Tiamat Profile Joined February 2003 United States 498 Posts #1 Just got back from MLG Dallas, the following is my review of the event not as a player or staff, but as an esports spectator. Perhaps some will read this and agree with me, maybe I am just the minority.



About me: I am 32 years old, mainly lurk on the forums. I have had an account on TL since 2002-2003 but probably only have 500 or so posts. I consider my clan tag to be NH even though they dont have any active players. I have attended every Dallas esports event since 1999. MLGs, CPLs, Quakecons, WCGs, even I2E2. I played SC/BW and now SC2. I understand the game, but am not really that good, my hand cramps up after playing 6-8 games and my APM barely reaches 80. But I am a fan. Not just a starcraft fan, but an esports fan. Starcraft, Quake3, Streetfighter4, Tekken, CS 1.6, even when CPL was trying to pass off Painkiller, I'd attend and watch. Names such as Rapha, Cypher, Cooller, HeatoN , Potti , shaGuar , elemeNt, Fatality, Louder, Idra, Nazgul, Justin. Teams such as MYM, Mouz, EG, Team3D, TL, COL, NIP. I go as a nameless face, meet a few cool people, have some fun, visit the booths and then leave only to wait until the next event arrives. On to the review.



The Venue: This is the first time I have attended an Esports event in the Dallas Convention Center, so I was excited to see a new place. I have attended CPLs in the Hyatt, Quakecons and the last MLG in the Hilton, Quakecon and CPLs in the Gaylord, hell even one of the WCGs was in the back of a COMPUSA (which I proceeded to lose a PvT 1.4 SC/BW match to Artosis). My first event was I2E2 and it was in a mall food court at Grapevine Mills Mall :D. Regardless, back to the review. Being from the DFW area, I knew that the Downtown Dallas does not offer much for outside entertainment purposes, but I'd figure that there would be some type of "hangout" area similar to places like the Hilton lobby bar or Gaylord bar area. Unfortunately, there were "Zero" places that I could find to hang out and chat it up with people. The convention center pretty much gave you a few table and chairs next to the food carts and that's it. You could go outside on the lawn, but nowhere to really sit down with your fellow friends/gamers and talk over drinks etc. I am not an alcoholic or anything but having a place to grab a beer would be nice. So I walk in and the first thing I notice is that there is lots of space, which is good. Its your typical dark venue, ad booths in the front, tournament machines in the middle and your spectator viewing in the back complete with chairs and stages. Easy to get in and out of the event, and lots of signs pointing you where to go (except the bathrooms)



The Advertisement Booths: You had Dr.Pepper there giving away free sodas and not to spoil the rest of this review but this perhaps was one of the best parts of the day. Their area was setup really nice, and had lots of "swag" stuff going on from what I could tell. The Stride gum was kinda back in the corner and the BIC shaver was there too, but nothing from those booths grabbed my attention to get me to go check them out. There was also a Warheads candy booth that alot of people were at, probably to get some candy. One thing that I noticed was lacking was the booths that were showing off the new games. Normally there is a few booths that are showing off mods to your hardware, or the next upcoming game demo that you could play. Nothing of that nature was there which was pretty disappointing. Then you had the MLG Cage booth. It sells your standard MLG logo shirts and such. Which leads me to this other suggestion for anyone reading this. TEAMLIQUID, EG, Root, HALO3 Teams etc. You really need to setup a booth at these events or at least perhaps see if the MLG cage would sell your shirts. I never understand why at any of the events that I go to why clans do not sell their wares at these events. I am sure Teamliquid alone could sell 30 TL branded shirts and hell they could even have like 20 razor mice signed by various players like TLO etc. Sure you can get them online, but i feel like the various teams are missing out on money making opportunities.



