You're asking a pretty biased sample, so that's first of all. But no, honestly it hasn't affected me at all. If anything being cooped up has made me appreciate eSports more and made me more willing to pay and travel to go to events. You better believe I'll be signing up for and traveling to any East Coast American Starcraft 2 tournaments that happen this year.

Dreamhack Atlanta? Anybody know of any others that are already scheduled?

BisuDagger

Bisutopia19327 Posts

July 02 2021 15:42 GMT

#42

Covid hit SC2 for me the moment they gave up on Florida venues. Region lock (not arguing for or against it) and the loss of the MLG circuit was also another thing that felt like it diminished the additional enjoyment of a live audience. And add on to that, HomeStory Cup is one of the most loved and iconic SC2 tournaments and it has had (relatively)no audience. That said, I think the state of SC2 has stayed strong during covid for me.

Captain Peabody

United States3128 Posts

July 04 2021 14:13 GMT

#43

I think there advantages and disadvantages to both in-person and online events. It's a little problematic for *all* inter-regional competitions to be online due to issues with ping/time zones, but jet lag/visas/language/set-ups/etc create problems for in-person inter-regional tournaments as well, and arguably I think we've had the opposite problem at times with all inter-regional competition seeming take place in the weekend lan format. Ideally I think the scene functions best with a good mix of regional and inter-regional tournaments played both online and in-person, and coming out of the pandemic is a good opportunity to sort of rebalance things.

That all has more to do with conditions for players, though, not my experience as a viewer. Apart from GSL, which has been more or less the same, players casters and organizers have all done a really good job of keeping up a good rhythm of content, hyping up online events, and playing their hearts out at even at weird times and in non-ideal conditions. There's plenty to watch and the scene feels more alive and fervent and competitive than it has in years imo, which I think has more effect on viewer enjoyment than tournament conditions.

_fool

Netherlands682 Posts

July 08 2021 13:43 GMT

#44

I enjoy the casts just as much. But, with matches being played all through the week, sometimes I don't have a clue where in the tourney we are. I've watched group stage matches while thinking it was a semi, and I skipped "random" matches that later appeared to be the finals for a big tournament.

In fact, these days I use the Twitch viewer numbers to see if a match is important

So all in all, quality of casts and matches is perfect, but I miss the overview

WombaT

Northern Ireland26512 Posts

July 08 2021 14:52 GMT

#45

For latency reasons, I haven’t quite felt the big tournaments quite measure the best of the best on even ground, so they lose a little of their appeal for me.

For the audience atmosphere I feel this really is only a factor with big audiences, where a little of the audience sound is mixed into the broadcast. I feel that particular combo does add to my hype and investment, if it’s not an audience we can hear I don’t think it makes much difference, at least as a home viewer.

Homestory Cup is obviously a big, big loser if it’s held remotely given its unique selling point.

Mummy callin

1 Post

July 13 2021 03:21 GMT

#46

I love free fire 🔥

Big-t

Austria1350 Posts

July 15 2021 11:43 GMT

#47

I am fine with online events when the players are from the same region and can play with a good ping, since I enjoy high level army control which is simply not possible with 200 ms.
This is also the reason why I can totally understand players who don’t want to play with a webcam since it increases ping. As long as they turn it on for the interviews I am happy

All I want are two pros playing against it each other with the best possible conditions.

Akio

Finland1838 Posts

July 16 2021 19:55 GMT

#48

I don't how much I can attribute my recent declining interest to SC2 esports to simply it being hosted online, but I think it is a factor. Obviously it's a hundred times better than having no tournaments whatsoever, but I'll admit it's kind of hard to maintain the same level of emotional investment when the weekly cups are almost indistinguishable from the most important tournaments of the year in terms of how they look and feel. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the hype it brings when the players enter their spaceship cockpit-esque booths to battle it out

StasisField

United States1086 Posts

July 16 2021 19:57 GMT

#49

Honestly, I have no idea if online-only competition has a real effect on my viewing experience anymore. At the start, I was less interested but I have started watching more SC2 again as time has passed. It's been too long to really remember what offline events used to be like.

Also, every time I see this thread title I initially think it's talking about Has and I hate it lol

SiegfriedSC

9 Posts

July 18 2021 05:36 GMT

#50

I think it has exacerbated some of the existing issues in sc2 esports, a big one for me is that all the esl tournaments have a difficult time making a unique story for themselves. In this I mean that before online only, the location of the event was often the only thing differentiating some of the events, now with online only even that is gone and the story of each event is difficult to recall or care about.

While I will probably still watch the events because of the good sc2 action, I won't remember the majority of them because I haven't been given any reason to. I'd love to see a more cohesive narrative built around ESL's events, because right now I just don't really care if Reynor or Clem wins yet another tournament, why would another win be unique, or meaningful aside from the money?

muppet70

Sweden72 Posts

July 20 2021 17:10 GMT

#51

I like it for two reasons.
a) It brought player cams, that was just main stage games offline.
b) less delay, offline tournaments can drag out because of logistics.

With that said, its ofc bad for ping reasons, no audience and such.
The time zone and playing at night/early morning can be bad but jet lag can be just as bad when travelling far to an offline event.

KT_Elwood

Germany1139 Posts

July 31 2021 10:38 GMT

#52

Dropped out since Blitzchung incident made me not wanna touch the Bnet launcher for a while.

Ayub1

1 Post

August 04 2021 21:56 GMT

#53

--- Nuked ---

WeddingEpisode

United States356 Posts

August 22 2021 09:35 GMT

#54

I imagine that playing time was kind of concentrated - due to Covid - and a result playstyles, at least I thought, were new and improved. Games got more interesting, yes.