Valencia eSports Congress

If you're like me, you missed the Valencia eSports Congress event that occurred Friday before the DreamHack Eizo Open this weekend. I tried watching the videos from the DreamHack Twitch site, but found them pretty horrible in both sound quality and trying to figure out when the event actually started so I was thrilled when SCV Rush posted a comprehensive recap of the goings on.

I didn't really expect anything groundbreaking to actually come out of this event. I think it's pretty understandable that it wouldn't. But the event served as a really great way for different organizations to really show the public where they're coming from, and where they hope to see the scene really evolve and grow.

As a fan it's certainly interesting to see where gaming companies, teams, tournaments, and other "in" folks think we're going. More importantly, it's good to get their take on what the community wants. It's important to consider this statement carefully, because there are a few twists to consider.

Community

     1). The community is not the Team Liquid forums, or the Starcraft Subreddit, though forums and online sites do make up an important part of each community. As a competitive scene, the community is not only the players, whether they're pro or practice league. The community is everyone from spectators who are on the verge of truly becoming part of the scene, but are (like me) being pushed to the edge by the established people already in the scene to folks in online tournaments who just want to have some fun with their friends.

     2). Ask any community manager anywhere, for any gaming related focus from software to peripherals. Just because the community is screaming out loud for something, doesn't mean they want it. If the gaming companies did whatever the flavor of the month change being called for at any given time, usually it would destroy the integrity of what players most love about their game. Of course, this type of change applies to well thought out, debated, and considered ideas that would still alter the main things that players actually enjoy about their game home.

     3). The current SC2 competitive scene community, as it stands now, is not particularly welcoming to new folks posting on their established sites. Sometimes it's like that, and you have to earn your right to participate to a greater level. But in the time I've been a SC2 competition spectator and lurked on these sites, I can tell you, with great candor, that I am wholeheartedly terrified of posting on the SC2 official forums, SC2 Subreddit, or Team Liquid forums. Am I baby? Definitely more so than I used to be. People out there tend to be scary! Maybe it's the competitive attitude players need to have in order to take a loss, blow it off and get right back on the ladder. But it drives people away, and when you're trying to grow a spectator audience it defeats the idea of growing a scene to a larger audience.

Mainstream TV and the "Next" Level

TV was attempted before I got into the scene, so I don't have an opinion worth stating on why it didn't work as well as being unable to provide a good response to why it should possibly be tried again. I can however comment on why I both despise and embrace the idea, and hope that someone who was around when this happened can set me right on why my ideas suck or possibly (not likely) have merit. Honestly, the only thing I really want to do is pause live tournaments and restart them at my convenience. We're getting there but it's sooooo slow!!

     Pros:

     1). TV is mainstream. Yes, people who watch SC2 consume media on their computers, but the rest of us have learned that we can pause TV, walk away and pick up where we left off without dealing with a video on demand system that, for most tournaments, simply suck (looking at you Twitch). Pausing "live action" is something MLG offered during their last tournament and it didn't work for us. By the middle of the second day jumping back the teeniest movement of the mouse meant rewinding 2 hours. Online technology is getting there, but we're not there yet. TV is here and has been for some time.

     Cons:

     1). A huge marjority of SC2 tournaments are not setup for TV. Eight to twelve straight hours of an event really only works when it's the Olympics or you're a crazy fan. Since crazy fans already have an outlet with the current system, TV doesn't seem to be the right choice.

This entry overall has gone on a little long, so tomorrow I'll take a look at the last point I want to bring up. Why I disagree with the panel's judgement of what makes a good eSports game.

On a personal note, I won my first 1v1 against a "very hard" AI on Sunday night. I was thrilled, and completely exhausted, but it was fun!

[Edited for both clarity and ease of reading! One should not attempt to write while both utterly exhausted and trying to watch Monday Night Football. My humble and embarrassed apologies  to anyone who read this before 6:30pm PDT 25SEP12 as it was not an acceptable piece to be published. In my haste to "get something up", I settled for barely mediocre, and I will do my best to ensure it does not happen again!]

