[x5.RunaMoK]

I might even host a stream for this with a set time n date* tba*.

But for the general conversation many of us have had is how do we build our scene? How do we grab the attention of the HUGE audience there was for the starcraft 2 hots release? If not globally.

How do we show the world, Australia has what it takes at a high level to beat some of the most notable players in the industry?

How do we promote player growth as well as scene development? and what would it take?

My GOAL for Australian E-sports is to see it grow. To see it shine with the best in the World, to create viewer experience that will grow communities and create fan base's. To have a passion that fuels a desire to inspire new generations to create hero's for countless others to look up to as role models and benchmarks to success.

I honestly see E-sports as the entertainment industry of the future and i want to see Australia leading the way.I want to see something like the " Australian Esports League " actually have a stadium where crowds can gather live like you would the football.

That's my image, and rather than hear excuse's as to why it hasn't happened yet. I want to here what everyone thinks it would take to get the exposure, what kind of set up should it be, what kind of price pools/ tournament structure etc, will help promote greater player influx and a rise in the skill ceiling.

To add to this i'm also very interested if people would be interested in getting in touch with me personally, bring to the table their skill sets and explain if they where given the chance, the effort they would put in to see something like this become a reality? add me on skype: slayersvenom19

Thank you for taking the time to read this, it's people like you who will make a difference.

[TtSYF.tRoy]

Would be a good idea and pretty awesome to have something like what is said here.
It should start as something smaller, Maybe someone with some big $$$ hosting a WCS Australia (different name) and playing it online then invite at a local internet cafe (or venue if they can afford)
This would take our scene to the next level imo and open it up but we just need the money and the crew willing and capable of running it. It seems at the moment we have one but not the other.

[Matt93]

The Australian scene is bigger than we think it is, I didn't go to the HotS launch in Federation Square but from pictures I saw it was pretty full up. It's just people don't know about SEA starcraft. They know more about DotA 2/LoL/CoD esports. Needs to be some kind of exposure and I think the best exposure would come when we finally get multiple people consistently performing at an international level.

Iaguz, Moonglade and PiG are really good ambassadors for SEA, so is Infeza with his observing and Maynarde with his casting but on the player front there needs to be deep runs in tournaments consistently, when Moonglade made his ro8 run in WCS S1 his fanbase was growing at each appearance then disappeared when the results did.

Of course we're stuck with a handicap of the SEA server being so far away from us and crappy internet which generally hinders streaming capabilities but I think if the Aussie scene grows Blizzard would be inclined to add a server down here, like DotA and League both did. It just needs publication, results, something that gets SC2 spread through word of mouth. It's always going to be difficult growing the scene since the game itself is rather hard to "get into".

I can see the Aussie scene getting big at some point. There are amazing locations for eSport events, in Melbourne there's the Exhibition Centre/Crown Casino, just imagine if SEA gets to the level of hosting tournaments that Seattle is with Ti3 (think sydney opera house full with people). Would be pretty good, but again it has to start with the players getting results

Results = Investments = Money = More time to practice = Better results = Bigger Aussie scene.

[mGGJuggerGOOSE]

Our scene will always be limited due to the lack of support (from a large audience) for these events, as well as the infrastructure (Poor internet connections as well as being quite far spread in terms of distance around our country) we already have in place. I believe that the cost of living in Australia is ridiculous for what we actually get in return, esp. if you look to the American prices for everything.

Perhaps if Hubs were setup around Australia central to the major cities where everyone, LoL, DotA, SC2, CoD, Halo and all other gamers/players could spend time at and practise with/against each-other. This would not only improve play, but also sets the scene for some Local/Interstate competitions, as well as making it much easier to find hidden talent/devoted players.

The only thing that isn't gonna be costing millions to set up, as great as saying small clubs/hubs would be great to dream about, word-of-mouth is the only thing that will ultimately spark one's interest in 1. Joining the Sea eSports Community and 2. Invest/Contribute to it.

