The EMS underway and the Clanbase Eurocup right around the corner online competition for ET is in a healthy position, the question is are the cups enough to make you care to tune in or has interest in online competition faded?
Many a moon ago online competition in ET was the 'dogs bollocks', at the begining ET was viewed upon as having a superior netcode to its predecessor RTCW and competitions were viable with new cups springing out of every corner, not just from Tournament organisers such as CB and ESL. Now the shine of the game has rubbed off, CB and ESL continue to deliver their tournaments like clockwork but does winning a Eurocup mean the same as it used to? There certainly is a difference in respect granted to the achievement of those Finn's who made the early Eurocup finals as opposed to those now.
So what has changed? It is true that there may have been a few more prizes in the early days but there are still sporadic prizepurses to be won, mainly through ESL. Plus in a game like ET you're never really in it for the money. The cheater aspect has come into the game, but large parts of the community has turned a blind eye to cheaters, or their history so that might not be it. There is no doubting that coverage has shrunk, there was once a time when a match might even be worthy of a column itself and there are no regular english shoutcasters these days. However on the contrary, coverage is not necessarily the be all and end all, because 'back in the day' there either wasnt ETTV or it wasn't widespread.
Personally I dont think age has something to do with it, as games and communities like Call of Duty and Quake regularly manage to reinvent themselves to deliver interesting online tournaments all be it with the focus on LAN. Is it possible that the LANs in ET have come at the expense of good online competition and we are now so focus'd on winning LANs that top players just dont care about online competition?
It was twister's interview with ZaF that prompted this column, I remember casting him in the final 'big' season of RTCW where Warleagues premier and Eurocup were coming to an end at the same time (the season where mysod won from Kreaturen in the final) - the big teams despite knowing the game was almost up, still cared for that one final hurrah. Is that the same now? I asked Jere and Killerboy for their thoughts:
With oppourtunity to make both the EC and EMS great gifts for the community, what do you think would turn them into spectacles that you'll remember for years to come?
Many a moon ago online competition in ET was the 'dogs bollocks', at the begining ET was viewed upon as having a superior netcode to its predecessor RTCW and competitions were viable with new cups springing out of every corner, not just from Tournament organisers such as CB and ESL. Now the shine of the game has rubbed off, CB and ESL continue to deliver their tournaments like clockwork but does winning a Eurocup mean the same as it used to? There certainly is a difference in respect granted to the achievement of those Finn's who made the early Eurocup finals as opposed to those now.
So what has changed? It is true that there may have been a few more prizes in the early days but there are still sporadic prizepurses to be won, mainly through ESL. Plus in a game like ET you're never really in it for the money. The cheater aspect has come into the game, but large parts of the community has turned a blind eye to cheaters, or their history so that might not be it. There is no doubting that coverage has shrunk, there was once a time when a match might even be worthy of a column itself and there are no regular english shoutcasters these days. However on the contrary, coverage is not necessarily the be all and end all, because 'back in the day' there either wasnt ETTV or it wasn't widespread.
Personally I dont think age has something to do with it, as games and communities like Call of Duty and Quake regularly manage to reinvent themselves to deliver interesting online tournaments all be it with the focus on LAN. Is it possible that the LANs in ET have come at the expense of good online competition and we are now so focus'd on winning LANs that top players just dont care about online competition?
It was twister's interview with ZaF that prompted this column, I remember casting him in the final 'big' season of RTCW where Warleagues premier and Eurocup were coming to an end at the same time (the season where mysod won from Kreaturen in the final) - the big teams despite knowing the game was almost up, still cared for that one final hurrah. Is that the same now? I asked Jere and Killerboy for their thoughts:
With oppourtunity to make both the EC and EMS great gifts for the community, what do you think would turn them into spectacles that you'll remember for years to come?
news + statement + ETTV + shoucaster = SUCCES
But still, if all statement were honest (no liar like kamz !) it would be nice.
At the moment we got nice news from beg & lukas podolski, they are trying to give some statements from players with some ETTV but no shoutcaster.
You know how the community appreciate your shoutcast, try do shoutcast more games( if you can) and i'm sure the ETplayers will follow as much as possible EC & EMS.
I will (as I always say) try to cast some of this season, but realistically ET needs more casters.
I think if you've pracced within 3 days then you are actively practicing... We went into the EC final with 6 weeks of no prac and didn't whine about it, but THREE DAYS for qualifying matches? Holy shit!
If they are cheating... Banned from all CF, CB, ESL and any other 'Official' matches
If theyre knowingly playing with cheaters... Banned from all CF, CB, ESL and any other 'Official' matches
Zero tolerance needed..
the reason we still have cheaters in the scene is because most of them arent banned from CF, CB, ESL or are 'Ex cheaters' (which doesnt fucking exist. once a cheater, always a cheater) and because we have idiots in the scene that will knowingly play with a cheater because hes a 'cool guy' or whatever the fuck they say.
but in terms of frowning... they will be wincing when they see the lovely 3 month ban they get because theyre playing with cheaters.
