On July 10 2011 09:49 Jester.1561 wrote: To be fair to NASL, wasn't everyone extremely critical of an MLG event that went poorly? MLG cleaned up their act and pulled off an extremely great event recently with Columbus, and only improve the more events they throw.
I can only imagine the same with NASL. Yes, maybe this event isn't exactly the best and there are a lot of issues, but things can only get better from here.
The biggest difference between MLG and NASL is that MLG has shown a willingness to hire people that are subject matter experts. Remember how ridiculous the player pictures were early in the season and then Xeris came to the forums and asked the community to fix the images for them? As I said back then, they are far beyond the point of crowd sourcing things. They need to start hiring professionals and not their friends.
I really enjoyed Anna's interviews from MLG. On the back of that, I quasi-understand NASL choosing her to do post game interviews, but the girl doing crowd interviews? Really? I get it, she's pretty, but she knows absolutely nothing about the game. Sure, Erin Andrews probably can't explain to you the advantages of a 3-4 defense against a spread offense. That said, she's provided something called a "script".
Sure, lighting and sound engineers cost money. So do make-up artists (notice the casters look sickly under the stage lighting). Not providing a budget for these positions is either hubris or gross ineptitude. The problems within the NASL, it seems, are top down.
My only criticism is that ret got screwed, hard. The first place finisher from the group stages shouldn't have to play the winner of the open bracket, which is obviously going to be a VERY skilled player. Other than that, great event!
I don't like the presence of an open bracket in a league that's this long and has this many games. Some guy who didn't put in the time and effort of the other players can show up, win the open and then be a strong contender for the whole prize, with a lot less time investment.
I am sure there are going to be a lot of haters complaining about certain aspects of the show. Interview, lighting, makeup and more. However I feel they are moving in the right direction and next season will be even better.
Really just give me free 480p or 720p and I'll be happy. I'm pretty sure I can speak for most of us that we dont really give a rat's ass on how pretty tastosis looks.
On July 10 2011 11:13 xHassassin wrote: Really just give me free 480p or 720p and I'll be happy. I'm pretty sure I can speak for most of us that we dont really give a rat's ass on how pretty tastosis looks.
These things don't matter to us, but I tried to use the NASL last night to introduce some of my friends to watching live Starcraft, and had to a lot of "Well the other events don't look this amateur, trust me!". Presentation matters a lot when you're trying to appeal to people other than those who will watch it no matter what it looks like.
Cool event but it lost the overall buzz for me seeing Ret dropout over some bad luck and bad setup. Maybe during your first event you should have each player sign a contract that is "likely to change" because this was sad.
How does this look amateur? Booths, Webcams for the players, after-game interviews, a HUGE prize pool, the best commentators in the world... What more do you want?
- atrocious sound quality and sound leveling issues. sometimes mics are on when theyre not supposed to be, and sometimes theyre off when theyre supposed to be on. day9s mic is really loud and then too soft. it seemed like something they just couldnt get right regardless of how many chances they had. in all fairness this was much worse yesterday, but still happened today.
- absurd amount of downtime. the producers of this stream dont actually expect 45,000 viewers to be engrossed by a pretty blond walking around flipping her hair and interviewing random dudes about "how long theyve played starcraft" for an hour... who gives a shit. show clips, show epic banemines or sick micro or a void ray escaping with 1 hit point - not a fixed camera at an assortment of people standing in line to get their picture taken with darkforce.
- no regulation of player's "busy status". in a $100,000 tournament i would never have expected a game to have to be paused or restarted because a player is being harassed by trolls on battlenet. and then, of course, this also brings up the issue of ghosting, or a player being msged information about the game as its taking place. how could that have been overlooked?? is this being run by high school kids?
- map pool.... wtf. a fixed map pool? crossfire? xelnaga? taldarim? common guys..... how about some variety.....
- open bracket. as said by someone on this page, ret got screwed. he did. the first place finisher from the group stage should not be forced to play the winner of the open bracket. period.
