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ACL GC - My two cents
 

So the ACL Gold Coast event is now over, and we have had some time to calm down, let me just lay out some of my
personal thoughts of the event.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere was pretty spectacular, granted it was my first major LAN event of anything and I was really impressed, and actually quite
excited about being there.
Seeing some familiar faces that I have met before (Solis, elimzkE, Signs) and meeting up with the big names
(PiG, Rossi, Iaguz, Yang, Infeza, Chadman, Maynarde, Dox, Moonglade, and more) it made the whole thing really exciting and great!

Only limited PCs for the SC2 boys but it was more than enough to have everything running on time thanks to Dox's amazing organizing
skills. Kicking people off computers when we needed them for games and all that jazz meant that there wasn't much of a wait between games.

So needless to say, the whole feel of the room was excellent, as well as the casted viewing area was cool as well. Live casting the matches,
and not having it too loud so the players could hear, but loud enough for the viewers was perfect.

Which transitions into the next section...

Coverage and casting
Coverage of the event wasn't too big, there was plenty of pictures and cameras rolling which I am sure will be used for viewing at a later
date, which is cool.
It was enough for the event I felt, and it wasn't overdone so it was done well.
But the casting of the games I feel was a bit lackluster, and hear me out.

The Overall Production of the event I felt was a real slump.
No scoring graphic for the games I feel is one of the biggest letdown. Having something as simple as Starboard running can improve the
visual quality of the cast and let new viewers know who they are watching and what the current score is.

No overlay between matches or during downtime.(Note: I realize there was the one graphic that had ACL's social media information on it...)
but a simple overlay under the casters with their names and other small tidbits. (Twitters for both casters) instead of telling us every
20mins what your twitters are and to follow you. (It does get quite annoying after a few times)
**I retract this statement as it has been shown to me that there was an overlay built on the 2nd day of the stream after I discontinued watching. I apologize for this statement of misinformed information**

There was not a single stream chat mod. Now I know it may not be the most important thing but just someone to overview the chat and
ban people who needed bans.

The caster choice wasn't the best. Don't get me wrong, Maynarde and Doble did a great job casting the event, but they didn't really work together.
(Again, it is mainly an inexperience thing but just don't dismiss the next few pointers)
It's quite commonly known that for
the best casting duo you need a play-by-play commentator, and an analytically commentator. Unfortunately, both Maynarde and
Doble were play-by-play casters, which lead to no real game talk, and a lot of missed opportunities to really discuss a game in depth.
And also led to a lot of awkward talking over each other.

Most people may disagree with me here on this point, but when I was people casting I like to hear what they think about the game at hand
and get really into it, rather than casting what is shown.

To be honest, when I stream the production sides of things is probably better than what ACL had to offer, and I don't mean to be rude
but I hope ACL takes these facts into account and improves next time for the next ACL LAN.

I mean most of this is small things that ACL will learn to incorporate into the streams the more they do it, but really, a small amount of research and you would have all this covered.

I hope that this kind of opens the eyes of ACL and works a bit harder on the production sides of things, hell I'll even offer to come to the next ACL and work with them to make things a lot better, production and, or casting sides of things.
I'm not here to hit and run.

I also would like to note that I have no idea on the technical limitations put on by what happened at the event. If there was something I noted
physically impossible to produce, I will gladly retract my statement

Anyway overall it was a great event, and I expect bigger things to come in the future!