Many sports have limited length seasons because they are so physically demanding on the players. If the NFL season was 12 months long, the average career of a player would be much shorter, because the probability of injury would skyrocket. I understand that there are potential dangers to playing esports, but they pale in comparison to high contact sports. Following this line of thought, I would love to see esports tournaments year round. I think the natural, competitive nature of the events will end up producing the excitement the viewers are looking for... you don't need some artificial, seasonal limitation to create that... you need TLO winning a GSL...

PavelDatsyuk88

Sweden55 Posts

December 14 2012 06:28 GMT

#44

I only watch tournaments so no, I wouldnt like off-season at all. Even watching weekly online tournaments is so boring compared to real LAN tournaments. And if I lose interest during the dead time, I would probably find something else to watch and not come back watching at all.

peekn

United States1152 Posts

December 14 2012 06:59 GMT

#45

I always like breaks, it's great to see everyone slow down, then unleash onto the scene again. Great time for showing radical builds and everyone is always wow'd great for hype and big tournaments.

skyyan

United States74 Posts

December 14 2012 07:29 GMT

#46

At first I was against the idea of breaks, because like many others, I want to watch Starcraft. But then after I thought about it a little more, I'm in favor of breaks. I find that there are only a few of the major tournament titles (GSL, MLG, sometimes Dreamhack or IEM) that I tune in from start to finish for, and a number of others tournaments that I only turn on for a couple series. I like the idea that breaks give time for players to recoup from all of the travel and stress they are put under, and allows players to practice more to be at a higher level when we do see them.

As for the problem of watching more, I find personally (curious if this is true for the average SC2 viewer) that I spend more time watching players' individual streams more than I watch tournament broadcasts. I see no reason that there would be any lack of streaming going on during a "break", so I don't think that there will be a lack of content to consume.

However, I think one of the real issues here is a lack of practicality when implementing this resolution even if the community found it to be a good idea. While it might benefit the industry as a whole to have breaks, it's still in the individual interest of each tournament running organization to run a tournament on an unoccupied weekend. While we've seen a number of partnerships between eSports organizations over the past few months, I feel we're still far away from a level of cohesiveness where anything like this could occur. Even if MLG, GSL, and Kespa (theoretically) agreed to take a month off at some point, it would hurt their competitive stance in the market as other organizations could use the gap to promote their own brands, and if people want to be watching tournaments, they will have to watch the not-on-break tournaments.

Overall, very interesting question, hopefully some day soon there will be a more centralized governing body of eSports that can improve the whole scene.

Mista_Masta

Netherlands557 Posts

December 14 2012 08:05 GMT

#47

I agree with what's said before - major tournaments probably need breaks to build hype, and allow both the fans and the players to get ready. I don't mind having other less important events available during those breaks. This would also mean that players who really want to prepare for the major event can decide to skip these minor events, allowing less known players a chance to shine as well.

SohcranA

United States36 Posts

December 14 2012 08:48 GMT

#48

I want the players to have an opportunity to rest and practice, because I feel awful when really good players do terribly at an event simply because they've been on the road or doing other types of events all month. As a viewer, I have an interest in the players having as comfortable a time as possible getting as good as they can, without these hectic tournament schedules.

CScythe

Canada810 Posts

December 14 2012 09:20 GMT

#49

It's hard to realize it, but even though I don't want a "break" from events per se, having an off-season makes the return of SC2 that much sweeter. For that reason, I think it's worth it to have the off-season.

JtoK

Germany232 Posts

December 14 2012 10:31 GMT

#50

I think more important are event schedules and tournament times. If some tournaments like WCG, NASL, IPL are on the same weekend, it's quite disappointing that you are not able to see every tournament (for the players). I think some players are disappointed too, cause they want to play as many tournaments as they can, cause they need the money and the sucess. The payments arent really high in the teams.
Conclusing: Many tournaments are nice, but not if they are at the same weekend at the same time. Players need space between matches and tournaments because of flights, hotel living, pressure. I think they all need to work together (NASL, IPL, MLG, GSL, WCG etc.) so that there wont be tournaments at the same time or players cant attend tournaments because of packed schedules, flights etc.

Leetley

1796 Posts

December 14 2012 11:37 GMT

#51

What a silly question... Off-season would be pretty dumb IMO.

On December 14 2012 13:41 Danglars wrote:
I'm a little surprised it's so evenly split.

It's because of the question, it can be viewed from many different points.

Valikyr

Sweden2653 Posts

December 14 2012 11:44 GMT

#52

I'd like an off-season just because I get so hyped for an event when there hasn't been one in a while. I think it's good for the players performance too to be able to take a vacation without falling behind.

LowEloPlayer

United States205 Posts

December 14 2012 12:28 GMT

#53

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.

Everybody always cites this against "oversaturation," but really it does have a mental effect on the viewers to have too much content. It may be subtle by making you feel all the games are less significant and thus are less enjoyable to you, it could have some other effect, and it could even make you not want to watch anymore (if there's too much stuff you wonder which stuff you should watch and you may just end up not watching it at all. This happened with NASL in seasons 1 and 2 as well as, to some extent, IPL [not the live event] since it's inception)

y0su

Finland7871 Posts

December 14 2012 13:01 GMT

#54

There could definitely split up the major tournaments and have some tournaments / leagues that focus on more demographics of the scene. (Having the same players at tournaments every other weekend gets a little boring.) I think there are enough players and viewers to keep SC2 going all year. Prior to the WCS:EU people might have thought an EU only tournament wouldn't be a big draw. However, the tournament seemed very successful (I don't have numbers, but I remember people being impressed). HSC, although an entirely different kind of tournament, is another example. Maybe tournaments don't think there's enough of a draw without inviting Stephano or MKP... I think there could be.

Marou

Germany1371 Posts

December 14 2012 13:10 GMT

#55

I think am off season would be great, it could be an official period for transfers filled with drama like soccer while the rest of the season is quiet in terms of transfer and hectic in term of games. Sadly i don't think the organisations will agree to not do any event during any amount of time, somebody is going to take the opportunity to make an "off-season" tournament and there will be no more off-season

Kreb

4834 Posts

December 14 2012 13:33 GMT

#56

On December 14 2012 07:48 red4ce wrote:
Fans need a break? No, players need the break.

Thats what I thought too....

BLinD-RawR

ALLEYCAT BLUES51128 Posts

December 14 2012 14:11 GMT

#57

players need a break, fans too, because you know, real life really matters.

Ewok

United States26 Posts

December 14 2012 14:21 GMT

#58

Anyone else see Gamestop's Shasher's interview with Day9? He expressed that the industry was over saturated and felt there should be less events in 2013. The off-seasons in other sports are influenced by weather and risk of injury. In eSports, this isn't a factor. How does the industry agree on a set period that is 'off-season'? I don't see this happening so i believe the solution is less Premier events, supported by leagues and minor events.

Edit: fixed typo