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Hey everyone, just want to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to the NASL Finals this past weekend! It was a truly great event and I'm so happy that everyone there seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm going to be sharing my experiences from this event and from managing the league in general! I hope that it will be interesting for you all to read about sort of what goes on behind the scenes and whatnot, so enjoy! I'll be working backwards most of the time ~~
The Finals
Setting up was a ton of work. We broke down the studio on Tuesday, and had all of Wednesday and Thursday to set up, with doors supposed to be opening Friday at 10:00am. Set up was quite a task, we basically just had us in the studio in addition to the sound crew, some of the convention center staff, and two laborers we hired to help set up. Things were going nicely, if you remember This Blog and This Blog. The first problem occurred Thursday night, when the projectors were finally installed and raised to the rafters and we were going to test them out. Everything was fine, and then... the right projector broke. Totally not working. We scrambled to get a replacement, which came in Friday morning, and we had to rush to install it before the start.
Another problem occurred with the projectors where they weren't sending packets they received (aka, problem projecting). We finally fixed that and got it working by the time stuff started Friday, but it was only a temporary solution (which is why only the feed from the capture computer came to the projector screens on Friday). This is the reason we repeated the "Journey to the Finals" videos on Saturday -- since the people in-house unfortunately didn't get to see them.
The other major problem was the sound (although I was way too busy handling the tournament at that point and wasn't worrying about tech problems myself), which TheGunrun from Justin.tv knew how to fix. The only way to solve the problem was to turn off the stream, change some settings, and start it back. We made a conscious decision to wait until the break (halfway through the Ro16) to do that. In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to fix that immediately.
As far as the delays go -- this was fairly standard for almost every LAN event, but luckily Saturday went MUCH more smoothly. Some delay problems were caused by (to name a few): Moon refusing to let our staff touch his mouse/keyboard and plug them in for him... Boxer accidentally tripping a power cord and shutting off his computer, DarkForcE changing the computer language into German and trying to install some obscure logitech mouse drivers, etc.
This really was meant to be a show rather than a LAN event that most people are accustomed to seeing. The problem, as I see it, is that it didn't translate well to the stream viewer. The people on the stream didn't get to be involved in meet and greets, autograph/signing sessions, raffles, and HoN activities. Almost in between every match we had signings with pro players at different booths. Other spectators were watching players play in the warm up area, etc. There was a lot of stuff going on that really didn't get captured and put up on stream -- so the event, from a stream viewer's perspective, might have seemed a bit silly to go so long with so few games. This is something that we are planning to think about and address for Season 2, in order to make the viewing experience great not just for the live spectators, but for the stream audience as well!
As for the format: we feel like this format is okay. The big changes I believe we're looking into based on player feedback from the event is to make matches starting off be BO5, and introduce a veto system rather than all pre-set maps. In fact, player responses to the actual tournament finals were very positive from the people I talked to (<3 MorroW). To the people who say, "the finals shouldn't just be a single elimination!" I'd like to say: Dreamhack playoffs are single elimination, MLG's playoffs are single elimination (except for the 4 winners of pool play), WCG playoffs are single elimination... etc. The only difference is that since these are LAN events, the stages leading up to the playoffs are played on site, while ours are played online. Ret, for example... didn't fly out to the NASL, play his first matches, and get eliminated. He played for 9 weeks in the regular season. PuMa played multiple matches for every single day in the week, against some of the top level non Korean and Korean players in the Open Tournament (which was single elimination), and then played in the finals... etc. Try to look at the season as a whole rather than the Finals as an isolated event, and it makes a lot more sense.
Overall, we feel very pleased with our first LAN event. We had some hiccups on the first day but largely sorted them out after that. Now, we are much more aware of the things than can and oftentimes do go wrong at LAN events. We will be using this experience to make sure that the problems are corrected for the Finals of Season 2, and promise that it will be an even better event than this one!
