[Dox]

Originally Posted by PiG

*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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	You are an amazing human being, post is a must read for future ACL attendants
	TCPLemminks:	You're terrible :P, in all seriousness you had a lot on your plate. Depending on when Melbourne is I would love to help you chase down players and such. I'll even buy a cattle prod.
	TAEdgE:
	Baldie:	So much love for you <3
	neon:	Only a dragon could do all those things at once.
	ausproleague:	Well put
	TASlowHands:	The event still rocked dox! Im sure Melbourne will be incredible with the experience you guys gained
	ACL Beware:
	Asrathiel:	♥ ♥ ♥
	x5_dot:
	Sunset:
	Cordance:	Awesome effets its good to have the post event wrap up to improve.
	xGKingdelete: