Live Report OPs mk2

The Live Report Thread is an important part of the SC2 community. Hundreds if not thousands of people check them every single day to keep tabs on their favorite players, teams and tournaments. However these threads don't magically appear. They aren't supported by Blizz. The tournament organizers don't make LR threads. We, the TL.net community, need to make LR threads ourselves. A dedicated bunch of bored, handsome, intelligent dudes prepare, post, and handle the LR threads. They are all volunteers doing this for the love of the game, but they need help too. The LR Crew is always looking for new, responsible, and equally handsome and intelligent posters to handle LR threads. However, not everyone is born a LR bonjwa, so here is a tutorial for everyone interested in contributing.

A LR thread seems daunting to handle but it's actually quite easy, albeit time consuming. You have the following main tasks:

1. Copy the OP from the SC2 LR Resources thread
   
2. Make a new thread, preferrably a day or two (if the match is important--say a semi final) in advance, with the same title as the OP
   
3. Post Pre-Game Polls for expected match results (Head vs Heart, Who's making it out, MVP of the day, best matchup, etc)
   
4. Update the results of each match, spoilered in the OP
   
5. Write down the succeeding matches
   
6. Make a poll for recommended games after each match
   
7. Link to the match Live Report, if available
   

(Optional: Write a live report or recap of each match)

There are other possible tasks, such as:

1. Linking to alternative streaming options: GOMtv or OGN, Twitch or Gomplayer, etc.
2. Updating the kpop LR if you are knowledgeable or if someone is available to do it
3. Providing information in the OP if there are important announcements made during the broadcast (schedule changes, player situations, etc.) that affect the tournament
4. Changing the OP banner if someone provides a better one

All the OPs will be made well in advance, likely by opterown, nooboon, Shellbot, or someone else. All you have to do is copy it. First, go to the "SC2 LR Resources" thread in SC2 Tourneys. Look for the appropriate OP in one of the last pages, and press Quote. Copy the entire post EXCEPT for the initial quote tags and the ending quote tag. They look like this:



So copy everything except that first line and that last line. Don't worry if you make a mistake, you can still edit out these sections while you are posting a new thread.

Now, once you have the OP copied, go to SC2 Tourneys and Create a New Topic. Paste the OP into the Message portion of the new topic form. Now, the topic title should be the same as the OP title seen at the top. Simply copy it without the bbcode tags and paste it into the title.

The thread title will look something like this:
[GSTL] Ax-Acer vs. FXOpen 2013 Season 1

They will usually be formatted in this way for Group Stages:
"[Tournament Name] RoX Group Y Year Subtitle Season #"
where X is the "Round of" number, Y is the group letter, and # is the season number. The Subtitle will depened. Currently for GSL, the subtitle is WCS Korea. For MLG and ESL WCS tournaments, the subtitles will be WCS North America and WCS Europe, respectively.

For individual matches (quarters, semis, and finals) they will be formatted like this:
"[Tournament Name] Stage PlayerA vs PlayerB Year Subtitle Season#"
where Stage is the stage in the competition (quarter finals, semi finals, finals), while Players A and B are the players involved.

For Team matches, the format will be the following:
"[Tournament Name] Stage TeamA vs TeamB Year Subtitle Season#"
where Stage is the stage in the competition (group stages, quarters, Round number etc), Team A and B are the teams involved. Team leagues usually do not have Subtitles, but the sponsor of the league might appear as the subtitle.

This title is usually the very first line of the OP after the Quote tags:



Make sure not to include the BBcode tags! But in case you make a mistake, you can inform a mod to change the topic title. Just don't let it happen often or they might get annoyed :o

Immediately after posting the thread, it is prudent to post another message (any message, typically just "polls") to reserve the second post for polls and other material. After reserving the second post, start creating the appropriate polls.

To create a poll, click on "Add Poll" in the Message Submit form. This will take you to another tab that looks like this:



Enter the main poll question and all the appropriate options. The main questions are:

Winner - Head vs Heart
Final Score
Best Match of the Day

You can also add questions such as:

Will a streak continue
Do you want to see X and Y in the Ace Match
Will Artosis Curse doom Bogus

The Options should be as complete as possible, with no bias. If you need more spaces to enter more options, click on Add More Options. Once you are done, click on the "Create Poll and Generate BBcode" button, which will lead you to the following page:



That's the BBcode for the poll. Return to the second post where you intend to put the polls and EDIT that post. Simply paste all the Poll BBcodes one by one.

Here are examples of polls that appear in this section:

+ Show Spoiler [Group Stages] +

+ Show Spoiler [Team Leagues] +

After posting polls, if other members of the community have made hype banners, interesting hype posts, videos, and other 'relevant' material, you can add it to this section, but remember to SPOILER it so that people who don't want to see it don't have to.

That's basically all the set up you need to do for the LR thread.

The main purpose of the LR thread, aside from being a place to talk about the games, is to provide information about the results of the games. Not everyone can watch live, and not everyone can watch even though they are on a computer. The LR thread is an important resource to the community, and that's why this duty has to be taken seriously.

Updating match results is simple: Simply Bold the winner.

To do this, you must EDIT the OP every time a game finishes. Click Edit.