The Season
The basic format of our league is unlike anything anyone has really done on a big scale in Starcraft 2. We are really trying to have the format of an actual sports league. Every other event is a tournament, rather than an actual league. If you think about sports: who watches every single NBA game? Only the most die-hard fans. Most people, casual fans, will only watch the teams // players they prefer. Our goal for the NASL is similar. We believe that the number reach of Starcraft 2 and the number of fans is so great that this is a viable format, once people get used to it. Maybe we're wrong, but we will definitely be giving it more than 1 Season to see if it catches on more. We feel strongly that giving players a lot of time each week to prepare for their matches is good, for the players that care enough to do so. Take, for instance, DarkForcE, Boxer, and Sheth. Those are three players who I know specifically put in a lot of preparation for each NASL game. That preparation paid off, and all three of those players advanced to the Finals. Boxer and DarkForcE were considered by many to not be deserving of the league at the start, in terms of skill (Boxer of course... for his fame however)! But this season they showed people what preparation can do for you. We like the fact that the format is different from every other event, so we are planning on keeping a very similar format for next season.
Major issues with the season, are pretty well known to most at this point: walk overs. However, if you actually examine the number of walkovers versus the number of matches played it isn't so bad. Throughout the season and the playoffs, we actually played out 93% of the games. Only 7% of games in a three month long season were walk overs (14 total walk overs). That's pretty good, but we can make it better, and we're planning to. The security deposit seemed like not enough of a disincentive to not attend matches, so we'll be making some tweaks to that rule to try to create more pressure from teams and their managers to ensure their players are more responsible.
Further, two huge complaints we got before the season: "why do you make people be on teams?!" and "why do they need VISA's" were answered this season. Take PainUser and Strelok for example. PainUser was no a dysfunctional/team that died. He was the most problematic player in the league in terms of attendance. The reason we require teams is precisely to take care of this issue. A player in a team is much less likely to have other full time commitments that preclude him from playing in matches, a team is much more likely to ensure their player shows up on time by reminding them, etc. As for the VISA issue, Strelok showed us that this is a real problem that people face. We took one "risk player," and at the end of the day it turned out that he wasn't able to get the VISA on time. Next season, we're going to work with everyone to make sure that they have their VISA's before the season starts before we allow them to participate so we won't have this problem again
A big issue raised by players were the times (for the Koreans), and servers. We are working on strategies to alleviate this problem. However, both fans and players must understand that there is a reason for the way we do things. As for playing the matches live, this seems to be a strikingly better option than casting off replays. Replay casting requires much more policing of players. There is a reason it takes IPL so long to happen despite it being announced months ago. Because they cast from replays, players don't have as much incentive to play their matches on time. Casting from replays means players (or an admin + players) need to schedule match times themselves. Players (fact) are irresponsible and mostly lazy, even with huge prize pools. Leaving it up to them means that there will be delays. We had pre-set times so that the players knew every single week exactly when they had to play. The specific time varied slightly, but if I'm a player I know that "every single Monday between 1-3pm I need to be available for Starcraft matches." This is much more stable and consistent than having players arrange times themselves and replay cast.
Next: we will be attempting to get accounts on the Europe and Korean servers for ourselves (the casters and production crew) and players. This way we can much more easily have cross server playing. We want to be able to have Koreans play Koreans on the Korean server, Europeans play each other on EU, etc. This is a very realistic change that will hopefully be much better for players that we are working on.
Production & Stuff
This is obviously the area that had the most difficulties as people know. It would take a long time to explain a lot of our initial difficulties, so I won't do that. I will, however, say things that we are working on in order to make sure things are better right from the start in Season 2!
The first major problem was that our first editor was a little overwhelmed for the project. We initially thought one editor could handle everything we were trying to do. On top of that, he was making a lot of careless mistakes (which could be attributed to many different factors) that we had to constantly spend a lot of time fixing. For example, our owner slept at the studio many nights because we had to watch the broadcasts to check for errors, then have them fixed if we found any. This process takes an incredibly long time. Encoding 5 hour videos takes hours. As a result, in the beginning we simply didn't have the time to fix all the problems with broadcasts, despite the fact we knew about them.
We now have a very strong crew of four editors (instead of 1), who are industry professionals. They've now learned a lot about the work flow and have a solid rhythm down. We have a new graphic artist and video production guy (you saw his video to introduce the finals of MC vs PuMa, for example) who will be making the look and feel much better. We are very confident that Season 2 will not have the same problems that Season 1 did.
Stream & VODS
The biggest remaining issue is the VODS. This is one area that we need to improve on the most and I want to promise that we are going to look into ways to make archiving and access of our VODS more sensible and user friendly. This will happen during Season 2. We are also working on several options to get lower quality transcodes of VODs (I.E. having vods in 1080, 720, 640, 480, etc) for those who can't always handle 1080p VODS. This second issue is a bit more tricky, but we will be working on providing a solid solution for everyone.
