[Baldie]

Official Season 2 Feedback Thread

While still fresh in our minds here is your official way to give your thoughts on every aspect of these qualifiers be it preparation, communication, the tournament itself or anything else! Go nuts!

We tried to listen to your feedback from Season 1 and implement as much of that as possible but as always there are ways to improve. I will respond below to feedback provided by Eddie from Season 1 as I have been receiving similar feedback this Season so want to clarify a few things.

[Baldie]

Just a disclaimer, I love Eddie and what he does so this is purely designed to provide clarity over a few things.

Originally Posted by Eddie

Unrealistic registration requirements.
Setting a requirement on having to be current Masters+ on SEA (rarely played server), or NA shows lack of knowledge and understanding of the SEA player base. We know who the majority of our Masters level players are, why make them jump through hoops?

At the discretion of Blizzard these qualifiers are limited to South East Asia and North America servers because they are SEA qualifiers for WCS NA. Players have sufficient time (at least for Season 2) to train on NA to get Masters.

Originally Posted by Eddie

I believe there was a significant number of players who didn't make the requirement who had signed up to play, and were denied participation!

As the manager of this Tournament I must keep the integrity of the Tournament, regardless of who it is. People can only compete if they meet the requirements period. As an example mOOnGLaDe was almost denied entry this season because he wasn't masters on NA the day before screening. He made it in time but I told him if he didn't provide an account he wasn't playing. I of course want our players to compete but I give mOOnGLaDe the same treatment as anybody else. If I subjectively allow somebody to play because I think they should - where is the line drawn? Blizzard and I both agree the rules are to be firm.

Originally Posted by Eddie

Another concern/query is why have ACL involved at all? If i'm not mistaken it's Baldie doing at least 90% of the work. Why not go to him directly? Having people signup through ACL seemed like an unnecessary process.

Eddie is correct in that I do the large majority of work towards WCS. However I report to Blizzard ANZ & Blizzard SEA who report to Blizzard HQ. Do you think Blizzard HQ prefer to see their tournament in SEA run by the Australian Cyber League - or a guy called Baldie - regardless of whether I am running it or not? Running signups through ACL is for the same reason.

Originally Posted by Eddie

The turnout for stage 1 was extremely discouraging. Above mentioned signup process and league screening no doubt contributed, but to only have 41 players in an event as prestigious, high in $ value, and exposure as this is should have been, is disgraceful! 20% were no shows.

The expectation i would have set for Stage 1 would be 60 minimum, with goals for 80+. Easily achievable with promotion and the $'s and exposure which were on offer.
The result was pretty much the turnout we get for our weekly $10 Cups... So something clearly went wrong, and is probably largely attributed to the signup and screening process.

Firstly, no shows will always be a part of our Tournaments unless penalties are put in place. Secondly, these qualifiers are also limited to Masters and Grand Masters as they are meant to be the highest tier of competition and are designed to find the best of the best, not to provide opportunity for the entire region's player base. As a result the amount of players will always be lower than weekly tournaments with open registrations.

Having met with Blizzard we decided on key success criteria for these qualifiers which I will not disclose - however the amount of competitors have been on par with our expectations. I of course will always strive to have more players but there is only so much I can do. Ultimately it comes down to the community to spread the word.

I hope this clarifies a few things and I will make an active effort to respond to feedback this season.

Quick Comments

FLuX:

Great responses

[mGGDrGooSe]

At the discretion of Blizzard these qualifiers are limited to South East Asia and North America servers because they are SEA qualifiers for WCS NA. Players have sufficient time (at least for Season 2) to train on NA to get Masters.

fair enough, but what it does mean that is that players are wasting their time maintaining an acc with subpar mmr and perhaps attrocious ping for this. Essentially it's just another hurdle which takes away from a player's serious practice time in circumstances where they may get lower quality of practice on NA than Kr because of ping, etc. Has blizz given a reason why a Kr acc and proof of residency/citizenship is not acceptable? Seems like whatever measures are used to catch a random korean with an SEA/NA acc would work here too.

[syfChadMann]

Is there any way to have next season advertised in the SC2 client for people logged into SEA server?
This will help boost numbers. Also, we should all start laddering SEA and spamming www.sc2sea.com every game.

I totally agree with the Masters+ requirement, however - why not extend it to Korean server also? Some people can't ladder on NA due to ping problems due to their ISP and SEA can be a bit of a waste land at times - unless you can think of a way to entice people to ladder SEA...?

Also, with the new league reductions, diamond is somewhat higher than previously - would you consider opening the tournament to diamond+ players?

Anything WE can do to help you, Baldie? hit me up, I want to see this thing grow sonny Jim.

EDIT: I think if you include Korea, you'd have to dis-allow barcode accounts. But if someone can prove they have a Masters+ account on any server, they should be permitted to play. The idea of the ruling is to avoid time-wasting with 100 gold league players signing up, they aren't going to qualify and it makes the tournament longer for no reason, so I get why you want masters+, just not why you don't accept Kr accounts.

