March 11th, Federation square Melbourne will see host to Blizzards launch of Heart of the Swarm.
Quote:
EVENT DETAILS
The Swarm’s global invasion begins in Australia! Join the Zerg rush to Federation Square in the heart of the city of Melbourne, Victoria. From 8 PM AEDT on Monday, March 11, you can be part of the excitement in person or via the live stream!
ACTIVITIES
Heart of the Swarm matches featuring top pro-gamers
Q&A with members of the StarCraft II development team
Cosplay Competition
EVENT SCHEDULE
8:00 P.M.
Event kicks off at Federation Square
MIDNIGHT
Stage activities end
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm available for pick up (final EB Games sales receipt required)
Blizzard autograph table opens
NOTE: One copy of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm autographed per person
Players
Nv.mOOnGLaDe iM.yang Nv.deth x5.PiG
Casters
Maynarde inFeZa Flamga
Guests
Dustin Browder (Game Director) Luke Mancini (3D Artist)
Timing couldn't be better. Will be in Melbourne anyway over that weekend for a non SC2 event I'm helping to manage. No doubt it will be a crazy good night!
hmmm well they arent gonna invite just 4 zergs, im gonna say iaguz pig moonglade and light(mainly cos hes protoss, but also he is top SEA player afterall - if not light then mafia)
light might be busy so im gonna say mafia/pig/glade/iaguz, but i think light will get invited
I notified PJ it said 3 casters since its a bit weird that it would be the case. He has sine said that it will only be 2 casters. Although a threesome would have been awesome to watch lol
I'm talking about the awesomness that is NZ, and in particular the players we have
Oh right! Well then yes of course NZ wins EZ.
Australia / Singapore got nothin on NZ players you guys are da best we havin events in those regions cause Blizzard is afraid of unleashing NZ on the world stage. They fear that everyone's head would cave in as a result of not being prepared for the splendour that is a NZ player playing live Starcraft.
I mean really, thank whatever higher power you believe in or mother or pet dog that the world will now have more time to play catch up with NZ players understanding and execution, if the rest of us get close to 1/10th of the way there we MAY not have our eyes burn out of our skulls at first sight of NZ players doing their thing. Do you really want the deaths of MILLIONS of Starcraft fans on your hands?
Awwww yeeaaahhh! I hope this aint fake, but Tastosis are geographically the closest to Melb out of all the big international casters, so it'd make sense
Awwww yeeaaahhh! I hope this aint fake, but Tastosis are geographically the closest to Melb out of all the big international casters, so it'd make sense
Tastless, Artosis and Maynarde
___________________________________
The Chad is great!
Maybe I was seeing nothing but in yesterday's state of the game when they discussed it briefly Artosis seemed to be in the know about the Australian one. On one hand it's obvious that if they're picking local pro players Moonglade would definitely be there but at the same time only Artosis and Moonglade really knew about it with QXC being quiet and JP not even knowing it was a thing.
if artosis going kinda keen to go could be big.... hmmmm is there a confirmed number of ppl going already i might hitch up to the bandwagon or be lazy n drink n watch the stream at home hmmm.
Maybe all the local armchair experts can pay him a visit and share with him all their amazing ideas for how they're going to "fix" this "broken" game huehuehuheuhuehuheuhehuehe
DAT LINEUP MAAAN.
You casters are gonna rock it! The night's gonna be one of the best I've experienced with esports so far
GLGL to players and everyone involved, can't wait to meet everyone!
interesting player choices, i thought yang was inactive for the longest time? maybe they wanted an asian there (kidding)
wanted to see mafia or the other immunity boys up there who deserve it
its sick DB will be going tho! I wonder who Singapore gets
interesting player choices, i thought yang was inactive for the longest time? maybe they wanted an asian there (kidding)
wanted to see mafia or the other immunity boys up there who deserve it
They wanted WCS Australia and Oceania champion and a Protoss and a Terran who live in Melbourne and were also WCS finalists.
