Mine and your MLG Anaheim experience as a viewer

Wow. What a tourney. There were some definitely good matches over the weekend, really close fights, some one sided battles, and a victor over all.

I thought I'd make this thread to discuss your highs and lows of the weekend, pros and cons to the tournament etc.

I personally bought the premium pass, to get ALL the content, and I watched a ton of games, and had all the views up at the same time and was switching back and forth.

Casting and Casters
Did a pretty darn good job. I do love the casting style of Tastosis, so naturally, I found myself watching their stream when they were on.

I am not a fan of DJ wheat, but MLG did a great job with matching him up with someone with more experience, and it helped a great deal. When I say experience, I mean a caster that isn't umming and ahhing their way to the gg.

Axeltoss and Mr bitter were great, solo or not, and Husky has improved a great deal. Always love Apollo and TB. Great energy and analytics.

Would have been nice to have Day9, and while he was at the location, I guess he had other things to be doing, which he was. I like his blend of excitement, professional speech and experience with tactics.

Only constructive criticism I have is Clutch - I seriously got a little tired of his attempt at stage presence. It felt like he was trying to be the UFC announcer, no self style that he showed when I first saw him casting last year on the MLG floor.

MLG did a good job with casters chosen, and how they were matched up through the weekend.

Content:
One of the major reasons I bought the premium pass, though I have sworn in the past that I would never buy MLG product ever again, was the promise at the start of the weekend of exclusive content on the extra 4 Starcraft 2 channels. I was massively disappointed. My constructive criticism to this regard to MLG is: if you say you are going to have exclusive content - please do so. The extra channels were often blank. I really wanted to fill in the MLG down time with the other events going on, and I was not able to do so. The premium pass for the extra content was money poorly spent, as the content was not there. I was hoping to see more Open bracket play, more WCS play as well, and both got minimal time on the extra channels.

The production of the main red and blue stream content was great. No issue there, save for the usual down time, which is to be expected to a degree. However, there were often 30 minute+ breaks in games and matches. I really hope MLG tries harder to schedule a but better, but from the sounds of it from interviews with players, scheduling with MLG and the WCS tourneys was really really bad. Please MLG, try harder.

One thing I LOVED, was the HotS content being played during down time. One thing I hated was the HotS content being played several times during down time.

The Matches:
Good god the matches were great. The players really brought their A game to this event.

Notables to make sure you watch, are pretty much all of the Losers brackets quarters, semi, and losers bracket finals. All the matches were great. Sase's games are particularly good and close and stand out in my mind. Grubby's games were also really really good to watch and the casting (as previously mentioned as good) was pretty spot on.

To summarize:
MLG did a good job, but some improvements hopefully will be implemented for future live events.

What was your favourite match of the weekend, or your thoughts on the MLG?

Win. That's all that matters. Win. Nobody likes to lose.

DaveVAH Canada. June 11 2012 14:00. Posts 159

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I was disappointed that there was no HOTS matches streamed apart from 2 battle reports. and no TvP battle reports.
Any armature-made videos from HOTS boots?

Otherwise the stream layout was great and minimal lag. good overall.

InvXXVII Canada. June 11 2012 14:03. Posts 239

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Really loved the layout. It was pretty awesome. Also really enjoyed the Kespa Invitational. Very refreshing to watch players do stuff that are BWesque, but don't exactly fit in today's metagame. Compared to the other times, the lag was pretty good (as in non existent) except for the finals. I don't if it's just me, but the lag was pretty intense for like five minutes during the first two games of DRG vs Alicia.

A good loser is still a loser.

Grimmyman123 Canada. June 11 2012 14:06. Posts 890

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I did a youtube search, and I could not find any HotS vids of some of the matches from the demo area. Would have been nice to have a couple of the demo games casted during the down time, that would have been GREAT filler. (note MLG if you read this for future events until HotS comes out)

I also agree, minimal lag, and the layout options were amazing. I tried the max views, and you get to watch EVERYTHING all at once, something I liked alot - you could pick and choose your content - provided content was playing on all the channels. Friday and Saturday were best for this. Late Saturday and Sunday was awful for additional content.

Win. That's all that matters. Win. Nobody likes to lose.

naux Canada. June 11 2012 14:06. Posts 719

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Putting somebody with more experience with DJ Wheat? Who has more experience then DJ Wheat?

FoxyMayhem June 11 2012 14:08. Posts 618

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Layout was stellar. Loved seeing the first person stuff, what a treat. Much better wait music this year. Great casting, matches, and camera control.

Did not like that the "picture in picture" (not the layout, the one done by casters to show a drop or something) had such an obnoxious graphic for its appearance.

Enjoyed Clutch's introductions, especially for the final match.

I think we need better interview questions. I don't know what, but the oft repeated "how do you feel" felt... too limited. An interview shouldn't be long, but something felt off or weak about the repeated questions. Dunno...

Great stuff MLG! Took it to the next level.

Last edit: 2012-06-11 14:11:37

Grimmyman123 Canada. June 11 2012 14:09. Posts 890

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On June 11 2012 14:06 naux wrote:
Putting somebody with more experience with DJ Wheat? Who has more experience then DJ Wheat?

By that I meant, not necessarily as in Time spent, more as in Ability. Wheat would be GREAT if he took speech therapy and training. He has a lot of nasty public speaking issues. I've got some training in that area, so it kinda drives me nuts to the point of I hate listening to him because all I hear is the flaws in his presentation. His Ums and Ahs are REALLY bad. have a listen, and count how many times he says um in a 3 minute span. I once counted 15 ums in one sentence.

Win. That's all that matters. Win. Nobody likes to lose.

