Staff were friendly, hardworking (working around the clock). There should be name tags next time so it will be easier to show our appreciation for the staff, and for the players/staff to communicate more efficiently. We know who Dox and Vance are, but there were a few familiar faces whom I don't even know the names of, that were putting in a mighty effort the entire time.
Production was absolutely FAN-TAS-TIC. Maynarde & Co putting a terrific and lengthy effort definitely deserves props.
Organisation/scheduling was abit flimsy - I am slightly abit more critical about this as I happen to be the biggest victim of such(Tied first-place in group, no time for tiebreaker). But I do understand it was caused by unexpected events. However, ofcourse these things can be prevented in the future.
Dissappointed in my own play but the more experienced(I refuse to say better to keep the drama flowing) players got the better of me in some really crazy series. Also a little dissappointed for myself personally that I didn't get to play in any streamed games, or do any pre/post game interviews.
Was great to see everyone and meet a few new faces.
In terms of competition, MG still the man to beat, Ninja solidifying his place as most improved of 2012 so far and one of the few names capable of taking away MG's throne. Good to see Delete coming from the open bracket to rep Protoss, saw some great games with him vsing Pokerface - Protoss winning a base race against Mutas, WTF LOL? Top 8 Zerg was a little dissappointing, with the Terrans and Protosses barely missing out - definitely need to step it up! Although getting LAN would help, ALOT.
Despite all these great things, Iaguz stays European, rendering the entire event a big dissappointment.
Last edited by nGenLight; Mon, 23rd-Apr-2012 at 5:46 PM.
What a great weekend of entertainment. I managed to catch a fair bit of the stream on Saturday, and did a 9am-1am stint (couldn't make it to the finals!) on Sunday.
Pretty fantastic quality overall! The production was great and from what I could see the venue looked great. You could tell that both the staff and players put a lot of prepation into this event. The level of play was really high, with a lot of meta-gaming and new strategies being thrown around. I was really impressed the the final group of players that, whilst probably suffering exhaustion, put out some really good games right until the end.
Even though it probably doesn't mean so much coming from me, thanks to all those involved as it was really enjoyable to watch.
Some notes from the stream side (just nitpicking)
- Lengthy periods between games, especially on Saturday. Sunday afternoon was great as they really punched through those games. (Understandably it's hard to get players organised, keep the brackets flowing & keep the stream satisfied)
- Casters probably don't need to introduce themselves so often
- Interviews were great, but some of the more impromptu ones got really awkward (some of the players didn't know how to answer the questions)
- Knowing whats going on! At times we didn't really know what was going on and when. Sometimes soon meant 2 minutes, other times it was 30+ minutes.
I'm really looking forward to the next one, and would love to attend in person (even if I wouldn't know a single person there)
Last edited by UHF; Tue, 24th-Apr-2012 at 7:13 AM.
Staff were friendly, hardworking (working around the clock). There should be name tags next time so it will be easier to show our appreciation for the staff, and for the players/staff to communicate more efficiently. We know who Dox and Vance are, but there were a few familiar faces whom I don't even know the names of, that were putting in a mighty effort the entire time.
Production was absolutely FAN-TAS-TIC. Maynarde & Co putting a terrific and lengthy effort definitely deserves props.
Organisation/scheduling was abit flimsy - I am slightly abit more critical about this as I happen to be the biggest victim of such(Tied first-place in group, no time for tiebreaker). But I do understand it was caused by unexpected events. However, ofcourse these things can be prevented in the future.
Dissappointed in my own play but the more experienced(I refuse to say better to keep the drama flowing) players got the better of me in some really crazy series. Also a little dissappointed for myself personally that I didn't get to play in any streamed games, or do any pre/post game interviews.
Was great to see everyone and meet a few new faces.
