I disagree with the conclusions some have reached. If you discount Week 1, only Division 1 shows any steady decline in interest, even then there's a rise again in Week 8. The graphs in the spoiler shows that rather than the narrative that "people are slowly losing interest in NASL", activity in the LiveReport threads fluctuate on the merit of the games.

Division 1: peak at week 2
Division 2: peak at week 5
IdrA casting CrunCher; White-Ra vs Darkforce; qxc vs July
Division 3: peak at week 5
IdrA casting; STrelok vs mOOnGLaDe; Squirtle vs NaNiwa
Division 4: peak at week 4
Strong games throughout
Division 5: peak at week 7
Idra vs Tyler; Zenio vs Socke

+ Show Spoiler [LiveReport views by Division] +

Mailing

United States3087 Posts

June 07 2011 03:48 GMT

#43

Week 8 was in conflict with MLG weekend.

It's 100% common sense to see that the viewers will lower over time, people started watching it a lot in week 1 just to make sure it wasn't a bust after incontrol hyped it.

Now it's just day after day of group play, where the only reason to watch is to follow your favorite players (i watch days where ret/idra play for example)

When the actual tourney starts, suspect as many viewers as MLG if their production is nice.

cablesc

United States1540 Posts

June 07 2011 04:22 GMT

#44

Not a surprise. Week 1 had a lot of problems and complaints, week 8 had MLG. And it's a league format where the pace is slow and steady instead of hyped up. But once the playoffs start, I think interest is going to be huge. Just look at the lineup of players that can get into at least the qualifier bracket:

MorroW
Moon
Fenix
Sheth
KiWiKaKi
July
White-Ra
Sjow
DarkForce
CrunCher
TT1
iNcontroL
Squirtle
Strelok
NaNiwa
NaDa
Axslav
dde
SeleCT
Ret
Ace
MC
HasuObs
BoxeR
Sen
Zenio
IdrA
Socke
MaNa

Take the top 16 out of that lot, and it'll be a sick, sick lineup for the main bracket. The cream definitely rose to the top in this instance. That is one good thing about the league format. It allowed players like MC to make a comeback after a slow start. That wouldn't happen in an elimination format.

fer

Canada375 Posts

June 07 2011 04:36 GMT

#45

It doesn't help that NASL seems to be oblivious of many problems that have been voiced by the community since day 1. Given that NASL is essentially a community effort, one might say to cut them some slack, but this is just hilarious at this point. It's been eight weeks, eight damn weeks. In any established professional organization countless people would've been fired already if by at this point substantial progress had not been made, or customers compensated somehow for the atrocious release state, or something to keep satisfaction and attachment up.

I'll keep an eye out for the playoffs since NASL is indeed a wider project than just the group stages, but if that doesn't "wow" people enough, I'm scared for season 2 and subsequent ones.</3

Brad

2754 Posts

June 07 2011 09:15 GMT

#46

Regular seasons in sports are always meh; except in Soccer of NFL. Playoffs is where it's at. Personally, I haven't watched much of NASL.

I really don't think Starcraft 2 is ready for a 'regular season' type format yet. I honestly believe people enjoy the high adrenaline feeling of do or die games. I think Starcraft 2 is more catered towards the UFC format; than the NBA format.

Deleted User 101379

4849 Posts

June 07 2011 09:26 GMT

#47

One of the reasons is that in the earlier weeks there were quite a lot of technical difficulties, so people had to rely more on the LR thread. The difficulties are now far less, so everyone can now watch the games instead of having to check LR because the stream cut out just before the final push.

Also, with paypal support from j.tv, there are probably a lot more people that don't check the LR threads later but instead just watch the VODs.

In short: The numbers mean nothing without context.

ciaiei

Finland41 Posts

June 07 2011 10:46 GMT

#48

personally I find NASL very uninteresting... I have a limited time to watch SC2 and I find GSL, MLG, IPL, Day[9] Dailies and OneMoreGame shows more interesting. I do follow the results, but I live in Finland and don't really want to watch something that is rebroadcasted since I can just check the results and I prefer VODs over rebroadcasts

Thrombozyt

Germany1269 Posts

June 07 2011 11:18 GMT

#49

I like NASL, as it's the only big regular tourney that is streamed at a reasonable time for me (living in central europe).

I also really like the BO3 group play thing, as it allows me to pick 1-2 players in each group and root for them and follow them throughout the whole season. I think for fans of a player, this format is much better, as a loss won't mean elimination and even if your player doesn't do well or isn't top tier (like Goody e.g.) the matches are still exciting as he battles to stay in the NASL.

Now if the matches were restreamed Monday through Friday instead of Thursday through Monday, then I think there would be even more nerds that just tune in every weekday evening integrating the NASL in their routine.

