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This thread will be the place where you can ask questions directly and give comments or feedback about the NASL. I will also be posting commonly asked questions in the original post so we don't see the same question asked multiple times. Any information or important announcements will also be linked or posted in the original post. This thread will serve as a place where you can go if you have any questions about the NASL and is generally meant to keep information about the NASL in one place.
I will be relaying comments and questions back to the NASL team and will try to answer as many as I can myself.
Thank you for your support and your feedback!
Commonly asked Questions
Regarding PayPal:
Yes we know our fans want PayPal - It's our highest priority item and we are working to make that payment option available. We will announce as soon as it's confirmed
Regarding Stream and VOD Lag Issues
We've made some efficiency changes to the way our HD streams are broadcast, because of this there shouldn't be as much lag on the 720p and 1080p streams
It is recommended that viewers use the video "Pop-Out" window to view the broadcasts and that they close the chat window page in order to get the best performance from the broadcast.
We've also made changes to the way VODs upload, and this should be a faster process now. We know fans want VODs in lower resolutions. This is entirely a JTV responsibility. We know it's on their list of things to do, but we don't have an ETA yet.
Regarding Spoilers on the NASL Website
Some fans have been complaining about going to the Home page to watch the Broadcast and seeing the standings just below which is spoiling it. We're looking at ways around this, including having a stream-only page that doesn't have any other news, standings or statistics on it. No ETA on this yet though.
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Yay.
I'm a paying customer just so you know.
Now this might just be my personal preference but Gretorp needs to say "l.o.l" asmuch as he does...
And I know they have to fill alot of dead space with just talking but I always enjoy having some starcraft vods in the background when doing stuff on the comp and sometimes Incontrol and Gretorp goes way overboard with their talking and I have no idea what's going on in the game for about 4 minutes. This can even happen once the action has started and the game is at full pace, and Gretorp/incontrol just spinoff on some joke and start laughing alot of forget to mention what's going on in the game.
I appreciate them being funny and talking at times, evolving their personas together, but please be abit more professional... sound less like two "bro's" having at it in skype whilst just watching some games, and more sport commentators talking to eachother adding some funny talk at times.
EDIT:
Also something I'm notecing now when watching the NASL stream, InControl and Gretorp needs to stop talking asmuch in ultimatums at who's winning who isn't. About a gorillion times have they contradicted eachother during the stream tonight aswell as themselves (mostly InControl) when saying someone is totally lost or won. Or at the very least can InControl not call victories with such a depressing "well that's it. game over man. wrap up and go home, nothing to see here." voice. I know he tries and mentions it alot that he doesn't want to paint pictures of possibilities that are not there... but some times he's wrong and it proves the point that he should atleast not call it so quick. It just gives off a bad feeling when there's no symmetry inbetween Gretorp trying to make the last battles sound exciting whereas InControl sounds like Eor from Vinney the Poh.
Other than that, great job improving the sound and taking in feedback. Just relax more about it and don't defend the NASL in every medium (state of the game etc.) that just makes it sound like the trolls have a point which they really haven't.
EDIT2: Once again, might be my preference but for the love of god stop using "u mad?" and other stick-figure jokes onstream... it's 4chan quality jokes, not a professional stream quality joke.
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NASL has improved leaps and bounds from it's initial starting, and was worth paying for as the NASL crew has shown they want to improve to be the best that they claimed they wanted to be. My only remaining qualm with it is something that probably won't get changed but I'm going to just put it out there anyway.
There are far too many games, I don't think I'll ever be able to watch all of the group play games, hell I think I've seen probably 3 days worth of full games, I usually just end up browsing the results after work or class. Once it gets into group play I'll probably watch every game until the finals. There is such an over-saturation of games, which is not a bad thing to complain about from a viewers perspective but then there is going to be a need for viewers to make a choice between watching IPL, GSL or NASL because it would be very difficult to watch it all (NASL + GSL = ~7hours of sc2 to be viewed in 1 day). With the odd MLG, IEM and Dreamhack and other notable tournaments like FXOpen, TSL3 and Stars Wars. Just get the feeling that group play might become a bit stale if it continues on, but that's just my opinion and other people might not sure that view and that's just fine!
