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United States37500 Posts
With another great tournament held by the guys at IGN coming to a close, many of us are winding down after a weekend of exciting.
Much like the Feedback thread for OGN The Champions, this will be the Feedback thread for IPL4. Rest assured that IGN staff will be interested in knowing what users from TeamLiquid think of their event come Monday morning and the following week.
Same parameters apply: - use the form below - constructive criticism only - temp bans will be issued for infractions
[b]Positives[/b] + + +
[b]Negatives[/b] - - -
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My only negative was the casting by that hatguy and redbaron since they don't really add anything to the cast. They were constantly saying things that were wrong or completely irrelevant.
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
Positives Really liked the showmatches. Entertaining way to fill the downtime in between scheduled matches. (Minus Pobelter tryharding)
Negatives Commentators shouting into mic would kill my ears. Pretty much only complaint I have
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I think that tournament organizers should sit down with players and have a serious discussion about tournament format. Maybe I'll just end up coming across as someone mad that CLG lost but I don't think that double elimination is really conducive to LoL. Having a finals that can potentially last 6 hours isn't good for spectators or the players. I'm not sure what format would be superior, single elimination might not be that great of an option for example. Or even a modified finals for a normally double elim (as we've had in the past) might not be the best way to go about it either. Regardless, I think this conversation should be had because being up an entire set in LoL is not only a really huge advantage but it means you're playing so many games and since LoL matches last so much longer than RTS or FPS game matches it just doesn't make sense to me.
Maybe more tournaments should consider doing group stages? I dunno, but it'd be nice if organizers were to ask pro teams about what formats they'd prefer. Having to potentially play 9 games in one day for loser finals and grand finals seems a bit much for a team.
edit: Personally, I think group stages is vastly superior. It means that teams can make mistakes and lose games early on and it also lets you invite more teams. Then after group stages just do a standard like 8 team single elimination bo3 tournament. I believe this is how IEM does it and I think their format is really great for both spectators and players. Not to mention I love group stages, so much more exciting than having a losers bracket.
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Positives I really enjoyed the live sotl segment they did at the end of day 1.
I have other comments but I'm fairly sure someone else will cover them all.
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Positives Giving the crowd thundersticks. Negatives Having to make them not use them.
Made the game really exciting,
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Positives + Liked the format of the tournament. All Bo3 series and double elim works well imo. + Fun hosts, loved the awkwardness (though not the kpop ) + Really liked them filling in the time between series with the showmatches. Entertaining way to fill the time.
Negatives - Only one stream, so we missed many series (though I believe they said they were fixing this for IPL5?) - Player cams just don't work well with a 3 minute spectator delay. - Crowd noise getting in the way of team communication. I think its cool when the crowd gets to make lots of noise, adds to the atmosphere. Maybe find some way where this wouldn't be an issue. -Casters shouting into the mic sometimes was a bit too loud. Not sure if it was a mic quality issue or what, but it did not sound good at times.
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Positives:
- Interview quality was much better than before and elicited some more insightful answers. In particular, some of the interviews Travis did were very good. This should continue.
- Really great atmosphere created at the venue and strong audience engagement with the production. The cheering was very good and the casters were able to feed off it.
- Having multiple hosts including Cristina Vee helped smooth transitions between activies. Having personalities come up and do the hosting would be recommended for future IPLs.
- Average Gatsby twitter updates were very appreciated.
Negatives:
- Terrible sound work. Mics were picking up random background noise or shorting out. Sound levels were mixed wrong in general. For instance, in-game sound not being broadcast, the casters being quiet and then cutting to a super loud commercial, caster mics having their volume suddenly changed without warning mid-sentence, etc. There was no quality control throughout IPL.
- The videos played during the breaks would sometimes suddenly go off in the middle of the caster/host/interviewer speaking. There seemed to be no management or control during the first two days.
- During Rioters v Pros game, someone decided to randomly flash a troll face picture on screen. It's distracting and unprofessional. The image wasn't even high resolution. It looked like some low quality picture rapidly taken off Google and resized in Paint. I understand that this was supposed to be about fun. But having a troll face flashing on screen is really childish and distracting. The focus should be the actual game and additions should enhance the experience, not detract from it.
- During the games, the player cam view would often spoil results early. The feed needs to be delayed to not ruin the endings of games. OGN does this very well.