Guys this is REALLY close and startin' to get pretty excited
Spam your Twitters and your Facebooks and what have you to spread the love to your friends and be sure to thank Blizzard and EB in your posts for putting on a show for y'all. Keep showing love, and we'll keep getting nice things which is obviously good!
Hype it, pump it, hashtag #SwarmLaunch and go nuts social networking friends! Flamga, myself, Dustin "The Rock" Browder and the handsomest pros in SC2 will see you there
Silicon Sports & BarCraft crew will be meeting up at Young & Jacksons for some food & drink - its just across the intersection from Fed Square on the corner of Flinders & Swanston and just down from EB Games as well.
We'll be there from 5:30 so it will be great to catch up with all the Melbourne peeps for a beer or two!
I'm going to be trying to record as many of the festivities and hype for a recap video, so if you see me walking around with my 60D come and be silly on camera! Lets show the world how hard we rock this sport
Guys if you have any questions for the Blizzard Dev Q&A segment of the launch event, tweet them all to @Blizzard_ANZ and he'll select as many as he likes! Make em good ones and yours might get picked
Guys, I just made my preorder purchase at EB Swanston. The staff told me without a Midnight Release receipt, people wouldn't be allowed into the venue. Can anyone confirm this?! I feel as if this isn't what everyone is prepared for
Guys, I just made my preorder purchase at EB Swanston. The staff told me without a Midnight Release receipt, people wouldn't be allowed into the venue. Can anyone confirm this?! I feel as if this isn't what everyone is prepared for
Yeah, I was freaking out about this too since I got friends from out of town and stuff coming. But justice replied with this in another thread (I think he works at EB?)
Quote:
Hey Cute, anyone can attend the event, they get a different wristband -- to pickup your copy of the game from the even it needs to be pre-ordered at any Victorian store and you need to get the staff memember to RSVP your copy of the game for you, before the 10 of march. If they just have standards on order it's super easy -- if they have a Collector's Edition they may need to talk to the manager about transferring the CE to the event as they have now been allocated across stores.
But yeah, the staff at the store were really misleading ><
Yeah, I was freaking out about this too since I got friends from out of town and stuff coming. But justice replied with this in another thread (I think he works at EB?)
But yeah, the staff at the store were really misleading ><
Yeah, a lot of them are forgetting that this is primarily a Blizzard run event to promote the game, it'd be completely silly to not allow spectators.
Guys, I just made my preorder purchase at EB Swanston. The staff told me without a Midnight Release receipt, people wouldn't be allowed into the venue. Can anyone confirm this?! I feel as if this isn't what everyone is prepared for
I REALLY REALLY wish someone from the event bothered to check the stream chat, the volume has been too high, too low, out of sync and now I've just muted it because its actually ruining the event.
If someone bothered to look they would see how many people are finding these issues!!!!!!!!
I feel so bad for Maynarde having to polish this turd, his co-caster is quite bad and the general venue setup looks cheap and players are telling me they can clearly hear commentary :S
my only issue with the steam is the odd lag spike, every few minutes sometimes its for up to 10 seconds, but its not that often and seems to be stablizing now
This is exactly why australia isnt big for E-Sports events because events are ran as poorly as this. The best events to watch on the sea scene are done by 1-2 people. this has a team + a few blizzard people im pretty sure and its extremely poor.
I feel sorry for the casters and players..
Had to link twitters to people twice ;______;
___________________________________
-Entrepreneur
-League of legends and starcraft two coach.
Known for a time as Centrelink
Last edited by MushiTheCat; Mon, 11th-Mar-2013 at 8:22 PM.
In regards to concerns (mainly Pandans) it was a sick set up man I'm not sure what was cheap about it.
Also yes, the players could hear us we all knew this was gonna be the case before starting and no body cared. It was a series of show matches where nothing was on the line and everyone was just having fun, I spoke to all the players personally as well and they all really enjoyed themselves.