The tournament area and spectators: I really hate to be this blunt, but this MLG is one of the worst spectator events I have ever been to. I showed up at noon on Saturday, and only "one game" was broadcasted on the main SC2 stage. It was the Grubby vs DDe lag game. I am not sure why Day9, JP or DJWheat were even here because you didnt get to hear them broadcast while the game was being played. Only game sounds. Part of the live spectator experience is the commentators, along with the shouting of the crowd. I believe they had to turn off the commentators due to the fact that the tournament machines were right there in the same area as the spectators. My best experiences watching games are when the tournament machines are in a totally separate area than the spectators. Quakecon does this extremely well, as they have an entire section devoted to watching games and the tournament machines are way in the back or in a different area completely. I felt that having the tournament area right smack in the middle of the venue was the wrong place to put them. Anyways, the only thing shown on the main stage was one game of Grubby vs DDe and then DJwheat and some chick talking about a free HD pass, thats it. The rest of the time there was only ads for 6 hours. The only place you could even try to watch any matches was directly behind the players, there were bodies 2 or 3 deep, but its very difficult to watch over the shoulder games without sound on a 19 inch LCD. They had two other mini stage booths for matches but they were never used from what I could tell. And the brackets were not very clear at all. There was a whiteboard and a few LCDs of who was playing who, but you never really knew who won against who. Everyone I spoke to didnt really know who was knocked out, or how many people were left in the tournament. Not really knowing what was going on I left around 6 oclock thinking that perhaps the stream is seeing more games than me.



Wrap up: The bottom line was that I came to watch esports, and left disappointed this time. From noon to six on Saturday there were maybe 3 main stage games played , a SC2 game, a halo CTF and CoD game. No commentating at all. In the past, even though I dont play games like Quake, CS1.6 or Halo, I could easily follow them and get into the match just by listening to the skilled commentators guiding us through the game. Not today. Also there was so much space wasted in the booth areas. I feel like I am your core audience, your target market. I had a wallet full of money, but nothing to buy, no products to check out. Where are the clan shirts for sale? Where are the Razor mousepads, or Xbox controllers, or new fancy headsets? Besides meeting a few nice people, there was literality nothing for live spectators to do. In my personal opinion, I think all these events should also have a BYOC along with it, so it gives players and fans something to do during the downtime. Maybe you could also use the main stage for a live session of SOTG or Day9 daily? just something for the fans instead of just endless ads on the screen. All in all, I feel the MLG spectator pass just so they could make a quick buck. This was by far one of the most expensive spectator passes I have paid for attending an esports event and all I got out of it was 4 cans of Diet Dr Pepper and the first game out of the Grubby series (which I still dont know who won or if they finished it or what) Maybe I am expecting a MLG to match a Quakecon, an absolutely free event, ran by volunteers. Maybe my standards are too high. But what do I know, I am an Esports fan with a fist full of dollars with nothing to spend it on.



Atlare Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Australia 893 Posts #2 There is alot of shit that MLG needs (and from what I understand is) fixing, its great to hear some first-hand accounts that actually provide constructive criticism as opposed to blind flaming about bad streams or issues. Considering learning BW

dras Profile Joined August 2010 Kazakhstan 376 Posts #3 hope you enjoyed you free doritos, dr pepper, and body spray!

Tiamat Profile Joined February 2003 United States 498 Posts #4 On April 03 2011 11:03 Atlare wrote:

There is alot of shit that MLG needs (and from what I understand is) fixing, its great to hear some first-hand accounts that actually provide constructive criticism as opposed to blind flaming about bad streams or issues.



Ya this is not my first esports rodeo, so I always expect a few technical issues, they are going to happen and I really am not that hard to please. Last year's MLG was good, I had a great time despite sitting on the floor for 5 hours. At least there were games to watch, and you had things to go do and got to listen to DJ Wheat etc. Ya this is not my first esports rodeo, so I always expect a few technical issues, they are going to happen and I really am not that hard to please. Last year's MLG was good, I had a great time despite sitting on the floor for 5 hours. At least there were games to watch, and you had things to go do and got to listen to DJ Wheat etc.

dacthehork Profile Blog Joined February 2008 United States 1816 Posts #5 nice review



was thinking of going to the California MLG but not even a small chance I will now. It seems like MLG was taking steps forward but it seems they just fell off a cliff instead. Warturtle - DOTA 2 is KING

Fallacy Profile Joined September 2010 United States 224 Posts #6 On April 03 2011 11:05 dras wrote:

hope you enjoyed you free doritos, dr pepper, and body spray!

