Coverage on Crossfire - Could be better?
How many of you really read the newsposts on upcoming ET matches?
Take this newspost for example: http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=news&mode=item&id=6378 It's about the playoff matches of the ESL EMS, which should be some of the most anticipated matches of the season. While the groupstage could be somewhat boring, due to the small amount of big contenders taking it up head to head, the playoffs should be the cream of the crop for the ET enthusiasts. Yet the newsposts has only 19 comments, and in my opinion the EMS deserves a little bit more attention than that.
Whether it's ESL or CB or any other cup, I think there's something wrong with the way we present coverage these days. Don't get me wrong, the current coverage is nice and takes a lot of time and effort from our newscrew and should be appreciated. But I think we can do a much better job if a couple things were adjusted.
I wasn't a very sport-minded person a couple years back, but that all changed probably due to the annoying fact my friends always babbled about it while I couldn't care less to participate. And I can't say I regret it. Following football for example can be such a thrill, especially if you've got a team to cheer for. I find myself looking through the sports pages of the newspapers every day to check on latest results, statements or any coverage whatsoever surrounding my favourite team and league in general. And all that while only a short while back I didn't want anything to do with football at all. Why could I get so interested in something I didn't care about? Because the mediums for coverage welcomed me with open arms. The coverage gave me exactly what I was looking for.
Now what does this have to do with ET? I think our game is much like sports. And it can be covered as such in my opinion. With better coverage, we can even attract people who were never really into the game, or just browse our website for the journal section. Hell, football matches are probably much less exciting than ET matches, so why can't the coverage project this excitement towards our readers? Maybe there isn't a real connection between the excitement of sports and its coverage, but I think we can still learn some important things from the way sport sites present their news.
So my question is: What's different between sport coverage and our current ET coverage?
Take a look at the following international sport pages:
http://www.goal.com/en/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/default.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football
http://espn.go.com/
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/?ta=y
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/
What these sites definitely have in common is the use of graphics with their headlines.
The second big difference is the match reports.
And thirdly the articles are structured differently, more to-the-point.
These were the three big pointers I noticed when going over those sport websites, looking at sports I didn't even have any interest in such as American football. Ask yourself what can make an uninterested reader such as yourself enjoy going through a couple of the articles those sites have to offer.
I'll go a bit more into detail on the subjects I just mentioned to clarify what I exactly mean:
1) Graphics
Having an eye-catching photo will give you a lot more attention than any sentence can ever achieve. The following screenshots are two different news sites putting the same news item on their front page in a similar fashion:
A catching phrase accompanies the refreshing title and a big picture of the match
The same layout and subject as the first site, yet a totally different website
Big graphics obviously are an often used device to attract the public's interest. But it may not always be as easy to get interesting pictures from ET matches due to it being a game without real faces.
Yet I think there are other ways to work with graphics in newsposts. I'll illustrate this with a small example:
A couple days back there was a match with
Baggiez playing on the top level for the first time. While dealing the highest damage on supply, he only got three or four kills on goldrush. Having a picture of the end-game stats displaying Baggiez' poor performance along with a striking catch-phrase "Crossfire admin Baggiez gets bagged during first top appearance?" could certainly become the talk of the day on crossfire. While these funny reports often come in the form of journals, why not spice up your league coverage with a match report surrounding this very subject? Hyping something up is often seen as a good way to attract attention, using already-existing hypes to their full potential is just being smart. Of course, make sure that your newspost in this example doesn't judge people and portraits only facts (i.e. mentioning the surprisingly good performance of Baggiez on other maps too).Instead of a link to a comment, a cut screenshot could also be used to make a newspost visually more attractive. There are also pictures available of the top players and teams who went to lans, and those could be used to spice up your match reports too. Especially team logos should be used that quickly let the reader know which teams the post is about.
Remember the graphics need to be fresh and to-the-point. Using a CB logo the size of a building surely don't give you the desired outcome. Also the same banner for ESL EMS is good to categorize the newsposts, but after a while it gets boring and becomes more like a tall waving flag for "do not read this, more generic match previews".
2) Match Reports
Looking at most of the newssites listed above, the most part of the articles published on those sites are reports and analyses. You can also find a lot of remarkable stories and opinion pieces. What you'll have a harder time finding, are match previews. Isn't that logical? You can check the calendar if you want to know when which team plays.
On Crossfire, the latter category seems to be our prime source of news these days. I have to admit that it's not in the slightest because we don't offer a calendar function, and having to check the league websites is not very user friendly. So these match previews are important to keep the community up-to-date with when the next matches are. However, if each important match is covered in their own review newspost, or in a newspost that gathers the result of the last playday, you also stay up-to-date with the current state of the league. While a preview tells you when the next match is, this approach tells you the results of the just-played match AND will let your look forward to the next one.
When a match analysis is done well, it will encourage the reader to look forward to the next one, especially if a playoff tree or tournament-scheme is displayed along with it. Website visitors are lazy, be it the crossfire crowd or any other audience. They don't want to go to another site to check out a playoff tree there. Give the reader all the information they would want, and they'll be genuinely more interested in the league. That will make them visit your site out of their own curiosity to find even more information they would normally not require. That's the way you do marketing, not by annoying the reader.
But to get back to the point, post-match coverage is definitely a must. Our readers don't often have the time to watch the matches on ETTV, and a preview of that match isn't going to make them watch if they aren't interested in it.
And often, people see the newsposts on crossfire, if they're in a good mood they'll click "readmore", but that's how far it goes. If there's a match preview available, but no match analysis, then what's the use of having it covered anyway? People that don't watch the game are a lot more interested in the results than when the match will take place. If they know the result, they'll be more interested in the next (top) match with those teams or in that league.
As soon as the match is finished, an analysis should be up on Crossfire describing the important facts about the match. It doesn't have to be a detailed match report about each and every stage, but an informative summary. Even the most brainless nitwit could write up something like this, so even if you're not a member of the CB or ESL staff, you can always do your part and press that big red Contribute button in the top right menu.
Video reviews such as Kamz' are great and unique in the history of ET if I recall correctly, so keep it up. But that kind of coverage needs time to put together, and real-time news after the match is mandatory to gain more interest in top leagues.
If you couldn't watch your favourite team play the night before, you surely want to be able to read about that match the day after. And I bet the score alone won't be enough!
3) Structure
It's important to have a solid presentation layout in a match report or upcoming match preview. It's of vital importance you give your reader everything he needs to have a complete image of the match. If it's a Eurocup match, the reader needs to know in what stage the match is played, which other teams are in the group, what the current points are for the participating teams and their closest rivals and so on. Without this information, the interest level is quickly decreased as not many visitors care enough to visit external links.
chosen has designed some graphics for his own newsposts. You can see most of them used through a system eiM created, which he has since than been shared to many others afterwards. The picture below shows an example of the structure thought out the Crossfire Challenge 6 coverage.
The use of shaded bars to divide the newspost in logical parts surely increase the ease of reading. He also sticks with the same layout throughout all his posts.
The banner is also used in an informative way, less in a stylistic way. It's there to give you as much information as possible. And it's not always the same for each post, testament to that being the mentioning of "Final" in the middle.
While this is already a good step forward, a lot can still be improved. And on top of that, a preview is a lot more limited than a review. After a match there's a lot more information at hand which if presented in a smart way, can attract a lot more attention.
An example of such a post-match article is a Dalas vs. Colorado report in the American MLS:
Click the picture to see the entire page
I noticed the following bulletpoints:
- The use of top of the match & flop of the match. This is easy to implement for ET too, since you've got detailed post-match stats and clutches and fuckups happen enough.
- Both teams with the result on top, very visible. The importance of this is quite self-explanatory.
- Times on goals mentioned. While ET doesn't have goals, the stopwatch times can often say a lot about the strength of the victorious team.
- Stats and lineups available. While lineups are probably the easiest to find, stats aren't so easy. Each round has different stats, but with programs like statswhore or gravystats, you could get summaries of the entire match. Very interesting for the reader. (Examples: http://iron.pp.fi/et/stats/2010-10-18-DIGNITASINTEL_vs_-mvp.--supply-adlernest-karsiah_te2.html , (url) [saunator.wippiespace.com])
- A lot of pictures in the body of the post. As in this column, a wall of text is never appreciated and the pictures I've included are important to avoid TL;DR comments.
Like previously mentioned, it's very important the reader knows where this match is situated in the league or tournament. This is probably the biggest let down of the current coverage, as you lose track of the competition if you don't really try to follow it up.
Furthermore, Crossfire acts as a community hub for ET, and should also be the first point of action. You should be able to get anywhere starting from Crossfire, and therefore a lot of links are important.
Conclusion
With the use of these reflections I think we can improve our coverage a lot. Again, the current newswriters are doing an amazing job, but I think these pointers can benefit everyone.
This is also a very open requests to everyone who takes interest in this topic to share his/her thoughts. Every one of you is a reader and thus directly impacted by the changes resulting from this discussion.
Can the coverage on Crossfire be better and in what way?
Possibly look at interviewing more players, i.e. Giants were knocked out of EC (i believe) so why not interview Clown and get his reaction, in game screenshots, catchy titles and phrases. I mean Giants were one of the favourites to match Impact and Dignitas, yet we see them struggling to match expectations. On the other hand we have mvp who has played 2 thrilling matches with Impact and what Kamz did for the report was amazing. The views and comments made reflected the effort put into the post. Why not do that regularly, with other contributors involved.
A lot of the blame can be pointed at the community. They love to slate any column/newspost/article etc in anyway they can. Then again a lot of the current posts dont allow any constructive comments because the post is too information based.
I will never rip a post to pieces because i dont like the person posting it (unlike yourself and other members of the community). I always give my own opinion based on what i believe. The only recent post i criticised was the Full Tilt Poker Tournament and it seems like the way i addressed the issues enabled Corin to go back and think and later on add ET to the tournament (no i am not taking all the credit for that before you jump in).. Constructive criticism is always beneficial, but the majority that criticise something on crossfire do it for the wrong reasons.
Roy Keane ... prawn sandwiches?
Also, I'd appreciate examples of when I've shot down good coverage because of my personal relationship with the contributor.
http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=column&mode=item&id=554#comment31364
You'll note that I make a fully justified post and therefore I entirely dispute this is a case of:
"Everyone knows there are trolls and members on crossfire that will rip a post apart just because they dont like the individual posting it. You are a prime example."
I feel strongly that Adi's column should be deleted and perhaps reposted as a journal. It has no place in the columns section, imo.
It wouldn't be so hard to make them and there would be less shit-looking messed up posts.
And own section for them, to the left column like articles and interviews.
I remember when ESL made newsposts about their 3v3/2v2 matches. They still should and same about CB
every time I open crossfire I see "EC !!!!" "EMS !!!!" and every time I see the same teams again and again and again. after the 3rd news about how impact won against xyz I simply ignored them.
but I can tell now news posts should have more screenshots of the played match or an interesting .avi/.gif to impress the reader. Interviews with players should be done more often, as I and many other would read them and surely comment it. It's always nice to know the point of view of these ones called "highskilled".
More later
If people had an incentive to make effort then we'd see a fantastic amount of great quality coverage. Prime example of this is Kamz. He's been given a chance by TosspoT to have his Crossfire Challenge ban lifted if he puts time back into the community. With this incentive in place, Kamz has done an amazing job with coverage in terms of effort and content.
Basically, what I'm saying is "HEAVEN MEDIA, LET CROSSFIRE STAFF AND CONTRIBUTERS BE REWARDED FOR THEIR HARD WORK" :D This is the goal we have to work towards.
"benefits" needs elaboration.
I am a bit curious....What is the advantage of Crossfire to be part of the Heaven Media Group ?
But most importantly all the aformentioned in their day loved what they did - listen to toss's more recent casts & his older ones, read the articles - you can't fake the enthusiam, the passion. No matter how much you force it people see past it.
Something like that would interest me.
On the other hand, kamz' clips are something I have watched and liked :)
you don't get Sir Alex Ferguson giving punditry yet he's one of the most successful Premier League managers
What a strange example :s
obviously he doesn't have enough time, in the same way that an active player/leader like Night wouldn't have the time
that was my point.
you'd need a retired player.
ah wait, where is he, haven't seen him in years?
Writing a few articles is doable - but there's not enough superlatives in the world to sustain covering ET.
what i liked in the coverage was the video that Kamz did the other week about an official
i dont have time to read long match reports but the video showed me the key points in the match!
more coverage like that would be great
perhaps some kind of 'match-of-the-day' like video once a month showing the highlights from the best games and maybe a frag-of-the-month competition or something
perhaps having some match analysis rather than just 'team A won' would be good for the community as it would give less-able players a way to learn from the top teams helping them to improve which can only be good the community
Edited for the b-e-a-utiful admins :-)
No, its dead unlike sports
why do esl, clanbase and all others have to write their xfire newspost on their own?
this is one question i was thinking about already for some time. compared to real sport: have you ever seen bayern munich or dfb posting news on bild, kicker,...or compared to other esport games: have you ever seen esl posting news on readmore, fragster, cadred,...?
xfire is the one and only et community page and xfire needs a clanbase as well as clanbase needs xfire. but if you want to have more coverage, why don't you do it on your own? (not related to krosan, but to all) where are the users which are talented and like to write? compared to most other games and their communities et is still waiting for this. just take it as a springboard. after some months you can still go to the big sides and earn hardware prizes or cash for writing. or is it really just a question of money? i do not think so...so why has nothing changed so far?
spoilerCrossfire admins are volunteers. Every other site you listed has employeed coverage
If Crossfire / anybody wants to show me how to make these template things I wouldn't mind doing it. But the second someone is a dickhead I would stop (1 artical incoming)
But all of them tell the same: "Don't let the Retards/Trolls/Dickheads/Downers/Nancies/etc. beat you!"
Although it's the internet, those still apply.
A grammar/spelling check helps, also there are certainly guys willing to check one's text.
weekly flop - R0SS
we have to understand the organisations like esl and cb who are aware of the opportunities they have by being able to communicate with a quite specific public - coverage for and awareness of those brands - which i assume are general goals of any organisation - don't create themselves. that in mind i find it nearly embarassing that so called 'serious' organisations (in ET-terms) don't grab the opportunity to constantly contribute to build a relationship (in pr-terms) with the community and try to fulfill the before mentioned goals.
that way both parties would benefit - quality coverage in a medium that gives the contributor the chance to autonomically create the message. think of regular newsworld: business organisations feed the agencies with press releases, journalists don't fully make up stories on their own. it is one of the hardes things for organisations to get controlled and positive media coverage and here, on an esports-site wiith almost 40k users and x hits chances are not being taken and the efforts are limited to say the least...
on that matter: if some admin could post some traffic stats of cf like page impressions of the homepage, unique clients, use time, etc that would be awesome.
nice collumn indeed, but not that easy to do it that way...
And the second thing, based on the discussion between R0SS and Baggiez. Players are not so eager in giving statements/interviews. That's a fact. I'm sorry to say this, Baggiez, but the community is to be blamed and moreover, the highskilled players.
Ich liebe dich ! :*
i beg your pardon?