Regarding the crowd and that fellow from streamchats concerns. Ahhhhh stream chat is always a good feedback source between people spamming "LAG" and "LOL BRONZ PLAYER SO BAD LOLOLOL". The crowd was absolutely amazing. They exceeded my expectations as well. They went NUTS during the show matches, laughed at jokes and really cheered hard even for the cosplay section which only 4 people entered. Maybe this was a case of lack of crowd mic again, but I assure you with zero embellishment the AT LEAST 700 people were really a treat.
I had a bunch of really excited people come up to me and tell me how pumped they were for the future of our country's SC2 scene, and a few people who have only started getting into it recently who really enjoyed themselves and asked me where they can get more. It was really heart warming
I obviously didn't get to see the stream, this is literally the only place I've seen negative feedback. Friends from home said they didn't have issues, maybe they have lower standards I don't know. I overheard some venue hardware problems made it difficult on the night for JB and his team, who besides him weren't the same team from ACL and WCS. This is hardly their fault, shit happens, a shame none the less.
So yeah, would be very surprised to see any negative testimonies from people that attended. I can assure you the crowd, vibe and set up was really well done. The people involved worked really hard and it felt great. Cheers for feedback peeps!
Last edited by Maynarde; Tue, 12th-Mar-2013 at 7:41 AM.
I mirror what Maynarde has said. Personally the audience was pretty amazing. The whole audience being quiet thing is the same as WCS due to having no mics pointed their way. Our mics need to be quote close so hearing them on those is quite something.
And Pandan your are entitled to your own opinion but for myself could you at least provide positive criticism. A lot of people at the event were quite impressed with both myself and maynardes commentary.
hmm.. I think I agree with many of the comments. I know from being at WCS and hearing the crowd, then watching the VODs and not hearing the crowd that these things aren't picked up by the stream mics. Perhaps a crowd mic would help?
Also, I understand that there may very well have been hardware restrictions at the event, but the sound and at times video quality was horrible. . So I understand everyones concerns. But oh well, they did what they could with the resources available. When Australia gets NBN - it will be totally different. Maynarde and Flamga were fine casters - only feed back I'd give is they have a very similar narrative and hype style. There was some analysis - but I guess in the fun HotS show match environment analysis wasn't really needed. The new features were covered really well and casters we're fine. Only draw back was the similar style and repetition in the things each of you said. But that was no biggy.
Good job everyone. I haven't picked up my copy yet, hopefully this afternoon... Excited to get into the campaign. iaguz has already beat it on brutal! from him, there is about 9 hours play time with amazing cinematics etc.. so I'm pretty keen to get stuck into this!! ^_^
That's pretty much its Chaddman, its also a bit harder as we haven't had many times to work together but I feel we did pretty good. As for the limitations I believe PJ said that fed square promised good quality connection and then didn't deliver on it.
As for the limitations I believe PJ said that fed square promised good quality connection and then didn't deliver on it.
It was probably a good quality connection, for anything other than streaming. Hopefully people start realising what a good quality connection actually is.
From being there, the crowd was pretty good and there was a LOT of people. The casters were easily audible and yes the players could hear what was going on, which I thought was funny at first, but that implies this is a serious cut throat tournament with lots of prize money and prestige on the line. Which it is NOT. It's a freaking show match put on to entertain the crowd and show off the new units and skins etc. I don't know what stream was like, but honestly, let's not castrate people because the stream wasn't perfect. Also have to echo what maynarde said, stream chat is possibly the most retarded place on the planet. There isn't enough salt in the world to take with what stream chat says.
I was there, I didn't watch the stream so I can't comment on commentary levels, but the atmosphere and overall production value of the event was awesome. They had background music playing at all the right levels when things were getting hectic in game and the general mood of the ground was very enthusiastic.
Both Maynarde and Flamga were working VERY hard to be the best they could be on the right. Maynarde was a righteous host and Flamga was working so hard to meet everyone's expectations. Cut him some slack, jesus. Blizzard wanted people to show up to the live event primarily. Stream numbers and quality are second to a live spectacle when there are launch parties around the world.
What really matters is at least from one end it was pretty much perfect.
After dying in 37 degree heat during the day, the weather cooled down and felt really nice (highish 20's)
only one mic died. the sound was amazing ( i was right at the back for a little while and it was just as good as the front.