Doritos aren't there anymore. Same with hotpockets :'( Doritos aren't there anymore. Same with hotpockets :'( Stand up for what you believe in even if it means standing alone.

Atlare Profile Blog Joined April 2010 Australia 893 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-03 02:15:50 #7 On April 03 2011 11:09 dacthehork wrote:

nice review



was thinking of going to the California MLG but not even a small chance I will now. It seems like MLG was taking steps forward but it seems they just fell off a cliff instead.



Yeah basically this Although I think im the only person who doesn't mind Octoshape because I never get any stutter with it (slow connection) when the damn things online. Yeah basically thisAlthough I think im the only person who doesn't mind Octoshape because I never get any stutter with it (slow connection) when the damn things online. Considering learning BW

Kelliher Profile Joined June 2010 United States 39 Posts #8 Well you must have missed the PS3 booth where they were showing off the new 3D stuff. You could play nazi zombies in 3D, thats pretty cool. Also at the PS3 booth was SOCOM4, which is not out, with the new PS3 motion sensor gun things.

There was also that new xperia phone thing, which is like a hand held console, and a phone. IDK, i played the first crash bandicoot on it, so it was a nice little throw back to my ps1 days.

There was also the alien ware booth where they had a bunch of their computers, laptops, mice, and keyboards for everyone to try by playing starcraft.

On the mini stages, there was multiple games of VT Spades and Kawaii rice up there. I saw haypro play up there, TLO HUK.

Friday had more games streamed on the mainstage, but as soon as they streamed that one game with dde and grubby, all of the players had to stop playing, because we all started to lag hardcore and a few got dropped.

I agree that the players should not be in the same room, it is soooo boring watching a screen with no sound, but if you stayed a little later, they kind of fixed the problem by showing replays on the stream of earlier games in the winner bracket, which i think is kind of cool. I got to see Destiny's face as everyone waited in anticipation as his hidden greater spire slowly die because he accidently canceled the creep spread from the overlord and didn't notice.



I'll admit that the only improvement to Dallas 2010 is that there are actually seats. The only reason that the event would be boring was because of the main stage being down for soooo long, but im still excited to show up tomorrow and see the finals.

RogerX Profile Blog Joined December 2010 New Zealand 2555 Posts #9 Awesome review, totally caught me off guard.

Also thought MLG would be well planned out and carefully aimed at providing the full entertainment towards the people attending it. I guess they tried their best or something.. Stick it up. take it up. step aside and see the world

hellsan631 Profile Blog Joined March 2010 United States 687 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-03 02:25:17 #10 This is the fault of MLG for not doing damage control and dealing with the problems correctly.



This is the fault of Blizzard for not realizing they actually need to include lan support, what allows tournaments to run decently.



This is the fault of the Dallas Convention center and their ISP, for not making sure they can support that type of streaming.



If any one of these 3 parties fixed their "Single" issue, this MLG event for SC would not have been a fail. But the guilt of "esports" lies on all 3 companies, and is an embarrassment to everyone who has a passion for this game, and wants to see it succeed on a pro level.



On your review, I would have at least expected MLG to cattier to the live audience, because thats what MLG is all about, the live atmosphere. If I ran the event, i would have made sure there was games on stage, even if they were not streamed, or casted live. Honestly, this is most likely the worst MLG for anyone who is into SC.



The review was really to the point, and I am glad you took the time to write it up. Hopefully something is done (blizzard or mlg really) so the we can all move on, past this event.



Also, why doesn't MLG turn off or lower the quality of their HD stream, so they have enough bandwidth to support playing games live on the stream.

Crushgroove Profile Joined July 2010 United States 788 Posts #11 All of this is a direct result of MLG being founded on the Halo community. Console-casuals are a completely different community. Every MLG... the management can't fathom that the SC2 cast will get even more viewers. They are wrong every time. They don't seem to comprehend that SC is bigger/better in every way and the fans are more demanding and more involved. Ever spectate a Halo game live? Very very very dull. Nothing to watch really, not to mention the game has zero features and functions for casters.