[x5_dot]

Is there any way to have next season advertised in the SC2 client for people logged into SEA server?
This will help boost numbers. Also, we should all start laddering SEA and spamming www.sc2sea.com every game.

I support this!

[Baldie]

I'll raise the point regarding Korea once again with Blizzard. It was discussed earlier and the decision was made as per what was explained above. Ultimately it's up to Blizzard to dictate the terms of the Tournament.

[x5_Bard]

By having the tournament on NA you are giving a ping advantage to those players based in the US. I understand that pet, guz and MK don't need a ping advantage to win but if you want this,

I must keep the integrity of the Tournament

You cant really have a tournament where several of the players have a distinct advantage over the rest.

@Eras, I never said there was a better alternative, I personally get around 80 ping to SEA. I am well aware that the majority get much higher though. Pretty much any way you look at it someone gets an advantage. The only way would be to not allow people currently residing outside of SEA from competing. Which would be a shame.

Quick Comments

|Erasmus|:

If you had it on SEA the same kind of advantage would go to the players from Singapore...

[x5_dot]

|Erasmus|: If you had it on SEA the same kind of advantage would go to the players from Singapore...

At least those players are residing in SEA atm.

[syfChadMann]

Originally Posted by x5_Bard

By having the tournament on NA you are giving a ping advantage to those players based in the US. I understand that pet, guz and MK don't need a ping advantage to win but if you want this

yehhh.. nope. Optus has srs issues with ping to SEA. Optus is a major provider in Australia. Lots of people prefer NA, its a given that people want to play on NA server. Plus pig won't be able to play to SEA when he's in Europe, so you guys should support this

Originally Posted by x5_Bard

The only way would be to not allow people currently residing outside of SEA from competing. Which would be a shame.

This is a ******* crazy bad idea. Sorry man, I respect the reasoning, but why should they punish players that are trying to make the most of this game in its competitive realm!? Oh gratz on getting to a major international team house, but too bad you can't play in your home country qualifiers for regional representation in a tournament hosted in the country that you live in.

o_O

Server should default to NA, give players the option to play on SEA if they choose. idk why you guys are bringing this up?

EDIT: I realise you say there is no better alternative. But I think its a pretty low blow to say it adversely affects the integrity of the tournament - even while admitting there is no better alternative.

Quick Comments

x5_dot:

"I never said there was a better alternative"

[x5_Bard]

This has nothing to do with PiG. I think you are reading into things.

I never said we should play on SEA. All the things you have brought up I never stated.

I personally do not feel you can have an "integrity" based tournament when some players have an advantage. If you would like to argue about that be my guest. The rest of it is stuff you have read into.

And why should the default server be NA? So that people who choose Optus can compete? Why not choose another ISP? Not quite sure what the reasoning is here.

This is a ******* crazy bad idea.

Which is why I said it would be a shame. -.-

[syfChadMann]

Originally Posted by x5_Bard

And why should the default server be NA?

Its an NA tournament......................

You say the tournament is lacking in integrity, but the alternatives are worse... sorry mate, that's ******* confusing.

Why else should it be an NA based tournament? its widely regarded as the main ladder server for most SEA players. I'm only considering competitive level players here, but if you polled everyone that qualified to day 2, I'd say all of them would ladder mostly on NA and Korea.

By reading into things, this is a feedback thread - if there is a problem, offer a solution. The solutions to what you've stated as detrimental to the integrity of the tournament are what I am 'reading into' from your previous post. EG; you say server ping advantage is the problem, the two alternatives to this is: A - SEA server to play games, B - ban people living outside of SEA. I'm providing reasons as to why both of these alternatives are horrible. So therefore, the current format is all good.

Only other solution would be to have NA based players play though a VPN to virtually increase their ping... Which adversely affects their play because they practice on lower ping and are used to it.

In short, no solution to the problem worth exploring. Again, why would you bring this up when there is no solution?

Quick Comments

x5_dot:

wat

[Maynarde]

^ Just FYI lads WCS Oceania was played on SEA for the most part.

Ahem, anyway.

I quite like the idea of including people who can prove Oceanic / SEA residency and have Masters+ accounts in KR to be allowed to join based on that ranking. It's not REALLY arguable that a Masters player in KR can easily be a Masters player in any other region.

Quick Comments

x5_Bard:

I think I got confused with all the server talk D:

[Baldie]

Friends please. I'm not sure why this whole server thing is being discussed. The tournament has always been hosted on SEA (as it's the server region we are in) with the option for players to play on any other server if both players agree. If only one wanted an alternative server it would stay on SEA.

In regards to the integrity aspect, what I mean by that is integrity from a rules perspective. The rules stipulate you must be current season masters and thus I hold to that. External influences such as location and ping I cannot impact, it's just the nature of an online event.

[Dox]

The streamer blue screened and missed the end of MG vs KK. Also the overlay said Maynarde but it was clearly Fenner. BLAZIRD PLS

Quick Comments

Maynarde:

streamer and observer literally hitler blizz pls