[ToRSpookToR]

if we get rid off fray`pet then we might grow some more

[nirvAnA]

Problem:
To grow eSports we have to grow the player base. Sponsors are attracted by numbers, people watching their brands, and customers buying their brands from the positives associated with it. That's their whole point of investing, to get some form of tangible return from it hopefully more than its initial cost. The reason its hard to find sponsors is because its hard to convince them they are getting their money's worth and making a good business decision when they see 20 people turn up at big LANs.

So if there were heaps of people playing in our scene, surely this will attract more sponsors. So how do you grow the player base in sea?

Solution:

Somethings you can do at sc2sea:

• wanna chart and share your sc2 journey? make a blog
• wanna talk with like minded friends? theres our chatbox
• wanna do something sc2 related but not actually play the game or do anything? lurk on forums (lol not recommended actually)
• wanna join a clan? players can easily apply to clans here. or even start then own clan
• wanna join a tournament? there are bsgs, gpds and acls
• wanna learn further? well thats what the forums are for, to discuss the game!

I might sound a bit bias but I think we already have a good homebase and infrastructure set up here at sc2sea. Imagine if we didn't how different things would be. But thankfully we do. So lets make the best of it! If people truly cared about growing the scene, I believe they would put their differences aside and work together to create something the whole scene can benefit from. It doesn't matter what clan or team you're from, we all have a common goal to work towards.

Action plan:

Casters:
These guys bring the casuals in. I think Australia has some of the best casters in the scene.

Players:
They just gotta perform their best internationally. glade and PiG have been doing great imo in foreign tournaments. So we definitely are not lacking in casters or players and the rest of this post is dedicated to what we as a community can do.

Community:
Basically we need to encourage more people to join our community, then get them to STAY. When these guys come, you dont wanna see them see drama and shit fests on forums. That is why we have quite a strict moderation policy. Otherwise it harms the overall community and pushes pple away. We gotta be helpful and welcoming. Look at the new member thread post we have. We have sooooooooo many new faces everyday who take the effort to introduce themselves. But they dont follow up or post anymore I am not sure how to encourage them further.

We go to spread more awareness about the community - make it positive and something they want to be part of. They get more involved and sooner or later they end up attending events and posting stuff. Many of us started off this way. I see a thousand people in the noobschool channel and wonder why i dont see them on the forums, which is arguably a better place to learn then a chat channel. Strategy discussed here is permanent and organised and you get pros replying.

Spectators / LANs:
I think the spectator player base is there too, but they aren't coming. Apart from hundreds of these guys in the channel, you also have thousands of people at barcrafts who dont join in and become more involved. Why did everyone come out for WCS Australia and why are ACLs so empty in comparison? Same thing with IEM singapore where we saw 200 starcraft players we did not know existed. The people who do come are the ones you recognise on sc2sea who are more involved with the scene. I think the market is there but we just aren't reaching it.

Imagine if these more casual players started becoming being interested, and then brought their friends down too. you will get so many more viewers and people at lans. basically lots more pple which is what sponsors want to see.

TLDR: spread the word, tell them about sc2sea. welcome them, have a positive forum environment. give them the opportunity to become more involved in the game, they will start attending events etc more people show up and more sponsors. i honestly feel for whatever plan there is in growing the sc2 scene in australia, we are kinda like the catalyst to make it happen. but we depend on volunteers and people who want to do things to make it happen. and today, maybe of theirs pioneer volunteers have moved on.

We also gotta create content that makes people want to visit sc2sea. i am responsible for this area and this year its been lacking so far thats my fault and why i've been searching for someone who could help take over.

Conclusion

We need less people taking about wanting to do stuff (I've met soooooo many people like this) and instead people who actually do stuff. We had our recruitment thread here which typically gets 30-50 applicants. This year it got about 10, which is really depressing If you want to do something for the community to grow the scene please send in an application. It does not have to be limited to the roles suggested here.

