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ACL Gold Coast - Dox
 

I'm collecting feedback and questions from a range of threads and sources in an attempt to deliver a concise response to the community on behalf of ACL. Additionally, we're looking for some feedback/testimonials from various angles of the event - including stream quality, commentary, venue, PC's, internet connection and schedule. Feel free to post that stuff here.

Because the top 2 spots in most of the groups had already been determined on Day 1, so quite a few people weren't interested in coming back on day 2 to play pointless games.


1. I hope this was only a temporary issue. I personally didn't get a chance to check out the stream, but I'm under the impression this was resolved quite early in the day. I know we had a few minor hiccups with the broadcast early on.
2. We will endeavour to achieve this in future events. This was purely an equipment limitation. We could only spare one roaming camera for the player profiles at a time.


You can reply to this post if you want, otherwise private feedback can be addressed to d.reball@aclpro.com.au


Regionals - yes. Unfortunately the level of interest we received for the previous event was too low, forcing us to cancel it.
Nationals, I'm afraid not.


We want to make each event as accessible as possible, so it's unlikely we'll see any events very far from capital cities. (In my opinion, even the Gold Coast isn't suitable)


I'm not quite sure what this means... we had several streams simultaneously broadcasting various components of the event from start to finish. What kind of coverage are you referring to?


We actually had a scoreboard set up and ready to go, but we decided to scrap it at the last minute because we felt we could do better. We didn't want to deliver something average, and I honestly didn't think anyone would mind. We'll definitely have this resolved for the next event.


How much did you actually watch? All of this was happening on Sunday.



We'll make sure this happens next time, just an oversight.


Thanks for this, I'll pass it along.


Could you please provide some examples? From my perspective, this was the best production I've experienced. Blair was an absolute wizard when it came to delivering quality data from various video and audio inputs from around the venue, and maintaining a healthy balance of caster/player/spectator cameras. We'll be working to ensure that each event is better than the last, so feedback is definitely helpful.


I'll pass this on and ensure we have more of a rotation happening next time. Just remember, a LOT of people didn't like Tastosis when the GSL Open Season first begun.


Now for a bit of my own feedback, in no particular order. I've separated it from the rest of the blog by using a different colour font.
The first one is just me thinking out loud, really. Imagine this scenario:
In a venue full of 800 people, one person approaches me at the admin desk.
"Hey Dox, any idea where my opponent is?"
"Sorry, what was your name?"
"<InsertPlayerNameHere>"
"Sorry man, I have no idea what he looks like. I suggest you just hang around here for a few minutes because he'll inevitably come over asking the same question in a moment."

That participant then proceeds to take a seat at the spectator area and watch the current match. His opponent approaches me 5 minutes later, asking when he can play. Unfortunately, by this stage, I've been through this cycle with 16 other players and by now, I can't remember who is who. So we're stuck with a bunch of confused players walking around wondering when their opponent will appear. This caused a lot of delays in the open bracket. So here are my solutions for future events.
1. I'm going to be giving out lanyards/nametags.
2. Players who are awaiting their next match are to remain within proximity to the admin desk until instructed otherwise.
3. We need Nick to deliver this information during the opening ceremony, or I need to include it in the rules document.


So now here's my second problem.
Players leaving without telling me, or choosing not to show up for their matches on day 2. On day 1, we had 3-4 people rage quit after losing some of their games, and were nowhere to be found. I had no idea what at least two of them looked like, so I felt obligated to delay the bracket (by 90 minutes) to wait for them, rather than forfeit them. The day 2 guys weren't such a serious issue since the top 2 players in their group had already been determined. But giving me a heads up would be nice, as I spent a VERY long time calculating stats & points to be published to SC2SEA/ACLPro/TeamLiquid & Liquipedia, only to have to erase it all and start again the next day because the results were void. To be 100% honest with you, this is what I spent most of my time at the event doing. As I said - if you want to leave, that's cool, but please make sure you tell me first!


Problem number three. I specifically allocate players to specific computers for specific reasons. Here's a few off the top of my head.
1. Allows me to track match progress.
2. I record where players are sitting so it's easy to match them with their opponents.
3. Opponents are sitting opposite eachother, never any screen cheating issues.
4. We keep the broadcasted games away from the commentators for obvious reasons.
5. I can tell our camera guys where players are sitting so we can keep the player cams flowing.

This was an absolute nightmare for me throughout the open bracket because:
1. Spectators decided to take these computers to chat with on SC2SEA. I'm not gonna name anyone particular, but I had to ask you to get off 3 different computers within the space of 10 minutes. You know who you are. It was annoying. I really don't want to have to fence off the competition PC's next time, but this really makes me want to. Also, please stay off the stage. Do you see random spectators just walking around on the stage during any other event? No? Why do you think we'd be okay with it?

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2. Pro Bracket players decided to take these computers to play ladder and warm up 5 hours before their matches. I think this is great, and I hope we have more computers for you guys to do this in future. But during the open bracket is not the time to be doing it.
3. For the above two reasons, players began ruthlessly taking any computer they could get. So the whole system was out of sync within two hours. Epic, epic fail on my part. Fortunately we still got through it, but we were like 2 hours behind my projected schedule.


There is a lot that goes into our production. I schedule games with a very specific estimate in mind. I design the flow of the tournament so that we can keep a constant stream of entertaining matches playing back to back. Due to the clusterfuck on day 1, I think we had more dead air than games. Fortunately the guys in the Pro Bracket were much more adherent, so this was less of an issue on day 2. The reason I bring this up, is because (again), a spectator decided to start telling players to postpone their matches - directly contradicting instructions I gave them. So much to my surprise, when I walked over to check the progress of their match after 35 minutes, they hadn't even started yet. So the schedule I had delivered to Blair, Doble and Maynarde, along with the player information sheets were entirely incorrect. And they proceeded to deliver that information to our stream. This resulted in a staggered lunch break, and some players being forced to stay back and play their matches while everyone else was out to lunch. And thus an entire "miscommunication" resulted in us looking disorganised on stream. So a message to the players: unless me, or someone in an ACL Staff shirt tells you to do something, don't listen to them.


Players need to remain contactable. We took a break for lunch at 3:00PM on Sunday, and announced to the stream that games would resume at 4:00PM. But players didn't return from lunch until after 5:00PM, and the game didn't start until nearly 5:30. All attempts to contact both players via their mobile phones were unsuccessful. I know the social element of these events is fantastic, and I love it as much as everyone else, but it's important that we stick to our schedule. As a spectator, you guys have sat and watched the NASL and experienced what it's like to wait 2+ hours for the next game to start. Now imagine the impact it has on us, as a direct result of your actions. Please be considerate! Now for a bit of self criticism, I understand that the "authorised" breaks were far and few between. So in future, we'll have a more structured, transparent schedule allowing for more, smaller breaks.


I think that's all the feedback I have! Remember, this is a group effort, and if we want the events to improve, it needs to happen on both sides of the fence. We're committed to ensuring that the players and spectators get exactly what they want from ACL, but in order for that to happen, I need people to work with me too.
We'll be resolving as many of these issues as possible from our end, in future events. Closer communication with players so they have a better understanding of our expectations is extremely important, and I'll strive to improve this.


Thanks again to everyone who attended, participated and spectated. I hope you guys were as inspired as I was to see the first major milestone in the long road of Australian eSports ahead of us.
Much love,

Derek / Dox


(I apologise if any elements of this blog appear blunt or aggressive. Not my intent! Just trying to be as concise as possible, considering how long this is.)