I thought long about a cool beginning to my blog, but i didnt find one, so I am just going to cut straight to it. TSL4 is boring. It's basically a "well... it happened" tournament. In my eyes TSL4 has already failed half way through and this makes me angry. No, it actually makes me furious.
>But Wisert, why does a supposedly failed tournament make you angry?<
Well, let me tell you something.... MLG went to shit with it's 20 MLG Arenas per month. I stopped watching it (not because of the pay-to-view, there were enough restreams) because it got boring. There are just too many tournaments, and although their quality went up, the amount of tournaments has made it very tiring to follow them.
>But what are you trying to tell us<
The Point is, if a tournament wants to stand out in this huge pile of "oh....again", they need something that people remember. A Story, really good games and well recepted caster-combos.
TSL4 now, in my opinion, is not working to its full potential. TSL3 in that regard was much better, what means, much more hyped.
I'll admit, TSL3 had it easier. It was tournament during a time, when the only things running during the whole TSL3 schedule were weekly cups. Now, the "market is oversaturated" and no one cares about the biggest Online Tournament on the scene. And that is sad.
>But they are doing Previews and Recaps, is that not enough for you?<
No its not. I have a problem with the way TL seems to just keep on rolling the TSL4 forward. It's a tournament, they can't stop, right? The general sentiment i got from talking to a lot of people, is that "TSL4 is good, but i haven't watched the last games". Question: Can you name the people who lost in the ro8 and ro16? I can, but only because i checked to not write any bullshit. Further I know a lot of people, who regularly follow the scene and don't know. Why is that so? Missing Story. And by Story I dont mean Idar Rage and stupid reddit drama. I mean legitimate Stories.
During TSL3, a lot of people were still new to the scene. The old BW-stars would meet the boys coming from WC3. Who knew about Thorzain before TSL? No one. But due to TSL3 having huge exposure, everyone got to see him win that shit. TSL4 has it much harder, but ti's not impossible. ...Back to my "Story" point. Story can be something so simple like a good player introduction. TSL4 misses to introduce the players completely. It's basicly Korean #385 vs Korean #176. Oh and there is him: We basicly dont know anyone of them. I'd like to focus on the Koreans. Many people might say:" Well I know Sting, he was on NSHoseo and played in the GSTL. Was in a Team with Jjakji and other strong NSH-Terrans." Is that enough Info to make you eager to see him play? In my opinion not. It needs more. Maybe you can: elaborate his style in a post, find his strenghts, make a video-interview so we see his actual face, not a drawing (the drawings are cool, style is nice, but the faces are not rememberable and that is what's important). Bring up points so people remeber him as the person who did this and that. Beat X and Y to get here in these games. Show us his highlights. Make him interesting. A lot of people adress the "irrelevance" to the early elimination of the foreigner big-names like Thorzain and Naniwa. I dont think so. If the big names lose early its the perfect beginning to turn the up and coming guys into Stars, even if it's just for this tournament.
Furthermore, I am missing advertisement on TL for their own tournament. The Previews and Recaps are all nice, but they are the same as the ones for WCS, IEM and so on. Once you make the players interesting and bring the news about TSL4, your own torunament, to the center of attention, be it by Ads or the TL banner changing. Do whatever is needed so people see "Ah, TSL4 is on, Great!".
I think im done for tonight, maybe I'll add more on a part 2 tomorrow or later.
Discuss it, whatever, if you think i missed something crucial PM me. Oh and Wisert is me btw. Edit1: Typos Edit2: Catering to the Masses (credit: intrigue)
I've enjoyed the TSL4 mostly, but haven't been following it really closely, but I don't follow any tournaments ridiculously closely.
I honestly can only understand about 50% of what you wrote here, so I'm going to assume English isn't your first language. What is an "autist?" Is that someone with autism?
A confusing, sometimes overly aggressive and antagonizing criticism of TSL4.
I hardly claim for TSL4 to be perfect, actually I don't really watch it, but I'm certain there's a way to get your point across without talk of autist babbies and the like.
thing about TSL4 is the really shitty production value
TSL3 felt a lot better.
The casters need better microphones, there needs to be better music, better transitions, more hype. Only casters who aren't useless are DjWheat and Apollo, but the former knows nothing about the game and the latter is being paired with the wrong person to do well.
On August 20 2012 08:53 MahE wrote: thing about TSL4 is the really shitty production value
TSL3 felt a lot better.
The casters need better microphones, there needs to be better music, better transitions, more hype. Only casters who aren't useless are DjWheat and Apollo, but the former knows nothing about the game and the latter is being paired with the wrong person to do well.
get out of the thread mahe
I agree mostly but you should tone down on the agressiveness if you want to be taken more seriously, I agree that MLG really lost its status as one of the best tournaments when it kept creating these sub par arenas as cash grabs, I cant really watch anything but the GSL with the over saturation of tournaments these days.
On August 20 2012 08:53 MahE wrote: thing about TSL4 is the really shitty production value
TSL3 felt a lot better.
The casters need better microphones, there needs to be better music, better transitions, more hype. Only casters who aren't useless are DjWheat and Apollo, but the former knows nothing about the game and the latter is being paired with the wrong person to do well.
great blog but you should tone down on the agressiveness if you want to be taken seriously
On August 20 2012 08:53 MahE wrote: thing about TSL4 is the really shitty production value
TSL3 felt a lot better.
The casters need better microphones, there needs to be better music, better transitions, more hype. Only casters who aren't useless are DjWheat and Apollo, but the former knows nothing about the game and the latter is being paired with the wrong person to do well.
get out of the thread mahe
great blog but you should tone down on the agressiveness if you want to be taken seriously
On August 20 2012 08:53 MahE wrote: thing about TSL4 is the really shitty production value
TSL3 felt a lot better.
The casters need better microphones, there needs to be better music, better transitions, more hype. Only casters who aren't useless are DjWheat and Apollo, but the former knows nothing about the game and the latter is being paired with the wrong person to do well.
get out of the thread mahe
great blog but you should tone down on the agressiveness if you want to be taken seriously
There's just something about TSL this time that isn't special. Not sure what it is, but probably just the amount of tournaments being thrown at our faces.