It can be some other plan you have and we will provide you with whatever you can to make it happen. e.g Eddie's GPD and Master Cups were entirely his idea. He sent me a PM 2 years ago wanting to help build the scene and proposed this. I gave him tournament permissions and later news posting then moderator than facebook permissions. Basically anything to do help support this we did. And his tournaments have helped build the scene so much, developing GPD players and giving the top players things to fight for. It was all him. So yes, if you want to build the scene, you can too but it takes dedicating and the willingness to do something to make it happen. You can send in your application here.

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=7760

[AxS.pinealan]

As stated by nirvAnA, we already got a fantastic home base and infrastructure set up here. We a huge amount of dedicated players. Look at the clan leaders, pro players, moderators, and those who started up the community in the first place. Dox, Arnor, Spartaz, etc.. I virtually see these names EVERYWHERE on the forum. There are many more that I don't have time to mention, but our community is filled with people who are willing to contribute to the community. (I wonder how many of you will sacrifice your life if it is needed. Well at least I would.) Essentially, our community is like a family. A family whose members are dedicated to the growth of it.

However, sponsors do not look for dedication, they look for numbers. Our biggest problem about building the sc2sea community into the next eSports spotlight would be the amount of players in the community. And as mentioned in the last post, our problem is we don't have much in flow of new players into our community.

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

Look at the new member thread post we have. We have sooooooooo many new faces everyday who take the effort to introduce themselves. But they dont follow up or post anymore I am not sure how to encourage them further.

Regarding this I have a few to say. (Edit: this went way longer then expected)

Yes we have the amazing new member self-introduction thread. Yes we have a LOT of house clans that are constantly looking for new players. Yes EVERYONE on the forum welcome new players to join. So what is that problem?

I believe that my personal experience might indicate the issue.

About 2 years ago, I was this guy who had been playing starcraft2 for 1 year and certainly in love with this game. I was one of those nerds whose everyday activity was to watch some day[9] on youtube, then hop on the ladder and play some games. I had very few friends who played starcraft. I was trying to get more of my friends to play starcraft, unfortunately without much success. There was no one that I could talk to about starcraft. There was no social interaction that involved starcraft. And worse, though I can see the blooming starcraft community, I had no where to look for community activities.

Thus, I looked for a community BY MYSELF. By chances, I found sc2sea, on google.

See the problem here? I found this place by myself. Not by recommendation. When I first clicked on this site, it was through a direct link on the google page 20 or something. This shows that there is certainly not enough promotion of this community.

And there I was. Knowing nothing about this community, I registered the account, then I posted my first post on new members' thread. Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story.

I never visited this account for the next two years. Just as many others.

What was the problem here? It might sound stupid, but it was how I felt. This community looks way too much like a very warm, close family. It was hard for me to start replying threads here and there because everyone was already deep into their own discussion. I couldn't join the conversation on the chat box because these people are chatting about things that I don't understand. (We have got a lot of local jokes in the chat box.)

You know how it feels when you are at party that is held by a friend of a friend of your friend. You almost don't know anyone and you start to get bored. You want to join the conversations but you are kind of feeling shy or embarrassed to interrupt a chat. Ya, that is exactly what I felt. I introduced myself to everyone, but there was no one to introduce me to OTHER people. Thus, I got bored and I left.

Then why am I back? Well at the beginning of this year, which is a long while after I forgot this website, For some reason(I forgot what it was, might have something to do with HOTS), I mustered up the determination to to get into a clan. I recalled that there was a community where you can join clans and play in tournaments for fun. Thus made my second post about seeking to join a clan. Then I got replies and got into AxiS, where Knight(previously Soul) guided me to know everyone in the clan. And I started to become active on the forum.

This time, what can we learn. Again, it was me who decided to approach the community. But this time, I have a stronger and more specific desire to join the community. I took my time and waited for the reply of Soul, who then introduced me to here.

So thats the end of story. Sorry for making it so long and redundant. This should have been a blog, but I hope that my opinions are useful.

