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"The AreNA" is a weekly KOTH series designed to draw attention to playing on the North American ladder and create an exciting and motivating environment that makes the NA ladder more competitive and meaningful.
A quote I took from Totalbiscuit when he announced the first season of SHOUTcraft America. I could not agree more...
Totalbiscuit - American StarCraft has struggled to remain competitive and many prominent personalities within the scene have stated repeatedly that there is a need for real American competition; a division in which American players can compete against each other on a regular basis. This would not only assist in developing their skills on a more level playing field, but also expand their fanbase, potential prize winnings, and sponsorship appeal. If we have any hope to bridge the gap between regions, players in America require a healthy eSports ecosystem.
As we all might be aware, there has been a lack of "smaller" tournament and events that focus specifically on the North American scene/ladder. With the drop out of Playhem and other community run events, many of the top players in the NA scene have lost motivation and have become less dedicated to the game. For what reason? well..Koreans. They continue to increase the skill gap between themselves and foreigners (although there are a few exceptions), which is having some switch to other games, playing much less, or just flat out retiring. On the bright side, I have spoken to many of the top players in the North American scene about doing something like this and personally asked them if they would show interest in playing this type of a KOTH. I can gladly say, they agreed.
Let's talk Prize Pool..?
Firstly, when I thought about putting together "The AreNA", I immediately told myself that this has to be done 100% correct, and it has to be content that is attractive, engaging, and most importantly, consistent. This is obviously not a huge prize pool or anything that comes close to the "bigger" tournaments, but what I can guarantee is that this content is not going anywhere anytime soon. Although this is currently being funded from my own pocket, I hope as time goes on sponsors will find this beneficial for themselves and for the StarCraft 2 NA scene.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EuVviID.png)
Best of 1's. Winner continues until they lose. This will be open to the Top 25 players on the North American ![[image loading]](http://www.sc2sea.com/images/smilies/League/gmS.png) GM ladder.
*All players participating must play on their Top 25 GM account.*
The players will be chosen in no specific order. This means there is not going to be a list. (the reason for this is to diversify game play and matchups and also highlight player story lines.)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uAw9tAv.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/r9ZH0.png) ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/7/7f/Twitch_ico.png) PrOmiseCAST WEEK #1: Monday December, 09, 2013Time: 2:00PM PST / 5:00PM EST / 11:00PM CET North American Server / Channel: " TheAreNA" Games will be played LIVE and shown on stream FREE in 1080p quality.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5UYDgKp.png)
*Prize pool subject to change based on sponsorship interest.*
$50.00 - for first person to get 5 wins in a row.
$10 - for dethrone (defeating someone who has 5+ wins)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hM88HIW.png)
Some of my casting experience includes casting LANHAMMER & EGSuppy's "Bay Area LAN - BATLL XI". I have also worked closely with CSN (Cyber Sports Network), IEM, MLG, Clarity Gaming, and the old Quantic Gaming. In late 2012, I was chosen as the Top 8 of the IGN/IPL Caster Search. Currently I'm partnered with Twitch.TV & SC2Links.com, a site aimed for providing up-to-date VODs for StarCraft 2.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fSyrVjq.png)
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This is obviously not a huge prize pool or anything that comes close to the "bigger" tournaments
This is neat, but people aren't going to play if there isn't decent $ on the line, and even if there is (Breaking out) does not mean folks will necessarily care/tune in. I think, before this turns into a disappointing waste of time or money for you, you need to make sure you have players available and ready, not just hoping top 25 GM will flock to you. If you already have 5 -10 people set up, fantastic!
I know this post reads a bit negative, but it's meant to be constructive criticism.
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GL gaining traction & enough of an incentive to get players to come out.
>Wait time in channel for a game + wait time for game + game time + potential time commitment of future games till you lose turns a couple hours into a shot at $10-50 with a >80% probability of $0 and instead of 15 practice games you get 1-4.
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Awesome idea but i think it needs a bit of work to be honest, Like eifer was saying.
Maybe decide who the 2 starting players will be and have 4-5 players scheduled in to play after, give them a time so they don't have to be sitting around. Would gain hype with people knowing who is coming up to play and will benefit the players more.
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On December 06 2013 20:09 pXtRoy wrote:
Awesome idea but i think it needs a bit of work to be honest, Like eifer was saying.
