EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/waURPBg.jpg)
Brood War Reunion TournamentIntroduction
If you care about Foreign BW and haven't heard of the Reunion Tournament yet, then you've missed out. All information is available here. The tournament was created for one simple reason. I had been the Event Team Leader for GosuGamers for about four years in the period 2006-2009 and had organized a lot of events with players from that era and grew a fondness for a lot of them. I also still loved BW despite not being involved in it for a while. From that starting point, I decided I wanted to host a tournament specifically for those old players and see if I could bring them back one more time. The idea for the Reunion tournament was born. I had no thoughts about donations, saving the BW scene or all that, all I wanted was to bring back the heroes of old.
The start was difficult, but once a few players decided to sign up it became easier. I remember asking Sen and explained him the idea. He said no at first, but the moment I said "Mondragon's playing too" I couldn't get another line in before I got "ok I play" back. After these two got on board, my position became a lot stronger and it was easy to convince anyone interested to sign up.
When I made the initial announcement on Teamliquid I was shocked at how big it became in such a short time. Teamliquid instantly spotlighted it and donated $150 to the prize pool, boosting it up to the amount I'd imagined we'd total at. The attention grew exponentially and at that point I decided I wanted to make the best of it. I set out to make the tournament as big as possible and interview all the players where possible.
This was the start of the BW Reunion Tournament. Now, I'll discuss what went well and what didn't.
The Bad:
The tournament was a bit rushed.
The tournament felt a bit rushed to some. It was announced on August 6th and would take place August 23, a mere 17 days later, with a lot of blank spots still open regarding how exactly I wanted to execute the tournament. This was due to setting the date far in advance and not making too much progress in the beginning. Unfortunately, the time had already been set and I figured I couldn't change it anymore, all I could do was up the working pace, which resulted in a lot of interviews.
At first, people really enjoyed the interviews, but by the time Batch 5 came out, the viewer count had been cut in half. It was too much content in too short a portion of time. My intention was to give all the players a chance to showcase their personality so that the audience knew who they were cheering for, but it turned out to just be too much content. This won't be a problem for next tournament though, as a lot of players will have already had an interview, leaving me with only a few new ones.
The tiebreakers were poorly organized.
This comes mostly from the fact that initially, the tournament was set up to be more of a for fun thing with professionalism not being a big thought. The competition was more of a means rather than an end, but ended up becoming a bigger focal point as the prize pool grew. I knew that it was possible that there would be a large amount of players tied, but figured we could just have tiebreakers, figuring most of them would be fairly simple depending on the player count. Unfortunately, it had become quite late at that point, so we had to rush it.
In retrospect, I'm still not sure what I should've done. On one hand, the FFA on Hunters would be very much in the spirit of the tournament, but eliminating Fosken for it simply because he couldn't play with a larger crowd felt injust. In the end, my biggest criticism on myself is not the decision I made, but rather the events that led up to it and how often I changed my mind. I should've been clear the moment it was clear there were lag issues, deciding one thing or the other. I would like to apologize to all the players that thought they'd get their chance in the FFA though.
Miscommunication between people was an issue.
There were a few cases of miscommunication. At first, Ptak thought the tournament started at 23:00 CEST rather than 17:00. Kaoru had told the casters it would start on Sunday rather than Saturday, and Sayle was under the impression the Quarterfinals would be played on Day 2 rather than Day 1, which caused him to announce that the games were over after the swiss rounds completed. The solution here is simple: Ask for confirmation when giving all the details to everyone. Check, check and double check.
Live vs replay casts.
Personally, I'm a big fan of having events be as live as possible. On Day 1, this was possible, but it caused some delays on the first day. It also caused us to have to use a delay which might inhibit the interaction between streamer and viewers a little bit to prevent the option of cheating. On Day 2, it wasn't possible as there wouldn't be enough observer slots to fit in all the casters from the different languages, which led to us replay casting the rest of the tournament. I'm curious what you guys prefer.
Poll: Live casts or replay casts?
Live, even if it causes delays. (48)
69%
Replays, because I hate delays and lag issues too much. (22)
31%
70 total votes
Replays, because I hate delays and lag issues too much. (22)
70 total votes
Your vote: Live casts or replay casts?
(Vote): Live, even if it causes delays.
(Vote): Replays, because I hate delays and lag issues too much.
The event took place during a big Starcraft 2 event.
Without doubt, the viewer counts were lower due to the finals of the Red Bull Battlegrounds Detroit being on at the same time. The competition was involuntary as I had chosen the tournament date before the exact date of RBBG Detroit was announced. It was an unfortunate timing and I'm sure we would've broken 1k viewers on the English stream if it wasn't for that, but it was not to be.