StarJeweled - Or - That Spidery Thing Is, Apparently, A Colossus

For so long I was content to watch Dimli play StarCraft II, while I wandered around in my online worlds mourning internet squirrels. Then I saw him playing what was basically Bejeweled. I wanted to play too!

Turns out that SC2 has some cool little games that were available on the trial, and that StarJeweled was one of them. Furious downloading ensued and then pure confusion as I tried to figure out what each unit was and what it did. Thank goodness for tooltips! I wrote what countered a few of the units I knew (marines and siege tanks) that could come from the enemy base was but I didn't know the names of the units. Here's where pure ingenuity struck.

I wrote colossus as "spidery thing", ultralisk as "tusks", and mutalisks was "mutated gigantic bat". Hey, we were all new once! Some of us are newer than others for much longer....

Next to each unit I also wrote what countered them, both as a key to push and the name of what that key spawned, so I could learn the units. This way, as I watched my enemy's base and played bejeweled I knew what buttons to hit before the enemy units got anywhere near my base.

I'm not really good at twitch type responses in games (I walk into walls fairly regularly) so doing the above was about all I could accomplish in that mini-game. I never even tried to utilize the spell casting feature. It was all I could do to play the mini-game, watch the lane, and hit buttons on the keyboard! If you haven't played StarJeweled, you should definitely check it out. Very awesome little arcade game!

Dimli took care of the spells and defended our base, while my strategy was to save up energy and push out large amounts of high impact units quickly. This was pretty easy considering we were playing an AI that was set to the easiest setting. Imagine my complete and utter awe when "FOR THE HORDE - I mean - SWARM" rang out. Yeah, in my total glee we lost that game. I couldn't continue playing until he explained what had just happened!

The next game Dim told me to send out something that wasn't on my index card and by the time I found the key to push we had lost again. He immediately made me write down ALL the units available. I didn't mind losing, I was having fun. He on the other hand abhors the thought of letting anyone, much less a computer, best him.

During all of this I learned a little bit about the units, had a blast doing something in game with Dimli and eventually forgot everything I learned AND lost my index card. We rarely play StarJeweled now, what with Diablo III launching and the World of Warcraft expansion coming out in a few days, but I remember it fondly and every now and then I log in, write down all the units again and then promptly lose my poor index card somewhere in the disaster area that is my desk.

At some point I will find 12 index cards with the same information scattered on the floor amongst the wires back behind my desk.

Now if I have a few extra minutes to play and my CastleVille energy is all used up, I'll login to SC2 and get a 1v1 against the computer going, just to work on my macro (see that fancy wording from a n00b?! woot!), but if you're looking to have fun with someone who doesn't understand SC2 at all, but might have fun playing in game with you, I highly recommend both this game, and an index card that you tape down to your desk!

It's free, and fun and might help bring someone into the scene just a tiny bit. At the very least, you get to have fun with friends. What more could you ask for?

The One Where I Introduce My Husband

Quite frankly, I'm tired of typing "my husband" a thousand times per post. Possibly hyperbole but it certainly feels true! Also, I recently learned that word is NOT pronounced hyper-bowl. Sometimes learning new words by sounding them out from the books I read comes back to bite me in the ass. Don't even get me started on the Ventrilo chat that occurred when I said something about the The Inevitable City in Warhammer Online. Obviously, hilarity ensued.

On to the story! Since he decided to introduce my blog to the world, I figured I'd return the favor.

Very soon (like a week) after Dark Age of Camelot launched there was a paladin named Dimli who kept over pulling and killing himself and my own group who was fighting nearby. Ah, the good old days of aggro-sharing!

Spiders were the mob of the day, I believe. I was the healer, who felt the innate responsibility to rez him every time. Because he clearly figured out that if he didn't release, I would, and then I'd come back and rez him. Lazy pallys (and naive healers)!

This annoyed my group mates because rezzing was incredibly mana intensive and I'd have to sit and regain mana which made our fighting go way slower than it would have if I'd left the poor sucker to figure out he couldn't handle the mobs he was fighting while solo. As a bonus, there would have been more spiders for my group to kill if he had left! But being the healer has it perks, or did back then, and the call of "OOM" (out of mana) would immediately put a stop to our own mob pulling, since no one in my group had a death wish.

