Great casting and the stream was the best i have seen for a tourny this size once i finally got all the plugins working. - I would recommend showing more games, or trying to highlight players doing well, i know MLG has a tight schedule but players like cathoun didn't get very much mention until he made it very deep into the tourny. - I would also like to see more camera shots of the tourney in action and to see what the spectator experience is like, i did see more of this as the tourny went on.
Overall i have to thank you for the experience, it was simple and easy for those of us at home, and thank you for putting this on. (Edit: the stream was really dark, i couldn't see the maps at all in the FoW. luckily I think we all have memorized the maps.)
O yea and as a SC2 fan, the old spice report was way to "in my face" but i think this report was also meant to appeal to Halo fans, and after watching some of the halo stream since i enjoyed halo 2 back in the day, i quickly realized that they take BM to the EXTREME personal level. All players trash talk and call out each others noobness by yelling in-front of the whole crowd >.<. Happy to call myself a SC2 fan after witnessing that.
Overall I loved the coverage. Great games, great setup, and hopefully the start of a flourishing SC2 scene. Just a few items for improvement.
Brackets and results were extremely difficult to follow. Things were already confusing having an uppers and lowers bracket, but the layout of the bracket site was very difficult to follow. I hard time even telling which players were still in the tournament and who had been eliminated.
The 'Caster' thread outlines a lot of the shortcomings of the casters, but having rookies who have very little live experience work such a premier event is a questionable decision. You wouldn't pull a guy who uploads uptube videos to cast an NBA game. You'd have him gain some experience working high school and college games and move up. MLG is trying to be THE league for the North Americas. Have top tier talent working the show if you want to be considered a top tier organization.
Whenever the stream was put on full screen mode it always went to widescreen format. Not very good when some people still run on standard monitors.
Also, the coverage could have been tightened up a little bit. Lots of down time between matches. I know scheduling is hard with a live event where games and rounds end at all different times. Maybe do some prerecorded pieces to fill in downtime when you are waiting for a game. Player bios, game videos to help new comers learn common terms and tactics, and player interviews would be great 2 to 5 minutes pieces that could be fit in while waiting for the next match.
Great event, but way too many commercials. I know that someone has to pay for it, bit this was pretty ridiculous (but very American).
I am missing the VODs or at the very least an indication whether VODs will be released. The SC community is global, so no matter when the tournament is cast; a large fraction of the fanbase will be sleeping/working and therefore miss the live casts.
IEM was very good at releasing the VODs, so it was completely possible to watch the entire thing 1 day postponed without getting the results spoiled.
I loved the event, but I agree with other posters that the player coverage was not up to par. One example is SjoW who ended up as number five and didn't even get casted once.
Fix that and give us more Day9 and I'll be a very happy camper.
On August 29 2010 22:26 s.a.y wrote:5. make HD learn the game a little better. He made some rookie mistakes, it's great for noob players to learn basic stuff, but it's terrible if he casts wrong information.
a) the webpage is a desaster, it's impossible to find anything there - I had to go to 3rd parties' sites to look for grids; this is something that can be fixed very easily and isn't really expensive; but there has to be a simple, clear way to access brackets from the main page at all times
b) it would've been much better to play 3 days in a row and not play everything in just 2 days; especially since it's not single but double elimination; many really good games were not casted
c) you really ought to have "something" prepared for the time between the matches; interview players live or interview players BEFORE the event and play these interviews on stream when there is some downtime; although I love the casters (all of them), it's not really a good solution that they have to keep talking and talking and talking if the matches don't start right away
d) VODs and replays; I understand that it's not easy to collect and upload all the replays and VODs right away, nevertheless it's part of the tournament-experience that you can watch the games that you've missed or games that you've liked really much; other tournaments are capable of this too, just look for go4sc2, they are doing online-tourneys twice a week with replays being available immediately afterwards; if you oblige players to submit their replays to a single source and indicate clearly that they shall submit them with a certain description, all you had to do was to pack them in a giant zip-file
I was a net/stream viewer when I was able. Didn't catch everything.
Pre-Event > Let us know who's going to be there. Many of us (especially if we're here @ TL.net) are fanboys of one level or another toward different casters, players, etc. Knowing that "so-and-so" is scheduled to play may make a difference in whether we tune in or not. > Production planning. This is when you need to be thinking about the "B roll" material, what assignments the casters are going to have, etc. Honestly, it kinda felt like the "planning" was "We'll get 3 SC2 casters from the Net and have JP sit with Sean and stream stuff"
During the Event > Dedicate someone to the B roll coverage. They can be interviewing players, touring the venue, etc. It wouldn't even have to be focused on SC2. For the inter-match stuff finding out more about what an MLG event is like in the bigger picture would be cool too. > Have a way to swap out matches if the one you pick is kinda boring. Think about the opening rounds of March Madness when they'll say "Well, it looks like Duke has this well in hand, we're going to head over to Milwaukee where Butler and Syracuse are locked up in a tie game". Same sort of idea here. If Huk is steamrolling his opponent, be ready to switch over to some other more interesting game. > It's really really really important that we have a way to follow the progression of the tournament. Seeing casts of some good SC2 matches is fine. But we need to know what's going on in the overall event too. > Group/pool play vs double elimination ... I guess that's kind of up to MLG and how you'd like to see things. But I think a Day 1 that was group play followed by a single-elim round of 16 (or 32 depending on number of players and timing) on day 2 would allow players to have some fun on the first day and keep the final day more focused.
