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First off let me introduce myself. My name is Pat "handfromabov" McLean. I am the CEO of Under Rated Gaming. We currently produce a team league 6 nights a week. We are a going team with sponsors.
You ask why the another show in our already busy schedule. I feel the mapping community gets no love and should be brought up front and shown off. We have so many talented map makers and their maps need to be seen.
We don't have a name for the show yet but its slated to start first week of December. I am coming to you all to get all the mappers involved in many different ways. First we need maps that have never been really played. I will go over why in the next section. Second if you build the map you have the option to be on the show.
The type of show is 2 parts really. It will have the commentary in the begining discussing maps with 2 sc2 pro's that will change every show. I will be the host and we will have 2 from the mapping community the map creators if possible. Then after discussing new stuff in the community and about the map. We have our sc2 pro's play a best of 5 on the map of the day. It would be more informal like a TL attack were they can talk about it with the makers and me. Then after we talk about how they liked it or didn't. What could be improved. Of course the show match will have some cash attached for the pros.
I would love to get you the mapping communities input and get you all in a group on skype. so we can talk alot of this out. Can't wait to talk with you all.
Thanks!!!
Pat McLean
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Hi! Welcome to our forums. This show sounds awesome!
We already have a skype group actaully, it'll be better for us to add you to it.
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This is a really cool initiative! I'm looking forward to watching this show.
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This sounds like a fantastic addition to your current lineup.
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United States2119 Posts
Our 'Mappers' show went a few episodes but we never really hit it off with popularity or viewership, so hopefully you can get the ball rolling on that  Good luck!
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I watched "mappers", but I think that a somewhat inherent problem with the mapping "community" in general is the fact that its a niche that many people do not care very much about. If you look at the post views for maps compared to threads in SC2 general and SC2 Strategy, there really just in not much interest. Aside from big movements like the TLMC which was Blizzard sponsored and backed by TeamLiquid management, and FRB which I think happened to tickle the general discontent about SC2 at just the right time, you really just have what I think are the same people looking at the maps and interested in changing the pool in some way.
I think that a show could be good if it can gain popularity, but still of all the nerds that are there who like to play and watch RTS, the mappers are really the nerds of the nerds -- you are only going to capture that certain percentage of the community anyway. And with the competition and other obsticles facing getting maps into tournament play, or the ladder, or just popular I think the people who are interested in learning about mapping are going to to be a small subset of the SC2 or gaming community. And they are going to be people who are just the hardcore nerds who like the speculative understanding of maps, the newbies who have a passion to make maps and want to know how to do it like the ones they see in tournaments, or the veterans who have not yet burned out.
Call me cynical, but I think that there need to be greater fundemental changes within SC2 for custom melee maps to ever get some spotlight, and it's bigger than just one show, or a MOTM tournament, or getting a few maps into tournament play. As much as SC2 has needed a way to play unranked matches with matchmaking, SC2 needs a way to play on non-Blizzard picked maps with matchmaking and maybe a system to vote on those maps.
I'm not trying to hijack the OP here, but I'm hoping that while you showcase new maps and try to give exposure to the mapping community, which is all well and good, you remember to discuss ideas like this which are not specifically about any map in particular, but about better ways of incentivizing actually playing on new maps for the whole SC2 community. The current ladder system is too slow to change maps around, and although Blizzard uses the excuse that slowly changing out old balanced maps for new balanced maps helps them balance the races, their system of balancing is inherently flawed, so they might as well just give us a better rotation of maps, or at least alternative ways for laddered matchmaking. (I think there are some other things like improved tournament support, and custom/tournament ladders that could not only be an additional source of revenue for Blizzard, but a way to make the client actually useful to people who want to hold tournaments, etc.)
On the other hand, I do think the fact that games will be played on the maps and that it will not just be discussion will be a better draw than a pure discussion format -- that may have been why "mappers" never really took off. I hope this works out for you. Consider me interested.
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I really like this idea. I look forward to watching it, and I'm glad the mapping community will finally receive some spotlight.
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Thanks so that means get your maps ready. People can PM me on here or email me at urmapssc2@gmail.com. Then I will add you all on skype and we can talk. I really want to show that theres a ton of new maps. Sure some may not be balanced but thats for the show to discover and the pro's to find out. I really hope this gains ground cause we can bring change to the system just have to show our support.
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