MLG Dallas 2011 has been an event complete with great games and significant issues on all fronts. Mixed feelings about the issues are permeating through an otherwise happy crowd while the audience at home is, for the most part, decidedly less pleased with the event.



Most notably, the online stream for MLG Dallas 2011 has been prone to major issues throughout, provoking anger and annoyance from the community, particularly those who paid for a high quality stream but received considerably less than they'd expected in the way of actual promised content.



In a statement, Major League Gaming blamed the issues on a streaming audience that was "More than twice the number of people we expected, from 128 countries, have tuned in to watch the Dallas event," wrote MLG officials. "We were simply under prepared for the epic traffic."



Although they denied calls for refunds, MLG has announced that anyone who purchased a HQ stream for Dallas will receive a free HQ stream for the next MLG stop in Columbus, Ohio this coming June.



To add to MLG's problems, chronic lag issues have plagued Battle.net all day, making many games difficult to play and nearly unbearable to watch. The crowd at the event grew annoyed while the audience at home watched JP McDaniel and DjWheat skillfully kill time by taking questions from Twitter and bringing in major StarCraft personalities for on screen interviews.



Live audiences have mostly had to struggle to hear the casting of Day9, DjWheat and JP McDaniel. Ever since the first game (Idra vs Socke), the casters' volume has been turned down to a whisper in the building due to concerns that the players can clearly hear what they are saying.



A MLG employee did say that he heard talk of booths being brought in for the next event but everyone within earshot expressed skepticism at the promise. After all, this is not MLG's first StarCraft event nor is it their first issue with sound. The question is, why has it taken so long to seriously consider booths as an option? It is by far the best way to play StarCraft in a live setting.



Nevertheless, the event rolls on. Almost everyone in the Dallas Convention Center is happy and excited to be here even with the major issues. The pleasure of meeting and watching your favorite players has overridden most all of the negativity from the various struggles of MLG.



Whether the paying home audience ends up content depends entirely on the quality of streaming provided by MLG for the rest of the weekend. Reports already indicate that the quality is vastly improved over day 1.

