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United States33625 Posts
ESL provided a mid-season update for the 2022/23 StarCraft 2 pro tour, announcing remote casting for DreamHack Atlanta, a venue change for IEM Katowice, and the possibility of a new map pool in time for IEM Katowice.
First, the DreamHack Atlanta main event (Nov 18-20) will not have the casters (line-up TBD) attending in person—instead they will be casting remotely from the ESL studios in Stockholm.
The broadcast talent lineup for Atlanta Finals will be finalized and announced soon - we hope that our community will enjoy the casts from these amazing professionals we are going to work with! However, we do want to mention that we will produce the online broadcast remotely from ESL studios in Stockholm, so attendees won’t be able to meet broadcast talent onsite. We will however be sure to arrange player meet-and-greets, so we do hope to see you there!
Second, one or more of the venues for IEM Katowice 2023 (Feb 8-12) will be changed. Previously, the RO36 matches were held behind closed doors, the RO24 through RO8 were played in an auditorium inside the convention center, and the semis through grand finals were played in the Spodek Arena.
In the changed plan, the semis and finals will no longer be played in Spodek. However, ESL is considering moving the entire playoffs (RO12 and onward) from the auditorium onto a new stage inside the expo area (IEM Katowice typically has a large expo area, similar to a DreamHack festival, concurrent with the esports competitions).
The event will be held in the International Congress Center in Katowice: the first rounds are going to be played in the Auditorium (same as last year), but for Feb 10th - 12th we are considering having a big stage inside the Expo area to allow for a more open audience on Friday and Saturday, and a full day on Sunday which has previously not been possible. We'll make sure to provide the community with updated information on that as soon as the final choice is made!
Please note, that while we love to have the final matches played in Spodek Arena, this has made it difficult for visitors to tune in and condensed the tournament schedule as the start time of the IEM SC2 Katowice Grandfinal was always far from great for NA and even partially for EU - being not in Spodek means we now have much more freedom in terms of scheduling the event in general and the final day in particular.
Finally, ESL announced that Team Liquid Map Contest #17 maps would be "considered" for inclusion in the IEM Katowice Map Pool. Keep in mind that TLMC #16 maps were quickly implemented by ESL in tournaments such as the Open Cups and DH: Valencia, even before Blizzard added them to the official ladder.
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Not having the casters there in person bothers me. Seems like it would throw off the feel of an offline tournament.
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Canada8990 Posts
I would take a couple of guys from there casting off a random desk at the event in Atlanta FGC style.
If we're poor, we're poor, there's not much point clinging to a veil of "professional" broadcasting.
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On September 28 2022 07:43 AirbladeOrange wrote:
Not having the casters there in person bothers me. Seems like it would throw off the feel of an offline tournament.
ESL is great at remote casting from the studio. They're doing it with CS:GO Pro League Season 16 right now. It's not going to be as hype but still works.
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Bisutopia19366 Posts
I will drive to Atlanta and sit at a caster desk for free if they are interested. I wouldn’t mind being an on-site correspondent.
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No casters at Atlanta is an overwhelmingly *huge* bummer. You can tell the hype difference from a cast in-person to remote online. Considering how important the casters are to making a successful event, this is a big mistake.
If cost is the issue, I would have rather just invited a bunch of the American commentators (Steadfast, feardragon, Beomulf, catz, etc.) That would have been a better decision.
I saw Wardi and Nathanias making good points how this brings down other costs (hotel, bringing production staff, etc.), but then I would have rather ESL just not have a Dreamhack Atlanta then. Don't know if I'm alone in that opinion, esp. speaking as an American.
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AFAIK, some caster are not able/willing to make long travel plan for the casting, so who knows if these online casting allow ESL to bring a more ensemble casting roster. I mean Artosis will be done with GSL by then and should be in the same time zone, right?
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sucks for the fans showing up in Atlanta
why not do it like this
Atalanta: stripped-down bare-bones scrappy on-site LAN party production with a few US commentators on rotation. nothing fancy, just webcams and microphones to bridge the gap between the live audience and stream, while BisuDagger danders around doing interviews on a camera phone. he'd be the war correspondent on the front lines with his shaky video feed. that'd be hype af
Stockholm: big flashy off-site production with the analysis desk, discussion panel and all that other shite that helps people pretend that sc2 is still a relevant 
boom, now you have a bigger feel transatlantic production that still has a soul
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United States33625 Posts
Thought this was an interesting point from TLO, although it's not fair to draw one point to another (bad travel booking practice doesn't directly lead to budget cuts elsewhere)
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If travel cost/scheduling was the problem, why not doing in Korea since we have Afreeca and GSL studios already? Alternating between Korea and Europe for Dreamhack events, we could save some money for Koreans' travel stipends and use that for casters/ talents instead?