TL;DR. Group play stage is very long and too many games to watch~ Everything else is great and improving 
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You can tune in to the EU rebroadcast at www.nasl.tv/EU to avoid spoilers.
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you fixed the stream, it has gotten better. thanks but I hope you are constantly upgrading it and always striving to improve stream performance. dont just leave it as "it is good enough".
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Lots of great improvements. I think you know that production value needs a boost and we're already seeing that happen. You should definitely try and utilize some of the advantages you gain from producing a day in advance. For example, perhaps you could add PiP for simultaneous conflicts and battles. It can also only help to have a dedicated observer.
For the casters, I would prefer to have less "predicting". It sometimes feels like the NASL casters (and a lot of other casters actually) are competing over who has a better knowledge of the game, rather that actually analyzing it. In my opinion, analysis should go as far as to explain a players actions and maybe his perceived emotional state throughout the game. In depth heavy scrutiny can sometimes bog down the action and should be left to post game analysis and other productions (day9 dailies and the like) unless it can be explained quickly without breaking the flow the game.
First and foremost, you guys have good players and good matches so thanks and I can't wait for the next show.
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I'm one of the people who's asked for lower-resolution VODs, because my network connection is extremely weak.
Two comments specifically regarding low bandwidth requirements:
First, your 'low quality' streams are pretty insane, as far as bandwidth requirements. Over 600kbit/s for the 240P feed. That's... more than a little high. This basically comes down to "while I'm watching live, I get multiple seconds of no video whenever something exciting occurs". And when I say "exciting", I mean "an extractor got canceled". It's ridiculous.
The image quality is awesome, of course—but there's little point in having such a high-fidelity low-resolution stream: the whole reason for wanting a low-rez stream is to be able to watch the content with a smaller network connection. Having some artifacts on screen and having stuff be blurry is the price you put up with for that. Having the vast majority of the game be a slideshow is not an acceptable alternative.
Second, regarding this:
We've also made changes to the way VODs upload, and this should be a faster process now. We know fans want VODs in lower resolutions. This is entirely a JTV responsibility. We know it's on their list of things to do, but we don't have an ETA yet.
Unfortunately, you're wrong about this.
What I mean by that is: JTV is not responsible for this, because I am not paying JTV. I am paying you. It may be that the folks at JTV are the ones who have to make this happen, but you are responsible for making them make it happen, or changing to a video provider that can make it happen. If JTV can't do it, that may be a hit to their reputation for video producers to choose them. But it's also a hit to your reputation, because your customers don't get to choose whether to use JTV or not.
I have in fact already paid you $25 for access to the first season of NASL, and I have been able to watch practically none of it. I've watched a couple of hours of the 240P stream before deciding that a slideshow is not really watchable. I haven't watched a single VOD because it will take me multiple times longer to buffer than to watch the actual content.
I don't blame you for not having everything working perfectly before the first season (even though I did raise the question of "are you going to have low-bitrate VODs?" before the season started). I'm not even going to blame you for not bothering to email me back in reply to the messages I sent you asking "I am a paying customer, I can't watch, are you doing anything about it?"
But, there's just no way I'm going to be giving you my money again until I can actually watch what I'm paying for. Even though I'd love to support you, I'll have to stick to tournaments that I can watch.
I commend you for working to get pro SC2 really moving in North America, and I hope I can actually send my money your way again soon.
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My biggest complaint would have to be the commentating. Im not sure what it is but I dont find Gretorp to be that funny and a lot of times it sounds like he has no idea what hes talking about especially when he says things like "this game is over theres no way to come back now." and then the player hes referring to makes a come back and wins the game. As mentioned above Incontrols lack of emotion during certain situations is also depressing at times "well that's it. game over man. wrap up and go home, nothing to see here." For reference I really enjoy the casting of Tasteless and Artosis when they are casting a game where players are in bad situations they will still have excitement in their voices saying things like "What can so and so do in this situation to come back, or Well have to see how so and so reacts to this." With a high level of excitement in their voices. That is what I would like to see from the NASL casters. They should try and keep the viewers intrigued IMO and i think what is happening is that incontrol and gretorp are trying to give you their opinion of what is happening or what will happen based on their experience as a pro gamer but what I would like is if they just commentated on the game as unbiased spectators that are excited to be watching the games. I do enjoy it when they explain the strategies each player is employing but calling the matches before they are over and dismissing possibilities is just depressing. When you try and make it obvious from an early stage in the game who is going to win and who is going to loose it dosnt make for an exciting match and it dosnt make you want to watch future matchs.