The management in MLG just seems to not understand what is the standard expectation for a real spectator e-sport. And it becomes more and more obvious. [In Korea on Vaca] "Why would I go to the park and climb a mountain? There are video games on f*cking TV!" - Kazuke

thehitman Profile Blog Joined July 2010 1104 Posts #12 I saw the same review for MLG 2010 and it seems they have only improved the seating somewhat.



I agree though that such events need to have drinks and food selling and a lot more booths of hardware/software companies.



Maybe even have barbeque outside which you can buy, have some nice tables around with seats in order to sit and eat there and play cards.



And of course listening to the commentators while the game is streamed is absolutely crucial.

Netsky Profile Joined October 2010 Australia 1155 Posts #13 On April 03 2011 11:27 Crushgroove wrote:

All of this is a direct result of MLG being founded on the Halo community. Console-casuals are a completely different community. Every MLG... the management can't fathom that the SC2 cast will get even more viewers. They are wrong every time. They don't seem to comprehend that SC is bigger/better in every way and the fans are more demanding and more involved. Ever spectate a Halo game live? Very very very dull. Nothing to watch really, not to mention the game has zero features and functions for casters.



The management in MLG just seems to not understand what is the standard expectation for a real spectator e-sport. And it becomes more and more obvious.



Agree.



SC2 is bigger than MLG can handle. We are now presented with the situation where demand for content outweighs supply (the ability to deliver content). This event demonstrates that there is a massive opportunity for SC2 (e-sports), it's just that MLG is not the organisation to provide it.



It's open for discussion whether this weekend's events were helpful or harmful to the cause of SC2/e-sports. Agree.SC2 is bigger than MLG can handle. We are now presented with the situation where demand for content outweighs supply (the ability to deliver content). This event demonstrates that there is a massive opportunity for SC2 (e-sports), it's just that MLG is not the organisation to provide it.It's open for discussion whether this weekend's events were helpful or harmful to the cause of SC2/e-sports.

Tiamat Profile Joined February 2003 United States 498 Posts #14 On April 03 2011 11:15 Kelliher wrote:

Well you must have missed the PS3 booth where they were showing off the new 3D stuff. You could play nazi zombies in 3D, thats pretty cool. Also at the PS3 booth was SOCOM4, which is not out, with the new PS3 motion sensor gun things.

There was also that new xperia phone thing, which is like a hand held console, and a phone. IDK, i played the first crash bandicoot on it, so it was a nice little throw back to my ps1 days.

There was also the alien ware booth where they had a bunch of their computers, laptops, mice, and keyboards for everyone to try by playing starcraft.

On the mini stages, there was multiple games of VT Spades and Kawaii rice up there. I saw haypro play up there, TLO HUK.

Friday had more games streamed on the mainstage, but as soon as they streamed that one game with dde and grubby, all of the players had to stop playing, because we all started to lag hardcore and a few got dropped.

I agree that the players should not be in the same room, it is soooo boring watching a screen with no sound, but if you stayed a little later, they kind of fixed the problem by showing replays on the stream of earlier games in the winner bracket, which i think is kind of cool. I got to see Destiny's face as everyone waited in anticipation as his hidden greater spire slowly die because he accidently canceled the creep spread from the overlord and didn't notice.



I'll admit that the only improvement to Dallas 2010 is that there are actually seats. The only reason that the event would be boring was because of the main stage being down for soooo long, but im still excited to show up tomorrow and see the finals.



Ya I admit I am not much of a console gamer, I dont even own a PS3 so my review should not comment on those areas. Ya I admit I am not much of a console gamer, I dont even own a PS3 so my review should not comment on those areas.

Nillinch Profile Joined July 2010 Poland 147 Posts #15 That's all blizzard fault for not putting a LAN into the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ameba-AZ Profile Blog Joined October 2010 United States 79 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-03 02:55:29 #16 On April 03 2011 11:27 Crushgroove wrote:

It's open for discussion whether this weekend's events were helpful or harmful to the cause of SC2/e-sports.