Maybe decide who the 2 starting players will be and have 4-5 players scheduled in to play after, give them a time so they don't have to be sitting around. Would gain hype with people knowing who is coming up to play and will benefit the players more.
what a great format that would be. ^_^
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This could be really interesting if done correctly.
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Top 25GM for 50$ is too much... Sorry, but great iniciative! 
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just run it for all GMS but prioritize top 25 when they show
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Awesome ! I'm excited to see where this is headed! Having ToD on is a great touch as well(I would consider taking him out of the spoiler as he will be a big appeal for people). Would to know about the format(map pool, best of x, etc.). Best of luck!
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If the top 25 GMs are the only ones competing, and you have to win 5 games in a row, then theoretically, the chance of winning $50 is: 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 = 3.125%. That's under the assumption that top 25 GM players go 50/50 vs each other, which is a fair assessment.
The average time to complete five games, including possible bathroom breaks, pauses, typical technical and loading times is approximately just under 2 hours. In order to get into the king of the hill, setup, etc will most likely take 30min - hour as a competitor. With 2 1/2 hours of time spent for a 3.125% chance of winning $50, it's hard to see players like QXC compete in this. These kind of competitions are just not worth a players time, and do we really want it to be? Are top 25 GM NA players really worth ($50*.03125)/2 hours = $0.78/ hr as the typical competitor? I'd be flat out insulted from this post if I were a top 25 GM.
The max frequency of the $10 pay-out is every 6 games, but with requiring a "dethrown" to award the pay-out, the frequency is much much less. It's a if Given A, then B... A ( $50) has to happen first, before B can happen. Then you also need to take into account the majority of players who won't even be lucky enough to be given the opportunity. The uncertainty of such a pay-out option is so high that as a player the value is near nill.
Although this is currently being funded from my own pocket, I hope as time goes on sponsors will find this beneficial for themselves and for the StarCraft 2 NA scene.
Maybe it's the word hope, or maybe it's this entire post, but I am livid when I hear shit like this. Not because of the out of pocket funding and the uncertainty that creates, but because your view on sponsorship. Sponsorships don't come to you, and they won't watch your shit show, even if it's made by Bill Gates. Create the show, begin grouping numbers, gather Twitch.tv demographics, present said numbers, what makes it worth investing in, etc. to a potential sponsor. The way you word this sentence shows such apathy that I assume it'll last two weeks, be a complete shit show, and you'll quietly walk out of the room.
Thundertoss did this same exact concept but with all GM players. It got around 100-200 viewers, and definitely helped create a better NA GM community. Many higher up GMs would compete because they would be more likely chosen, and have more like a .7*.7*.7*.7*.7 = 16.8% chance of winning. Many lower GMs would compete because 100-200 viewers were watching and no one knew who they hell they were.
And if the low-GM did have a massive upset 5-0 streak, the potential publicity is beyond the typical $50 prize winning. That is the main reason Thundertoss's show was successful. I can understand why you want it to be Top 25 GM's though. It's difficult to get more than 100 viewers when some no-name SirRobin asshat is playing vs some other asshat no-name. There's no tension between the players, no rivalrys to discuss, no predictions to predict. Nothing for the viewer to do but simply watch. As the creator of the AreNA, you want the games to be named vs named players, and for it to be competitive. Therefore, your needs warrant a Top 25 GM requirement. Sadly, your prize pool coupled with such a structure says the opposite.
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joy lots and lots of negativity just what i love to see when i see a new show-match/tournament/whatever thread. seriously guys there's plenty of time to be negative after this fails if it does there's absolutely nothing gained by being negative before hand. maybe he doesn't know how your suppose to get sponsors or maybe he does and just recognizes it's never a sure thing. maybe pros wont want to waste their time playing for just a chance at 50 dollars then again isn't that what they do every time they go to any tournament that is already full of Koreans? people like qxc catz puck numerous others tried for wcs with less incentive and harder competition sure they could theoretically gain more money but lets be honest everyone knew they weren't going make it (the fact that puck kind of did is both amazing and proof that counting people or tournaments out before they begin is stupid.). . they really wouldn't take 2-3 hours for a chance at 50 dollars really? i guess catz and petreaus don't regular give up that amount time to try for Saturday showdown that as often as not has some admittedly weak koreans they are Koreans none the less. i guess people didn't try for mlg's king of the hill with just a chance at 100 dollars and stronger competition there as well.
not to mention that the playheim tournaments were less money for a lot more time spent and tons of people including some of the top koreans of the time regularly played in them.
