Today we're very excited to officially announce the Team Liquid Documentary. Everything you need to know about it will be in this post, along with a teaser trailer for the film.
Trailer song: "Top Five Control" by _ensnare_ - @mode7games
The documentary will be released in February 2012. The teaser is live now, and a full trailer will be released a few weeks before the release. We will have more information about the exact release date in early 2012.
Will we have to pay to watch it? How will it be distributed?
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must limit each individual payment to a maximum of $1,000,000 USD.
Will you be accepting donations to get this started?
No. The film's starting costs will be 100% funded by TeamLiquid, not through sponsors or donations.
So no Kickstarter? How will you cover the costs?
The donation/kickstarter model works for some projects, but we decided not to do it. We believe we can recover the costs through the pay-what-you-want model, even if 99% of people pay nothing. If we ultimately don't recover costs, that's OK, we're just happy something like this can be made.
TL funded it? Is this going to be a Liquid propaganda film?
This isn't going to be a completely unbiased film. Spoiler alert: the Liquid players are cool. You already knew that from watching them in the booth and in interviews. But we feel that there's a side to them that you haven't seen before, and we want to show you that. We believe strongly in our players and our story, and if something negative happens, we're not going to pretend or cut it out. We believe this film can be both awesome and honest.
So... how do I support this?
Keep visiting teamliquid.net and teamliquidpro.com, and support the Liquid players. When the movie is released, even if you pay $0, we'll be more than happy if you just watch and if you like it, link it to your friends. We feel that with the right film we can generate interest from people outside the StarCraft community.
What time period does this documentary cover?
The film will span October through December, and will cover the following events: IPL3 Atlantic City, MLG Orlando, Blizzcon, MLG Providence, and NASL2 Grand Finals.
I made some cool music, I want to help the documentary by letting you use it. How?
You can tweet at Michael Krukar (@MichaelKrukar) or PM him on TL.
Thank you everyone for supporting Liquid and our players over this last year. We'd also like to thank our sponsors The Little App Factory, Razer, and Twitch.tv. Without all of you Liquid would not be where it is today and we would not be in a position to do projects like this documentary. We hope you will enjoy the movie when it comes out in February 2012.
With other documentaries coming out at relatively the same time I start to care less about these projects. My father taught me that the first version of something can often be the worst; with subsequent versions being more refined and better supported. I wonder why so many sc2/eSports people got the same idea all at the same time?
Pumped about this! I was waiting for something like this to pop up, with EG getting their own documentary and what not. Documentaries on this subject I feel are awesome and inspiring to players who wish to go pro sometime in the future. At least for me it seems so.
You know what would be great? If you focused not only on the current players, but team liquid has a whole at the same time. There are quite a few big players in all this and it would be a shame if they're missed.
how will this compare to EG documentary? not a big EG fan so i hope you guys get tons more views and hype out of this. Love the pay-what-you-want model too.
That's... maybe the coolest thing I've seen today. Maybe I'm a sucker for stories or the human side of things or documentaries, but I dig the idea of a film that gets to the basics of what is important: the people, the players, the relationships, the community that has put this thing into action. Sadly, the only way I can support this project is through spreading the word since my pocket book is missing quite a few pages and music's not my thing, but I'd love to see this get out somehow!
Looks fun, can't wait to see it. I've always been a fan of the "pay-what-you-want model" as well. I remember Radiohead did it for one of their albums once and they made about the same as what they would have through traditional sales means.
And fuck yeah Team Liquid. You are awesome for funding this. You are awesome for making this pay what you want.
You remember the pleas you got when your batches of t-shirts sold out before some people could blink? I am going to consider this the chance to support you for what you do. I think quite a few others will do the same, including some of the ones that adblock the living hell out of your site! <3
I am really excited. And i'm glad this will release relatively soon. Star Nation was announced many months ago and there are many months to go (not trying to troll, just stating a fact). It's nice to get a trailer and have the complete film turned around so rapidly. Thank you TL I will be donating for sure!
Excelent! im looking forward to it, I like the fact providence will be there, TL is always awesome, thanks a lot, you remember me why sc2 is the most awesome game
very happy to hear this. i know a lot about most the teamliquid players (although i'm sure there's much more to them)... but i am especially interested in liquidhero. He hasn't been on the team for very long. He was also quite an unknown when he was picked up and now he's kicking ass as my favorite toss player.