In terms of competition, MG still the man to beat, Ninja solidifying his place as most improved of 2012 so far and one of the few names capable of taking away MG's throne. Good to see Delete coming from the open bracket to rep Protoss, saw some great games with him vsing Pokerface - Protoss winning a base race against Mutas, WTF LOL? Top 8 Zerg was a little dissappointing, with the Terrans and Protosses barely missing out - definitely need to step it up! Although getting LAN would help, ALOT.
Despite all these great things, Iaguz stays European, rendering the entire event a big dissappointment.
IMO the production was really international standards GG WP~!
I had Dreamhack, MLG, and ACL streams open over the weekend, but I found myself spending more time and enjoying ACL the most. Perhaps its the abundance of the swarm but nevertheless, great job to all players + casters + crew.
Great quality stream, player reactions, roaming camera and casting. Just wanted to echo the others that the downtime would be alot easier to manage if you could put up an approximate time for the next game. The only other issue was the lack of results coverage of games not on stream. Dox did a decent job of updating individual results in the OP. However, he had so much on his plate you really needed a dedicated updater as well as up to date group standings so we could see how our mates are doing relative to their groups without having to write it out ourselves (I ended up updating TLPD groups off dox's updates in frustration at how behind it was). It'd also be nice if the casters could mention other results and group standings more often during the casts.
This is all nitpicking though, from watching the stream it was far and away the best sc2 event australia's had to date so kudos to the ACL team and helpers (even with the zzz ro8)
It'd also be nice if the casters could mention other results and group standings more often during the casts.
This is easy to do without the casters saying a word, something like what I did during Master's Cup, just have some text that you can update that scrolls of whatever saying updates and information.
The stream this time was such a great improvement than GC and all that remains is the little things, which can be easily fixed in a heartbeat!
To echo what everyone else said, great event. I enjoyed most of it (even though it finished so late every day and I was exhausted and just collapsed into bed every night when i got home) and am definitely planning on making the trip down to melbourne for that one when it happens.
It was great meeting all of the Brisbane and Melbourne people and putting faces to names. For some reason before this event I thought Infeza looked similar to Pinder. :S
Getting to know people like crackhands (he single handedly made me want to BM on ladder 10x more then I do now), Chad (sexiest wog I've ever seen), deth (he didn't want to kill me which made me happy), Yang (who i'm definitely going to force some free coaching out of ), and about every other person (who i'm too lazy to write their names out for) was pretty fun and I definitely will be looking forward to seeing everyone again at the next event.
A big thankyou to everyone who actually made this event possible. I have no idea who everyone was who helped out but i'm personally amazed that the event actually finished that night (thank god SEA isn't T dominated ).
As a viewer on the stream, I have to say I was really entertained with the casting that Maynarde and others who hopped in stream did. I thought it was great that the production had a lot of Live Cameras around the event for viewers on stream that can't attend. It really gave me the whole atmosphere of how ACL went, only thing is maybe while the cameraman walks around zooming into people and focusing on some players, maybe he can carry a mic around and talk? It felt like it would've been even better like that.
But for sure, biggest event for SEA and of course Australia as of yet. Really really really well done! I think as a spectator really got to give it up to Maynarde for making me laugh and entertained throughout the day.
Ah, and another thing. Interviewing players was great. I loved how most of the matches were interviewed and it was nice to hear some people you'd never really hear much from!
Fantastic event to watch. Caught it all from start to finish. Very impressed by how it was run. Loved the views of the place and the guest commentators. Congrats to GLaDe and all who played. It is destination: Melbourne though for Carnage and we will be there to tear shit up!
Might as well give my 2c on the event and everything like everyone else.
I had an absolute blast. If I flew down and didn't even play I still would've had a great time and enjoyed myself; good times and lots of laughs were had. The more of these I go to the more people I meet and the better it gets, being able to walk from one side of the room to another and having 5 conversations with different people on the way. Had a great time shit talking with Kez, LOADS of laughs with Champi (seriously, I don't think there was a moment we weren't laughing about something stupid) and meeting all the Sydney TA boys that I've spoken to online for years.