- At the prize ceremony, the Head of Riot and IPL gave their speech in the middle of the prize ceremony after the 2nd and 3rd place awards were given out. This make the 2nd and 3rd place awards awkward as a trophy was just handed to them and the teams had no idea what they were supposed to do. It also seems incredibly disrespectful as they don't have anyone coming up to present them with a trophy and shake their hands. They just get passed something off-camera and shooed off stage. At IEM, Carmac does his speech first and then does the ceremonies so then there is interaction and breaks the awkwardness and everyone is personally congratulated.
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I really did not think that Christina, the voice of Riven had the proper persona, qualifications, or background to be up on stage as the host of IPL. She was at a loss for words numerous times, really didn't contribute much to the on stage ambiance with the casters or players, and could have done much more in way of asking questions and engaging with the audience and players and commentators. Hell, her wardrobe was incongruous with the event even.
A much better choice for that role would have been Rachel Quirico who was actually at the event. She has experience with interviews directly related to gaming with numerous pro gamers inside this genre.
Casting her as MC really was an amateur move and I think hurt the overall production value when considering the effort of both Riot and IGN here was to help progress the eSports scene to be on a platform of equal value as conventional sports.
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Positives -Actually giving the crowd tools to make some noise. -The kpop/commercials are actually decent
Negatives - 2 Sets for grand finals kinda long, best of 5 with 1 game advantage would've been slightly faster. Clg had to play lots of games, tsm played their first game that day, could've easily dragged out the first set to tire clg. - Interviews with Travis, it felt like he just asked a question and didn't even listen/care for the answer, just constantly nodding, the interviews just weren't enjoyable this way.
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United States37500 Posts
On April 09 2012 11:10 Roffles wrote: Negatives Commentators shouting into mic would kill my ears. Pretty much only complaint I have
Not sure how to adjust volumes to where you can hear the casters when they speak normally and still not kill eardrums when they get excited during major fights. But at least they know that some people were bothered by the volume.
On April 09 2012 11:12 overt wrote: I think that tournament organizers should sit down with players and have a serious discussion about tournament format. Maybe I'll just end up coming across as someone mad that CLG lost but I don't think that double elimination is really conducive to LoL. Having a finals that can potentially last 6 hours isn't good for spectators or the players. I'm not sure what format would be superior, single elimination might not be that great of an option for example. Or even a modified finals for a normally double elim (as we've had in the past) might not be the best way to go about it either. Regardless, I think this conversation should be had because being up an entire set in LoL is not only a really huge advantage but it means you're playing so many games and since LoL matches last so much longer than RTS or FPS game matches it just doesn't make sense to me.
Maybe more tournaments should consider doing group stages? I dunno, but it'd be nice if organizers were to ask pro teams about what formats they'd prefer. Having to potentially play 9 games in one day for loser finals and grand finals seems a bit much for a team.
Someone explained the reasoning for the extended series to me in the LR thread and I came around and decided it was fair. But it still feels like a drag for the team coming out of the losers bracket because of the number of games they have to play on the final day.
General question to all: what formats could you suggest if not the one used at IPL4?
On April 09 2012 11:14 fantasticoranges wrote: Positives Giving the crowd thundersticks. Negatives Having to make them not use them.
Made the game really exciting,
Thundersticks are fine but IGN needs to stipulate to the audience not to use them during games. Pre/post game, it's ok. During, it becomes distracting to the players (Pobelter said as much on r/LoL)
Not sure how IGN would go about enforcing this rule.
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Positives + awkwardness is funny + very organized + kpop
Negatives - only one stream! and max 480p free... but i don't think it would be money wasted unlike if you spent money on the earlier LoL tournaments - HA - commentators were basically just shouting about what was happening, said dumb stuff a lot. minor slip ups are ok, major ones just make them look bad (minor: triple advance instead of twisted advanced, major: and no one even used their ult!... except cass and soraka). except dan dinh. commentators should be able to give some analysis also, not sit there and just scream about what is happening and break my ears off. their style generates excitement i guess, but it isn't very interesting to listen to. should hire/invite more well known good players like dan dinh (a former pro!) to cast. - stream sometimes laggy, maybe just me though
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United States47024 Posts
On April 09 2012 11:20 NeoIllusions wrote: General question to all: what formats could you suggest if not the one used at IPL4? Bo5 with 1 game advantage for the finals makes sense to me, as opposed to 2x Bo3 with 1 set advantage.