We decided to invite the pally to our group to minimize our own downtime and deaths and 3 years later we were dating. Another year and half and we were married in one of our favorite places in the world, Vegas!

We continue to play video games both separately and together. Separately but in the same game works better normally, since he's a min/maxer while I randomly hold funerals, including reciting appropriate poetry made up on the spot, for the wildlife (mostly squirrels) in whatever massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) we happen to be playing. Apparently people seem to feel the need to run by and slaughter them for no reason. It drives him mad, but I feel it's only fitting their pixelated corpses receive the proper respect. And I might like to annoy him sometimes.

He's a computer programmer who feels that anything that isn't done optimally with as much min/maxing as possible simply isn't done properly. This includes mapping errands to take the most "optimal" route and doing the least amount of work for the most amount of reward both in and out of game. He likes to annoy me sometimes too.

It's awesome being married to your best friend.

From now on, he shall be known on this blog as Dimli, the greatest pally on life!

Uhm....Hi Reddit!

I decided to check my blogger dashboard this morning, and was totally freaked out by the fact that I had about seven times the page views I normally have. Then I noticed traffic was coming in from Reddit and was totally confused, excited, and was truly scared to try to see who had linked to me. Sometimes Usually the Reddit folks totally scare the bejeezus out of me with their....passion, for the scene.

I found out on the way to lunch (while I had a total freak out) that my husband had posted about the blog on the SC2 Subreddit. I haven't been that excited, mortified, or overwhelmed in quite some time.


I love my wonderful husband who is truly my best friend, and I know that initiating that post is so out of character for him. So my immediate thoughts of stripping all his World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 characters of their items and deleting them were tempered with an incredible comfort that he finds value in what I bring to something that is important to us both and that he wanted to share that with others. What an awesome feeling of support, no matter how much I may bomb in my writing.

Hopefully those of you that check out the blog will find something interesting here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts here, that Reddit post, or on Twitter, on what you think of what I've done so far, and what I can do to make it better.

Thank you guys for your valuable time. There's a lot of awesome sites out there, I'm honored you'd take a few minutes of your time to check out my little space on the web!

Sponsorship (The Monster Effect)

I've never understood how advertising works, and I don't pretend to. From proving return on investment (ROI) to creating positive impressions of brand names and brand recognition, advertising is a confusing world. But somehow it seems to work! Advertisers are putting money into communities and events across the board. Hobbies, education, entertainment, community enrichment, you name it and someone has money somewhere in it. Gaming is no different.

A few months ago I switched from Sugar Free Rockstar to Monster Absolutely Zero based solely on the fact that, to my knowledge, Rockstar doesn't sponsor any SC2 competitors or events, and Monster does. I'd have switched back to Sugar Free Red Bulls, since Red Bull is a major sponsor for many SC2 events, but the heart palpitations I got a few years ago made that a ridiculous choice.

It doesn't matter to me what team(s), events, or Twitch channels Monster sponsors. Nor does it matter that I don't feel that they're a particularly better product overall. In fact, I enjoy the Sugar Free Rockstar drinks more, because they taste like my favorite candy in the world, Smarties! The only thing that matters is that Monster puts money into a hobby I find enjoyable, and Rockstar doesn't. I want to support the SC2 competitive scene and I feel a good way to do that is to show support for those companies that put their money there.

Now I'm not exactly sure how those events or teams show a ROI to Monster regarding my change in product but I know someone, somewhere, does. If only because I'm fairly certain that if they couldn't prove ROI, they wouldn't have sponsorships anymore.For my part, while I wish I knew the details regarding proving ROI and how sponsorship and value to brands actually works, it's enough to know that I'm supporting a scene I love by buying brands that support it.

Now, let's not be crazy. I'm not running out and buying SteelSeries stuff or a Kingston HyperX (whatever the hell that is). But I know their product names now! Hell, I can rattle off the Evil Geniuses sponsors faster than Idra and probably in the correct order! Is that value? I suppose someone somewhere can prove it as such.