I must say a big shout out to HuT. As much as things between us had been sorted online and just brushed away as nothing, there had been bad blood between us and it was a bit awkward for both of us not introducing ourselves to each other etc. However, he came up and sat next to me to watch me vs Fenner and gave me someone to discuss the games, really helpful.. Thanks man. ^_^
The production crew work their asses off to get everything done and it's so hard to manage something this big effectively, but they're getting there. Practice makes perfect and they're damn close!
Can't wait for Melbourne.
EDIT: And the footage! Can't wait to see it!
___________________________________ http://www.clan-ta.com | TALoSt#281 - Feel free to message me anytime for practice games!
Last edited by [TA]LoSt; Mon, 23rd-Apr-2012 at 11:09 PM.
Forget the players, games and organisers, best part of ACL Sydney were the Lovesacs! Will not come to another ACL unless I am guaranteed one to sleep on when I've been there for over 12+ hours :P
Forget the players, games and organisers, best part of ACL Sydney were the Lovesacs! Will not come to another ACL unless I am guaranteed one to sleep on when I've been there for over 12+ hours :P
When I was on the love sac talking with glade and livi one of the SC2 guys split some of their "drink" on the love sac it became the "rumsac".
Just thought I would post for my first time, I am an ACL staff member who helps run the console stage who has interest in SC2 and hopes it gets alot biggers.
I have a few shout outs as well:
-Rossi for being awesome and chilling with us console guys while we helped set up the event.
-Glade and livi for being some of the nicest people I've met in gaming and explaining shit to us while watching GSL at the Aus gaming house.
-Gaming house guys (you don't really need sperate ones) I love all of you guys and nothing more is needed to be said.
-JB, easily top 2 for most baws running of LANs who gets no where near the credit he deserves.
-SC2 production team you are amazing simply amazing.
After the shoutouts I would just like to say to all the stream viewers to check out the console stream when the SC2 is on a break as it really helps out as a whole.
Also we had keyboards and mouses to use I remember seeing them a couple of times not being used.
Last edited by THE NUGUNS; Tue, 24th-Apr-2012 at 4:06 PM.
*Even fraglabs bearded support guy was very nice and helpful. Not his fault the laptops were having really bad framerates.
James was really apologetic for this; sadly ACL Sydney landed at an extremely unfortunate time for them. They are only days away from launching their new range of 380 models, so their best gear isn't available at the moment. The laptops we had this weekend were only running ~340's and although they performed adequately during testing, it obviously became a bit of an issue when 200/200 armies were clashing and there was a lot of animation like creep, fungals, etc on the screen at once. We can't apologise for this enough - you can be sure it won't happen again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
*the Asus pcs had alot of troubles, shame they spent more time maintaining the display pcs then providing any fixes for these ones.
I need to speak with the rest of the team to identify exactly what the deal was with these. We had 3 of them DOA before the event even began, with several more falling apart throughout the event. Such a shame.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
4th place = no money, and always forgotten.
I don't think anyone will forget Ninja's performance this weekend. Alongside Myuu and delete, these guys really tore it up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
Ninja would have come top 2 if it the tournament finished earlier in the day
This is the part where I elaborate on all of our shortcomings. I haven't read any further in the thread yet, so for all I know, someone may have already addressed this over the next page or two. Fingers crossed...
1) The Saturday delay. Long story short: we picked up a whole new array of equipment for the stream, granting us a whole new plateau of animation capabilities. Like, GSL quality stuff. We were really excited about showcasing this for ACL Sydney. But unfortunately one of the most vital pieces of equipment was no longer functioning, despite our tests the night beforehand. So this forced us to completely scrap the stream configuration and come up with something entirely different with what we could scrap together. The stream team are absolute magicians. So anyway, this took us until nearly 12:00PM to get up and running, when we were hoping to kick off at 10:30. But the real kicker was that it had not only delayed the tournament, but the entire schedule. Our registrations and payments were delayed by an hour, the opening ceremony was nearly an hour late. The whole thing just snowballed and we were on the backfoot before we'd even begun.