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Awesome event thanks for doing it!
I think top 25 is too little though, should be top 50 or top 100 considering there isn't even a ladder cutoff between 50 - 26 and 25 - 17.
Also looking @ GM right now, there are plenty of good players in the 100 - 26 rankings atm like SortOf, Crank, hellokitty, jonsnow, vibe, koma, snakehips, bails, etc
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i can't wait for this especially since i'll actually be able to watch it. its on my day off
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I realized even before posting this thread that there was going to be controversy about who gets to play in the KOTH. Top 25 GM or Top 50GM ? Pro's or Non-pros? Are players even going to show up only to win 50 dollars (assuming that they win 5 games in a row.)? These are sentiments that I agree with completely..
SirRobin, I know how sponsorships work and I have worked with sponsors in the past with these kinds of events.
Create the show, begin grouping numbers, gather Twitch.tv demographics, present said numbers, what makes it worth investing in, etc. to a potential sponsor.
Maybe I worded it incorrectly, but I am not planning nor wanting sponsors to jump on board the KOTH like this without seeing any high peak of numbers (viewers) or anything that provides them any benefit or incentive.
I have done this kind of KOTH in the past with the HotS BETA (getting advice and feedback from Thundertoss who is a friend of mine.) which allowed anyone in the Top 200 GM ladder to participate, which btw was a success in my books with consistent viewership (hence Clarity Gaming getting involved with the sponsorship providing the prize pool which was increased from $50.00 to $100.00.
I know that limiting it to the Top 25 might sound a bit crazy and its also easy to predict that players like Scarlett, Demuslim, etc might not even waste their time playing in something like this. But something everyone has to realize is that all the ladder they play is for their practice, not for any kind of prize winnings. The people I have spoke to (75-80% of them being in the Top 25 of the NA GM ladder) said that even though $50.00 isn't the best prize pool, it is much better than mindlessly grinding out ladder game after ladder game. Not to put people under the bus for anything, but some that I have spoken to include HuK, Illusion, Minigun, Sarovati, and a few others (players that are consistent with being in the Top 25 NA GM ladder). I know its crazy to think that $50.00 is such a "shit" amount of money that no one will play real competitive games for, but everyone has to realize that right now there is NO incentive for NA players to play ladder unless you are one of the lucky ones participating in WCS, or have a stable team to send you around the world to play in the bigger tournaments.
The format MIGHT change depending on the show of players for this first week. Obviously I am hoping that people in the Top 25 NA GM ladder show up and actually play these games. Even though I know a few of them (which I have met personally at events) doesn't mean they will let their friends know about this, maybe they will.. If the format was to be tweaked I would change it to players sitting in the Top 50 of the NA GM ladder.
This is a big wall of text and I'm not even sure if it all makes sense since I've been studying for finals the past 2-3 hours, but I hope that the community gives this a chance and tunes in. One thing I can guarantee is that I have always been good with production and that's something that will continue with this KOTH.
15 hours from this post (2:00pm pst, 5:00pm est) the games will begin, and I'm excited to see how this first week will pan out 
P.S. - Axslav will get on board with The AreNA mid January as well (he currently has no mic and has to figure what he is going to do now that he is no longer involved with MLG.) He's been someone I always wanted to commentate with as I think we would work really well together. Let's get this started soon Nick!
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It should be top 50 I think, then I would ladder my account back up to that so I could play in this, otherwise Im sticking to kr ladder.
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Great idea, hope it goes well, i'll definetly watch, but you may want to expand to top 50 or 100 due to players time constraints
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great job man hope it all goes well, this is the kinda thing that keeps a scene alive and if someone doesn't want to play because the prize pool is to low that there problem there is money out there for NA players if they are willing to put in the work.
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Thanks for doing this, but I would recommend increasing it to top 50 or so. 25 just seems too small of a pool, especially if some of the players don't show up, are busy, uninterested, sick, etc
Will there be a map pool? or anything goes?
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10 minutes left to go for this!
Players in Top 50 GM are welcome to play for tonight's stream. North American server, channel: "TheAreNA".
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