More the reason why I think SRK is a joke. People don’t play fighting games for fun anymore. Character specific forums are really helpful though.
If the main goal of the site is what we get right then how can the site be a joke 
Hater’s logic…
.
I’m talking about the people that don’t contribute to the “main goal of the site” and always trying to start shit.
Thanks for the great explanation, AlphaZealot.
Even with the improvements you made on by Sunday, I really didn’t enjoy the stream. There are way too many breaks, way too much commentary, and the important matches are often missed (re: PL getting blown up in the Loser’s Bracket). With so much time dedicate to non-match-footage, I basically concluded it wasn’t worth my time to watch anymore midway through Soul Calibur V and turned it off.
I understand your system for running all matches simultaneously at a set time, but I honestly believe that’s the wrong system for the viewer. Regardless of how the majority of the bracket is run, most major tournaments use a queue system for matches to be played on stream. In this system, they pull matches away from their regularly scheduled time and create a line 3-5 matches deep which will be played on the stream. This ensures that there’s absolutely no down-time between matches (I don’t know how many hours this weekend I lost watching the SC2 crowd shot) and that interesting or important matches will always be streamed. I wish you guys would adopt a system like this or similar to this for future events.
You know I have much love for what you do, Chris, but the system you are using is almost as inefficient a system as I can imagine existing.
Sure, people know where to be and when to be there, but this can be accomplished while still moving at an efficient pace using a lot less staff and equipment. Evo does it every year. I did it last year at UFGT7, and will do it again this year at UFGT8.
What you are comparing to what we do is basically taking a half day to run a 128-man bracket down to top 8. Most of our majors, even the ones that start 4 hours late and cant seem to message players about where to be and when, can do this 6-8 times simultaneously with a fraction of the equipment and staff. And yes, as I said, this can easily be done while telling players where to be and when to be there. The two things are not at all mutually exclusive.
But it all depends on what your goal for your event is. MLG’s goal doesnt appear to be “run an efficient tournament with little downtime”, but I won’t pretend to know what the actual goal is (outside of playing ads). As you said, you told players where to be and when to be there, which removed your ability to push the schedule up as you realized you were moving quickly, but lets be honest here; running a full ROUND of the bracket in a time slot (with a full hour or half hour for completion each round) isn’t a great idea. It leaves you with a lot of open stations what could be used to move things forward waiting and empty for a long time.
I watched a lot of MLG’s streams this weekend and walked away frustrated on many levels. I hope you guys can refine what you are doing and make viewing enjoyable instead of infuriating at some point, I really do. Part of the key to this is actually gaining an understanding of what people want to see (letting Perfect Legend get eliminated off stream? for shame! that was the best “storyline” you had going for the weekend).
The MLG stream is terrible for many reasons… sorta reminded me of the IPL stuff but without the women between matches. Overall I’m dissappointed with the way it was hyped up by a lot of og pro players but fell through. Not putting the big name players on stream is inexcusable
i love people that post things like this.
if you had any legitimate insight into how mlg runs their presentation you would know that they take in any and all constructive feedback that is offered to them.
it was fubar/phil/etc’s first time running the show with that setup. you’re a total moron if you think they can all just jump in front of a camera with that much pressure on them and perform like seasoned veterans.
i appreciate their effort and their willingness to listen and implement changes based on the useful feedback they receive[d].
Sour fuckin grapes from the Capcom community in general all weekend long. We dont need SF players or SF websites to direct where the fighting game community goes with MLG or eSports in general. We dont need it.
Yes, the stream was…not the way we’re used too, and guess what? this weekend was a big learning experience not just for us, but for MLG seeing how we need things to be. They arent trying to take over the FGC. Believe me. This weekend was huge, but the haters need to get their shit straight, attend a MLG event and see for yourselves.
eSports, or even, WWEsports, we in there, and we’re lovin’ it.
I Was an attendee for MLG during the Tekken Season and I see much hasn’t changed and I get the feeling MLG just didn’t care to change anything in regards to the Fighting Game Scene and how they approach the tournament aspect of it all.
Keits brought up the most valid point of them all, You all built all these interviews and hype for MK9, fueled the beef and arguments they had via youtube, took time out the streams etc to entertain this stuff… but then you have the major player apart of it all…lose away from stream and single handily destroyed the hype for the rest of the MK9 tournaments.
People will watch but honestly the hype is now dead, it would have been better to have it via stream.
And I know the excuse will be time constraints but MLG holds things up for the Shooters (And I know this because I’ve been to these events numerous times) so why would you not give the same treatment for the Fighting Games so you CAN retain those watching the events, interest and grow your fan base in regards to your Fighting Game branch.
MLG has to get there direction in order, what is it you all are in this for, is it to further the growth of an already growing Fighting Game Community?? Is it to take over and become THE PREMIERE host for Fighting Game tournaments or is it to gather more sponsors to support there true love in Shooters??
i think as a first attempt it didn’t really make the grade, and people were already coming in with a colored attitude seeing as it was scheduled on top of NCR, but making it through this as a learning experience i think is important for all parties.
-trying not to schedule on top of established majors (next to impossible for MLG and their need to organize events x months in advance, but it is what it is)
-more respect to the pacing and momentum of matches
-less emphasis on pro wrestling storylines
-more matches that matter on stream
i hope the next MLG takes the criticism and builds on it positively for their next event. i know that MLG and the FGC can coexist, but both sides really need to want it.