2) The Open Bracket. There's no clearer way to say this: I messed up. 100% me. I didn't manage the players efficiently enough, which resulted in people (yet again) taking eachothers PC's, or sitting around laddering after their matches instead of freeing up the computers for others to play. Some people had to wait over 2 hours for a computer to be made available whilst others were playing micro trainers and whatnot. Also, you might recall I said we were going to have lanyards & nametags for ACL Sydney. I left the order too late and they didn't arrive in time, so again I found myself chasing up 20+ people I wasn't familiar with. Most of the time, it would only be 5 or 10 minutes before they wandered over to the desk to see if their match was ready, but those minutes really start to add up when they're happening half a dozen times per round. I'm gonna start a few new paragraphs for my own tangents before I continue responding to posts.
2b) Some comments will inevitably be made that holding games for the stream was a detriment. It wasn't. At no point throughout the event was the bracket delayed due to streamed matches. I managed this particular aspect of the event with extreme efficiency. The problem was, however, is that although we would schedule matches, the casting desk had absolutely no direction. So more often than not, we had both players and the commentators sitting in the game lobby for 15+ minutes waiting for a green light to proceed. This didn't even occur to me until half way through day 2. So in future events, I'm going to look at having the admin desk relocated right next to the commentary desk, so that I can play more of a director role to the stream team. Furthermore, we'll capitalise on this to bring results directly from the admin desk to the stream viewers between matches.
2c) One of our biggest sources of delays was one that could only be identified in retrospect. Our production team was itching to deliver so much premier content on day 1 that it really had an impact on our turnaround. We had pre-game interviews, post-game interviews, we had players seated at a feature station so we could provide a quality cinematic experience. This is all great stuff, but we should not have done this on Saturday. In future, we'll just be churning out Open Bracket matches as fast as possible. We'll move players around as little as possible (you still need to take your allocated seats though) and the stream won't wait for anything. We'll bring all that great production over to Sunday and allow the Group Stages / Championship Bracket to absorb those luxuries. Anyone reading this will be thinking, "Well duh, that's common sense." But as I said, we had so many wonderful production resources available to us that it was just lost amongst the commotion. I still stand by the opinion that ACL's production is second to none. We just need better direction. I really hope to provide this at ACL Melbourne.
2d) In future I'm going to be delegating results to Linc (Norksman). I'm sure many of you witnessed my frustration as I was interrupted by questions and requests whilst in the middle of entering results, only to have to chase you down and clarify the score. This is no-one's fault but mine - I insisted on juggling too much. I'm happy for you guys to ask questions and I apologise for constantly holding up my hand and asking you to wait whilst I sat around chasing my tail. I'm not used to having assistants to help out, so I'll manage these resources better in future. Having said that, this weekend would not have been possible without Linc. He was an invaluable resource, and I'm actually scared to think how distastrous things would have been if I hadn't brought him on board.
