[Zepph]

I don't think you understand how scary it is to watch the current ACL team pull these events off. Maynarde and I were blown away when we were up in the caster's room at Sydney watching these guys work. We're talking about just a few guys running 3 streams, setting up the entire venue, running the tournament and madly dashing around doing anything else that needs doing all at once. Everyone's running on empty, jacked up on caffeine and surviving on the occasional bite of food and a love for the event that they're running. I actually don't understand how ACL is as good as it is with that few people on that little sleep.

I understand the constructive criticisms people have been writing up and I agree with a lot of them. A huge one for me is the downtime on stream where viewers get left in the dark for an undetermined amount of time before the next match. Certainly, that could be remedied with some more filler material. However when I think about how stretched thin the staff are, it's hard to see where there would be that extra person to man a camera for a filler interview, or even just to walk around with the camera in the venue for something to look at on the screen.

It seems kind of strange to me that there is such a lack of volunteers when every week I usually get one or two messages from people that would like to know how to get more involved in the scene. These are people that want to produce content, to be writers, interviewers, youtubers, etc. There are also those that just want to make friends within the game and those that already have something going and would like to get connections with more experienced event organisers such as the gentlemen at ACL.

Volunteering is a great way to network with people in esports as much as it is a great way to support a local event.

If you can't contribute this way, ask yourself why you wouldn't attend an ACL event (this is something Pandan touched on) and speak up with your reasons! That kind of feedback can be super useful. I know there are 9784356784 more SC2 fans that could be at these ACLs but for some reason they don't come along. I'd love to see all of you SC2 nerds out in full force for 2014.

Anyway, TL;DR : Don't be shy, get involved, help out, make friends and have fun in the process. Even if you can only assist for a couple of hours on one day it's better than nothing!