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Has online-only competition during the pandemic changed yo…

Forum Index > SC2 General
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QOGQOG
Profile Joined July 2019
834 Posts
June 29 2021 22:24 GMT
#21
GSL continues to be the only tournament I consistently watch.
vyzion
Profile Joined August 2016
308 Posts
June 29 2021 22:51 GMT
#22
Slight decrease not due to game play but due to the energy of seeing people interact and person...grabbing trophies, etc.
blooblooblahblah
Profile Joined February 2011
Australia4163 Posts
June 30 2021 00:59 GMT
#23
Hard to compare directly because of the new format and we didn't haven't even gotten to experience the offline DH experience yet.

But overall, Europe regionals has been amazing IMO, and at least as engaging as the old offline WCS events, if not more. But that could obviously be due to the emergence of better storylines within that region. Being online doesn't bother me that much when the production value is solid and it's same-server play. Level of play has been excellent which does help.

The cross-server international events aren't as engaging for me. In theory the matchups are great, but the conditions aren't ideal for any of the players whenever they play cross-server, and the time of day seems pretty rough for the Koreans. It's not bad enough that I wouldn't watch them, but I find myself more engaged by the Europe Masters than the actual Championships each season.
Ganzi beat me without stim. Ostojiy beat me with a nydus. Siphonn beat me with probes. Revival beat my sentry-immortal all-in.
AirbladeOrange
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2574 Posts
June 30 2021 01:19 GMT
#24
I'd say slightly diminished because even viewing from home, the atmosphere still feels different with online tournaments. But the addition of player cams has lessened the issue. It's funny noticing when players have background changes.
washikie
Profile Joined February 2011
United States752 Posts
June 30 2021 02:02 GMT
#25
i mean i want live turneys because its good for the game but for me who has only ever been to one it has changed little the matches are still great
"when life gives Hero lemons he makes carriers" -Artosis
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany7362 Posts
June 30 2021 08:37 GMT
#26
On June 30 2021 03:13 Serimek wrote:
It feels like there is more SC2 lately, and it's amazing. BUT tourneys feel more alike than before to me.


Interesting point that I wholeheartedly agree on. Also with offline events I enjoyed the banter between games, and some nice shots of the venue and all sorts of things. Nowadays I mainly skip through it and just watch the games
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
Aeceus
Profile Joined September 2011
United Kingdom1278 Posts
June 30 2021 12:37 GMT
#27
The end of tournaments have been affected by not feeling the tension and crowd excitement as much, and not seeing the trophy lift obviously sucks.
MockHamill
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden1798 Posts
June 30 2021 13:12 GMT
#28
Not really. Having a crowd is better but the current solution works as well.

A larger problem is the lack of patches. It makes the meta more stale so I tend to watch less now since I more or less know what to expect.
ReachTheSky
Profile Joined April 2010
United States3294 Posts
June 30 2021 13:14 GMT
#29
I like that there is less down time between matches, however, as others have mentioned it does come at the cost of a diminished tournament atmosphere. Production still has hiccups every now and then, which really should be addressed. I think with the exception of a streaming issue there shouldn't be any hiccups as the group has been doing this for years so they should really have all the kinks ironed out by now. I kind of equate a live sc2 event to an mlb game, there is just something about the atmosphere that makes it awesome, not having the atmosphere definitely takes away from tournaments.

As far as casting goes, it's gotten worse. Casters don't seem to understand how to project believable excitement with there voice and instead insist on carrying their voice like borderline conversational hypnotists. I think that's the biggest flaw out of every production. When you look at the major sports commentators(nba, nhl, nfl) or even the wwe commentators or aew's jim ross, they command excitement with their voice. It's believable, it feels like passion and it commands my attention in a positive way. Some of the sc2 casters here are completely monotone and sound like they don't even want to be casting let alone commanding excitement. Sometimes the cast just sounds like a giant run on sentence with the caster often using the same phrases multiple times within a 3 minute span of time. Maybe it's slightly offtopic but this paragraph is probably why viewership is down/doesn't grow/stagnated.

My 2 cents in under 2 minutes~
TL+ Member
Furaha
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany271 Posts
June 30 2021 13:35 GMT
#30
I personally do prefer offline events. From my own experience, with online games only, many progamers have a second person sitting next to them. I know this, because I often was one of this second person. Which means, 4 eyes see more. There is no way "fair play" can be controlled if it is an online-only-competition. And even if you believe a second person sitting next to a player is useless, youre wrong.

... Why do I suddenly feel bad now? LOL XD~
Player Manager @janinecgn // facebook.com/ZerglingLove
tigera6
Profile Joined March 2021
3513 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-06-30 14:23:34
June 30 2021 14:19 GMT
#31
Its not even about the time of the Tournament within the day that is bad for the KR, but also the duration of the Tournament overlapping with the GSL. ESL has CLEARLY planned the tournament base on their own DH schedule, so the non-KR players mostly never have to worry about their tournament clashing. Meanwhile KR player has to prepare for the GSL matches while doing those other matches.
And I dont mean to be a dick about this, but why the HELL TSL had to end 1 DAY before code S group stage start? Dark could have been in a bad position where he had to play in the Final until 6am and then start the GSL group at 6pm on the same day.
buzz_bender
Profile Joined August 2019
446 Posts
June 30 2021 17:50 GMT
#32
On June 30 2021 23:19 tigera6 wrote:
Its not even about the time of the Tournament within the day that is bad for the KR, but also the duration of the Tournament overlapping with the GSL. ESL has CLEARLY planned the tournament base on their own DH schedule, so the non-KR players mostly never have to worry about their tournament clashing. Meanwhile KR player has to prepare for the GSL matches while doing those other matches.
And I dont mean to be a dick about this, but why the HELL TSL had to end 1 DAY before code S group stage start? Dark could have been in a bad position where he had to play in the Final until 6am and then start the GSL group at 6pm on the same day.