TO SUM UP, I think

• we need more promotion everywhere
• there need to be more features to introduce new members to the community
• encouraging clans to actively find new players, NOT wait for new players to ask to be invited into clans
• clans are the best way to really GET new players into the community, besides, when you think about it, most members on sc2sea are in a clan

And if you read through this entire article, I love you. I did not intend to make this so long, at all. Thanks for enduring my redundancy.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:	thanks so much for sharing this :) it was amazing to read it from your perspective!
	sR.Kumo:	Really good post :D +1 to everything

[sR.Kumo]

+ [More Interaction and Involvement Between Clans and New Players] +

I agree wholeheartedly with both Alan and NirvAnA. I know how it feels to try to get involved in a community, and then find out that the community is so tightly knit (although this most certainly is a good thing), that it is almost impossible to actually join in and become a part of that community. I get this feeling constantly, when I try to join servers on other games (namely, Minecraft), and I can't actually get into the community because everyone is such good friends with other that you feel left out instinctually.

Similarly to Alan's case, I joined these forums (at that time solely for the BSG), and I didn't actually post or read threads until a few weeks later. I started off just posting threads asking questions about general gaming related things, and later on moved on to regularly posting, reading threads, and finally actively being a part of the forum community. But the first step I took, before I feel that I actually joined the community, was joining a clan. I talked to the few people I knew on the forums, (pretty much just Shockwave at the time), and I got recommended to join AxiS from him, and I've been with them since.

Basically, a core part of getting to know people and getting involved in the community revolves around knowing people, and the easiest and quickest way to get to know people, I feel, is joining a clan. Sure, people don't need to join a clan to get to know others, but for a new member, it's a lot nicer to start off that way. Even if there are lots of people you don't actually know, every once in a while, you'll think, "Oh! it's that guy! He's in my clan isn't he? I talked to him on Skype yesterday!" and feel some sense of belonging on the forums themselves.

And through that, you get to know others. Those few clan members you see on the forums, makes you feel comfortable to talk with others, and you open up to and become a more closely tied part of the community.

I think, as Alan said, if clans actually looked for members rather than members looking for clans, that for one would initiate more bonding and involvement between new members and the current community.

+ [idea that I already spoke to Nirv about] +

idk if it's possible
but if when people signed up to the forums, there was a question on the registration screen
asking, "Are you looking to join a clan," and if they answered yes, their account name would automatically get added to a list, on a page that only clan leaders can access
that would be cool :P and they can toggle that option on their profile.
so like, clan leaders can actually look and see, oh, a diamond toss is looking for a clan? I want PD toss players, lets PM him"
because when people join JUST for BSG or GPD like I did
you don't bother making posts, so if you don't post on the "LF Clan" thread, no one even knows about you
so this would help players who first join JUST for tourneys, to actually get scouted out
and some time later they become part of community

+ [Site Promotion and Advertisement] +

I personally am willing to help out to my fullest, regarding getting people to know of this site. The only problem is:

- I really have no IRL friends who are into gaming of any sort. The few that are are more into LoL, WoW, and Shooter games.
- I live in Europe. So the people from here that I do interact with who are into Starcraft, would be more inclined to play on European servers.

Especially now with leveling, one of the primary things I had to deal with when convincing my brother to join this community was that he was attached to his HoTS level and all the profiles, decals,and rewards it earns you. Sure, this may seem rather petty, but it's still something to be attached to. Sure, you'll get back into your right league with ease, but you've already worked to earn something elsewhere, why in their minds would it make sense to leave it and earn it elsewhere.

Other than that though, I'm glad to help out promoting Sc2sea on the internet. On various FB gaming groups I'm involved in, I have sometimes already posted about the BSG and GPD tournaments this site runs. Sure, that's only a fraction of this site, but hopefully from that foothold they could get involved in the community the way I have done.

I feel, however, that it would be much easier to accomplish for member of our community already living in the SEA region - the vast majority of the forum members, so to say. If you have friends involved in eSports, and Starcraft, show them to the forums, and try to get them to join our community! Sure, I know sometimes you prefer to not involve your IRL friends in your gaming life. I'm like that myself, since my friends are not very much into gaming, I prefer to keep my nerdiness confined to this place, and away from them ^_^

But if it can help the community grow, and your friends are as much into the game as you are, what's to lose?

