On October 25 2012 15:11 HypertonicHydroponic wrote:Liquid`Sheth, Blizzard, et Al.:
I voted for "Other -- Please write a comment." Here is my comment. My vote is for an interesting combination of:
A way to spectate games in client and watch pros with others.
Simplified Custom games area with individually named games.
Changing how ladder works and giving you more stats.
In game tournament promotion so you can easily see where big tournaments will be.
That I mention briefly
here. I will elaborate.
I think that it could be a really nice feature that would kill several birds with one stone to allow an account to have the ability (maybe purchase?) to create a ladder and/or tournament through the game client.
~ An account that has this ability would be able to add and subtract map, gather statistics, send invitations, remove players, enforce scheduling, make payouts, assign and collect enterence fees, make veto options, show brackets, etc. (I would think the RMAH technology might be leveraged for a bunch of the money related issues.)
~ There would be override controls for scheduling, player slots, tournament or ladder end times, and other things.
~ There would be a way for a ladder season to flow into a tournament, say top 32 of the ladder season make it into the tournament bracket.
~ There would be a way to browse tournament scheduling, browse current tournament games, spectate the games freely, donate to a particular tournament, sign up for a tournament, view tournament stats.
~ For each tournament, there could be an option to run a ladder concurrently with anonymity options for players (like temporary smurf names, match history games not displaying data until after a tourney is over, etc.) in the tournament so the players can practice and so spectators might be able to play alongside the pros on the maps they might be playing for the tournament (and if they are good enough, maybe even against them).
~ Subladders would generally work based off of the primary ladder rating kind of how one ladder rating affects initial placement of other ladder ratings (e.g., 1v1, influencing 2v2), but obviously the number of people joined into that subladder would affect where people ultimately fall and who they might wind up playing against.
~ There should also be a way to leave a tournament or ladder feedback, kind of like in the arcade.
With something like this:
A) Tournaments and eSports in general get's a lot of support. Blizzard can generate revenue either on when an account purchases the ladder/tourney creation rights, or on a percentage of the prize pool (so something like if you want to have a $500 prize pool, you have to pay $5 to Blizzard assuming 1% is a fair number cut, maybe a tiered system...), or a percentage of enterence fees, etc. -- it opens up a lot of options for increased monetization through SC2, which means it's not only a win for eSports, but a win for Blizzard.
B) Map makers have a chance for improved support and recognition, because it would be easy to just create a ladder or tournament with custom maps to draw attention to new stuff. Mappers get more feedback on their maps and can make better strides in improvement of their maps, and thus the map pool and mapping knowledge in general.
C) Players get the chance not only to watch the big tournaments more easily, but spectators might get a chance to play against the pros, and if not, at least against other people watching the same tournament. It's a fun community builder.
D) The main ladder is still the place to go to get your base MMR and does not become obsolete as the primary balancing testbed. (Maybe??)
It may seem like a lot to ask, but in my mind it is one big integrated thing, and again, a solution to many problems at once. I hope others like this idea and help to refine it and vote for it so it will happen.
And Blizzard, if you are looking for more manpower and like this idea and want to get it done, please have Liquid'Sheth PM me with the place to send my resume. Dead serious.
Edit: Fyi, I posted this on B.net forums since I feel very strongly about this idea. If you ever post
there, and you have a mind to do so, please post some discussion about this over there. Many thanks.
EPT