2e) Two way streets. I'm going to pre-face by highlighting a conversation I had with MaFia on Sunday afternoon. This tournament format and atmosphere is a very new thing to many Australian gamers. Over time, the expectations of the admins and the players will become mutually familiar. We'll have a better understanding of how the event is intended to operate and things will naturally smooth themselves out. So I don't necessarily feel that any changes are necessary in this department. But I still think it's important that I highlight a few key areas where the players can "help me help you." Firstly, you MUST take your assigned seat. If it's not available, please notify us. Don't just grab the next closest one. Our entire schedule balances delicately on top of knowing who is playing who and when. As soon as you start playing a match, we've already allocated who is going to be playing on your PC once you're done. Sometimes that person will be you, but in the early stages, it's more than likely going to be someone else. This is just a limitation of resources, and will improve over time. But it's critical that you respect the admins and your fellow players in this regard. If you experienced frustration over having to wait for a computer this weekend, consider that someone else may have been in the exact same situation whilst you were laddering. Furthermore, we had spectators using computers again. It was actually the same people I had to repeatedly ask to get off computers at ACL Gold Coast. You cannot imagine my disappointment. These computers are here for tournament purposes only. Not for you to update Facebook or chat on SC2SEA. The next thing I want to highlight is results. You MUST report these results to the admin desk immediately after your match is complete. I know it's nice to stand around and talk about your games with your friends/opponent after it's over, and we all get pretty wrapped up in it. But we need your results as a priority. More often than not, we were chasing results rather than having them brought to us. And we'd be sourcing them second-hand from spectators or match history. I'm not gonna lie, we lost more than 2 hours this weekend just chasing down results. And finally, the last thing I need to highlight. When your match is announced, you're under an obligation to start it within 5-10 minutes. I respect that sometimes it takes 5 minutes to set up your equipment and get all of your settings right. But you don't need to play 15 minutes of micro trainer before every match. And as much as I appreciate the social aspect of the event - it's honestly the best part - when you're finishing veto'ing maps with your opponent, don't stand around chatting for 10 minutes before taking your seats. You need to start the game immediately. On that note, try to manage the vetos a little faster if possible. I extended an olive branch this weekend by removing the "pre-determined map" from the Group Stages, only to lose precious hours in the long run. Now I know this paragraph seems terribly negative, so I'm gonna retreat back to my original statement before closing out - I honestly feel that all of this is just growing pains, as players familiarise themselves with this sort of large-scale atmosphere. The more ACL's you attend, the more natural this entire process will feel, and we'll be smooth sailing in no time.
3) Tiny nitpick. We had labeled computers for the players by hanging numbered banners from each chair. Not only did I see spectators taking these chairs away from the playing area so they could gather around their friends - but they tore the numbers off too! Please consider the impact of your actions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
2) Teammates forced to play first in group play when possible to avoid thrown matches, this wasn't an issue in this tournament but could be in future.
This will definitely be enforced in future. I was disappointed to hear this being abused over the weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
3) SC2 viewing area like on the 2nd day, set up on the first day, with volume just high enough so the audience can hear it. Makes live spetating experience much nicer.
Agreed. We're still a new title to ACL and our resources are limited, but just like MLG - I can assure you we'll be the flagship title in no time. I'll try to make sure this happens for Melbourne.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiG
4) Terrans and protoss train harder and make it out of groups you bastards.
Heck yes.
In closing, I'm absolutely ashamed that we went 5 hours overtime for this event. We budgeted for a much larger number of participants in the open bracket and were prepared to manage it. Due to an array of small issues, everything snowballed into one of the most painfully long events of all time. I can't apologise enough. Never again, you have my word. This post has become quite the essay already, so I'm gonna hit submit before I start reading the rest of the thread. I'll try to be concise.
ACL Sydney was an amazing event to be a part of! Even though it might of went a bit too late :P everyone was in the same boat, so it's hard to complain competitor wise.
Even though the top 8 was zerg i feel it was really enjoyable games! And i'm glad i got to battle the norwegian big boss targa in the finals and take on the strategy that got me when we fought in brisbane, though we both looked like we were going to die irl at almost 3am after it >o<
Must say more lovesacs at the event would be great, they are so damn comfy!
The ACL staff as usual were friendly and helpful and i feel it ran very well despite delays, Dox as usual did a great job running the tournament!
Is there a playlist of the songs that were playing throughout?
I'll grab this for you tomorrow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TASlowHands
Special shoutout to Chad for looking after us all and moving us along when we caused a 'disturbance'
Actually this reminds me of something I left out in my last post. I'm sure it goes without saying, but please don't get drunk during the events. I'm all for after-parties and I'm always the first to laugh at peoples' embarassing inebriation adventures, but we actually got in a lot of shit for this. I had no idea people were drinking until they were already drunk and drinks were being spilled in the venue. I'm really sorry to sound like a buzzkill here - I know it was late and people were well overdue for it - but we have a professional standard and legal obligations to adhere to. Both were compromised this weekend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dippa
first day's delays was something like the moonstar's guide to tournament management (me + chadmann's set got delayed 4 times for other games to be streamed and then a 5th time so they could get pinder to cast it) but it's all cool since we had an awesome time
I was told that you had requested your match be streamed, I did everything I could to accommodate you. I really wanted to say, "No, we can't fit it into the schedule" but I wanted to give you guys some spotlight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOM
i think the breaks in between streamed matches should have something like a list of players that are currently playing matches off stream, or a quick preview on the brackets.