We're aware of stream sound and lag issues. Again, all I can say about the first is that we will work on this and improve it. As for the second, there isn't much we can do outside of what we have done to try to prevent stream lag-- sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.
What Else?
I personally enjoyed every moment of the ride that was NASL Season 1. It was tough, but we got through it and the final event was an absolute blast. I'm so happy I got to meet tons of people who enjoyed it, I'm happy I got to hear the cheers of people, and I was so happy to receive so many pleasant comments from players and casters at the event!
We're definitely aware that there were problems along the way. We're not perfect but I can promise everyone that we are motivated and improving daily. We hope that our regular season and Finals showcased this. We didn't start off great, but the end of the regular season was lightyears better than the beginning. The Finals started off rough, but ended with a bang. Know that we're going to ride this momentum and make sure that Season 2 is phenomenal.
Regardless of all the haters (even from prominent members of the community, which is pretty disappointing to me), we're going to keep plugging away. We won't lose faith or give up because all of us here believe in our vision. We started from nothing and put on a great show, especially considering that this was our first large scale event. I feel great right now 
So I hope everyone enjoyed the season, and I look forward to putting on another great show Season 2. The last note I'd like to say is that: keep an open mind... the NASL is not like other events, give it a chance and it might grow on you!
Got Feedback?
If I didn't respond to a major criticism, if you have other big issues to raise... please do so. As always, I will listen to all constructive criticism. If you're just going to bash on our casters, our format, our event, our stream, etc -- then don't expect a response. Mindless hate is bad; even justified hate is bad if it isn't presented in a reasonable manner (telling me "fix your shitty stream, or... replace Gretorp!" isn't helpful). Pointing out obvious things like "get better booths next time," are on the list: believe me. If you are posting about it being a problem, we've already thought about it.
If there is something you think I overlooked in this post or want to talk about, I'm always free. So anyways. I hope you all enjoyed it and GL&HF!
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I find it interesting that you guys did the finals as a 'show' rather than a LAN. Is there research that shows that a 'show' is what your target market wants? Also, if you wanted a show, why stream? Why the long wait times? Why is there no script when Gretorp and Incontrol was on stage? Why aren't there any solid interview questions?
Also, I don't think that the black background on the stage was very easy on the eyes. If it was a 'show' as you say, the background of the stage should have been a little bit more stylish.
Can you also address the small cozy booths? Did you guys think about having 4 booths instead of 2 so 2 players can play while 2 players set up?
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Even though I enjoyed the finals as a whole, I do feel like you really have MC and Puma to thank for that. The production was pretty awful and gave the feeling that if you had cut back on the prize pool a little and invested more in the production rather than that 'dollar sign headline' it might have been better. I certainly trust that you have learned from your mistakes given how harsh the feedback from the community can be if you get something wrong.
I hate to let events like this and MLG Dallas(?) get by unscathed because it carries weight as an e-sport representative. That weight shows any newcomers that e-sports is still in an immature state because it's not coming off as polished and professional.
You claiming the finals to be more of a "show" for people coming to the event and treating the stream as an afterthought sounds like a bit of a cop out to me. The stream was offered as a product and should definitely be treated as such.
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On NASL as a whole, I respect the idea of treating it like any other sports league, but in reality with so much competition for player's attention it just doesn't seem reasonable. To viewers and players alike. I found myself just not tuning in towards the end of the season because I was burnt out. You also have to understand that player's attention is limited and you're definitely demanding quite a bit of it. They travel and obviously play in other leagues/events.
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i know its tempting to get ahead of schedule, but when these times are set for days in advance, you really shouldn't
edit: for super important matches at least (IE, 3rd/4th place match)
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Thanks for the clarification. It's nice to get some feedback from the other side of the story. I'm glad you guys realize that there were problems but are taking steps towards fixing them.
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Very nice post, it reminds me of MLG's response after the Dallas disaster. I wish you guys better luck next season. It seems like you are finally going in the right direction!
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Nice, you basically covered everything from what was wrong to what was right!
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My basic thought on the NASL were the production values were low, lots of technical problems, but the final tournament produced some of the best starcraft ever played. I actually missed the entire first day because I thought technical issues would ruin it but I was very happy that I tuned into the last days.
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I have mixed feelings on NASL. I really like what you're trying to do, which is why the serious problems are so sad for me. Thanks for the reflections. Things are definitely improving. There's a couple big things for me that stand out.