Post Event > VOD - If we didn't see all of it live, we'll probably want to see it later. And from a marketing standpoint, we should really be able to come to MLGPro and see the videos there. Seems weird to have to go to some other site that links to YouTube. > Replays - for those of us who really want to dig in, we'd love to be able to get the replay files and watch what was going on at our own pace.
I really hope they listen to a lot of the criticism, after reading them myself, I have to agree on what many people have to say.
One thing to note though guys, if your complaining about the stream quality, you have to keep in mind that their are hundreds of thousands of people tuned in, all across the different games, so be respectful of the fact that they give you a SD version for free. The only thing that I really can nag at from the stream, is the same issue a lot of people are having when they go into full-screen, it chops off pieces of the sides. This has gone on for about 3-4 events now, and I don't know when they will look into fixing it.
As far as people not being satisfied with the HD stream, nothing I can really say about that except for the fact that you get a 30 second preview everytime you load the stream, so you shouldn't really complain about the quality when you got to experience it before buying. It's simple. If you don't like the quality of the preview, don't buy it. It would be like buying a car, and then the next day saying you don't like how it drives. (THEY GIVE YOU A FREE TEST DRIVE)
lol, but anyways. I think the casters did a great job, the interviews were a little short, especially HuK's(joke). But all-in-all, I thought it was a great job for their very first SC2 event, and hope that they listen to the feedback and improve on the next one. Good job guys.
You guys are giving HD and Husky a little bit too hard of a time. It was their first ever live 'major' event. I thought they did a pretty good job. Also it is to note that Husky and HD have very different styles than Sean and JP, and I'm sure that was MLG's intent.
Keep in mind that not everyone follows starcraft and/or is knowledgeable about the game. A good portion of people actually prefered HD and Husky's enthusiasm as they found it more interesting.
Opinions are good but if they are based solely on your taste then that won't really be constructive which is the point of this thread.
On August 31 2010 00:42 Agh wrote: You guys are giving HD and Husky a little bit too hard of a time. It was their first ever live 'major' event. I thought they did a pretty good job. Also it is to note that Husky and HD have very different styles than Sean and JP, and I'm sure that was MLG's intent.
Keep in mind that not everyone follows starcraft and/or is knowledgeable about the game. A good portion of people actually prefered HD and Husky's enthusiasm as they found it more interesting.
Opinions are good but if they are based solely on your taste then that won't really be constructive which is the point of this thread.
Good post, and I agree with you. Day and JP were good, but I really did enjoy the livecast more when Husky and HD were commentating (I was at the event live). Of course, the fact that they turned off the audio for the first half of the tournament was little irritating too.
I liked the 4 casters as an overall group. They each have a clear style and strengths that together made a well rounded group. Experience will only make each of them stronger. And you never learn more than you do from your first time (Look at how much Huk improved from his first LAN event to his second!).
On August 30 2010 09:33 dave22222 wrote: Where are the replays? IEM had them within hours.
They had to delete the replays. SeleCT had gone onto a few of the computers to view PainUser's replays in order to learn his builds etc, and ended up beating him in the next round using perfect counter build orders. After that happened, they changed the policy to delete replays right after the game was done. Because this was their first event, I don't think they have software to handle moving the replays to a single database right after the game.
I had a great time in Raleigh. The venue was very nice and I definitely got my fill of doritos and Dr. Pepper. With that said it could have been better.
Easy things first:
1. Provide a bracket for the spectators. Double elimination was hard enough to follow. I know at one point HD said if you want to find the bracket "go online". Luckily we had our cell phones but finding a website with a good updated bracket was difficult. While you are at it post a match schedule somewhere.
2. More speakers. There was a good crowd for SC 2 but if you sat farther than 15- 20 ft you could not hear a thing. I understand not wanting to disturb the players but if it is that big of a deal then put the players of the match being casted in a booth.
3. More chairs/bleachers. It looked like you planned for 20 or so people to show up at the match. The crowd itself was good. If you get them in actual seats maybe adding a crowd cam in match would be worthwhile.
Harder stuff:
1. Take a look at the format. Best of 5 single elimination or maybe a round robin group stage followed by best of 5 single elims. Do best of 7 for the final. This was the most under-whelming final ever. Regardless of what some say i loved the PvP play.
2. Add a screen or two around the venue so watch non-featured matches. Also try and get the players out of the corner. so we can see more hand mechanics in person. Announce who is playing and at what station (they were doing this at the tekken matches).
3. Move Day9/JP/HD/Husky our of their hole. Think College GameDay. Let them play to the crowd some and come into their own. They are the faces of SC 2 right now that people recognize.
4. Set up a place for players to go sign autographs and talk with fans. They were walled off (which i understand) but there were places for featured halo teams to sign fan stuff. Maybe this happened and i just missed it.
5. If you want lead in filler material have someone manning fraps to splice together a few quick highlights of the players previous matches. Even if you use matches form the day before it would be a good recap.
When Day9/JP commented, they would reflect on the match and then fall into the underlying basics of the gaming, teaching us to be better players. (Day9 would go into professor mode.) << THIS IS GREAT.
However, Husky and HD simply TALKED about the game, like "well, this and this happened" I KNOW it did, I JUST saw the game. Try to really say something meaningful, a-la day9.
for the display of "who is in the winners / losers bracket" ...
instead of showing tables / columns of wins&losses -- show an actual bracket like binary beast and have a winners bracket and a losers bracket, this way it's easier to see how the matches could play out
maybe not binary beast if it's double elim (which is fine because it adds more games/possibilities of finals) but still the actual bracket instead of tables would be great.
EPT