We only had 1 bm arsehole that was hitting a girl (there was the music festival at the same time. and there was a walkway close to the stage and it felt good having someone in the crowd pwning the crap out of them,
and who really cares if the players hear what's going on. its a show match for ENTERTAINMENT. It wasn't a chance to win big or anything serious like that .
also... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...825.1323510154
Was a pleasure to work directly on. Sure there are always things to work on and improve but I definitely was blown away by the live audience. Dustin himself said to me the crowd was awesome and he was really enjoying himself and I am sure that would be echoed by the other Blizzard staff.
I myself do not nearly know the level of work, equipment, budget and staff required to produce a world class stream - I learned a lot last night about that - however I will say the team who was there worked flat out from arriving in Melbourne to provide the best quality as available given their resources.
Keep the feedback coming and thank you to all who attended!
It looks like the people at the live event were enjoying themselves, and from all accounts they did. It was fantastic to see the players on stage on the Blizzard stream, and to get to hear from both Dustin and Mr Jack was a real treat. I would have attended if I could!
Coming from someone watching from home however, I'm not going to sugarcoat it!
The live stream I would pretty much label a disaster. Whilst everyone keeps saying the live event was awesome, you're still catering for thousands (potentially tens of thousands) of people watching online. As much as I've come to expect this sort of quality from Australian events, I can't help but feel that we really missed the mark on the launch stream.
The 3 main things I can point to are:
Sound quality - this was so bad I ended up muting the stream for the majority of the time. What's worse, there was no one to confirm whether this was being fixed, was able to be fixed or even if they were aware of the situation. This ties into the next point:
Moderation/Stream Admin - stream chat was left to it's own devices, and it wasn't pretty. the stream was getting ripped to shreds by almost everyone in chat.
An overall feeling of a below average event. The awesomeness of the live event didn't really translate through the stream at all. Sometimes when we got a wide view of the audience cheering, and it looked great. Other than that it felt a bit 'bleh', compared to all the other regional live streams (yea yea, i know 'this is SEA').
At one point near the start of the stream we had 3k viewers, but that plummeted down to 1.2k pretty quickly and it was only Dustin's interview through drove the numbers back up.
Yeah I know it's basically against some eSports code to post criticisms like this and everyone will probably have a fit and yell at me, but I really felt underwhelmed.
Great job guys Was good fun! I found the Viva La Dirt League videos slightly cheesy/cringeworthy, but so I've always done when it comes to SC2 parodies of pop songs; more something for our community to enjoy and laugh at. Production wise I thought the live event was definitely good. Again, didn't see the stream, so can't comment on the issues there.
I have to commend the entire team behind the event, for a product that's scarcely represented in a city better known for it's music and sports, it fit in really well. As someone who longs to see more gaming related events happening in the public I was very well pleased.
Casters were solid, the space at Fed Square was well used, and apart from that one scuffle everybody seemed to have an awesome time! The turnout was truly impressive, far more than I anticipated.
Sucks to hear the stream wasn't very good, but Melbourne still seems to be very much television oriented, and I imagine the internet connection was less than stellar. Hopefully that changes ASAP!
The fact that these things are happening here is a good sign regardless, because at least it shows we are open to, and more than happy to host these sort of events with capable teams on hand. The biggest of thanks to Blizzard, and the whole ACL crew for the event, can't wait for the next one
On a side note I took a whole lot of photographs and footage of the event, so I'l be sure to share them sometime in the week when Uni assignments aren't dominating my time xD
Edit: Oh and how can I forget! Got to meet so many awesome people! staff, players, personalities, so good to get to meet you all in person
This was so much fun. The live event was amazing! WCS was sickk but to have so many people, (I was told 2000) down there watching the design behind the game, some showmatches and local talents maynarde and Flamga was amazing! I met so many people and just chatting about Starcraft with so many passionate people was so exciting.
Hats off to everyone that put in the work to make the event a success! Thanks Blizzard for making and promoting such an awesome game
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