The good things:
- I really like the real regular season and the general format type. It's the only place you can really see foreign players playing matches they've had time to specifically prepare for. It also is a format that allows a real league to be feasible for foreigners to participate in.
- I like that the caster choice (though there are plenty of criticisms for particular ones) tends to favor people with actual high-level game knowledge. I'm all for appealing to the less serious viewers, etc., but it has to be possible to do that without dropping all actual analysis from the commentary, and NASL seems to be doing it right.
Bad things not in the OP:
- The website is in general very poor. I don't care about the design - that's fine - but it doesn't have basic information. Things like the schedule for the finals should really be there (and easy to find). It's great to post information on TL, but all the format clarification, updates, etc. should really also be on the official site.
- As far as the finals go, please stick to the actual schedule. I had no interest in the musical act, etc., so I tuned in for the third place match and it was already mostly over. It's true that the schedule was too spread out, but once that's the published schedule it's still better to follow it.
-Please get the map versions right. In the regular season there were so many games played on weird/outdated versions of the maps.
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Please get rid of the 20 minute intro videos.. like 99% of the people did not want to watch them and then add the fact that there is a hour long break between each series mean that a lot of people will only watch one series and then go do something else after. NASL was ok but it would have been a lot more better if we got to see more than 10 games in a whole day.
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I've generally been a big supporter of the NASL, I was actually pretty pleased with how the first season went overall. It had its bumps but I think it was a good tournament.
That said, there is an issue with the league that you didn't really seem to address. As has been mentioned in the past, once the main season is nearing its end, there are some players who have done poorly enough main season that they're guaranteed to be knocked out of the NASL, no matter what. The problem here is that it leaves little to no incentive to actually prepare much for their games if they don't make a difference. Will there be anything coming up in season 2 that will add more incentive for these lower scoring players to continue to try hard to win their remaining games?
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I was able to attend this event, and from attending other big conventions such as Blizzcon and PAX, this turned out to be an amazing event. I think we got really excellent games because of the big prize pool incentive and the players did not have to play many games in a row like in other tournaments, giving them more time to rest and hide their strategies.
NASL Grand Finals > Every GSL Grand Final (GSL is awesome but the games between MC and Puma were great)
Keep up the good work and continue to improve.
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Good post, but I'll wait to see how Season 2 turns out. Based off your response to our complaints (especially the new animations guy) I have high expectations of NASL! And that's a good thing, I understand that shiny things and cool effects aren't exactly first priority, but they really give the entire tournament a legitimate and professional feel.
I've been critical of the stream, especially WHY you changed the free quality from 480 to 360 halfway through the tournament (really? give an explanation please).
Also, you need to fire or blame the original editor. You're skirting the blame (oh, various reasons). That's bullcrap. Just say he or she fucked up and now you have 3 extra guys with him/her. And I can't believe you thought that 1 editor could edit "5 hours of production". Come on....anyways,
as much as I'd like to be positive-minded towards season 2, Season 1 had so many mistakes I'm still going to hold off on spending any more towards NASL until I see a marked improvement (which I'm confident will happen).
Cheers, and that's my 2cents.
P.S.: Answer the change from 480p to 360p please. That's the #1 thing that pissed me off the most. It might not be the most important but it seemed low-handed and a dirty way to make more money.
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Thanks for this comment on the whole situation
Yeah, there were some major problems which maybe seemed even bigger for the stream users than for the people at the live event. So I might be understandable, that there were many complains by us.
But as you said, this was your first huge event (even if some of your people already are kinda familiar with the SC2 scene and stuff) and you stated your problems and it seems that you are aware of them.
Thats very good i guess
So hopefully (and I am sure it will become true) the next season will get even bigger and better!
Congratulations on your succees, keep it coming!
And make sure that Lindsey has a good start into her SC2 experience 
Encore:
So i wanna just list my suggestions/ideas/thoughts i have on this whole topic.
I wasn't watching every game during the season and even wasn't watching the whole finals (due to personal issues) but I think i can state some critics 
What I liked:
- Having multiple casters throughout the season. That was quite cool and exciting
- Hmm well, i can't really state other big positive things. I just think that the whole season was quite solid, it was ok
What I didn't like:
- Having to pay for high quality streams. Sure, you have to get your money from somebody, and i fully understand this. So this isn't really a "you have to change that"-complain, its just something that bugged me . Maybe you could have given out free HD stream for the finals, that would've been a nice move
- The whole news publishing issue. It was hard for me to navigate through your homepage and get to know all the results of the matches. So maybe overthing the website design/concept? I don't know
- Known issues at the finals (no sound, delays etc.). Has all been stated so much, so i don't go into detail on that You already know what went wrong and you'll fix it next time
Thanks again, see you soon!
