EPTWhy are there such long waits?
1) First off, there were only 34 play stations, and the main stage. That's 70 computers for 256 players. Having so few computers for such a large number of players is insanely impractical. As a result, you have to split the early rounds into different "heats" (4 for the first 2 rounds or something ridiculous).
What's the problem with that?
a) They don't release the bracket until about 10 minutes before the matches start, so even though you're supposed to start at 5:30pm, if you're in Heat 4 of Round 1, you won't actually start until about 9pm. If you have a BYE first round, you may not even start until about 10pm.
This really screws with you. You show up to the event and have no idea when you need to play. You end up waiting around for hours, there's no computers for you to warm up on either, and it totally screws your rhythm up, plus you're bored out of your mind.
b) It shouldn't take 5 hours to finish the first round of a tournament -- 2-3-4 rounds could be played in that time if it is used effectively.
2) Secondly, why do you wait for every match in one heat to finish before starting the next? This created many situations in which there are 50+ computers empty, and players sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for 4 people to finish playing. This delays the tournament. Maybe if this was done better, we would have gotten home before 2AM on Saturday morning. Especially if you know your next opponent, and there are computers available, what's the problem with letting them play it? Wouldn't you rather have 20 players who finish their matches early waiting around as opposed to 100 players who HAVE to wait for no reason whatsoever.
Besides, some people who lose early in MLG like to leave, some people like to do other stuff, etc... making them wait around for hours on end doing nothing sucks the life out of the crowd, the players, and everyone involved.
3) Make format more efficient and fair for all players. What do I mean by this? It was hard to tell what was going on and where. Pool play was mixed into the open tournament matches and it was confusing. Pool play finished, and the seeded players were doing nothing. Open Tournament players had to play for hours on end, only to go to the Championship bracket to play well rested seeded players. This gives an unfair advantage in my opinion to the seeded players. If the Open matches take place all of Friday, then the Top 16 group matches and the second half of the Open take place Saturday morning -- then by Saturday evening when the Championship Bracket starts, all players are equally tired and pissed off.
4) Why do you start SO LATE on Friday? There's no reason to play until 2am, especially when you have to wake up at 9am the same day, rush to the venue, and start playing. If the tournament started at a reasonable time -- 1/2pm or so, then we could finish at a reasonable time, 10-12, barring any hiccups, and players could get enough time to sleep and be ready for the following day's matches. Shouldn't the event be ready to go BY FRIDAY?
It felt like MLG was scrambling to do everything (the actual games started 1 hour late) at the last minute rather than being prepared from the opening buzzer.
Anyways, those are my 4 biggest gripes with MLG -- from this perspective it was by far the worst of the MLG events I have attended. I understand a lot of the production stuff / lag issues were out of their control, but this is something that can easily be fixed. I can bet that any player who played at MLG this past weekend will agree that these changes will make the tournament run more smoothly, finish faster, and allow more time for focus to be put on stage matches and casted games, ultimately making MLG a much better experience for both players and spectators alike
(Seriously, if you're a fan, what's more frustrating than going to watch games and then seeing 60 empty computers and a bunch of gamers sitting on the floor doing nothing).