Can't wait to see more backstory. also, year one kicked ass, so i have high hopes for this director and the film. tyty gogo TeamLiquid! Fighting!!
Mr. Krukar I think you mentioned something about a documentary at that IPL3 afterparty, but I had no idea it would look so epic! Greatly looking forward to this!
You know, if the film had been $10 to watch, I probably hadn't payed for it but since "it's pay what you want" I feel completely OK paying $10. The business model appeals to me.
Getting chills down my spine. Oh. My. God. This is going to be so epic, I'm going to force everyone I know to watch it, and I know that drunk me will have this as his no. 1 number. "Guys, guys, you gotta see this documentary on my favorite sc2-team!" I'm going to be a pain in the ass... :D
On November 16 2011 14:25 slicknav wrote: At the end that wasn't TLO...that was Chuck Norris
No, that wasn't Chuck Norris... It was TLO!
Nope, Chuck Testa.
Jokes aside, this is going to be such an awesome documentary. <3 TL, I think I may have to set up a paypal or something so that I can pay a bit towards it at the end :D.
The Team Liquid site prides itself of being an independent news site, shouldn't this documentary - much like the EG documentary - have independent funding?
On November 16 2011 14:18 Liquid`Nazgul wrote: Will we have to pay to watch it? How will it be distributed?
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must cap an individual payment to $1,000,000 USD.
No problem, I'll just order copies for all my computers.
Although I think this will be nice I would be a bit disapointed if it's only filmed at the venues. Perhaps sneak in some of the workings of/at the TL headquarter? Or perhaps a bit of the players in their home environment / walking a bit through their hometown?
The biggest thing about this is that the documentary is going to come out only a few months after the events filmed. That is one of the things that annoys me about e-sport documentaries and how many are getting made. A lot of them are going to be out next year, but the events taped will be over a year old when they are put out. The landscape of SC2 changes so quickly from month to month, dated documentaries are really going to get hurt by the volatile.
Awesome, I hope it really delves into the depths of the mind of a progamer (and those behind the scenes). I want to see the happiness and the sadness, the highlights and the dissappointments, the whole gamut of feelings.
So if we get behind the scenes content and a nice narrative plus that I already talked about the result could really be something that stands the test of time.
The game and the matches may change but the ambitions, feelings and commitment never changes in competitive sports.
Will we find out how Tyler deals with looking the liquid horse in the eye on a daily basis? People need to know. Even if we don't, I guess I can still concede that this project is of passable epicness.
This feels so right, Year One was an amazing fan made video and I have always felt that TL players were the peoples champions, Michael Krukar is the right man to portray them like this.
I really love Nazgul's policy, he's different from most of the managers.
The documentary idea feels genuine, unlike some videos that other teams do just to praise their sponsors. No bullshit, pay-if-you-want, doing it just for the pleasure of doing it.
I don't think there's another team like Liquid, and I'm not telling this just because they are the only with a cool all-rounder site or because of some specific player. The key is its management.
Can't wait to see the documentary and even pay some $, Nazgul. You deserve it.
On November 16 2011 14:18 Liquid`Nazgul wrote: Will we have to pay to watch it? How will it be distributed?
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must limit each individual payment to a maximum of $1,000,000 USD.
That will complicate the paying process for me, got to download the film several times then, to pay the proper amount ~~
Haha all lighthearted gaming documentaries on http://michaelkrukar.com/ and suddenly there are pictures of Auschwitz in between. That doesn't seem right
I may have actually posted here earlier today, but forgotten... Oh well, anyway:
This looks really good, not least of all because it'll be out in not too long. I like that decision, because with other documentaries like StarNation, Good Game, or even Sons of Starcraft, awesome as they may be, by the time they're actually out a lot of things in the game and within the scene will look completely different. I was surprised to see that this documentary is following such recent tournaments, it really looks to be amazing!
Of course, I can't tell much from just the teaser, but if there's hotbid involved it's bound to be good.