Sometimes the sponsorships may seem out of place, as at Major League Gaming (MLG) Anaheim this year. MLG is sponsored by the energy drink Nos. Yet no where in the venue could you actually buy one. Granted Dr. Pepper was out in full force but I was going on 16 waking hours and games were still being played. I was yawning so much I couldn't watch the screen because my eyes just watered constantly. I needed something to at least convince myself I was going to be energetic damn it! In a room full of people that probably drink more energy drinks per capita than any other market the sponsor energy drink (actually, all energy drinks) didn't make an appearance. Who thought that plan up?!

So why am I willing to switch energy drinks and not run out and buy a new keyboard and mouse? Other than the fact that I'm cheap, I don't really have a good response. I've also not yet bought any team or tournament apparel. Mostly this is because the female apparel offered is simply atrocious, but it helps that I feel like supporting one tournament or team over another by selling myself as advertising is a serious thing. I really need to be willing to support my choice, once chosen, 100% win or lose. I'm just not willing to commit to that level yet!

When I am willing to commit, you can be sure I'll be sporting my team/tournament apparel (if they have anything worthwhile that doesn't make me look like a bag) and be more willing to support their sponsors, even if it's a few extra bucks. In the meantime, I'm watching sponsors and seeing who I can support when I can in an effort to show brands that the SC2 competitive scene is here to support those who support us!

Making or Breaking A Tourney Part 3: Event Time

This is the third and final part of what makes or breaks tournament enjoyment for me.

For the first part, Making or Breaking a Tourney: Casters, click here.

For the second part, Making Or Breaking A Tourney: Production Value, click here.

Event Time

Event times are tied to the tournaments location, and thus there's not a lot of options. Europeans trying to watch MLG or Americans trying to watch Dreamhack....unless you take a day off of work, it's just not going to do-able without depending on the video on demand (VOD) system so many tourneys use. Because I cannot stream at work, or access any gaming sites (including Team Liquid and any gaming subreddits), I often don't know the results of matches taking place when I'm not home and specifically watching an event. It's not like it was back when I was playing Ultima Online or EverQuest, where I could stay up all night and then work a 12 hour day. I am no longer 21. I need sleep!!

My main issue is that I have a 10 hour a day job, a husband and a house to take care of. I also enjoy playing video games, and we watch a metric ton of game industry shows, you tube channels, read blogs, and coverage, from Gamebreaker to Kripparrian, Gamasutra to Terra Nova, not to mention all of the SC2, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, and random MMO and general gaming indsutry shows. All of that takes time. Time I do not want to spend watching something that's already happened even when I don't know what occurred. I am not sure why that makes a difference to me, but it does. As stated in a previous post, now that I have to choose between everything else we already do and American football (both pro and college) and then college basketball and SC2 - I am betting it will be hard to keep up with SC2 more and more. So stuff that isn't happening live when I have a few free minutes probably won't be worth my time.

In direct contrast to the above, there's something to be said for being able to pause a video on demand (VOD) while I get chores done and then come back and pick up where I left off, rather than just missing whole periods of events.The problem is I get less done, and there's always so much to do! I am not sure how this will end up working out. As we just subscribed to Season 4 of the Global Star League (GSL) it will be interesting to see how we work this stuff into our football-centric household.

The other issue I have with event time is the fact that SC2 events seem to announce their venue, caster and player lineups, and dates about two weeks before the actual event. By this time I already have plans. Seriously people? Two weeks notice is not enough time for me to change my schedule - even if you have Tasteosis casting and MC and Stephano playing. No other competition I've ever followed does it like this. Why is it acceptable for SC2 to do it this way?

Surely other SC2 competitive scene fans don't have the time to just sit around and wait for things to be announced at the last second. But maybe there's so many of us that no matter when something is announced there will be plenty of people available to watch.

Oh well. If you have the desire and time to watch everything, good on ya, but I've got to manage my time carefully and in advance. I am not giving up a weekend in Vegas to watch a Major League Gaming tournament, and I can guarantee you I'm not coming home to watch VODs when I can be catching Sports Center instead. I guess to each their own! I wouldn't want ESPN re-scheduling games around SC2 tourneys! It's good we all have a choice to watch what interests us, and many different ways to access it all.