I've been like the biggest supporter of NASL all season long. I've constantly reminded people that it's their first tournament, GSL was a screwup at first too, everyone has problems etc. But you're making it so difficult for me to keep a positive attitude.
And now I have given up on this. I was looking forward to staying in tonight and just relaxing while watching this. But I'm going to go get hammered instead.
Ditto. I'm an NASL subscriber as well, and started off as an apologist.
It's not the production oversights, tournament errors or scheduling mishaps that bother me. It's the first season; shit happens. It's the manner in which they've addressed them, which makes me wonder if their current staff has the ability or mindset to resolve these issues.
For example, it feels like they brought in Tasteless and Artosis as a direct response to MLG's decision to bring them in for Columbus. That's great and all: but the MLG had two streams, and a shitload of games to cast. In this situation, they're completely underutilized.
It's almost as if they approached this project like baking a cake. They threw a bunch of great ingredients together, but they forgot to mix the ingredients, or whip the eggs, or turn on the oven, etc.
I have no delusions regarding how hard it must be to put on a tournament and an event like this. But that in itself is telling. From the beginning, NASL tried to market this tournament as the biggest thing to having to SC2 in North America, or the NA equivalent of GSL. Their approach to developing this league -- jumping in head first with little experience, rather than building it slowly like IPL -- reflects a business strategy that could be at describe at best as ambitious, and at worst, arrogant.
Edit: You know what, there's still A LOT to like about the NASL. I really like that is it the only major tournament that players from all servers can qualify and compete in. But I really hope, for their own sake, that they tighten the reins and rise to the challenge. Or else they are going to get blown out the water by better managed, more disciplined, more professional tournaments.
On July 10 2011 09:49 Jester.1561 wrote: To be fair to NASL, wasn't everyone extremely critical of an MLG event that went poorly? MLG cleaned up their act and pulled off an extremely great event recently with Columbus, and only improve the more events they throw.
I can only imagine the same with NASL. Yes, maybe this event isn't exactly the best and there are a lot of issues, but things can only get better from here.
MLG apologized for their screwup, offered compensation to customers, and replaced employees who were not able to do their jobs up to a professional standard.
So far NASL is: 1. Denying all responsibility for screwups 2. Refusing to acknowledge they need to hire competent staff 3. Degrading the quality of their (let's be honest, already horrendous) product by stretching the schedule way too thin for ad revenue 4. Unwilling to offer any compensation, such as free season 2 tickets to people who were swindled by season 1
Continuing to cheerlead for them and give them money will not help them improve. That is not how the market works. When you give them money or praise for this sort of product you are sending the message that you want more of the same.
Anyone who wants to support eSports should be issuing a chargeback with their credit card company.
The only way NASL will improve is a huge overhaul. The problems are with their management, and the decision to hire only friends instead of professionals. They aren't going to change anything until they are financially hurt by this nepotism.
the time between games was too long. I understand the desire to build a story... but... it was simply too long, I couldn't keep my friends interested who usually love watching gsl with me.
On July 10 2011 11:18 Kluey wrote: How does this look amateur? Booths, Webcams for the players, after-game interviews, a HUGE prize pool, the best commentators in the world... What more do you want?
The booths look like something that could be DIY'ed from materials sourced at the Home Depot over a weekend. There is a nasty spaghetti of wires just behind the casters' desk (which is visible depending on the camera being used.) Not that this is a deal breaker, but points to the fact that they don't have someone with broadcast experience. The players are barely visible on said webcams. (That we know they are webcams is problematic.) After game interviews have been awkward at best. The caster on the right (as the audience sees it) looks considerably more washed out than the caster on the left. They both look sickly under the stage lighting.
I will concede that they do have an amazing prize pool and casters, but what do either of those have to do with how the show looks? They need a director, they need stage hands in the audience running up and down the aisles pumping up the crowd (watch Day9's post KOTB daily), they need a light engineer, they need a sound engineer, and they need a makeup artist.
EPT