Now, if you aren't used to coding, the BBcode can look a bit confusing. However, the tags are rather self explanatory. What you want to do is to look for the match that just concluded, highlight the player (including his tlpd tag), and use the automatic Bold button in the message tools. Now people will know who the winner is. Here is an example:



It is important to include the tlpd tags, or else the tagging won't work. Finding the player's name can be confusing because of all the BBcode, but you will get used to it quickly.

This must be done for both the SPOILER FREE and OVERALL RESULTS sections. Some people like seeing the whole picture, some people hate spoilers. This ensures that both camps are satisfied, but it means more work for you T_T

The easiest way to immediately find each section is to use your browser's find function (Ctrl+f for firefox). Search for "spoiler-free" and update the results there. Then find "overall results" and update the results there as well. Again, this will take some getting used to because of the BBcodes, but don't worry. If it's your first time, try to experiment with the OP a few times before the games begin (but make sure to return it to the default state before it starts!).

Not all matches are set in stone. For the Group Stages of GSL, only the first 2 matches are set. The Winners, Losers, and Final matches are still to be decided. In GSTL, only the opening players are known. In Proleague, the Ace Player is still unknown. This means that when the succeeding, previously unknown matches are determined, you must fill in this new information into the OP. Once again, this must be done for both the Spoiler Free and Overall Results sections.

There are four steps in writing down the next matches
i. Look for the appropriate place to write down the next match
ii. Write down the players' names
iii. Write down the map they will play on
iv. TLPD-ize the players and the map

The trickiest part for those new to doing the LR thread is finding the appropriate place and using TLPD. If you have been watching the games, it shouldn't be much of a problem to look for where to place the next game. Naturally, it will be in the space immediately after the game that was just concluded.



In this case, once Symbol and Hack are done playing their game and the next player and map have been chosen, you will write down the next players and map in the space marked by the red box. The matches are written like this:

Player A

To aid people who can't watch live decide whether or not they should watch the matches, we have recommended game polls after each match. Once a game is concluded, use the Add Poll button.

In the Main poll question, simply write "Recommend Match Game X?", where Match is the Match at hand (Team A vs Team B, Player A vs Player B) and X is the game number in the series. The options are typically "Yes", "No", and "If you have time". You can be more creative with your options, but make sure there are no obvious spoilers.

Remember that people hate spoilers, so even the Poll Questions need to be Spoiler-Free. This means that most games must be titled ambiguously (no player names for Team Leagues, no player names for Losers, Winners, and Final matches for Group Stage games).

Example:

+ Show Spoiler [Recommended Games] +

It is also imperative to post polls for games that weren't actually played. These are Anti-Spoiler polls. If there are only 2 recommended game polls in a best of 3, it hints at the fact that there were only 2 games (and thus a 2-0). By always having a complete set of recommended game polls, we avoid having this kind of spoiler. So always have 3 polls for Best of 3s, 7 for Best of 7s, etc. Post the anti spoiler polls in the thread after the series has concluded.

After posting the Poll in the thread, remember to add the Poll to the OP so that people can have easier access to it. The Poll section is usually the last section in the OP (unless there are VOD links, then it will be the penultimate section) so it should be pretty easy to find.

TIP: It can get tedious making recommended game polls after every game. One suggestion is to premake all the polls, keep them in a text document, and just copy and paste the polls once the appropriate game has ended. This will give you less to do during the games since they are all already prepared.

On occasion (usually when Shellbot is around), someone will write a live report of the games for the folks who can't watch. They went through the trouble of typing out the games so they deserve to be part of the OP. Once a LR for the game is done, click the # button on the upper right corner of the post. This is the "permalink" button, which will reload the page. You will notice that the page url now includes #[numbers]. This is the post number in the thread, which links directly to this post. Copy this url and paste it in the Live Report section of the OP. It looks something like this:



You must paste it after "url=". That's it.

If no one is around to do write down LRs, you can do it yourself. However it can be difficult to do LRs and handle the thread at the same time. You can try it once you get the hang of it. If no one does a LR and you are up to it, you can write an unbiased recap of the game for the LR. This is much easier than a full LR.

Here are some sample LRs or recaps:

+ Show Spoiler +

+ Show Spoiler +

Sometimes, other stream links will be available. This used to be the case before GOMtv decided to stream on Twitch.tv permanently. In case there are other streams for the same tournament, you can add them to the OP.



The red box is the section where stream options are listed down. If you want to add a new one, just append it to the end of this block of text. Make sure to use the link button to generate the url BBcode.

Some people like kpop. Some people LOVE kpop. Before games, music videos are usually filled as filler. A lot of people come and ask about these videos. Occasionally someone will post youtube links of the videos being played. If you want, add these youtube links to the OP in the kpop LR section.

There are times when important information is revealed regarding the tournament at hand. This may include schedule changes, forfeitures, postponements, etc. This news can be added after the Pre-game Polls. Make sure to spoiler them so that people don't need to read them unless they want to.

If a user provides a better banner than the one available, you can change the OP banner.



The red box is where the banner is located. Simply change the img url to the new banner if you want to change it with a better one.

If a user provides interesting hype material such as videos and pictures, you can add them after the Pre-Game Polls, but make sure they are spoilered.