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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
At the beginning of the cast today we had an audio issue where playing the Probe video caused us to lose all audio in the rest of our cameras/video feeds. We had the observer remove the Probe video from his list of videos and when the icons reorganized themselves, the "final results" video (which in retrospect we didn't even need) was in its place. As we tried to go through the videos to make sure sound was working, the final results video was clicked on momentarily by accident.
When doing things live with tens of thousands of people watching, you have to be able to make fast and effective decisions in an ultrahigh stress environment. That is our job, and we take full responsibility for our decisions. We decided quickly that we had 3 options.
1) Ignore the incident despite people spamming the forum that the results had been spoiled
2) Inject doubt through a quick coverup of "we have many brackets"
3) Announce that yes the results had in fact been spoiled but we hope everyone still enjoys the games...
We figured that only about 10% of the audience actually saw the spoiler and that in order to maintain some integrity for the results we would drop the cover and then leave it alone as no big deal. It worked, and if you were reading chat/the forum and can compare those comments to the ones that would have been posted had a spoil been acknowledged....the choice is pretty clear.
The risk : reward was, piss a few people off : leave a big majority with the opinion that the results released were invalid. Despite having to mislead, i feel this was the correct decision.
On March 01 2010 07:28 Carnac wrote:
Ok. This is what happened:
Everything was set up perfectly. I had run through all the videos with R1CH watching, we had soundchecked early, were ready in perfect time.
Cheerful video is running, music is playing and I switch to the Probe intro to start the cast. Probe intro ends, I switch to the NonY vs Mondi screen and sound on stream for absolutely no reason at all is gone. I start getting mad, because the stream gods apparently hate us (or we really should have sacrificed GTR over a fire!).
Restarting Wirecast (and thus restarting the stream) instantly fixes the sound problem. We decide not to use the Probe video again, because we think it's what made the sound crash (despite it working perfectly in earlier casts and during the test before today's cast as well). I thus remove the Probe video from the Wirecast video list. Since it was one of the first ones in my list everything else moves up one slot.
The stream is restarted with the Nony vs Mondi screen on. I want to switch to the Cheerful video again, but with everything having moved up one slot the bracket video is now in the slot the cheerful video was in before. Visual memory is a bitch, so I run it, instantly recognizing my mistake.
I yell at R1CH to take the stream down instantly, but alas it's too late, the data has already been processed by the streaming server.
Most people were still reconnecting at that time though, so only a minority caught a glimpse of it. The reason posts were deleted and Kennigit posted earlier in this thread was not to hide anything, but to avoid spoilers for the majority who had not yet reconnected. Users mentioning it in this thread over and over again while the cast was still going only made it worse (risk of spoiling to the mahority that didnt see it).
I don't think anyone outside the people involved realize the fragility of our streaming environment, obs, casters & tech crew spread all over the world. Nor does anyone understand the pressure when stuff suddenly goes wrong for no good reason (I still don't understand why Wirecast decided to crash the sound after the Probe vid....) at all with thousands of people watching.
If anyone is mad they got spoiled put yourself in my shoes, thanks.
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South Africa4316 Posts
I wasn't able to watch live, but I do agree with the decision. Just a bit of doubt is enough to keep matches tense. Often when I think I've been spoiled I question whether I know for a fact what I read meant what I thought it did, and that keeps me unsure enough to make the games interesting.
+ Show Spoiler +Even the people who are pissed off now were probably unsure when the score was 2-0 for Mondi with it looking like he'll take it to 3-0
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Running a finals like this is such a big job that it's understandable for something like this to happen, and the crisis management seems like it went pretty smoothly.
It still sucks for the people who were spoiled, but there's no way the TL team could have prevented that given the situation.
Plus, we are already so indebted to the tech team for running such a complicated operation that complaining just seems unreasonable.
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i read on the forums that the result was revealed, but did not read anywhere which one was it.
Don't know if Day9 knew the results, but coming into destination (game 6) he said that it was the final game so yeah...that kind of spoiled it for meh.
besides that, the whole tourney was great 
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I did notice it. I also figured things like this can and will happen once in a while and yelling about it on the forum wasn't going to solve anything.
Sucks getting the final score spoiled before the games, but the awesome work you all have done more than makes up for it. Carnac have been doing a great job all tourney so I'm quite fine with it. It was sad but I'll get over it :D
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Don't know if Day9 knew the results, but coming into destination (game 6) he said that it was the final game so yeah...that kind of spoiled it for meh.
The commentators say things like this accidentally all the time even when its not true, they aren't supposed to know the results and I doubt they were looking at the thread to see that the results were spoiled.