It cost me a buttload of time.
Contacting all the players, getting all the technical stuff set up, getting everyone on one line and creating all the interviews and coordinating everything took a lot of time. Thankfully I had that time on this occasion, but it also took a lot of energy. Going forward, I will definitely need either a strong co-organizer that can put in a similar amount of hours, or I'll need to cut down on the amount of content to generate. I'll also definitely take a cut for myself next time given the amount of work it takes to organize one of these things, provided there is the prize pool to support that.
The Good:
A lot of people still care about BW.
Over all the different streams we've had over 2500 people simultaneously watching the streams, with the Russian stream even going over 1000 people despite not a single Russian participating. The audience size was fantastic, and it's good to see that people still care about Brood War. The reception was nearly all positive.
Some of the "newschool" players felt left out, but ended up being connected too.
This was initially a problem as the guys that were at the top of BW now felt like they missed the boat on participating in the largest BW tournament since the start of SC2, which is understandable. I feel this was at least partially solved by the Sziky of the Hill event though, where they got a chance to show their prowess. Unfortunately the interest of the oldschool players in that event wasn't as large, but this allowed the other newschoolers to take the spotlight for just a little bit and be a part of the event as well. In the end, I've gotten mostly positive reactions from them.
The cocasting was fantastic.
Though some people weren't too fond of MorroW's overusage of the f-word, I believe that most people did really enjoy the cocasting. The cocasters added a lot of knowledge and sometimes humour to the stream, with the Finals with TT1 and TechnicS probably being a highlight. TechnicS going on a rant about how he made By.Movie try to beat him with scouts was unforgettable, and the chemistry overall was great. Props to Sayle for being a great host as well, filling in exactly the role required of him.
Players really enjoyed the event.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KPMo00M.png)
Ptak and his Hydra.
As ClouD put it: "I've been playing this game for the last two weeks. I've been a Starcraft 2 progamer for like the last three years and the last two weeks have been more fun than all the three years combined." From what I've gathered from the players, they really enjoyed it a lot. That's made the event into a success for me already as it means we'll probably get to see them more often. Some will stick around, which leads me to the next point.
We're forming a clan!
Yes indeed. A few of the oldschool players will stick around and play a few games here and there. The plan is to have a set time once every two weeks or so where we log in and play some games. Our first planned gaming time is on September 7, 16:00 CEST. I'm very curious how it'll go and I look forward to keeping the gang together, at least for a little bit.
The Verdict:
The Brood War Reunion Tournament started off as an idea to simply get back the players that I enjoyed the company of for a few years, and ended up becoming (one of) the biggest Foreign Brood War event(s) since Starcraft II has been released. Some mistakes were made, but I don't think anything really stopped people from enjoying the games. I'm confident another tournament like this will take place in the future. I'm not sure what the shape of it will be, but it will happen. I also heard something about TLS4 being on the horizon, so keep your eyes open for that.
Thank you:
There's a lot of people I'd like to thank. I hope this is exhaustive, but it probably isn't. I'd like to thank Silkygoose, Nazgul & Teamliquid, Kaoru, 2pacalypse-, Raistlin, Chrisolo, Endy, Machine, BisuDagger, Pheer, Celetuiw, Pholon, Mewka, Iccup, all the players, everyone that's commented, donated and helped promote the tournament in any way.
An extra big thank you to Myujinsan who stayed up until past 6am two nights in a row to work on the overlay that everyone ended up hating, and for helping me in so many things along the way.
Quotes
I'd like to leave you with a few highlights from the different interviews I've had.
Sen:
"I think everyone prefers winning over losing. Don't you? Fucking Artanis."
"I think everyone prefers winning over losing. Don't you? Fucking Artanis."
Ptak:
"A+ on iccup was a piece of cake compared to family life."
"A+ on iccup was a piece of cake compared to family life."
HayprO: (before getting second in the tournament)
"I'm sadly in no shape to beat anyone."
"I'm sadly in no shape to beat anyone."
Eriador: (about joining Teamliquid)
"It wasn't really a magical story about how we met after his horse carriage broke down on an abandoned road and I saved him and his family from certain doom, more like the equivalent of getting a girlfriend in elementary school. Like "wanna be girlfriendz" and then like "yeah", except we stayed true forever and ever, which I guess makes it a little different."