This looks so cool. I have been waiting for something like this to come out. I hope that they do one for EG as well. Also I hope that TL doesn't take a loss on this. I'm gonna give all I can when it comes out. TL fighting!!1
Awesome news but... I see that this documentery will cover some really nice events but why dont you cover Dreamhack winter 2011? I mean what if another Team liquid member wins Dreamhack wich is only 5 days after MLG providence. And then you wont have that documented on spot/on place...
Will we have to pay to watch it? How will it be distributed?
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must limit each individual payment to a maximum of $1,000,000 USD.
I have a £1,000,000 note I got from a bank...and now I can't donate that
On November 16 2011 23:42 TheLOLas wrote: This looks so cool. I have been waiting for something like this to come out. I hope that they do one for EG as well. Also I hope that TL doesn't take a loss on this. I'm gonna give all I can when it comes out. TL fighting!!1
Will we have to pay to watch it? How will it be distributed?
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must limit each individual payment to a maximum of $1,000,000 USD.
This is an awesome idea and I look forward to it. I am really impressed with the approach you guys are taking to this and am sure I will pay a bit once it is released. The end with TLO was hilarious in the teaser
It seems that you're not too worried about covering costs, or anything like that. Can we have word that if this *makes* money, there could be a potential follow up? Say you get $10,000 past break even point, could we expect to see that put into future projects? (Documentaries, In-house singstar competitions, a pin-up calendar, IDC! )
The film will be pay-what-you-want. This means that if you don't wish to pay anything, you can still watch and download the entire movie. Otherwise, you can pay whatever you feel is appropriate. However, we unfortunately must limit each individual payment to a maximum of $1,000,000 USD.
Goddamnit...
Remember to include Hot Bid photobomb montage please
Cool as shit. Liquid really does an amazing job at giving people players to follow - if Nony has his breakout at Providence everyone who watches his vlogs/stream gets to be like "I was fucking there for the making of this guy". Stuff like this is great for eSports, keep it up Liquid (& Michael Krukar; Year One rocked).
TeamLiquid has to be the greatest eSports team ever to have arisen in the scene. But of course, there's no need to tell that to any of you. This documentary is going to be blowing our minds away for sure.
I was so happy that the documentary would include haypro results at providence and hero victory at dreamhack, but then I saw dreamhack wasn't included in it :/
I'm making it, here is a summary of the delays and where it's at. I don't like keeping people in the dark. Originally our release was set for February. We were going to film until MLG Providence and close out the year. That's why the original teaser video says February. However a lot happened very fast. Hero was tearing it up at NASL and he just won Dreamhack, so we decided to go to NASL finals in the hopes he would win. So it got pushed back. Then Zenio was acquired and we realized if he's not in it, this entire documentary is seriously flawed so we had to go to Korea to film. This meant we didn't start editing until January but we thought we could release it in March if we worked hard. However, we realized IPL is coming up and all of Liquid will be in attendance. Right now we have very little footage of Zenio and during the original filming at no point was the entire team together in place. So we'll be filming some extra footage at IPL4 to finish up the story and releasing it end of April. If you think we fucked up or made a mistake, by all means I'm open to feedback.
I'm making it, here is a summary of the delays and where it's at. I don't like keeping people in the dark. Originally our release was set for February. We were going to film until MLG Providence and close out the year. That's why the original teaser video says February. However a lot happened very fast. Hero was tearing it up at NASL and he just won Dreamhack, so we decided to go to NASL finals in the hopes he would win. So it got pushed back. Then Zenio was acquired and we realized if he's not in it, this entire documentary is seriously flawed so we had to go to Korea to film. This meant we didn't start editing until January but we thought we could release it in March if we worked hard. However, we realized IPL is coming up and all of Liquid will be in attendance. Right now we have very little footage of Zenio and during the original filming at no point was the entire team together in place. So we'll be filming some extra footage at IPL4 to finish up the story and releasing it end of April. If you think we fucked up or made a mistake, by all means I'm open to feedback.
I just want this to come out. I don't care if its not "up to date". The history is already there.
Personally, I am more interested in the players themselves than one or two tournaments here and there and maybe people are thinking the same thig as me.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/doc.jpg)
<3 TL
Looking forward to it..
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/IXeHc.png)
![[image loading]](http://loyalkng.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mighty_morphin_power_rangers_the_movie_ver1.jpg)
??
