EPThttp://www.majorleaguegaming.com/mlg/anaheim-replays
"MLG will no longer be making replays of Tournament matches available to the public. We realize that this has been a popular feature, but unfortunately replay packs contain data which can be used to DDOS the player- and the event. Because of the volume of replays we have to process during an event, we are unable to strip that information out of the files before publication.
We realize that a large number of matches are played offstream at Pro Circuit Competitions. After MLG Anaheim, we will be sending replay packs out to selected groups of casters, so that these never-before-seen matches can be commentated and then released for everyone to see. "
I am disappointed in this because I really liked going through replays from Cbus and watching a lot of the open bracket players. Plus it also allows people in the community to see all the new and interesting strategies and styles that come out during MLG.
Anyone else think this sucks?
This is probably important/someone may ask since I had the same question. Here is what Rich and a few others have said about the details of replay files.
On July 30 2011 06:02 R1CH wrote:
Technically this makes no sense. I haven't looked at the replay format in that much detail, but as far as I'm aware the only semi-personal data encoded in a replay is the battle.net ID of the players. This is the number in the URL of your profile if you view it on battle.net or your sc2ranks ID, this is NOT your character code. Unless someone has found a way to convert from battle.net ID to character code, this does nothing to stop people being added and spammed on battle.net since it wasn't possible in the first place other than by brute force guessing.
The best solution to the chat spam / lag problems is to set busy mode and join six chat channels before playing a game to prevent further invites. It seems MLG doesn't want to release replays (perhaps under pressure from Korean teams?) and is using this as an excuse.
Technically this makes no sense. I haven't looked at the replay format in that much detail, but as far as I'm aware the only semi-personal data encoded in a replay is the battle.net ID of the players. This is the number in the URL of your profile if you view it on battle.net or your sc2ranks ID, this is NOT your character code. Unless someone has found a way to convert from battle.net ID to character code, this does nothing to stop people being added and spammed on battle.net since it wasn't possible in the first place other than by brute force guessing.
The best solution to the chat spam / lag problems is to set busy mode and join six chat channels before playing a game to prevent further invites. It seems MLG doesn't want to release replays (perhaps under pressure from Korean teams?) and is using this as an excuse.
On July 30 2011 08:56 R1CH wrote:
Lee has given me his reasoning in private, but I don't have enough information to know if it's technically valid or not. Erring on absolute caution, I can see why they don't want to release replays during the event.
Lee has given me his reasoning in private, but I don't have enough information to know if it's technically valid or not. Erring on absolute caution, I can see why they don't want to release replays during the event.
MLG Lee gave a couple points of clarification.
+ Show Spoiler +
On July 30 2011 07:46 MLG_Lee wrote:
A couple points of clarification:
1) Releasing replays exposes the event to risk that we're not comfortable with. Happy to debate the level of relative risk, but it's there. If I can remove ANY risk from the event, I'm going to. Do any of you really think I or anyone else at MLG want to repeat Dallas?
2) This has nothing to do with GSL or Korean players wanting to be protected on the replays. That was a point of discussion and all LXP players understand that MLG has the right to release the replays anytime we want to.
3) Modifying replay files (not reading them) is a violation of Blizzard's ToS. I maybe could get permission to do it, but there's a lot of legal issues tied up in that. We already know how to do it. But we'd have to check them all before releasing them.
4) The issues around this are not just technical, they're also rules based. Yes, we could require in the rules that every player sets busy (already the case) and opens six chats. But then what do you do if someone forgets and lags? Is it fair to allow a restart? or should we call them on a technical? We don't make these decisions lightly.
5) Releasing the replays to casters that we work with and trust is the least risky way to get SOME of this content out. I know it's not everything that everyone wants. At the end of the day though, we can fund events because we can monetize content. Keep in mind that we lose a tremendous amount of money every event. Our productions are not cheap. Sat trucks alone are a solid six figure number.
6) Not going to discuss in a public forum how you can get to the chat name. That's like teaching people how to break your own event ;p R1CH, love to chat with you about it some offline/inpriv.
This step is being taken to protect the operations of the event. Replays are not going to be released at this event. When we have some more time to consider things and think through ALL the issues, we'll re-evaluate. But this is not a decision that we'll revisit here. We know how valuable this is to the community and we definitively listen to the community, I think we've proven that.
I appreciate constructive criticism and the satire is worth a good laugh too.
Bear in mind that at GotFrag (of which I was a founder and prez), we hosted .dem (replays for Counter-Strike) for every match we could find at every event. They're still available there. I know exactly how much we all love having access to the replays. And I know this is an unpopular decision with much of the community.
But see above for the straight scoop on why we're doing this.
EDIT: DDOS is a poor choice of words in our release. Chat spam on the game clients which lags the game is what was meant.
EDIT: And yes, I know you can find other ways to get to the same information. But I can't stop those. I can reduce risk on things I can control. Not taking those steps is negligent.
A couple points of clarification:
1) Releasing replays exposes the event to risk that we're not comfortable with. Happy to debate the level of relative risk, but it's there. If I can remove ANY risk from the event, I'm going to. Do any of you really think I or anyone else at MLG want to repeat Dallas?
2) This has nothing to do with GSL or Korean players wanting to be protected on the replays. That was a point of discussion and all LXP players understand that MLG has the right to release the replays anytime we want to.
3) Modifying replay files (not reading them) is a violation of Blizzard's ToS. I maybe could get permission to do it, but there's a lot of legal issues tied up in that. We already know how to do it. But we'd have to check them all before releasing them.
4) The issues around this are not just technical, they're also rules based. Yes, we could require in the rules that every player sets busy (already the case) and opens six chats. But then what do you do if someone forgets and lags? Is it fair to allow a restart? or should we call them on a technical? We don't make these decisions lightly.
5) Releasing the replays to casters that we work with and trust is the least risky way to get SOME of this content out. I know it's not everything that everyone wants. At the end of the day though, we can fund events because we can monetize content. Keep in mind that we lose a tremendous amount of money every event. Our productions are not cheap. Sat trucks alone are a solid six figure number.
6) Not going to discuss in a public forum how you can get to the chat name. That's like teaching people how to break your own event ;p R1CH, love to chat with you about it some offline/inpriv.
This step is being taken to protect the operations of the event. Replays are not going to be released at this event. When we have some more time to consider things and think through ALL the issues, we'll re-evaluate. But this is not a decision that we'll revisit here. We know how valuable this is to the community and we definitively listen to the community, I think we've proven that.
I appreciate constructive criticism and the satire is worth a good laugh too.
Bear in mind that at GotFrag (of which I was a founder and prez), we hosted .dem (replays for Counter-Strike) for every match we could find at every event. They're still available there. I know exactly how much we all love having access to the replays. And I know this is an unpopular decision with much of the community.
But see above for the straight scoop on why we're doing this.
EDIT: DDOS is a poor choice of words in our release. Chat spam on the game clients which lags the game is what was meant.
EDIT: And yes, I know you can find other ways to get to the same information. But I can't stop those. I can reduce risk on things I can control. Not taking those steps is negligent.
On July 31 2011 07:33 MLG_Lee wrote:
Folks, no one said we were going to "sell replays to casters"--we said we would work with casters we trust and like to produce VoDs.
Monetizing in this context means serving ads.
Folks, no one said we were going to "sell replays to casters"--we said we would work with casters we trust and like to produce VoDs.
Monetizing in this context means serving ads.
Sundance posted this via twitter today however.
@MLGSundance Sundance DiGiovanni
Working out the plan 4 releasing Anaheim SC2 replays. @MLGLee and Clap are the guys you want to thank for this. Official word coming soon.