Its sad this happened in the finals but the overall quality of TSL has more than paid for this unfortunate incident in my opinion and seeing how the guys working in this project are doing it without asking for any rewards other than knowing that they're having a huge effect on the growth of esports we can't really be "angry".
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I was alt tabbed during the spoiler. Never new it existed until after the finals were over.
Edit:
Actually, Id be interested in numbers. You should put a poll in the first post of this thread, "Did you see the spoiler?"
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It's fine guys! As long as we were able to watch those games :D
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You guys definitely made the right decision. The many brackets thing was a bit transparent, but probably the best you could have done. The series starting out 0-2 definitely helped your cause, I didn't even think about the spoiler until after the 6th match was over.
Your decision greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this TSL, and for that I thank you.
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Braavos36402 Posts
On March 01 2010 07:49 s.a.y wrote:i read on the forums that the result was revealed, but did not read anywhere which one was it. Don't know if Day9 knew the results, but coming into destination (game 6) he said that it was the final game so yeah...that kind of spoiled it for meh. besides that, the whole tourney was great
Day didn't know the results.
Also, before game 6 he did not say it was the final game, you misunderstood him. Though I don't remember specifically what he said, I do distinctly remember thinking for a moment what you did before I fully understood his comment. It was like "the final games are on destination and andro" or "this could be the final game" or something like that.
Regardless, he wasn't watching the stream when the spoiler was on (casters don't watch the stream), and he didn't know results, so there was no way he can spoil it anyway.
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
On March 01 2010 07:53 Puosu wrote:Show nested quote +Don't know if Day9 knew the results, but coming into destination (game 6) he said that it was the final game so yeah...that kind of spoiled it for meh. The commentators say things like this accidentally all the time even when its not true, they aren't supposed to know the results and I doubt they were looking at the thread to see that the results were spoiled. Yeah, Day and Chill didn't know the results and thus certainly didn't mean to imply it would be the last game.
In fact just shortly after what Puosu mentioned Day talked about how the last two maps (Desti and then Andro, which however didnt need to be played anymore) were the ones Nony had lost on and something along the lines of how he'd feel going into them again etc
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On March 01 2010 07:49 s.a.y wrote:Don't know if Day9 knew the results, but coming into destination (game 6) he said that it was the final game so yeah...that kind of spoiled it for meh. besides that, the whole tourney was great
I believe he actually said it was a deciding game, which is a lot different because everybody know it was a must-win for Mondragon.
(And great job by TL making it look like nothing - I didn't even notice)
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kennigit and everyone else involved did a brilliant job, this is a small-scale "private" esports event not some huge budget production, mistakes are likely.
clearly they have gone above an beyond in the work they have put into the TSL in particular, they have acknoledged their mistakes and unnecessarily provided detailed explainations on what happened and their reasons.
This is not cable tv, no one has paid to see these games or has any investment other than their own time, which is by their own choosing to watch; i think anyone who wishes to complain should be temp-banned for cluttering up the forums and pointless flaming - no good can come of it as re: mistakes have been acknowledged etc etc."
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9935 Posts
it is interesting to note the number of people that took it upon themselves to spread the spoiler as much as they possibly could, compounding the problem after we realized and tried to address it. what is the motivation there?
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Braavos36402 Posts
On March 01 2010 08:08 intrigue wrote:
it is interesting to note the number of people that took it upon themselves to spread the spoiler as much as they possibly could, compounding the problem after we realized and tried to address it. what is the motivation there?
I would guess that it was part frustration that they got spoiled and part just not thinking clearly. Obviously the correct thing to do would be to just shut up about it, but internet users are not exactly known for level-headed, thoughtful action 
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On March 01 2010 08:08 intrigue wrote:
it is interesting to note the number of people that took it upon themselves to spread the spoiler as much as they possibly could, compounding the problem after we realized and tried to address it. what is the motivation there?
my thoughts exactly. I think i should be able to browse a thread BEFORE a game and not have to worry about being spoiled. whatever though shit happens.
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I saw the bracket, but didn't realize it was a spoiler as I was doing other stuff before the cast started.
Thus, damage control was obviously a good call IMO. Most people didn't see it so why spoiler it for everyone?
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I also saw the slide or video and uh the coverup kinda worked for me, I wasn't completely convinced but it didn't need be as explained. I was more pissed at the people who wanted to be jerks and kept saying + Show Spoiler + everywhere... trolls gonna troll...
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Personaly i dont mind spoilers i always spoil myself before watching some games so i dont care !
Finals were amazing !! couldnt be any better... great games some drama and nice comeback really entertaing for me 10/10
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I was a little bit late, but saw all of the games and was not spoiled.
I totally agree with your decision!
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EPT
