Fewer, more prestigeous seasons and a lot of fun joking around (like that event in BW when Flash and Bisu trolled everyone by playing offrace and imitating each other) between them would be great, I think. Something to mark the beginning of a new season sharply.

Cyanocyst

2222 Posts

December 13 2012 23:05 GMT

#22

Hmm, conflicted on this. A break wouldn't be so bad, however i have a feeling if i approved of a break it would be like at the least ideal time for the fans.

For instance I wouldn't mind the pros taking their break during the semester.

Though im pretty sure the most natural break would be during Winter and new years time. Which i would hate, seeing as winter break is when i have ample time to watch content.

SirPinky

United States525 Posts

December 13 2012 23:12 GMT

#23

This question is pretty subjective. I think it really depends on the State of Game. If a game has been out as long as WoL and we give Pro's 3-4 months to practice, odds are we won't see much difference in the build orders that have already been executed.

But if you look at a game like HOTS, it might be nice to have a few tournaments then break while each players develops his/her own style - this way you don't have everyone jumping on the "I do what's popular" cart.

MasterKang

United States1373 Posts

December 13 2012 23:15 GMT

#24

I'd prefer the bigger tournaments to be less frequent so to win them would mean that much more, but smaller tournaments to fill up the time in between

hootsushi

Germany3468 Posts

December 13 2012 23:18 GMT

#25

Less major tournaments means player have more time to practice, refine their builds and come up with new strategies. I think it would be enough to have maybe 2 major tournaments in a month. Getting pretty ridiculous with tournaments overlapping at the moment. Just take a look at november: ESWC, Lone Star Clash 2, BWC, Dreamhack Winter, WCG, IPL 5, MLG and GSL.

edit: forgot IEM.

Nightmarjoo

United States3360 Posts

December 13 2012 23:29 GMT

#26

I'd like an off-season for big tournaments and things like showmatches and less-premier tournaments like the TLOpen during this off-season to promote amateurs and/or up-and-coming players, hyping them up before they play in the big seasons once the off-season ends.

Greendotz

United Kingdom2053 Posts

December 13 2012 23:39 GMT

#27

I think there really is too much saturation at the moment. I do shake my head when people say "X tournament has 30,000 views last time, now it only has 25,000, esports is dying!" Just how many premier tournaments have happened in December alone? And then there are major tournaments, minor tournaments, dailies and players streams, each and every one getting a very respectable amount of hits. I think the scene would greatly benefit from a definitive off-season. There will always be dailies and streams to get your fix, and if that doesn't work maybe try playing the damn game yourself?

McFly_terran

United States15 Posts

December 14 2012 00:10 GMT

#28

I think that we should have some periods of down time, but have tournaments somewhat more standardized as to build up more hype. Non-stop high end tournaments makes them no longer as special

nakedsurfer

Canada500 Posts

December 14 2012 00:10 GMT

#29

I'm very glad of the off-season. I think it should be longer actually. It's really nice to see all the players back to their best form.

Staboteur

Canada1873 Posts

December 14 2012 00:22 GMT

#30

Definitely an off-season. I (so far!) like Dota 2's feeling that The International is the big tournament that punctuates the year, or fighting games' Evo, where one big tournament wraps the whole scene into a glorious morsel where everyone is bringing their A-game and no-one is holding back.

In other words, give me a cake with a cherry on top instead of one littered with cherries.

HououinKyouma

Australia152 Posts

December 14 2012 00:32 GMT

#31

Breaks only for players, we fans are troopers.

TJ31

630 Posts

December 14 2012 01:28 GMT

#32

I'd like some breaks. Or all those compainies to work together and spread tournaments better.
During novemember-early december there were just too many of tournaments for me. After dreamhack winter I just lost any will to watch more for a while. I didn't watched a single NASL4 game, even though I could and had time, watched only some games from IPL5 etc.

Access

United States19 Posts

December 14 2012 01:51 GMT

#33

With an off-season it will promote more prestigious, hyped and exciting games. Doing anything repeatedly for a long time gets boring and dull. Also, it will promote people watching other games such as that one tank game..

caradoc

Canada3022 Posts

December 14 2012 01:59 GMT

#34

Normally I would have said no, I want to watch all the time, but November and December have been ridiculous, and I can't even bring myself to watch GSL at the moment, so I'm taking a break myself.

raf3776

United States1904 Posts

December 14 2012 02:03 GMT

#35

Breaks are good. It makes it seem much better when you see a player before and after the break.

PhoenixVoid

Canada32755 Posts

December 14 2012 02:28 GMT

#36

I think most fans prefer seeing more tournaments and action in the scene, its mostly players I'm concerned about. The sheer volume of tournaments will overwhelm any player who feels the need to enter all of them. I think Stephano had six weeks in a row of straight tournaments, which would surely exhaust anybody. For the sake of players, there does need to be less tournaments, and preferably with larger prize-pools to encourage competition and better performances.

Akash1223

United States91 Posts

December 14 2012 02:39 GMT

#37

I don't see how breaks can be a good thing for viewers. There's been several time periods where I didn't feel much like watching, so I just didn't watch. For those saying you'd be too out of the loop, you can get more than enough news by spending < 5 minutes a day on TL, and if something catches your interest there's always Vods.

There's very little upside to having breaks from a viewer perspective, and there's the huge downside of no content being available for viewers who want it.

mrRoflpwn

United States2618 Posts

December 14 2012 03:05 GMT

#38

We have small little tourneys constantly. Currently MLG is running a "Tournament of Champions", IronSquid is running as well, so is IPTL, then we have IEM qualifiers being casted, we have Code A, we have the Ritmix RSL, we have Proleague. There is so much stuff out there.
Before it was possible to watch everything because everything was important- now only the BIG main events are- GSL, OSL, MLG, DH, IPL, IEM. Besides these- I have no time left.

Zenniv

United States545 Posts

December 14 2012 03:16 GMT

#39

Breaks are definitely needed, players need to rest mentally and physically to bring out their best games. The past month we had non-stop major lans EVERY SINGLE weekend, I definitely got sick of watching for a bit. (thank god for dota2 ;P)

Baseball, basketball, football, soccer all have off seasons for a reason. If esports currently lacks communication and organization between events, we really need to work on being more professional towards this.

Also i'm all for having "the best" games, which include the best players from the world. But the fact is, 80% of them are all koreans. And we get situations like Koreans quitting KR teams cuz its too hard in Korea, and they become "bounty hunters" for foreign tournaments. I feel for the players in Korea since competition there is extremely intense. But it certainly does not help local sc2 scenes when random Koreans players show up and take all the prize money. How can foreigners get motivation to train as hard as Koreans if they just get face-own3d every tournament?

Also seeing the same players at every single LAN gets boring. For example, WCS Europe finals were awesome and refreshing.

I LOVE the GSL/OSL and Proleague (RIP BW too), but seeing the same players every LAN sucks...

churb

Canada2 Posts

December 14 2012 03:56 GMT

#40

On December 14 2012 06:11 skrotcyk wrote:
I don't understand this question.. As a viewer your not obliged to watch every event, nothings gonna happen if you skip an event or two.

I may not be obliged but I have this need to watch every event. Even when there is not overlap I get played out having watched the same players compete every week end at another event. Two weeks or a month off would be a nice off season. GSL champions have short lives.