(obviously in some cases the bans will be exempt, for example if you are mercing and stuff.. in which case that is the admins decision.. (irc logs can be sent etc...)
You know if that were true, like the vast majority of the top teams at CIC7 wouldn't even exist? :D
A lot more players have tried cheats than you think. A small minority got caught for it.
For the likes of you who obviously isnt cheating should have maybe not been allowed to compete at a good level (for example EC) until you proved urself at lan...
idk its the admins decisions not my place to make them.
but thats not what i said..
that means... NO EC FOR (EX) CHEATERS until they prove themselves at lan.
One of the most stupid things I have read concerning this case, but don't worry, you're not the only one.
Many people do stupid things and come to regret it, both in real life and online. Doesn't mean they will do it again, and again.
Would be nice if someone would spend some time in calculating how many of the banned cheaters on CB (ET) actually started cheating again after their banperiod ended. Personally, I think it won't be that many (10-20% max, if at all).
i iz sad :(
Actually the problem is there is too much coverage of non interesting games. Every second game that's played is on ETTV nowadays, it used to be 1/2/3 games a night. It's not special to play in EC anymore because every second player has played EC. Look at me I'm an, at most, average player of this game and even I have played EC 3 times... Maybe it's because I stopped playing/caring about the game, but I don't get excited at all anymore.
and thats nice, thinking about all the people shouting "et is dead" for over 3 years now.
Long time ago i liked to watch ETTV matches... Still remember Ned vs Ger NC final, which i couldnt watch because of fucked up PC... thanks god i found a replay next day...
Back then the matches were interesting... Prolly because teams actually pracced... Now almost every game is boring as hell... No tension at all...
Online cups lost their popularity because of, thats a bit hilarious, idle/dignitas ... ET problem is lack of competition... There is always a TOP team, that just cant be touched... Idle/mPg/MM ... Whats the sense in playing a cup when u cant win?
were was u then?
as far as i know ECwinners pracced regulary and pretty often, yet they were no match against finnish power
but yeah this 5v5 really makes some suprises atleast in gtv!
This is the founding principle of
:Y
Maybe even consider using other ways than just community sites to promote a match (I'm thinking about a facebook status [crossfire.nu has 221 members], try to promote twitter etc.)
About the shoutcaster problem...
In my opinion shoutcasters have been way more passionate in the past then they are now. I remember Tosspot/Smoke/Mashed screaming their lungs out while todays shoutcasters seem to be more like bored of the game although theres some pretty nice action.
No offense there shoutcasters, I dont mean to insult you, youre doing a great job helping the community, it's meant to be constructive criticism.
A reliable anticheat would be nice. Or at least some tool to be sure who you are playing against.
For teams, I'm discouraged by the lack of stable of lineups. It often seems like the major teams have three constant players, and two that switch out every week. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it reflects a sort of stasis that's come over the game.
For the past however many years (four? five?) you've had "Night's" team at the top (x6, idle, d., TLR, mamut, blight, etc.), battling with aMenti/TLR/nP/BB/rockit for the top spot. This may change with rockit splitting up, which opens up second spot for competition, but I still don't see a team that can really challenge blight/d. consistently around now (they're not invincible, but they seem like they are at times as someone who just follows the results). But, up until now it's been almost guaranteed one of those two teams will win whatever competition they decide to play seriously, and if they decide not to play one then it makes that competition loose value, because "the best" aren't playing For example: all the people talking about the "lowest EC ever" – masculine mans may be an amazing team, but if they don't face the top teams like TLR and idle in the EC, then their victory doesn't mean as much, it can't be the 'best of the best', if the two top LAN teams don't play.
The English shoutcasters I've listened to lately (Francis, Number1Dad, mistaken) seem to -meaning no offense- lack the charisma or enthusiasm that some of the old timers had (e.g. Mashed, or TosspoT with drago's panzerfaust talking about how boring a map supply is to cast at cc5, etc.). I don't know if it's just because they're not quite comfortable with shoutcasting yet, or if it's something else. I don't think we necessarily need a ton of new shoutcasters, we just need one or two that can cast the "match of the week".
Just my 2¢, as somebody who never played at a high level, but enjoyed watching ETTV and being a fanboy every once in a while. Your milage may vary.
And also, I just don't give a damn anymore about watching them on ETTV or reading the coverage.
GamesTV is meant to be the "best coverage for games" Well, maybe 2 or 3 years ago, but nowadays anyone can get on ETTV. I think when requesting if the match, the admin should actually reject some games (If these are my games then so be it). I can't stand when theres 30 matches in one hour and most of them get cancelled because of people who don't know how to set up an ETTV server properly. All the 3o3, 1o1, stuff should get cut to quarter finals - finals (unless its interesting matches) same with 3on3 and 5on5.