One more thing that should be focused on, in my opinion. When there's a barcraft, or a tournament, the majority of sc2sea members in that city that it's being hosted in, will probably attend. But, there will also be people from that city who aren't members of sc2sea, at the event.
SHAMELESSLY PLUG SC2SEA .
Wether it's at tournaments or barcrafts, or any other Starcraft event, if you just somehow, get people there to know about this wonderful forum, every person you bring here helps us develop our goal ^_^

I'll add more points later, there are a few more things I had in mind, they've slipped me now though. And it's touching midnight.. and school starts tomorrow .-.

Edit: see? Organized Kumo uses spoilers and to make everything neat and unclustered, unlike everyone else!

[mGGNemesis]

Originally Posted by AxS.Kumo

idk if it's possible
but if when people signed up to the forums, there was a question on the registration screen
asking, "Are you looking to join a clan," and if they answered yes, their account name would automatically get added to a list, on a page that only clan leaders can access
that would be cool :P and they can toggle that option on their profile.
so like, clan leaders can actually look and see, oh, a diamond toss is looking for a clan? I want PD toss players, lets PM him"

I think while this function is good, the community would also be interested to know the players who might be interested in clans. Most clans do not recruit just based on 'you are interested but I dun really know you'. When it is posted in a thread, while the leader might not know a certain person, the members might or have interacted with the said player maybe in chats or in game. Or if no one really knows the person, at least the community or those in clan becomes aware of this player who has expressed interest and try to look out for this player and find out / get to know who he is.

Basically, a button is good but the thread helps too. Also someone might not be interested at the point of joining the site, but later. So the 'button' should also be easy access for the player who decides to do so later, or change clans etc.

[Seffy]

Excuse me if I'm just repeating things but everything is TL;DR for me since I just woke up..

Anyway, with regards to the "looking for clan" button; I do think we should have one.

However, it should work so when people do click it, we have a list of the clans registered on site and an "about us" post made by the clan (i.e. they click the button, see the list and under each clan name there is a few words about that clan). Then, on the end of each "about us" of that clan there should be something along the lines of "would you like to know more?" where they can click it and get more details out of it.

If they want to sign up, they can go click on a button on there that says "apply for this clan" where they can fill in a form. However if they're too confused to decide or something, there can be a link in the clan list where it says something like "Can't decide? Post in the "looking for clan thread" to have them come to you!" kind of thing; where you get linked into the "looking for clan" thread and the applicant can just post on there.

The clan leaders can have direct access to this thread (like have their own private button on the site somewhere to link straight to it), and well from there it's first come first serve.

TL;DR: Would be good to have potential applicants take a pretty nice look at the clans on site and they can apply for one, or if they can't decide they'd be linked to the "looking for clan" thread where the leaders can have direct access to and they can recruit.

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by nirvAnA

Spectators / LANs:
I think the spectator player base is there too, but they aren't coming. Apart from hundreds of these guys in the channel, you also have thousands of people at barcrafts who dont join in and become more involved. Why did everyone come out for WCS Australia and why are ACLs so empty in comparison? Same thing with IEM singapore where we saw 200 starcraft players we did not know existed. The people who do come are the ones you recognise on sc2sea who are more involved with the scene. I think the market is there but we just aren't reaching it.

Imagine if these more casual players started becoming being interested, and then brought their friends down too. you will get so many more viewers and people at lans. basically lots more pple which is what sponsors want to see.

Basically this... None of these people who come along to barcrafts or watch gsl even know about SEA events. They don't read sc2sea (or probably know about it) or any of the other gaming websites in aus, or even care about playing at a lan.

None of the local events are advertised through the university societies or any other channels that the people who set up the barcrafts used to get their name out there like that. And I've been sitting here for over a year wondering why... (pretty much ever since I was on my way home from ACL Sydney last wear in my TL shirt and got stopped by 3 different people asking me if they'd missed a barcraft that night and I told them about ACL which they'd never heard of...)