Absolutely agree. I'm really excited to be getting more involved with the stream direction in future. I understand viewers expectations and I'll be striving to satisfy them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cordance
give people times till next game as accurately as possible on the stream.
Shall do, thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xGKingLight
Organisation/scheduling was abit flimsy - I am slightly abit more critical about this as I happen to be the biggest victim of such(Tied first-place in group, no time for tiebreaker).
This was heartbreaking for me man, I really, really wanted to run tiebreaker matches but we were already so far behind schedule. I knew we couldn't pull it off but I just refused to accept that we'd have to settle for map scores or something lame like that. I promise we'll fix it up next time and we'll budget for tie breaker matches in our schedule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xGKingLight
Also a little dissappointed for myself personally that I didn't get to play in any streamed games, or do any pre/post game interviews.
omg I had no idea! We had a media panel ready and available throughout the whole event. If I knew I would have sent you over there immediately.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xGKingLight
Despite all these great things, Iaguz stays European, rendering the entire event a big dissappointment.
HAHAHA
Quote:
Originally Posted by TAScarecrow
It'd also be nice if the casters could mention other results and group standings more often during the casts.
100% agree man. With the way we were setup, it was almost impossible for casters to have access to this information in real-time. We'll ensure that this isn't the case for future events.
Quote:
Originally Posted by System
This is easy to do without the casters saying a word, something like what I did during Master's Cup, just have some text that you can update that scrolls of whatever saying updates and information.
Not to sound rude, but no, for an event of this scale, it requires a tremendous amount of work. Each individual has an array of tasks assigned to them and relaying results from the admin desk to the casting desk to produce some simple scrolling text would mean that another hidden production component is suffering.
Oh, I just discovered VaNzR's post on page 5. Ah well, some overlap.
Well, that's about it from me really. As always, it was a pleasure. I enjoyed seeing everyone again, and meeting some new people. We'll continue to improve.
I walked away from ACL this weekend with several things;
Faces to names and new friends - It was so good to meet so many of you and chat with familiar faces from ACL Gold Coast
More live casting practice - I feel like there is a chance more things like this will make an adequate caster out of me yet
Faith in ACL, it's staff and it's sponsors and a deep appreciation for all of them (especially after Dox and VaNzR's post) - Everyone is very professional and friendly, sure tempers can flare when there's a lot of pressure but in the end we all want the same thing and appreciate everyone's hard work and patience. I have 100 percent faith that ACL Pro in Melbourne will be even more amazing, also that production and organization will improve many fold with every event.
A sore throat - Shout out to soothers for their fine product getting me through Sunday (and Raamon for the chai drink).
Inspiration to play more and improve my game - There were some of the best games of SC2 I've ever seen on the weekend, and I dunno about you guys but seeing them didn't make me want to take a break from SC2 but rather play it more and practice more.
I feel it was an excellent experience, and re-iterate Dox's statement that the "growing pains" will pass and this will become a well oiled machine... And that SC2 will most definitely become it's crown jewel. The main stage will not be yours for long console boys
I truly hope that everyone who watched enjoyed ACL Pro Sydney, and that the level of interest by spectators and players only grows with each event.
Also, when in NSW do not stay at the Randwick Lodge. I slept approx. 6 hours total over the past 3 days. It's cheap and close to the venue, but I want to see roaches and fungal growth on the screen not in my bedroom D:
See you in Melbourne
Last edited by Maynarde; Tue, 24th-Apr-2012 at 12:29 AM.
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