Making Or Breaking A Tourney Part 2: Production Value

In this second part of Making or Breaking a Tourney, I want to talk about production value, and why it matters to me.

For the first part, Making or Breaking a Tourney: Casters, click here.

Production Value

This is such a subjective issue that it's hard to nail down what's important to me. Some tourneys have better production value than others, but I couldn't point to a single tournament and say "Everyone should do it this way!". I probably look for different things than others, but I tend to enjoy the basics done well.

The basics are easily explained. The casters should have a decent sound level that the map sound doesn't completely drown out. Commercials shouldn't be at a volume that tries to blow out my speakers, like Twitch does. I should be able to easily read the economy/food information without moving to within an inch of my screen or paying you $15. Commercials should not take 15 minutes and repeat the same ads four times in a row.

Of course, it gets more complicated. I enjoy player interviews that don't include the question "What is your strategy for the next match?", and I can only watch Clutch yell the player intros so many times before I start yelling "OMG START THE STUPID GAME ALREADY". Don't get me wrong, I loved Clutch at Major League Gaming (MLG) Anaheim! He was superb for the Kespa player intros. But enough is enough. Or in terms MLG can understand, Look, I get it.

I'm also not a fan of countdown clocks between matches, because so far, other than the NASL season 3 finals, nothing I've watched this year is close to even remotely timing their return from commercial times. I won't call out IPL here. They had issues at their most recent finals, and they admitted it - and I'm a fan of learning from your mistakes and moving on. As long as they don't do 20 minutes between matches and then vamping for another 20 before the game starts *ever again*, I'll call it good.

The extras are what make it for me. So far, the NASL season 3 finals did it best. The player reviews, top 10 season moments, the casters in sumo suits fighting each other - I was HOOKED the entire weekend. My plans for actually getting stuff done in the house and being productive was totally out the window and I spent the entire time in front of my computer or TV watching matches and seeing what else they had to offer.

I am thinking that either this type of b-roll production is either too high in cost or manpower, or the hardcore SC2 fans don't really care. Since they outnumber those who watch the scene like I do, I guess I just have to accept that fact. But if anyone is looking into getting the more casual of fans involved and watching - NASL did it right! Way more than a stupid touchscreen TV. Except the MLG contest during the summer 2012 arena. I laughed so hard I was crying.

Making Or Breaking A Tourney Part 1: Casters

As someone who does not enjoy actually playing SC2 but enjoys the hell out of watching the competitive scene, I find that there are a few things that can make or break tournament enjoyment for me. These three main items are casters, production value, and event time.

As with all things important to any person, we have to choose the things that are most important to us and those things get the majority of our time. I enjoy owning our home and having nice things so the job is pretty high up there. I enjoy having a happy husband and a clean home with yummy food and a pleasant atmosphere, and that takes more time than you'd think. Above all, a happy marriage takes work and a massive amount of time. More work and more time than anyone could ever possibly explain to you before you actually get into that situation....but I digress.

I want to discuss both production value and casters in seperate postings, so we'll deal with casters in this one!

Casters

Casters for any particular tournament seem to be the main reason I'm excited for an event before it occurs. I tend to enjoy casters who don't spend 20 seconds yelling "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" and then NOT explaining what is going on. For me as a non-player, I don't understand what the yelling is about. Clearly, something important happened. As a caster, your job is to tell me about it. You can get loud, or even incoherent at times, but completely skipping over commentating for yelling is simply unacceptable. I don't mind loud, passionate, and insane yelling - ask my husband, it's my norm. So I tend to be more forgiving of it when it's someone who brings a great view of the game overall (looking at you Day9/Husky combo), but even then it can easily get out of hand.

There are some casters who are working hard to learn their craft, and they're trying to get better, but they're not my favorites, but they're not casters who will turn me off of an event. For me, Frodan falls into this category. In season 3 of the North American Star League (NASL) finals Frodan gave an interview saying he was still getting used to the camera, and was working to more clearly express himself - and it showed. Both in his passion and clear desire for it, as well as maybe a bit of hesitancy when reaching for words during a hectic battle. It made me want to watch him, to see him improve and root for him. I'm looking forward to watching the next NASL season, rather than just the finals.