That way people can watch their friends' matches, and the rest of us can see the "important" matches happening on any given day just by glancing at the right-hand side of the page (as compared to now, where skilled matches often get cut off, and you have to go to the "My GBooky"/"Calendar" pages to see the full list... e.g. this past Sunday EASYMODE vs 'i wasn't showing up on that right-hand column list, because there were too many matches).
Is this a delayed iNfensus comeback April fools? :D
If I were in the position (which I will never be) to play the highes possible competition in this game I'd atleast make sure that all my games are scheduled on time just to not risk a defloss or similar. Too many teams playing in our last seasons do not do that at all.
Cant say who is to blame for this attitude, but it is something the players could work on.
With less matches on ETTV, less shoutcasters are needed. If we could arrange the small quantity of high quality matches to be played on different times and different days, we would only need a small amount of shoutcasters to virtually cast ALL games.
Just throwing it out here, I'm wondering if it's worth a shot?
Everyone else who wants to play ETTV (or other skilled but unselected matches) could get an ETTV-recording, but will not be featured in the now playing list, (or A-grade list or w/e) and just ban them from frontpage. While the Prime matches get a column, frontpage on gamestv.org & crossfire.nu, shoutcasters, and so a bit more buzz and shine to them, the other B-matches will be put only on a second page on gamestv.org, giving pride and e-fame to the ones deserving it.
If we can get a hype going, all guys just outside the Primelist might do some extra pracs and get some extra motivation to get to PrimeTV to grow their e-Penis..
I might be too conclusive, to ambitious, or just ignorant, at least I dare to hope.
Ideas?
I'm certainly NOT the best shoutcaster mainly because I'm not english and I need more experience. CubeCast had owzo potty and number1dad, they were doing a great job to be honest BUT they aren't really active. Community was in need of an english/ engrish shoutcaster, it's a fact but if I stop doing that, I would see how many active and english shoutcasters will replace me... For haters, you will hate me longer than expected because I pretty enjoy doing this job FOR FREE. =)
To my mind, it's ridiculous to stop broadcasting "low-med" matches... ETTV is a good opportunity for every teams to watch their wars and fixe what went wrong.
About the interviews, I agree it would be nice to hear good players on the radio but unfortunatly most of them forgot that ET is a game and their ego doesn't want them to do it. Believe me I asked many guys to come on the radio and many refused. (I don't speak about shy players (: )
I feel some hypocrisy... like come on we need more coverage and when we ask people their help they're not really enthusiastic.
ET is an old game and YOU can keep it alive with willingness.
Keep it up!
Where are you (Tosspot) when it comes to support new shoutcasters?....
Lets take a look at some quotes:
Maybe its time to comment an comments like this out of a shoutcaster eye:
Its Hard to start shoutcasting nowadays! I just remember the first "big" match i casted... Mashed et. al. left some big footsteps to jump in for the next (my) shoutcaster-generation. So its maybe time that new shoutcasters get the help and the support from the community, instead of epic comparisons with tossi etc....
gonna write a little bit more later, currently at the university and gonna take look on my experiment :x
I love to cast ET, but it's hard to get excited about games when I have no chance in hell of going to a LAN to cast, which is the best part of casting. I just started a non-gaming related music media site, but once I have things situated I will start casting again.
In regards to the excitement factor, it is very hard to be excited like tosspot and feel authentic. He is THE most emotional caster I have ever listened too, and most people challenge your authenticity if you get emotional like Toss, even though I get extremely excited about the games. Another factor in the "be excited" category is the lack of quality games. I believe it was brisk above me who wrote about the lack of challenge to blight over the years, and it's the truth.
In terms of "old school" casters and the community's support for us "new" casters, it has always been there. I've always been supported by members of the community(high and low skill players alike). I also "casted" at QuadV for a time under Tosspot's guidance, but unfortunately never casted. I joined the station then had some health issues that came up which caused me to re-evaluate my priorities in life. If I had the chance to go back and work at a company like that I would in a heartbeat because that is the place where an up and coming caster can get his "bread and butter". Right now I work for a tiny radio station which has one real caster, myself. It's hard to try and run a buisness with a one man casting crew and I'm not blaming anyone for that, but people need to realize that along with being caster comes being a buisnessman. We have to worry about advertising, stream costs or securing a sponsorship(thankfully FPS-Radio secured a sponsorship at it's birth), and fees that we face. I would love to go to europe and cast a LAN but the finances don't exist. I'm not part of a giant company like Toss that I can afford to go across the pond for a hobby, even if that hobby is what I plan to be my future career. Anyways I'll write more to come but for any of you up and coming casters there is a link on the quadv site to Redeye's blog, and it is a great tool for up and coming casters to use.
As for my comment above, I know its hard and you guys just lack of experience - as I stated, youre doing a great job helping the community...I just think you have room to improve and you also know it yourself.
I have never shoutcasted a game so i cant really say how hard it actually is, thats why i maybe underestimate it...