Transparency in SMITE eSports

I've never done a TwitLonger post in the past, but I felt this would be the best way to relay this messaging.



To quickly introduce myself, in case you don't know who I am, my names Adam or HiRezAPC and I work in the eSports department as the eSports Producer. Essentially I lead the department and make sure things get done the best possible way... along with a lot of various tasks. My intention for this post to create some sort of transparency within the eSports department and create more of a connection with the community.



Whether it was the implementation of the Season Ticket or the fact we're no longer considered the "SMITE Pause League", we've seen a solid increase in viewership for eSports. As we continue to grow our scene, I do not want to lose touch with the community that helped us build this beautiful thing we have. We've gone from watching tournament broadcasts out of Bart's bedroom to filling up the Cobb Energy Center for a prize pool for $2.6 million dollars. Even to this day this realization is shocking to me.



Throughout the duration of SMITE eSports, we've grown from different tournament formats from a weekly point system to now a 8 team league. There were some growing pains during this process, but we got through them together. This past weekend became a bit heated at times which is what provoked to reach out to the community in this manner.



Let me break this down by separate topics.





-- Casting:

In the past month or so, we've seen a lot of criticism from the community in general on SPL casting. We take this feedback seriously and evaluate it each week. In fact, Bart and I have been discussing each week on how we can change our current lineup and make it better experience for the viewers. With Hinduman surprising us with a lengthy visit, we now have a couple new avenues to test. In the next couple of weeks, we're trying out new duos (Hindu/Adanas for example last week) and see how it turns out. We're also going to try permanent pairs as opposed to swapping different casters out each matchup. This is all a trial and we look forward to the feedback we receive from this. Depending on that, we will see what direction we take on the casting front.



It's not only who's casting, but how each caster casts. Some are looked to be too opinionated whereas others may not say the right things at times. We do not overlook these criticisms and we look to take steps forward to get beyond that. It won't happen over night, but as long as we work at bettering the quality of our casts, we'll improve overtime. This is certainly a hot topic for us.



At times these criticisms may be taken the wrong way or personal. Our casters put their heart and soul into what they do and they're very passionate on their careers. And so do our pros. But with such passion comes frustrations. It's part of a casters jobs to be open to such opinions and use it to his/her advantage to become better in the viewers eyes. Retaliating from these frustrations is not the right way to go about it. This was a lesson to be learned recently, but it was certainly a needed one.





-- Admins

The admins work directly with our pro players on a daily basis. The admins do their best to make themselves available at all times of the day, each day, in order to help players with questions or issues they may have. And I feel they do a good job on accommodating. We also highly recommend for players to reach out to admins on any questions pertaining to the rules or to double check on the tournament time schedule. It's better to be safe than sorry.



We've had a few cases in the past year alone at which admins needed to make an official ruling. Combat pausing was a popular one and was very tough for someone to call each time. We then implemented a pause system in the game to help alleviate that. Personally I feel like it was the right move and still is.



There are still rules to this day that are questioned by the eSports community at times. If at any point there's a loophole that someone brings to the admins attention or there's valid evidence supporting why a certain rule is necessary or unnecessary, we adamantly listen. At times it may seem obvious in the public eye; however, there are usually internal reasons why such rules exist.



Between the Summer and Fall Split, there is a plan to get all the SPL captains together with the admins to go over the rules. We want to be transparent on why we have such rules in place and hear out the players to accommodate them where we can. During my time in Hi-Rez esports, I've always made it a point to make each tournament/event/LAN an awesome experience. From the travel accommodations we provide to bootcamping, my #1 goal was to make sure each player was having the best time possible as well as be properly prepared for their upcoming competition. This topic alone we've come a long way!



It's important in my eyes that the admins maintain a positive relationship with the players. This allows for players to feel open to contact an admin at any point of time and it also helps for players to respect an admins ruling when that time comes. There are times where enforcing a rule is tough and unfortunate, but I have the admins follow our rules under each circumstance.





-- Production (#BlameBrad #BlamePeccyz #BlameAdanas)

This is another topic that I will say has come a long way. I remember when we first moved from a bedroom cast to using a separate person to broadcast and produce the tournaments (Path to $100k). Since then, it's been nothing but "What more can we do?". We look at elements from other eSports. We look at ideas from TV sports. And we think of unique assets as well.



But at the end of the day, what matters really is what YOU, the viewer, thinks of it. So each time we see something on Twitter, Twitch chat or Reddit, we take it to heart. We look at why we originally implemented that specific element and how we can enhance it or simply do away with it. Picks and Ban's is a popular topic.



The current P&B screen has had a lot of criticism, so we are currently in the process of making a new one. No animated god cards. Not horizontally stacked. We'll take the best parts of each previous P&B systems and build the best possible one.



All and all, we learn overtime what works best for our scene and our community.





-- Events/LANs

Yet again, we've grown in this department of things. We had small events such showmatches at RTX or SiegeCon and then grew up to fill up venues such as Center Stage (Launch Tournament) and eventually the Cobb Energy Center (SWC 2015). Each event we learned something new - travel logistics, food for players, bootcamp, the overall event layout, etc. As I mentioned earlier, we strive to make the players experience during their time of travel the best it can be.



Since the beginning, we've paid for players travel, hotel accommodations and food. And of course after parties (Launch tournaments was the first one that came to my mind LOL). We plan to continue to support our players with these benefits for multiple reasons. One being that making a living off of eSports in SMITE is a difficult task. We completely understand that. At this point of time in our life cycle of Hi-Rez eSports, this is what we have to work with and our pros have always been great working with us.



As we continue to grow, we look to provide more to our players. The Odyssey was a great step forward. And now we have the Season Ticket which already raised over a quarter million dollars for the general Season 2 prize pool. We've also included the esports chests and putting out skins that contribute to invitationals. These tools allow us to give more back to our pros and create more, exciting events.



Looking down the road, there are plenty of events ahead of us. There's the Summer LAN, COGnitive Invitational, Fall LAN, SWC and a couple other unannounced events. We may even have a little something planned for later this month ;D





To finally wrap up this post, I'd just like to give a huge shoutout to our viewers and pro players. You all have been beyond awesome to us. As I moved away from the administration role into this producer role, my connection to the players have been passed on to the other admins. I feel that such a connection helped contribute to what we've built today in eSports. And after seeing the drama on social media this past weekend, it irked me the wrong way. Since then, I've spoken to a few people effected in this matter and where we went wrong.



Moving forward, I want to do what Hi-Rez does best and that's being part of the community. Transparency is a strong point of ours, so I felt the need to get a some light shed in the eSports department. I look forward to a strong finish to Season 2 eSports and I can not WAIT for the future ahead of us. The Smite World Championship 2016 is already shaping up to be bigger and better than last year. Until then, let's enjoy the road ahead of us together.



Thanks for reading :)

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