That being said I think over all NASL is doing a great job and I cant wait to see how it grows in the future. I appreciate everything they are doing for NA Esports and I hope they continue to grow
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Why are the results so slow to be updated? Pretty much half of the week 3 results have not been entered on the website yet.
Surely it would take all of 5 minutes at the end of each day's play to update the results.
And I agree about the commentating criticisms...
1. The casters have too much back and forth between themselves, to be honest... nobody cares, talk about the game and the players.
2. The casters try to hard to make definitative statements and predictions about the game in progress.
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Bah, nonsense, I find their casting quite good, their both pros and know what their talking about, and they can't predict every outcome of a game everytime so ofc they get things wrong sometimes ,they are human. They are the next best thing after Tasteless and Artosis. And no, emotion wise ,they put allot of emotion in their casting, but when a game is over they just don't sugarcoat it witch is a good thing. Casting the NASL or tourneys in general shouldn't just be about screaming like a maniac at every little thing, it should be educational too, and calling a game over when it is can show ppl who want to learn something out of those games to know the certain situations in witch you shouldn't get yourself into and avoid those mistakes the players did.
In the end besides a few production nitpicks , I can say the NASL , Gretorp and Incontrol have done a fine job. Keep up the good work guys. I was skeptical at first but atm i'm enjoying it more than the GSL , good job.
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I think the casters are fine, I enjoy some of their goofy remarks too. My only complaints so far is the choppy stream that others have mentioned, and I wish you guys would update the score on the website more often! I dont always have time to check the VOD or whatever, sometimes I just want to know the score. There have several times when I checked early the following day at it was still not updated yet.
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Commentating is alot better then it was in the beginning, the huge complaint I still have is the friggin VODs still loads slow as hell. Have to buffer for a long time before u can start watching. Also with how the vods are setup its easy to get spoiled.
People here who complain about the commentators not making it exciting when the game is over, put a sock in it. If you have any clue yourself u would not like the commentators to raise their voice and act like retards trying to make a game seem interesting when its over. Its totally fine to just ride it out and talk about what they did wrong instead.
I hope gretorp could please stop talking about scaling every match though, it drives me crazy. What the fuck do you mean when you say " he needs to scale with his opponent" all the time. Explain what you mean with other words then scaling for every single event that happends.
New background is great, was depressing to watch the allmost black background.
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Since there are always a couple comments criticizing the format, I want to be clear that some of us really like it. Yes, it's too much to watch it all, but most sports fans don't watch every game in the league (or even every game their team plays). They also don't feel like there's no point to the game just because no one is getting eliminated in it. You can argue over the details - I think 6 groups of 8 would be a little more reasonable - but there's nothing inherently long with a "league" acting more like a league, rather than a tournament.
The most important thing, I think, is that this is a much more fair tournament. A big group stage like this is much more likely to result in the better players winning than a single-elimination tournament, and I think that's good. In addition to being more fair to the players, it decreases the randomness a bit. Starcraft 2, by it's nature and because it's new, is still volatile enough that any pro can take games off any other. It's good for the scene if there really are clearly stronger and weaker players and upsets are rare (but still happen). I think this helps a lot.
If anything, my biggest complaint with the format is that such a huge chunk of people get into the playoffs that only the top and bottom two spots in each division are really worth fighting to get into/out of. Seeding in the playoffs isn't a big enough advantage. I'd like to see the top couple people in the playoffs get a bye through the first round or something like that, so that there's a bit more of a gradient in rewards for doing well in the group stages.