Then there are the casters who make me want to not watch an event or match they're covering at all. There's no need to mention specific names, it's not that they're bad people, horrible at what they do and they should quit and go do something else. It's just that for me, personally, they don't make the matches exciting and make me want to spend my whole day watching them. Other people obviously enjoy these folks casting, or they wouldn't still be doing it.

For me, it comes down to time, as mentioned previously. I have to choose how I spend my time wisely. Watching people who don't get me interested in a match when I need to get stuff done in the house on my precious days off...well, that's just not a choice I allow myself to make. If I'm going to do something I don't particularly enjoy, it will be cleaning, cooking, or prying my husband off whatever game he's playing long enough to get him to do something productive.

GSL Season 4....or American Collegiate Football

We signed up for the Global Star League (GSL) season 4 last night. This will be our first experience with what seems to be the foremost tournament in the SC2 scene, and I'm very excited for lots of different reasons, including getting to watch Tastosis!

The Code S matches start on 03SEP12, but in the meantime, the up/down matches are taking place, so I'm watching a few of those today - the last non-football Sunday in a long while.

I'm enjoying the production value immensely so far. The casters, Wolf and Khaldor, seem to talk a bit fast, but cover everything efficiently and easily enough for a non-player/noob to follow at least relatively closely. This is an important point for me. I love sets of casters based on how easily I can follow the game by listening - since I don't always really understand what is happening by actually watching the game. Tastosis makes it really easy, and Tasteless often adds in lots of little "if you didn't know, this is why it's important" kind of notes - an important reason I love watching MLG games they commentate.

Side Note: I thought I'd really enjoy djWHEAT and Artosis casting for this reason, but they where so technical, mentioning upgrades by their names (carapace and ventral sacs) as if I knew what that meant, during the entire match. I was so lost I couldn't really following what was going on. I was rather disappointed since I love both of these casters with different co-casters.

My initial take on the up/down matches production value is that it's distracting to hear the Korean casters in the background while trying really pay attention to what Khaldor and Wolf are saying. Distracting, but not all experience ruining. On the UI front, I can't figure out how to change the volume while the video is in full screen. I can mute, but can't seem to actually adjust the volume slider - which may be more me not seeing it than the slider not being there. [Edit: I found the slider, you have to actually click the word "sound". I'm a smartie!]

The GSL up/down format seems a bit hard to follow, as I'm not sure if it's best of 3, or 5. A quick Liquipedia search does not really help - but I guess it's not as important at the moment as really getting used to the formats. Following the different GSL matches (Code S, Code A, up/down matches) as listed on Liquipedia is hard enough without trying to understand each individual series.

I'm really excited about getting to watch more SC2, but I am worried that between being a huge college football fan, and a huge Denver Bronco fan - I am not going to have much time to actually get anything done on weekends. I am not sure how I'll split my free time for watching football versus SC2, but I have a strong feeling football will win out simply because my husband doesn't mind near as much when I yell at the TV during a football game. I have a hunch he'll hate it if I did that while watching a SC2 game, because he'll probably be trying to raid in WoW or doing loot runs in Diablo 3 while we're watching SC2. I guess we'll see what most catches my eye during the football and upcoming college basketball season.

I don't see that being a fan of video games for money has to be in direct conflict with American collegiate football and basketball (except that Day9 seems to bash traditional sports at every possible opportunity), other than my off-time is limited and I've been emotionally invested in San Diego State athletics since I was 6 and grew up attending The John Elway Show taping in Greeley, Colorado when the Denver Broncos did their spring training at the University of Northern Colorado campus. It's hard to imagine choosing SC2 over these loves, as I've only been inolved in the SC2 competitive scene for a year.

It will be interesting to see how we work GSL into our lives this season, with everything else going on. Hopefully, it will be a fun addition, while still being worthwhile when we choose to only pay attention intermittently.