Bo5: Winner's Bracket finalist needs to win 2 games, can drop 2 games anywhere during the finals. Loser's Bracket finalist needs to win 3 games, can drop 1 game anywhere during the finals. Maximum number of games: 4
2xBo3: Winner's Bracket finalist needs to win 2 games, can drop 2 games, but can't be in the same set. Loser's Bracket finalist needs to win 4 games, can drop 2 games, but can't be in the same set. Maximum number of games: 6
In terms of being "fair" to the loser's/winner's bracket finalists they're similar, but a Bo5 with 1 game advantage is much less likely to produce a such a grueling number of games.
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Just about the only thing that I have a real complaint about is that we STILL don't have a Tobi Wan for LoL.
But I do think that they need to send the casters through LoL bootcamp. They don't have to be pros, but even doing something like make them read the TL gd thread would be a good (necessary) way to improve their game knowledge and keep it up to date.
And they need to just subscribe to the T_D school of statements. If you are going to say something, just SAY it. Don't qualify every statement you make. Some of it will be wrong. Some of it will be stupid. But at least say it confidently. It gets really annoying to hear "I feel" "I believe" and "I think" over and over again.
And redbaron needs to work on casting with pros: dont ask questions constantly: say what is happening on stream and let the pro jump in to expound on a fact that they find needs to be expounded on.
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United States47024 Posts
On April 09 2012 11:26 Two_DoWn wrote: And redbaron needs to work on casting with pros: dont ask questions constantly: say what is happening on stream and let the pro jump in to expound on a fact that they find needs to be expounded on. This.
Casters need to cast. Commentators need to commentate. Casting/commentating works most smoothly when this happens, and gets very muddled when casters try too hard to commentate (redbaron) or commentators try too hard to cast (Phreak).
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United States37500 Posts
On April 09 2012 11:26 Two_DoWn wrote: Just about the only thing that I have a real complaint about is that we STILL don't have a Tobi Wan for LoL.
But I do think that they need to send the casters through LoL bootcamp. They don't have to be pros, but even doing something like make them read the TL gd thread would be a good (necessary) way to improve their game knowledge and keep it up to date.
And they need to just subscribe to the T_D school of statements. If you are going to say something, just SAY it. Don't qualify every statement you make. Some of it will be wrong. Some of it will be stupid. But at least say it confidently. It gets really annoying to hear "I feel" "I believe" and "I think" over and over again.
And redbaron needs to work on casting with pros: dont ask questions constantly: say what is happening on stream and let the pro jump in to expound on a fact that they find needs to be expounded on.
Negatives - Don't preface your casting with "I feel" "I believe" and "I think" - Dan and RedBaron needs to stop being a Q&A session, makes for very awkward casting
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On April 09 2012 11:26 Two_DoWn wrote: Just about the only thing that I have a real complaint about is that we STILL don't have a Tobi Wan for LoL.
But I do think that they need to send the casters through LoL bootcamp. They don't have to be pros, but even doing something like make them read the TL gd thread would be a good (necessary) way to improve their game knowledge and keep it up to date.
And they need to just subscribe to the T_D school of statements. If you are going to say something, just SAY it. Don't qualify every statement you make. Some of it will be wrong. Some of it will be stupid. But at least say it confidently. It gets really annoying to hear "I feel" "I believe" and "I think" over and over again.
And redbaron needs to work on casting with pros: dont ask questions constantly: say what is happening on stream and let the pro jump in to expound on a fact that they find needs to be expounded on. and don't interrupt him when he's answering your question even if you're really excited
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United States37500 Posts
On April 09 2012 11:28 TheYango wrote:Show nested quote +On April 09 2012 11:26 Two_DoWn wrote: And redbaron needs to work on casting with pros: dont ask questions constantly: say what is happening on stream and let the pro jump in to expound on a fact that they find needs to be expounded on. This. Casters need to cast. Commentators need to commentate. Casting/commentating works most smoothly when this happens, and gets very muddled when casters try too hard to commentate (redbaron) or commentators try too hard to cast (Phreak).
That confused me a bit. What's the difference between "cast" and "commentate"?
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As for the format thoughts:
I honestly think that giving the WB winner the ability to chose side and wether they want first ban (Ie you can have both if you want) for every game is a big enough advantage to where you dont need to give away a game and you can just run a standard Bo5. It isnt as visceral as a game or set advantage, but it is HUGE.
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I've never seen people split the two terms before but I'm assuming casting is the emotion hype humor guy and commentate is the guy coming in with the analysis.
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