Clearly given the weekend (thus far) there have been a number of things that work against a successful MLG broadcas. Clearly there are unhappy viewers and fans both who attended and who tried to watch via stream. However I personally think the only thing being pointed out is the negative side of it all and on a small scale at that, when people need to also realize there is potentially good that will come from this weekends events.



Obviously there is high demand for Starcraft 2 as the community has demonstrated, and this weekend has shown that; something that sponsors will take note of. Which does start to pave the way for what will one day be even more sponsors from a wider array of products, thus attracting more and more people to Starcraft 2 (in the long run). I don't think it really harmed Starcraft 2 itself as an e-sport at all, more than likely it will just have a negative effect on MLG, not how people view Starcraft 2 as a game and as an e-sport.



I do have high hopes though that Blizzard does take note of this weekend, and starts to consider the necessity of major tournaments access to LAN capabilities. That's my 2 cents anyways. Clearly given the weekend (thus far) there have been a number of things that work against a successful MLG broadcas. Clearly there are unhappy viewers and fans both who attended and who tried to watch via stream. However I personally think the only thing being pointed out is the negative side of it all and on a small scale at that, when people need to also realize there is potentially good that will come from this weekends events.Obviously there is high demand for Starcraft 2 as the community has demonstrated, and this weekend has shown that; something that sponsors will take note of. Which does start to pave the way for what will one day be even more sponsors from a wider array of products, thus attracting more and more people to Starcraft 2 (in the long run). I don't think it really harmed Starcraft 2 itself as an e-sport at all, more than likely it will just have a negative effect on MLG, not how people view Starcraft 2 as a game and as an e-sport.I do have high hopes though that Blizzard does take note of this weekend, and starts to consider the necessity of major tournaments access to LAN capabilities. That's my 2 cents anyways. I sometimes do something other then play Starcraft... Rarely.

groms Profile Joined May 2010 Canada 1013 Posts #17 On April 03 2011 11:52 MrKozi wrote:

That's all blizzard fault for not putting a LAN into the game That's all blizzard fault for not putting a LAN into the game

Did you not read his post at all?



He is suggesting some other great ideas as well as saying the spectator experience wasn't optimal. Obviously LAN would help but I don't see how it will fix a lot of the things he is mentioning such as no commentating on games on the main stage. Please put more effort into your future posts :D Did you not read his post at all?He is suggesting some other great ideas as well as saying the spectator experience wasn't optimal. Obviously LAN would help but I don't see how it will fix a lot of the things he is mentioning such as no commentating on games on the main stage. Please put more effort into your future posts :D I have a recurring dream that I'm running away from a terran player but the marauders keep slowing me down. - Artosis

Yoshi Kirishima Profile Blog Joined July 2009 United States 9392 Posts #18 hopefully they will improve quickly! that is quite disappointinghopefully they will improve quickly! Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."

Kelliher Profile Joined June 2010 United States 39 Posts #19 On April 03 2011 11:37 Tiamat wrote:

Ya I admit I am not much of a console gamer, I dont even own a PS3 so my review should not comment on those areas.



ya, im not that big of a console gamer, but you said that there was nothing showing off the new games and i was just saying that there was on the halo and CoD side of the convention, and the alien stuff was kind of cool to try out, everything looked soooo expensive ya, im not that big of a console gamer, but you said that there was nothing showing off the new games and i was just saying that there was on the halo and CoD side of the convention, and the alien stuff was kind of cool to try out, everything looked soooo expensive

universalwill Profile Blog Joined August 2010 United States 654 Posts #20 i think that this is going to be a good lesson for a lot of people. MLG needs to make a lot of improvements. for someone watching from the internet, i think that the most important thing to do is to improve their streaming service. if they're going to charge for HD streams, it has to work. there are too many excellent free streaming services out there for them to be able to charge for a subpar one.



this should also be a lesson for blizzard. the fact that this MLG has been more of the casters trying their hardest to kill time (and doing a pretty good job to their credit) is very indicative of the fact that there needs to be a LAN version of SC2. whether they actually add LAN to the full game or release a LAN-only version of the game that they license out to live tournaments, something needs to be done about the LAN issue, since this MLG proves that this kind of stuff can happen.

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