With the way everything was ran, it looks to be the latter in getting more sponsors. They try to tout that they want “the best” to win via the continuation rule making winners bracket grand finals the most coveted place at all yet you can also present the argument that a “pro player” was having an off-set and then bodies the winner 6-0.
OK… so I was at MLG. It was a crazy experience.
The venue was cool… the room was crazy… loads of people… blah blah blah.
I had to play the first match of the weekend. Having to wait 10 minutes after I sat down… and tell the judge which characters I was using… which stage we were playing on, etc… was pretty annoying. Playing the first match, feeling upset that I let it slip away, then having to sit for a full 5 minutes before we could rematch (and it was only THAT short because Justin and I just went ahead and started playing before they gave us the OK), was beyond annoying. Having to wait another 5 minutes, while the announcers talk about what just happened (loud and clear for everyone to hear, including the competitors), then cut to commercial before we could play the last match… was also annoying.
Still… after a few matches, I guess they realized how ridiculous that format was, and changed it up a bit. That’s cool.
I guess the takeaway here is that they do things a certain way, and we do things a certain way, and it’s going to take some time to make it all meld together in a way that works. I’m not mad at how things went. Overall, I had a great time at MLG, and I don’t want to sit here and blame my loss on the format. I lost because I went in without practice, and I was off my shit. Also, I’m not that good at KOF to begin with. The format WAS extremely annoying… but they reworked it, after some feedback. That’s the best we can hope for.
I think everyone should come out to support MLG, if it’s feasible. Even if they don’t have your game yet. Showing support can only help. I’m one of the most anti-esports guys around here… but… to me, the scene has already lost its soul, so what fuck do I give, if MLG takes it fully corporate? It’s where the entire scene WANTS to go anyway (besides me, and like 2 other people), so why do people get upset when another company wants to fully take it there?
As for Juicebox, he’s a cool enough dude. You can’t call him a KOF fraud or anything… KOF13 has brought in a number of players that previously never played KOF seriously (myself included… I haven’t played a KOF game period, since KOF 99), so who cares? More people need to play that game. It’s easily the best fighting game to come out in years.
I don’t like Juicebox’s commentary AT ALL, but that’s just my personal preference. I wouldn’t take a shot at the guy over that. I’m just not a fan of the random yelling, bad jokes, and over excitement for every little thing. That’s just me though.
People keep saying we just need to find a way to blend the way WE do things with the way THEY do things and I’m confused why WE need to change a single thing we do at all for them?
For money.
Also because IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING!
I’ve been going to tournaments since 2002. Tournaments were amazing fun, with zero rules, and the scene was something completely organic until 2008. From 2009-now, everybody in any position of influence (besides spooky to some extent) has already sold out on a bunch of what made US, US. There is already loads of bullshit… there is already more emphasis put on story, or personality, or shenanigans, than on winning. The shit is already lame as fuck.
If we’re gonna sell out for $1K pot bonuses, and some tiny amount of ad money (which has ALREADY happened, young whippersnapper), we might as well give a little more for $20k+ pot bonuses, and actual paying salary jobs for way more people than our scene currently supports.
Wow, seeing you say that HAV is sort of soul crushing.
For real, goddamn
Sigh, another one misses the point. Most people are not criticizing the stream because it wasn’t what we’re used to. We’re doing it because it was worse than what we’re used to. I saw nothing at all during the MLG stream that I would like any other tournament organizer or streamer to emulate.
The established tournaments have set a high standard on how to present fighting games. MLG simply did not meet them. I sincerely hope they’ll rethink their “we’re doing our own thing” approach for the upcoming events, take pointers from people like Keits, and start following some of the methods that have been proven to work time and again.
Yo.
It’s over.
I think esports is the dumbest shit of all time, and it’s all gonna blow up in everyone’s faces… but there’s zero reason to keep up some bullshit resistance. It’s gonna happen. It’s gonna explode and people are gonna get fucked. Gootecks and Mike Ross will become enemies after one of them tries to fuck over the other one, in an attempt to move over into Starcraft commentary after this whole fighting game fad dies.
It’s all going to happen, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.
I was at MLG, and the only difference I see between MLG, and FGC tournaments, is just that MLG has accomplished the shit that the FGC heads are currently trying to do. It’s just an evolved form of the same dumb shit. Of course, they have actual support from their game developers, and loads of other things going for them, but whatever.
MLG isn’t the enemy. The enemy already controls the FGC, and has already sold out the soul for miniscule gains, and some idiotic pipe dream that they have no idea how to reach.
HAV, money isn’t the only remaining difference. MLG/“eSports” is years ahead in the spectator/fan vs player division. Yeah, since SF4 “stream monsters” have become a thing, but most people actually attending the events are still signing up for the games.
It’s always Capcom that starts the ship with them sinking the entire thing and moving on to other things…as always.
…and to be productive and add to the thread…They should have a timeframe where they explain all of the terminology regarding fighting games. Maybe even explain game mechanics of a certain game and strategies. That would be really insightful and make the viewers understand, rather than them just seeing big combos and flashes(etc). Maybe even teaching them spacing. If there’s no time for that, maybe have someone in designated area to do all of that. (Add replays as well for big matches)