It'd be nice to have something like how sports in general run (at least as a U.S resident): Baseball running spring->fall, football from fall->winter, basketball from winter->summer (roughly). If leagues get big enough and become diverse enough, it'd be nice to have something like MLG season followed by/intersecting with Dreamhack season

LaughingTulkas

United States1107 Posts

December 28 2012 14:16 GMT

#182

As someone who finds the demands of life increasing (marriage, job, home-ownership, etc) an official season(s) and an official off-season would make it a lot easier to keep up with everything going on without feeling like I'm hopelessly behind always! It's soooooo hard to catch up with where things are going when you are gone for a little while, and if there was more of a schedule that you could make sense of without being on all the time it would be super helpful to follow everything.

Like I can't follow every NFL game (nor would I want to really) but I can track the standings, I know when the "BIG" games are, basically I know when I really want to pay attention and when it's okay if I let other priorities take precedence. With ESPORTS it's much harder to do this, I feel like I have to always be "ON" or else I'm not going to know what tournaments are when or when my favorite players are playing.

I guess I'm just becoming more of a casual fan, which really sucks now that I think of about it, but also is a lot harder in ESPORTS than in other sports. An off-season would make this easier for me.

DRob

United States30 Posts

December 28 2012 18:34 GMT

#183

The industry isn't developed enough to have an off-season. There is so many leagues that they should all have off-seasons and most all do. Right now any league or player (if their team lets them) can take a break. The problem isn't too much content, it is the lack of organization and contextualization of content.

"I feel like I have to always be "ON" or else I'm not going to know what tournaments are when or when my favorite players are playing."

Bingo. The key is better organization of information. Take sports in America. Football and baseball, there is a season but thousands and thousands of games are played. Most people will never see because they are minor leagues, college teams, high school, etc. But we know when the big game is because it is communicated well. This is what eSports needs. It needs intelligent hype (not just hype-hype) and good media to communicate what to pay attention to so I don't have to do an esports research project just because I was out for a week.

traceurling

United States1240 Posts

December 29 2012 05:40 GMT

#184

Offseasons are okay but I love Starcraft too much <3 as long as the players feel like they can take it I wouldn't mind having some proleague/tournament taking place at any given time as long as theirs minimal overlap...and maybe random week or two where there's nothing big just to build a lot of hype for the next big tourney..

Proko

United States1022 Posts

December 30 2012 08:56 GMT

#185

One of the reasons I quit watching SC was because it was too time consuming to keep up on the tournaments and news coming out of the scene every second of every day.

Jecktor

United States41 Posts

December 30 2012 10:04 GMT

#186

I'm sure this has been mentioned but we need a timely off season so Blizzard feel comfortable in working on patch changes between tournm.

MIKster

Germany333 Posts

December 30 2012 12:32 GMT

#187

Less major events which are therefore more meaningful would be best imo.
Minor events can function as filler for the off-seasons.

Pandemona

Charlie Sheens House51452 Posts

December 30 2012 21:31 GMT

#188

Think an off season would be good to fans in the sense that the players would be performing better if they had a break, also there would be more player streams during that time. Like there is now over Christmas alot of NA and EU players are streaming and im sure many people enjoy that.

I'd like the off season to be the whole of December, and then GSL/OSL/IPL/MLG/IEM/DH, whatever to start up 1st/2nd week in January.

ZiarDS

United States67 Posts

December 31 2012 04:26 GMT

#189

Alright supply and demand this is in incredible simple concept, i have read comments and it is incredibly simple people pay attention to what they know. Other sports are forced into an off season because of the weather you kinda know the standings in them because they are so well know and familiar. People do not use steel to make copies of wooden bridges they created an entirely new way of building bridges. Star Craft II is not like other sports we should not simply copy other sports we should forge new ways, head into the unknown.

An official off season can not really be enforced without restricting the community as a whole. The main argument i seem to be getting from people is that in off-season would create more meaning for each tournament. Which is simply not true, Leagues will be forced to compete against each other under this free market the truly great ones will rise from the ashes. each League will try its best to accommodate it viewers for the simple reason that the viewer might go somewhere else. If you like an off-season theirs bound to be a league that if enough you ask will comply.

grmaster

Greece18 Posts

December 31 2012 08:56 GMT

#190

if i want a break i take a break, i want ask the tournaments. But you should never stop... don't worry i'll come back

You can take a break while other tournaments are on but there is no reason for an off-season...

alvadr

135 Posts

December 31 2012 14:29 GMT

#191

If the big tournaments like MLG and Dreamhack were relatively close together, but then there was less of them and smaller tournaments took over the gap in between.

Zelun

Australia41 Posts

December 31 2012 23:59 GMT

#192

My off time is often at similar times to when an 'off-season' for e-sports would be. I want more content when I'm not working, not less.

Names

Canada328 Posts

January 01 2013 04:07 GMT

#193

I'd like to see breaks, imo it would give a chance for the meta game to change between seasons. I wouldn't mind multiple short breaks instead of one big break though. Players would also have more time to practice and/or live a normal life during that time.

Renegadegorilla

England1 Post

January 01 2013 15:10 GMT

#194

if there was a little bit of a break between each tournament and they set a date it would increase the hype around the tournament its self this would mean that would be more players,more viewers and just an overall better tournament experience

Zebrapudding

United States66 Posts

January 01 2013 21:04 GMT

#195

i want esports always.

ocoini

648 Posts

January 02 2013 05:50 GMT

#196

Off season? Broodwar never goes off..

Napoleon53

Denmark167 Posts

January 02 2013 11:40 GMT

#197

It was much better/easier to watch back in broodwar with their ~6 OSL/MSL each year + proleague.

Now its like hundreds of different smaller tournaments with hundreds of different players. I cant really get hyped in the same way anymore.

arcHoniC

United States141 Posts

January 03 2013 21:26 GMT

#198

I don't really like the wording of the question, i don't think that fans really need a break but as mentioned prior i do think that it makes the even a lot more exciting and meaningful.

4ZakeN87

Sweden1071 Posts

January 03 2013 23:59 GMT

#199

Is it only me... but don't we have an off season right now?

Okay it is not official and there is still something going on but not much.

MLG said that they wont have another SC2 WOL tournament, NASL said the same. I am almost 100% that Dreamhack wont have another tournament before March either. So for a person like me that don't follow GSL (or not reguraly at least) will very little be happening over the next few months.

At the moment my SC2 watching is down to watching EG-TL proleague matches.

plgElwood

Germany518 Posts

January 04 2013 00:01 GMT

#200

There are not many tournaments going on between December 20th and Jan 3rd anyway.
Players spent time with family and friends anyways, so less streams too. I would not mind more online tournaments like Zotac and Go4SC2...BUT you have to bring good casters too.