Scootaloo June 11 2012 14:11. Posts 638

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All around pretty good, although I missed a lot due to zoning out during downtimes, which where a bit of a pain at times.
They did however learn me to apreciate fighting games as a spectator sport, hah.

Finals where a bit of a buzzkill, after working through the losers bracket, can't we have a proper bo9? Not this bo5 unless he wins the first 4 matches? Almost the same as the stupid extended series that I THOUGHT they got rid off.

@november
After fighting through the entire losers bracket I see no reason to give the winners bracket more advantages, Alicia was working his ass off while DRG was basically just chilling the second day.

And the fact that they took out the extended series with the purpose of not having really short boring finals again pretty much defeats your argument.

Last edit: 2012-06-12 02:38:20

sevia United States. June 11 2012 14:12. Posts 875

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On June 11 2012 14:00 DaveVAH wrote:
I was disappointed that there was no HOTS matches streamed apart from 2 battle reports. and no TvP battle reports.
Any armature-made videos from HOTS boots?

Otherwise the stream layout was great and minimal lag. good overall.

Well, I think the reason they wanted to avoid streaming matches outside of the battle reports is because people would undoubtedly throw a fit about balance, which obviously isn't perfect at this point. Imagine if they streamed something like MC vs. Leenock on HotS, and the match is just incredibly one-sided because of some unforeseen balance problem that they haven't adjusted yet. The community would be pissed and would basically whine until beta starts.

원이삭 PartinG || 김동환 viOLet || 고병재 GuMiho

Elios Brazil. June 11 2012 14:12. Posts 203

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Its funny how you say something about experience for djwheat and nothing about TB lol ...

OOOGORE United States. June 11 2012 14:13. Posts 13

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regardless of the hots content i have to say that the crowd was fucking awesome. people could hardly cheer by the end of the event after running themselves hoarse.

swagswagswagswagswag

nGBeast United States. June 11 2012 14:13. Posts 811

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No content on the Premium 1 and 2? Are you sure you actually watched then? They had bracket matches, WCS matches, and then kespa matches on them. And it was pretty consistent all weekend long.

NovemberstOrm Canada. June 11 2012 14:13. Posts 4170

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You don't like Clutch? Your whole thread is already invalid by saying that, Clutch did a fantastic job, without him the intros/mlg wouldn't be the same. Djwheat doesn't have experience? No just no.

@Scootalo It's loser bracket winner vs winner bracket winner Why wouldnt' the winners bracket player have an advantage?

Last edit: 2012-06-11 14:15:43

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eloist United States. June 11 2012 14:14. Posts 1015

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$35 ticket, $12 parking, no place to sit

IndridCold United States. June 11 2012 14:15. Posts 348

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was good have had the gold membership and not disappointed at all, Watched alot of the wcs, got some good pool play and championship bracket games, and watched the entire MK9 tourny and some LoL. Everything worked fine, no lag at all really.

I would like to see at some point being able to "follow" a player in pool play and be able to watch all their games with a gold pass. Even without commentary or something if you wanted or a POV of that player through the whole tourny would be great. Really wanted to watch Grubby but missed alot of his games...

Jack does not like ass crack and ball sack! Jack likes boobs, Jack has fans.... EG.Idra, EG.Demuslim, EG.Incontrol, EG.HuK, EG.ThorZaiN, EG.Puma, EG.JYP, EG.Machine, EG.LzGaMeR

Kammalleri Canada. June 11 2012 14:15. Posts 557

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On June 11 2012 14:06 naux wrote:
Putting somebody with more experience with DJ Wheat? Who has more experience then DJ Wheat?

Anyone that doesn't hmm and haaa all the way to the gg apparently.

I didn't get to watch the whole thing especially early on, but from what I watched it was awesome. I think every casters did as good as i expected them to or better. Seeing Socke do so well early on was awesome and Sase's run was amazing today. Just how he somehow kept winning the 3rd game against amazing player was unreal. DRG just being DRG.

I missed most of last MLG's, including arenas, but from what I remember of the last few MLG i watched it was a huge improvement. A lot more content even tho it could still be better even if it's just quick interviews with players and stuff. Having to consitenly change stream and get even more ads got annoying after a while.

Overall awesome event tho

Grimmyman123 Canada. June 11 2012 14:15. Posts 890

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On June 11 2012 14:12 Elios wrote:
Its funny how you say something about experience for djwheat and nothing about TB lol ...

TB isn't the strategy caster - hes the in game action caster. Thats why TB And Apollo work so well together.

Thanks Kammalleri - Sockes matches are really really good. Not all nailbitingly close (a few were) but his methods in the game were just wicked, almost surprising.

Last edit: 2012-06-11 14:17:12

Win. That's all that matters. Win. Nobody likes to lose.

Grimmyman123 Canada. June 11 2012 14:18. Posts 890

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On June 11 2012 14:13 nGBeast wrote:
No content on the Premium 1 and 2? Are you sure you actually watched then? They had bracket matches, WCS matches, and then kespa matches on them. And it was pretty consistent all weekend long.

not as much as I would have liked... felt like a lot of down time... I wanted more.... always wanting more...

Win. That's all that matters. Win. Nobody likes to lose.

rhs408 United States. June 11 2012 14:19. Posts 684

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Loved the layout - best I've seen for any tournament to date. Games were fantastic, casters were top notch, crowd was awesome, although I'm not sure why the front rows seemed empty for so long? I did NOT get the premium pass, had plenty of content for free. Seems like there should have been more games available to watch for premium pass.

Last edit: 2012-06-11 14:24:07

Dice17 United States. June 11 2012 14:20. Posts 514

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My only complaint was that there were so many people with such bad hygiene that it smelt awful the entire time. Luckily sunday I got there early and got a seat in the front which made the pain of the smell less.

GamaBear #1 Fan! Sen fighting~