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huh, must be acost cutting measure? that's sad. I have no idea how expensive Atlanta is, but maybe use a different city/country next time?
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Bisutopia19366 Posts
On September 28 2022 14:56 SHODAN wrote:sucks for the fans showing up in Atlanta why not do it like this Atalanta: stripped-down bare-bones scrappy on-site LAN party production with a few US commentators on rotation. nothing fancy, just webcams and microphones to bridge the gap between the live audience and stream, while BisuDagger danders around doing interviews on a camera phone. he'd be the war correspondent on the front lines with his shaky video feed. that'd be hype af Stockholm: big flashy off-site production with the analysis desk, discussion panel and all that other shite that helps people pretend that sc2 is still a relevant boom, now you have a bigger feel transatlantic production that still has a soul
I'm already shaking from the hype in this post. Imagine the amount of shake I could put in my video feed. I do demand Smix and Lil Susie as on site translators... even if the players can speak English.
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Bisutopia19366 Posts
On September 28 2022 16:17 lechatnoir wrote:
huh, must be acost cutting measure? that's sad. I have no idea how expensive Atlanta is, but maybe use a different city/country next time?
Everything in the US has gotten expensive, including travel. Tons of people have moved over to the South East Coast which is also driving the cost of everything way up.
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On September 28 2022 15:55 swarminfestor wrote:
If travel cost/scheduling was the problem, why not doing in Korea since we have Afreeca and GSL studios already? Alternating between Korea and Europe for Dreamhack events, we could save some money for Koreans' travel stipends and use that for casters/ talents instead?
Probably because ESL wants to promote their tournaments and brand, not GSL/Afreeca? ESL isn't really big in korea I believe and why would they? It is a very tough market to get through.
Apparently there are no infos yet on DH Atlanta for CS:GO. Since it is only one week after the major, I wonder if they just cut it down completly, but now have to cut cost for the event?
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Canada8990 Posts
By the way, as a general question, someone know how esport is doing as a whole?
I'm quite centered on our own little Starcraft world obviously, but I don't seemed to see the same kind of activity and ramp up that we used to have in the 2010th.
Lol, CSGO and Dota are old as hell now, and there dosen't seem to be anything else really getting to their level. Overwatch league didn't exactly living up to the expectation as far as I know. Fortinite, Valorent and Apex all have or had a decent scene, but I don't see them having lol world championship level event regularly. Are we in yet another bubble?
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On September 29 2022 01:36 Nakajin wrote:
By the way, as a general question, someone know how esport is doing as a whole?
I'm quite centered on our own little Starcraft world obviously, but I don't seemed to see the same kind of activity and ramp up that we used to have in the 2010th.
Lol, CSGO and Dota are old as hell now, and there dosen't seem to be anything else really getting to their level. Overwatch league didn't exactly living up to the expectation as far as I know. Fortinite, Valorent and Apex all have or had a decent scene, but I don't see them having lol world championship level event regularly. Are we in yet another bubble?
Covid hit really hard tbh, shut off offline events, LANs for the casual base (a vital bridge to the pro circuit), a lot of electronic companies that would sponsor events also got hit hard by the price of materials and components, leaving them (I would asssume) less free money for sponsorship.
Overwatch league went about as much as most people expected, ActiBli was unrealistic about the league, very few teams tried to connect to their local cities too or even had meaningful relationships (no local player, sometimes noone even speaking the language of that city etc).
I think (hope?) that it is slowly restarting, but imho a lot of games jump the gun straight to artificially maintained international "pro" esport title through the money of their company, but few take the time to build local scenes as well.
But obviously that would take longer and require way more groundwork, so I understand why it doesnt happen much.
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absolutely terrible decision
ESL goofing around quite a lot lately (not only in SC2)..
damn shame
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Commentators not on site kills the vibe, REMI is the way of the future for touring events to minimize errors on broadcast due to technical failures, crew fatigues etc. Commentators not being on site prevents interaction with crowd/players between matches which is a huge pain point. You lose the little tidbits of "well on the break [player] said [x]", you lose the crowd getting to instantly react to commentators asking for a call & response...
Analysts can and likely should be remote for a more curated experience but it's unfortunate that EFG is pushing for this so heavily with as much talent as possible.
You save a lot of money with this decision (tens of thousands of dollars!), but the creative value having talent onsite brings is hard to put a price tag to.
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what is the point of live events anymore if companies are just gonna cut every single corner possible to make the experience absolutely garbage.
just stay at home and make it online if all you care about is the expense
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Btw, the event in Atlanta meaning the cost of travel for the players would be high, whether from EU or Asia, so I guess less players would incline to play in the Open Bracket this time around then.
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EPT