I've been saying this for ages, but nothing has been done about it so far.
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12133 Posts
July 01 2021 07:38 GMT
#33
On July 01 2021 02:50 buzz_bender wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 30 2021 23:19 tigera6 wrote:
Its not even about the time of the Tournament within the day that is bad for the KR, but also the duration of the Tournament overlapping with the GSL. ESL has CLEARLY planned the tournament base on their own DH schedule, so the non-KR players mostly never have to worry about their tournament clashing. Meanwhile KR player has to prepare for the GSL matches while doing those other matches.
And I dont mean to be a dick about this, but why the HELL TSL had to end 1 DAY before code S group stage start? Dark could have been in a bad position where he had to play in the Final until 6am and then start the GSL group at 6pm on the same day.


I've been saying this for ages, but nothing has been done about it so far.

Insert obligatory Koreans are fine with that as they didn't speak up.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
ploguidice
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
United States233 Posts
July 01 2021 16:11 GMT
#34
On June 30 2021 23:19 tigera6 wrote:
Its not even about the time of the Tournament within the day that is bad for the KR, but also the duration of the Tournament overlapping with the GSL. ESL has CLEARLY planned the tournament base on their own DH schedule, so the non-KR players mostly never have to worry about their tournament clashing. Meanwhile KR player has to prepare for the GSL matches while doing those other matches.
And I dont mean to be a dick about this, but why the HELL TSL had to end 1 DAY before code S group stage start? Dark could have been in a bad position where he had to play in the Final until 6am and then start the GSL group at 6pm on the same day.



There's three main StarCraft regions America, Europe, and Asia, and realistically if you're having a global online event the schedule is going to fuck over one region pretty hard. You can do a schedule that works well for Europe and Asia but fucks America, a schedule that works for Europe and America but fucks Asia, or a schedule that works for America and Asia but fucks Europe.

Aside from whatever money came from the initial Blizzard contract, viewership is the only revenue driver for these events. So of course ESL is going to structure their events in a way that maximizes viewership, and that means choosing a schedule that caters to American and European audiences while shafting Asian audiences. The EPT circuit is also obviously going to be based around it's own internal cadence and not GSL's. Afreeca also made a production decision to have a significantly longer season than the EPT regional tournaments which makes it significantly harder to plan around.

TLDR: ESL is going to schedule their events in a manner that maximizes viewership, and Afreeca's decision to run GSL seasons twice as long as foreign events basically guarantees that ESL can't plan around GSL even if they wanted to.
I'm Joe
buzz_bender
Profile Joined August 2019
446 Posts
July 01 2021 18:31 GMT
#35
On June 30 2021 22:35 Furaha wrote:
I personally do prefer offline events. From my own experience, with online games only, many progamers have a second person sitting next to them. I know this, because I often was one of this second person. Which means, 4 eyes see more. There is no way "fair play" can be controlled if it is an online-only-competition. And even if you believe a second person sitting next to a player is useless, youre wrong.


And this is something that I think needs to be addressed more, but it just seems that it's a taboo topic as no one would even hint at discussing/talking about it. I brought this up (cheating) right at the start of the online events, but no one wanted to talk about it. It's surprising to me since there is so much money involved in these tournaments.
jimminy_kriket
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Canada5539 Posts
July 01 2021 19:17 GMT
#36
I enjoy it more. Now that everything is online we get to see more korean vs foreigner games which are the most enjoyable for me.
life of lively to live to life of full life thx to shield battery
QOGQOG
Profile Joined July 2019
834 Posts
July 01 2021 20:57 GMT
#37
On July 02 2021 04:17 jimminy_kriket wrote:
I enjoy it more. Now that everything is online we get to see more korean vs foreigner games which are the most enjoyable for me.

If those games weren't at 4am with lag they might be enjoyable... As is though it doesn't usually feel like players can really bring their best.
DiMano
Profile Joined July 2011
Korea (South)2066 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-07-01 21:39:47
July 01 2021 21:37 GMT
#38
Season finals enraged me Zest lost 2 archons and Trap lost void rays due to laggs, how can it be enjoyable? And it is just yesterday’s example, I watch games and I do not understand when players lose due to laggs or skills.
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12133 Posts
July 01 2021 21:48 GMT
#39
On July 02 2021 06:37 DiMano wrote:
Season finals enraged me Zest lost 2 archons and Trap lost void rays due to laggs, how can it be enjoyable? And it is just yesterday’s example, I watch games and I do not understand when players lose due to laggs or skills.

Foreigners are winning? For the foreigner fans online events are great because the time slots favor foreigners but everyone pretends that Koreans are used to it.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
buzz_bender
Profile Joined August 2019
446 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-07-02 01:34:44
July 02 2021 01:34 GMT
#40
On July 02 2021 05:57 QOGQOG wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 02 2021 04:17 jimminy_kriket wrote:
I enjoy it more. Now that everything is online we get to see more korean vs foreigner games which are the most enjoyable for me.

If those games weren't at 4am with lag they might be enjoyable... As is though it doesn't usually feel like players can really bring their best.


You can tell by the end that Zest was getting frustrated with lag issues, and given that it's 4.30am, he probably had enough and hence the early GGs. Trap was noticeably affected by lag as well.

And that is precisely why we cannot put too much stock into online competitions, as much as that's all we can do now. It's just not the same.
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