EPT This is not about bashing SC2 or my thoughts about SC2 being bad, it is simple observation on what we (BW players) are competing against.
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/
I want to start this thread out with that link. Why? Look at the name. We have our own section on reddit and we don't use it. I'm pretty sure half of the people who read this topic know what reddit is, or at least heard of it, but never actively used it. Yet, we need to start using it. Today was my "k we need to do this" sign when I refereed Gambit's Cup Finals Day 2, and persuaded the 300 active viewers who pretty much always watch every major BW event and BW stream whom were there to make accounts and upvote the very simple re-link of our stream for the event. With 10 upvote's +50 viewers. The second it hit the front page +250. We literally almost doubled the population by being the first to last post on the front page of reddit's StarCraft section. I'm not sure of the exact figures of reddit, but millions upon millions of people sit there and read it all day long. Example 2: Ribbon Classic. I hosted a small niche tournament for a valued member of TeamLiquid whose primarily goal is to bring an understanding and appreciation between BW and SC2 players. The tournament had 550 viewers, being casted by Sayle. We soon frontpaged it on reddit and jumped to 1,200 viewers as the 6th post. With enough upvotes, we were 2nd. We ended up ending the stream with an average of 1800 viewers and a peak of 2080.
Now, in general this would just be another moot idea of advertising another site, but look at the facts. It's the "StarCraft" section. Creating an account takes less than 30 seconds and simply involves making a name and a password. You save this on your browser and then click an up arrow 80% up on the top left of the screen. Bam, that sole contribution paired with a couple here and a couple there, and we just introduced reddit's SC section, dominated by SC2 players to BW events. Unlike BW players, SC2 players love our game, and if they don't, they respect it. More importantly, SC2 is more interactive in their community and thus they watch a lot of streams rather than sit and play 14 hours a day like you need to in BW. The first time I used reddit for Ribbon Classic, I saw a bunch of names claiming to be SC2 players and how much they love what they're seeing. A select number of those names are now regularly in not only my events, but every major BW event's stream and I recognize them, well knowing the first time they saw a BW event was through reddit and one of my events. The majority of those guys/girls have since talked about playing BW. This is one benefit.
Another benefit is exposure. Events thrive on sponsors, whom thrive on exposure. A good event heavily promotes their sponsor and whatever product they have. Doubling viewership or even tripling it is a sight that every organizer dreams to see. Well, as (mainly) foreign BW players, all we have to do is make an account, save it on our browser, and click an arrow every time someone spams a reddit link for the event their viewing. The exposure is not only good for foreign BW and those events, hence I've kept "BW events" vague thus far. The majority of a time a progamer is streaming on Twitch.TV or TL, someone posts it on reddit and it stays as the first or second thing on reddit. Same goes for proleague, OSL, and others. With community support to help essentially bump up threads about foreign BW events or their own streams, together through simple efforts we can balance out the "StarCraft" section of reddit that has been overrun by SC2 players, events, and news.
tl;dr Reddit is a great source for exposure and an ideal way to induce foreign non-BW players to come to the dark side, make an account and start actively upvoting the reddit links you see when watching a stream.
I'm not sure it's entirely legal on TL to advertise another site in this sense despite the altruistic nature of the post. But I do want to know if people agree with me and or are willing to go through a strenuous effort of 2 left clicks to support the community they hold so dear.
