If I'd asked Nellie before writing this, he would have said I was simply living in the past, however as this Eurocup season continues one must ask who cares?
From a spectators point of view, you always want to see a great game. A truly exciting game of ET, is exciting no matter who is playing, but ET is not exciting all the time. I cannot put into words what RTCW has over ET in terms of the excitement factor, but for me and as I understand, for many, an average game of RTCW is more enjoyable to watch than an average game of ET, that's not a criticism, its just a difference.
So when you do get a game of ET that is not end to end action filled with goodness, what else makes it interesting? Names and history. Nostalgia is a great thing, whether you have a chronic dose of it, like I do, or just short term, the past is there for a reason, and its the past that makes the future exciting.
When a lineup is announced, why are you excited by it? Because you know their past inside and out. If a roster was announced tomorrow that was filled with Potter, Darky, Intact, mystic, ceesam and co, you'd be excited, you'd want to see if they could beat idle and go on to rule the world. But what if your Eurocup doesn't have those players, and doesn't have replacement with any achievements or history of public interest?
Now this is not me saying oldschool > newschool, however when assessing the current crop of Eurocup players and trying to remember something interesting about them, you've gotta look into OpenCup history and that's something the vast majority of ET Spectators didn't bother watching.
Part of the problem lies in the names of these teams, either you've a team like helix who are now the 10th ET squad of helix and their name has absolutely value now. Or you're a team who joins and parts a multigaming clan each month, either dreaming of that Intel sponsorship or not being sponsored a good enough server. So its very difficult to build up a name and a history, when either you're changing that name on a regular basis, or you name has so many other players name attached to it, that being the 200th ET player of team helix makes you pretty un-special.
Then the other part lies in the fact that there are now people playing in Eurocup that people know nothing about, because the turnover of Eurocup players is so high. There are more new Eurocup players this year than ever before.
People want to be fans, people want to be excited by a name, and noll8 are an example of this. When it was announced that o8 were returning to ET with an all-star lineup, the world watched with open eyes. Could a former great team, with former great players that have Eurocup medals to their name come along and beat idle? Its why they've got the idlers in their channel and its why people want to watch them on ETTV. What is the difference between them and the other 10 new rosters that were announced before Eurocup? This one had history, potential and excitement, where as team...Azure Fate (for example), had only WingHaven that your average player had heard of.
If this current bunch of players live on to next season and build themselves reputations then next season will be as interesting as any before. If player X from team Y gets a potter styled 8 man frag against team Z this summer, and continues to play ET next EC, then we will be excited to see how he does.
To exclamate the point one final time, whilst writing this I have been informed that RTCW Legend
Spear has joined noll8, I think I am not alone in having a bit more interest in watching/casting noll8 once again?
From a spectators point of view, you always want to see a great game. A truly exciting game of ET, is exciting no matter who is playing, but ET is not exciting all the time. I cannot put into words what RTCW has over ET in terms of the excitement factor, but for me and as I understand, for many, an average game of RTCW is more enjoyable to watch than an average game of ET, that's not a criticism, its just a difference.
So when you do get a game of ET that is not end to end action filled with goodness, what else makes it interesting? Names and history. Nostalgia is a great thing, whether you have a chronic dose of it, like I do, or just short term, the past is there for a reason, and its the past that makes the future exciting.
When a lineup is announced, why are you excited by it? Because you know their past inside and out. If a roster was announced tomorrow that was filled with Potter, Darky, Intact, mystic, ceesam and co, you'd be excited, you'd want to see if they could beat idle and go on to rule the world. But what if your Eurocup doesn't have those players, and doesn't have replacement with any achievements or history of public interest?
Now this is not me saying oldschool > newschool, however when assessing the current crop of Eurocup players and trying to remember something interesting about them, you've gotta look into OpenCup history and that's something the vast majority of ET Spectators didn't bother watching.
Part of the problem lies in the names of these teams, either you've a team like helix who are now the 10th ET squad of helix and their name has absolutely value now. Or you're a team who joins and parts a multigaming clan each month, either dreaming of that Intel sponsorship or not being sponsored a good enough server. So its very difficult to build up a name and a history, when either you're changing that name on a regular basis, or you name has so many other players name attached to it, that being the 200th ET player of team helix makes you pretty un-special.
Then the other part lies in the fact that there are now people playing in Eurocup that people know nothing about, because the turnover of Eurocup players is so high. There are more new Eurocup players this year than ever before.
People want to be fans, people want to be excited by a name, and noll8 are an example of this. When it was announced that o8 were returning to ET with an all-star lineup, the world watched with open eyes. Could a former great team, with former great players that have Eurocup medals to their name come along and beat idle? Its why they've got the idlers in their channel and its why people want to watch them on ETTV. What is the difference between them and the other 10 new rosters that were announced before Eurocup? This one had history, potential and excitement, where as team...Azure Fate (for example), had only WingHaven that your average player had heard of.
If this current bunch of players live on to next season and build themselves reputations then next season will be as interesting as any before. If player X from team Y gets a potter styled 8 man frag against team Z this summer, and continues to play ET next EC, then we will be excited to see how he does.
To exclamate the point one final time, whilst writing this I have been informed that RTCW Legend
Spear has joined noll8, I think I am not alone in having a bit more interest in watching/casting noll8 once again?