"It wasn't really a magical story about how we met after his horse carriage broke down on an abandoned road and I saved him and his family from certain doom, more like the equivalent of getting a girlfriend in elementary school. Like "wanna be girlfriendz" and then like "yeah", except we stayed true forever and ever, which I guess makes it a little different."
CastrO:
"ArCNeON is a gay toss, so many cannons I need kill to them all."
"ArCNeON is a gay toss, so many cannons I need kill to them all."
PredY:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JYUfcy4.png)
Nyoken:
"I hope LzGaMeR plays this tournament because then I might actually win a game."
"I hope LzGaMeR plays this tournament because then I might actually win a game."
ClouD:
"The best moment regarding wcg was when I lost to goody in seattle in 2007 in playoffs. Good times. I was kinda angry, then I looked at him and that made me happy again."
"The best moment regarding wcg was when I lost to goody in seattle in 2007 in playoffs. Good times. I was kinda angry, then I looked at him and that made me happy again."
TT1:
"Hi my name is Payam Toghyan, I'm 26 and I like to build sand castles as a hobby."
"Hi my name is Payam Toghyan, I'm 26 and I like to build sand castles as a hobby."
Arew:
"I've decided to stay with protoss because it had a lot of different and unique strategies."
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3jMI4sN.png)
"I've decided to stay with protoss because it had a lot of different and unique strategies."
+ Show Spoiler +
Arcneon:
"Got out of my group [at WCG], then I faced Androide with sleepy eyes and that was it for me. Fucking Russian monsters :D"
"Got out of my group [at WCG], then I faced Androide with sleepy eyes and that was it for me. Fucking Russian monsters :D"
G5:
"My most memorable experiences are just the awesome people I met, the friends I made, and the good times I had with them. There are so many. For example, just in Korea I can think of Artosis getting his foot ran over by a car (yes folks, it was a hit and run), IdrA becoming super social (this was a proud moment), iNcontroL carrying the Canadian flag and representing Canada in IEF's opening ceremony because the Canadian players missed a flight, Rekrul falling asleep in the middle of the IEF audience and later paying for awesome $1,000 a night suites in downtown Seoul for us to stay in, Machine randomly yelling out he's "The Ownage" and then losing to a Japanese players' Hydra / Plague build ZvZ who was studying the build on a Liquipedia print-out, Ret and I being dragged down random alleyways in Suwon by some crazy cab driver, Gretorp proposing to Machine in the streets of Korea with Stork's 3rd place flowers he received in the prize ceremony, Tasteless taking us all to an awesome hookah bar, White-Ra and Dimaga showing up the hotel and instantly pulling out Ukranian Vodka and getting shit-faced, wandering into the VIP lounge of the tournament with SLoG4 only to find Boxer, Stork, Bisu, and EffOrt sitting there (apparently the "VIP Room" just meant "Korean Room"), desperately wandering Suwon trying to find cereal with iNferNaL, showing up to the IEF opening ceremony to thousands of screaming people and thinking I was hot shit only to realize the crowd was there for the Wonder Girls and couldn't care less about us."
"My most memorable experiences are just the awesome people I met, the friends I made, and the good times I had with them. There are so many. For example, just in Korea I can think of Artosis getting his foot ran over by a car (yes folks, it was a hit and run), IdrA becoming super social (this was a proud moment), iNcontroL carrying the Canadian flag and representing Canada in IEF's opening ceremony because the Canadian players missed a flight, Rekrul falling asleep in the middle of the IEF audience and later paying for awesome $1,000 a night suites in downtown Seoul for us to stay in, Machine randomly yelling out he's "The Ownage" and then losing to a Japanese players' Hydra / Plague build ZvZ who was studying the build on a Liquipedia print-out, Ret and I being dragged down random alleyways in Suwon by some crazy cab driver, Gretorp proposing to Machine in the streets of Korea with Stork's 3rd place flowers he received in the prize ceremony, Tasteless taking us all to an awesome hookah bar, White-Ra and Dimaga showing up the hotel and instantly pulling out Ukranian Vodka and getting shit-faced, wandering into the VIP lounge of the tournament with SLoG4 only to find Boxer, Stork, Bisu, and EffOrt sitting there (apparently the "VIP Room" just meant "Korean Room"), desperately wandering Suwon trying to find cereal with iNferNaL, showing up to the IEF opening ceremony to thousands of screaming people and thinking I was hot shit only to realize the crowd was there for the Wonder Girls and couldn't care less about us."
Maybe a minitour here or there, not much time required there.. who knows.
) What's more annoying than people claiming wrong efforts is an undeserved thank you. That was all everyone else's doing. Entirely. 