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1 Thing I liked:
I enjoyed the casting a lot, true enough it got off to a slow start as the two were getting comfortable with both each other and perhaps the responsibility/pressures of casting a big league. After a little while they had me actually lol'ing by myself, which all of us can recognize as a rare achievement when on the internet alone. Not to say I didn't find what they had to say about the game interesting/helpful/informed, and anyone who says otherwise can check the grandmaster ladder ranks. Their genuine excitement during big engages/clutch moments was also refreshing as I find this is something missing in less-experienced casters. Also they have a sense of professionalism about them missing in other casters, an example of what I mean is during LiquidTyler vs MaNa in Week 1 Day 5 when Tyler verbalized his discontent with the map during one game, iNcontroL's reaction was very calm and he sort of explained the situation and was apologetic to Tyler without being condescending, etc. It's hard to put into words what I mean but anyone who was watching that game hopefully gets what I mean. Though his metaphor about having one of his 'casting cherries popped' or something, was probably better left unsaid.
1 Thing to improve:
I think the transitions between games can be improved a little bit. Quicker for one thing, no need to over-analyze, as well there's a good amount of time (30 seconds, assuming no one flat out cheeses) at the start of a game where nothing is happening and the previous game can be discussed. But these transitions should be a bit smoother, as well as the pre-game show doesn't need to be so long, and perhaps added emphasis on the players as opposed to the maps, as the players are more important to the NASL's character.
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i felt the casting for the idra match was terrible. My wife was in the room at the time and she even said, these guys suck. I dont think they usually suck maybe just a rough game or something. thats my feedback
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As a paying customer I am extremely upset. Since I can't watch the stream i try to watch the VODs. I dont have the best computer but it's not bad. But my computer and network can't handle the HD. There needs to be an option to turn down the quality in VODs cause as of right now the NASL has been a waste of money for me.............
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Personally, I love the casting. At the start of NASL, it seemed a little shaky, but that's to be expected with a new league. But since then, the casting has gotten better every time in my opinion. I don't really understand all the hate on Gretorp. He's a very smart guy who knows the game well, and I feel like people are just hiveminding to the fact that it's not good enough.
As for the lag issues, I'm glad it's cleared up somewhat. Still a little rough sometimes for me in the higher resolutions, but it has improved very significantly since the start.
I really appreciate the NASL's constant improvement and willingness to listen to the fans. Keep up the work!
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I know that the VOD issue is on JTV's part, but IMO as a paying customer the NASL has a duty to work on a solution themselves, whether it be pressuring JTV to prioritize it or switching to a different streaming service provider (or just different VOD service provider). So far, even though I have paid for a suscription, I have been unable to benefit from it at all. I can't watch the streams on high quality (even on 480, which is free, it lags a lot), and I can't watch vods at all, even though my download speed is 12.48 Mbps according to speedtest.net.
I would highly appreciate being able to actually use what I paid for in a manner besides "supporting e-Sports."
Thanks.
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I am very happy that i PreOrdered the Premium pass. You guys have made a Big improvement from the first week or so, Biggest one being no more "Indeeds"
I would comment on the music volume, please try to equalize the volume of the music that is played when a player GGs.
Keep up the good work!!!
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i like the new background. much better. casting(during games) is still subpar, although most of the postgame analysis by incontrol is top class. gretorp was kinda struggling on the 3-5 broadcast. maybe he had a bad day, seen him done better.
MAJOR POINT OF WTF IS GOING ON HERE!?!?!
the interview at the end of 3-5's broadcast made me cringe and shut down the stream after 20 seconds of helpless stuttering by the interviewer. i mean, even the setup was kinda like in the back of the college gym, cable microphone and the guy looking like straight from nerd hell.
in comparison, look at what IGN did at the proleague interviews between matches. they hired someone who does not also look good(and is also female, on that matter), but has qualities as an interviewer. while she surely lacks specific knowledge on the subject they're talking about in the interview, that is made up for by the interviewee, and the much better "watchability" also pays dividends in the long run. not to mention that i am of the opinion that if someone is too nervous to do something right, he should not be doing it in the first place.
also, the whole IGN setup looks so much more crisp, just like a professional tv show should look like. definetly improve on that, please, like you did on the background greenscreen thing with inc and gretorp. you can do it!
on a sidenote, there need to be games of goody tankraping the shit out of some guys. this is lacking the most.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/k6zWn.jpg)