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On July 12 2011 13:43 aristarchus wrote:
I have mixed feelings on NASL. I really like what you're trying to do, which is why the serious problems are so sad for me. Thanks for the reflections. Things are definitely improving. There's a couple big things for me that stand out.
Bad things not in the OP:
- The website is in general very poor. I don't care about the design - that's fine - but it doesn't have basic information. Things like the schedule for the finals should really be there (and easy to find). It's great to post information on TL, but all the format clarification, updates, etc. should really also be on the official site.
Seconded on the website! Really basic information was hard to find sometimes, and it was often out of date. It's out of date right now! On the front page you're showing the brackets from the finals with a giant blank space where Puma's name should be as champion! There is also nothing on the website right now about when season 2 starts, or that there even is a season two. I realize you guys are still figuring out season two, but even a short blurb like "Season two starts later this summer! Check back <insert website here> for more details soon!"
I kept finding myself wandering around TL and Wellplayed, etc to find out what was going on. That should really all be on your website. This post itself is great, but wouldn't it be good to have some kind of blog or something on the website saying the same thing?
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Your response to individuals wanting a double-elimination format is "WELL NO1 ELSE DUZ IT SO..... ITZ OK!!"? Honestly, the only potential CON to having a double elimination format is that there are more games, but I cannot fathom a spectator turning down more games between professionals and I cannot fathom a competitor turning down a second chance to work his/her way back into the finals.
Edit: With this being said, if the problem for the tournament provider is exactly that, "too many games" I think that can be remedied while still showing awesome matches to the viewers. As everyone knows, even pros can lose a BO1, in a BO3, the better player has a better chance of winning, and even moreso in a BO5, etc. However, upsets will still happen resulting in a potentially better player NOT winning and being eliminated early. The double-elimination format is simply a cushion to encourage a situation where the best players end up finishing at the top which is great for the viewers (better games), great for the competitors (second chances), and great for the tournament provider (as better games + big names generally equals success.)
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Your one sentence explanation for the sound issues doesn't resolve the fact that a few of the sound issues were simply from people not paying attention. Interviewers microphones were not being switched on to the stream until 1 minute into the interview, and as a result, we lost two questions and answers from an MC interview. That is not a technical issue, its someone forgetting to flip a switch or turn a knob.
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Probably the best spent $25 this year; I hope your success continues.
I really like the 480p option for lower end pcs/connectivity for VODs, please push for this!
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On July 12 2011 13:11 Xeris wrote:
This really was meant to be a show rather than a LAN event that most people are accustomed to seeing. The problem, as I see it, is that it didn't translate well to the stream viewer. The people on the stream didn't get to be involved in meet and greets, autograph/signing sessions, raffles, and HoN activities. Almost in between every match we had signings with pro players at different booths. Other spectators were watching players play in the warm up area, etc. There was a lot of stuff going on that really didn't get captured and put up on stream -- so the event, from a stream viewer's perspective, might have seemed a bit silly to go so long with so few games. This is something that we are planning to think about and address for Season 2, in order to make the viewing experience great not just for the live spectators, but for the stream audience as well!
As a subscriber who was on the stream for literally every second it was broadcasting this weekend, this is really depressing to hear. As I was joined by an average of 30-40x the number of people who could fit into the live event (the final topped 80k stream viewers!), I really have to question the wisdom of making your primary audience the second consideration.
All of these promised improvements sound great, but as this is just the latest example of many glaring questions of priority and experience, I'll have to temper my enthusiasm with a fairly well-deserved "I'll believe it when I see it."
sry
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hey nasl are u going to address the problem of the open winner vs top seed problem in the next season? I think it is kind of unfair and lets be honest... the person who comes into nasl thru open is very likely to win the whole tournament as seen in this season. Puma who never played a single match for the long and grueling qualifying process, crushes thru one fast open tournament with likely the best players in the world who aren't in the nasl already and also crushes the tournament (which he deserves)... i feel that it is unfair that you are letting such a strong player compete after everything the real qualifiers worked for :/ (and i know this is a competition but...)
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EPT