Marradron

Netherlands1586 Posts

June 07 2011 12:41 GMT

#50

There is just no intensity in the current format for me. I got bored of these very large groups getting played over 10 weeks. What I would do is play 1 group per week. But play it entirely. So we're focused around a small number of players each week.

Liquid`Nazgul

22427 Posts

June 07 2011 13:07 GMT

#51

Reading these stats correctly:

Week 8 they battled MLG which of course a consistent league in its preliminaries can't do. Exclude week 8 if you want to draw any statistical conclusion from these stats. Before week 8 things are very consistent. Week 1-2 are hugely hyped and was never where NASL was going to end up.

To me those stats look perfectly fine and solid. They will spike huge with the playoffs.

[image loading]

Liquid`Nazgul

22427 Posts

June 07 2011 13:33 GMT

#52

Moving this to SC2 general.

obsKura

Ireland1061 Posts

June 07 2011 13:35 GMT

#53

It was not the best idea to stream NASL during the MLG weekend... obviously everybody ended up watching MLG instead of NASL (me included). I don't think it makes much sense to compare week 8 of NASL with the rest because of that.

DoubleB

Germany870 Posts

June 07 2011 13:35 GMT

#54

When the finals start the viewer/poster count will raise!

vasculaR

Malaysia791 Posts

June 07 2011 13:39 GMT

#55

On June 07 2011 10:34 Mobius_1 wrote:
Anyone feels a bit overwhelmed by sheer amount of Starcraft games? I watched some NASL when it was new, mixed in some IPL, but now I pretty much only watch the GSL and special events like MLG.

I mean, for a typical football (soccer) fan, it's one match a week for the favourite team and that's about it. Following SC2 means 4 BO3 a day of GSL, and almost endless NASL/IPL/Other tourneys/Youtube games/Streams/Dailies/TL.

I like the tourney, NASL, I like your ambition, but I just don't have the time.

Me too.

Velr

Switzerland10881 Posts

June 07 2011 13:41 GMT

#56

Week 1-2 heavy Drama about everything the NASL didn't do "right" from the get go.

Now there is less and less Drama, add into it that Europeans actually can watch it at "primetime" even for the "working" pouplation and live reports suddenly aren't as important anymore.

I would begin to worry for the NASL when "DRAMA" in game X/Y/Z won't spawn new treads anymore or discussion anymore (see Painuser)...

Edit:
And naturally MLG/Dreamhack and other big events will "kill" the interest on these days.

Kreb

4834 Posts

June 07 2011 13:42 GMT

#57

GSL threads gets less nowadays too (which doesnt mean anything really since it's only natural due to the amount of other SC2 streams/tournies out there). NASL was also hyped up and there really was no way it would ever keep its week 1/2 viewers.

And it still gets more viewers than pretty much every mid/small sized tourny stream. I think TSL was really the only league that regularly had higher numbers, which obviously has its reasons. But I wouldnt call it anywhere near a fail until GO4SC2 or some random day of EGs team league gets more viewers.

figq

12519 Posts

June 07 2011 13:44 GMT

#58

This only means for the first day all people gathered, and then those people only watched about every other day or two, but not every day -- which makes perfect sense, what do you expect. It's a huge league with so many matches (imo that's great, I always wanted that). Go NASL!

rycho

United States360 Posts

June 07 2011 13:44 GMT

#59

i would consider myself a pretty big fan of starcraft, but nasl just doesn't grab my attention for a couple reasons:

- this isn't their fault, but i sort of feel the play is tainted by cross-region online play. i remember idra saying something like "do not place weight on any game a korean plays on the na server"
- it seems to take FOREVER to get through 5 matches. personally i don't care about the interviews and pregame and all the other crap besides the actual games
- i don't have access to vods. i know i can buy them for $20, so maybe this is my fault, but i have a hard time following the league and being a fan of the players and their storylines when i can't see all their games.

so of all the tournaments running, nasl is the one i pay the least attention to. that said however, i will absolutely tune in to the playoffs/finals and i'm really looking forward to the live finals in california; i think it'll be a great event. i just wish the regular season was as interesting.

Tyree

1508 Posts

June 07 2011 13:49 GMT

#60

Anyone ever bought one of those TV show dvd sets? You know "Entire Season of ____"? Ever sit down an watch a couple of episodes in a row? Despite it being your favorite show you still got sick and burnt out on it?

That is SC2 to me right now, after the MLG weekend (which was fantastic kudos to them after Dallas) i dont feel like watching any SC2 for a while. Live events such as MLG, Dreamhack and GSL have that "you have to be there" feel to them, ie something insane is going to happen and you will miss it so you tune in. NASL just in general does not have that must see effect for me