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United States336 Posts
Hello! This is AfreecaTV.
ASL Season 4 is finally starting on September 10th at 7:00PM KST with StarCraft Remastered.
Until now, AfreecaTV has constantly supported users and streamers who have enjoyed SC BW for the past two years with three consecutive seasons of ASL.
With the new release of SCR, we are pleased to announce ASL Season 4 along with English casters to support our global audience.
However, we would like to inform you that ASL Season 4 will not be streamed on Twitch or YouTube
We understand that our global fans find Twitch to be the most convenient and familiar platform for esports.
Time after time, AfreecaTV has generously invested into the past three seasons of ASL. And despite Twitch being a competitor, AfreecaTV has provided free English casting for ASL.
As you may already know, ASL Season 4 has undergone many financial challenges. From increased prize pools for players to enhanced production value, it has grown since ASL Season 3.
In order to securely maintain ASL, AfreecaTV currently conducts content sales with its sponsors.
Due to this, from the policy of providing ASL for free to Twitch, we have decided to sell media rights of our ASL English content to Twitch and YouTube.
Yet as an agreement could not be reached with Twitch or YouTube for ASL media rights, we could not provide them with ASL content for the start of Season 4.
This is an already established business model for numerous fields of esports and sports.
For our global fans and their love for SC BW and SCR, AfreecaTV is currently preparing its servers, so that users can watch with very little discomfort.
We hope that you will watch ASL S4 on AfreecaTV, as Tasteless and Artosis will continue to cast.
Here is the link for watching ASL S4
Thank you. AfreecaTV
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
RIP ASL cast for me :<
Gotta review the VODs later on, since Afreeca is unwatchable for me, keeps buffering all the time, so unless you prepare some good solution to it, I won't be able to watch 
Anyway, I understand your decision although it is not suitable for most of the foreign fans.
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United States336 Posts
On September 08 2017 20:28 739 wrote:RIP ASL cast for me :< Gotta review the VODs later on, since Afreeca is unwatchable for me, keeps buffering all the time, so unless you prepare some good solution to it, I won't be able to watch  Anyway, I understand your decision although it is not suitable for most of the foreign fans.
They are currently testing a major change to our CDN, which should hopefully alleviate many of the buffering issues.
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understandable, but still sucks
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tried afreeca last season too... hopefully this season, the connection will be more stable. or twitch could just buy the damn license or blizzard should back off of their stupid fee....
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Unfortunate, as I think having a high quality stream with a high viewer count on twitch can easily introduce new people to a game. (i.e. the only time I watch CS/Dota2 is when I know a major tournament is going on by twitch having a lot of viewers).
That said, understandable reasoning by afreeca. If (and thats a big if) afreeca can provide a lag free experience to the global audience, I think nobody should have a major issue with this. If not, then that is really unfortunate.
I am looking forward to the increased production value.
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It does make sense. Would of course love to watch Afreeca, but it's unwatchable for me as well, and I cba to do all the VLC stuff to get to watch it. Crossing my fingers it'll get sorted out!
Cheers for investing in BW, though!
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Well as long as it does not lag, it doesn't matter if I watch on youtube or afreeca.
At least Blizzard could invest in BW tournaments themselves instead trying to suck every little drop they can get out of BW
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I'm more than happy to watch it on afreeca, they have done so much for the scene.
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United Kingdom12022 Posts
I'm in the UK and got really lucky with the ASL channel. Different channels seem to affect my internet differently. I understand your decision and I'll be sure to watch on Afreeca!
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Happy to watch om afreeca with vlc livestreamer the stream should be watchable without lag
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GSL is also switching next season? So the fee is real? BLIZZARD DO U EVEN KNOW WHAT A LOVE LETTER IS?
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Yes it would be really nice if Afreeca is watchable in EU without constant buffering. This is the only reason I prefer to watch on twitch.
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RIP ASL i cant watch then
afreeca i get it but ur afreeca player is UNWATCHABLE for me ... doesnt matter if from work or at home its buffering to death afreeca is so bad that i would watch re rebroadcasts of it so i hope someone will record it and upload it on youtube ... its the only way i can hope to watch it because afreeca is just unwatchable for lag reasons
also the vod system is tehre even one on afreeca ? there isnt all on english so are broadcasts recorded and watchable later as vod as on twitch or youtube ? because if no ... the times also not fit me for watching it live most of the time
also i always feel afreeca has a lower quality like its not rly 1080p60fps, and the afreeca logo is so big it blocks so much space ...
u want global audience with a service that is basicly unwatchable from most of europe ...
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Yeah I'm from USW and afreeca is basically unwatchable. Doesn't load 80% of the time and says the stream ended multiple times when it hasn't.
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Netherlands4511 Posts
I will gladly watch your stream on Afreeca.
Unfortunately ASL on twitch did a great job displaying BW to an audience who does not usually watch BW, and even perhaps a lot of people who have never watched BW or have no connection at all to the game (SC2 fans for example).
I think us dedicated fans of BW you find here on TL.net will do everything within their power to watch your tournament, so re-streaming ASL to VLC or watching on afreeca wont be an issue for most of us, but I fear it's terrible news for the western bw world and it's potential growth. Having your game being high rank on twitch will naturally make more people check it out, and ASL did a great job of that.
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This is horrible news! Afreeca is almost unwatchable for so many of us, the buffering can be a problem even on the best connections. Is there any chance this could be sorted out during the season?
I really, really hope the necessity to charge for streaming ASL wasn't caused by the additional financial costs incurred by the switch to broadcasting SCR. Getting viewers is only going to be more difficult - It's already hard enough to foster a foreign veiwership without ANOTHER hurdle. Having it so visible on twitch brings in new viewers to the scene, rather than us who are already waiting for the new season. Sigh. It seems like the foreign scene is just sprouting out of the ground, but boot after boot is stamped on it.
Oh well. I hope this doesn't seem like I'm blaming you guys, Afreeca have done great job organising ASL over the last few seasons, so I'm definitely not upset with them over this decision. You guys have done nothing but try to rekinde the BW scene and I have nothing but admiration for you for all your hard work. You are a business though, and you have to recover costs somehow.
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On September 08 2017 21:39 Liquid`Ret wrote: I will gladly watch your stream on Afreeca.
Unfortunately ASL on twitch did a great job displaying BW to an audience who does not usually watch BW, and even perhaps a lot of people who have never watched BW or have no connection at all to the game (SC2 fans for example).
I think us dedicated fans of BW you find here on TL.net will do everything within their power to watch your tournament, so re-streaming ASL to VLC or watching on afreeca wont be an issue for most of us, but I fear it's terrible news for the western bw world and it's potential growth. Having your game being high rank on twitch will naturally make more people check it out, and ASL did a great job of that.
In other words it is in Blizzard's interest that the game gets promoted on twitch? More people might be attracted to BW and buy SC:R?
But some other people wrote earlier that blizzard is making it hard by applying fees or idk what
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