doesn't.
So ATC use this format because it is different, no one else is doing it, it can create exciting storylines and all this helps the numbers.
On July 18 2014 19:27 KelsierSC wrote: Hey interesting post.
I think the problem is that if you mimic the pro league format, there isn't much reason to watch the tournament because you could just watch pro league. Now ATC does have other things going for it; fan favourites, favourable time zones, but does this alone make it a valuable investment of viewer time? I would argue that it doesn't.
So ATC use this format because it is different, no one else is doing it, it can create exciting storylines and all this helps the numbers.
There's no real evidence to suggest that ATCs format "helps the numbers" in any way and I think both the poll and my reasoning that ATCs revive format results in silly, meaningless series that are decided by 2 players rather than an entire team, are both decent arguments in favour of changing it.
The idea that people would stop tuning in because the format was similar to Proleague seems like little more than speculation.
EPT
Hopefully all will go right next time.
