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Behind the Play #4 – Global Offensive Match Analysis

It’s time for another episode of the Behind the Play (BTP) series! This time focusing on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and a part 2 to the original video I did for this competitive title. This time around however, I analyze an actual match, stopping and starting to discuss the how and why’s of each situation. I hope you’ll find this video useful for increasing your knowledge about the game so you can dominate in the next amateur league or showoff to your friends at the next LAN event! :P Thanks for watching.

Also, *p228, my bad.

The eSports Bulletin #78

Good morning eSports fans and players! It’s time for another episode of the eSports bulletin, the fastest and most efficient way to keep up with eSports. Today’s episode briefly lays out today’s events and matches and then discusses the Blizzard-IPL sale that was announced yesterday. Here is a breakdown of what’s covered:

1. Monday’s episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dac0mjREGRM
2. SK Planet Proleague: http://www.twitch.tv/sc2proleague
3. WCS GSL Code S: http://www.gomtv.net/
4. MLG Winter Exhibition: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/
5. The Premier League: http://thepremierleague.eu/
6. G-1 Champions League: http://g1.2p.com/dota2/
7. RaidCall Dota 2 League: http://d2l.evilgeniuses.net/
8. Solomid EU Invitational: http://www.solomid.net/
9. GIGABYTE StarsWar League: http://www.twitch.tv/eslasia/
10. (TL Thread) Blizzard/IPL: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=406876
11. (Reddit) Blizzard/IPL: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1bxpdo/blizzard_buys_ipl/

WePlay Dota 2 League: Group Stage #2 groups announced
Team Dignitas confirmed that Samayan “BlinG” Kay has resigned with their team
Choi “CranK” Jae Won re-signs with Axiom eSports
Gosu Gamers have released Q1 rank changes for LoL (teams)
ESReality has this week’s Quake Live schedule up with 12 different events

Why isn’t World of Warcraft played competitively?

Every once in awhile I run across someone asking “why doesn’t WoW have an eSports community?” And often it’s followed by a complete unawareness to the history of competitive WoW and remarks like “if we held WoW tournaments they could definitely be as popular as League of Legends and StarCraft 2!” Today I wanted to clarify why WoW isn’t an eSport and why you don’t find tournaments for it nowadays.

Note: I understand that there are WoW teams and tournaments, what we’re talking about is why WoW is barely ever mentioned in eSports or played at any major tournaments.

First, WoW has been played competitively. It used to be featured at Major League Gaming events and Blizzard has hosted tournaments for it at BlizzCon. MLG included it in their pro circuit from 2008-2010 and dumped tens of thousands of dollars of  prize money into it. BlizzCon has continued to include it in their events with last years World Championship (2012) having close to $200,000 in prize money. The problem in recent years is that there isn’t a consistent tournament schedule which severely deters players from pursuing a professional career. Of course that could be remedied if there were simply more tournaments. So how come there isn’t?

A very prominent argument against WoW is that it’s simply too complicated for eSports. Players have access to dozens of unique abilities that are spammed in quick succession making it far to difficult for spectators and commentators to keep track of what’s going on. This is a great point because the best eSports are ones that have successful commentary. StarCraft 2, League of Legends, and Dota 2 all have less abilities and thus more emphasis is placed on their use. Commentators can follow it closely and analyze whether or not it was a successful decision and how it will play out in the match. In WoW the abilities are used so quickly that commentary comes down to merely generalizations that become boring: “ok, he’s got a DoT, now he’s cleansing, here come the heals, now they’re returning damage…” This may sound fine at first, but would get highly repetitive match after match. The alternative of course being that if abilities were used more slowly, commentators could remark on the actual decisions: “incoming DoT is corruption, cleanse is used, incoming heal is lay on hands, ooh I don’t think he should have used that there, instead he should have buffed him with divine protection and used flash of light, that would have been more economical, now he’s going to have trouble…” But since abilities move too quickly, commentators aren’t able to delve deeply into the strategy that’s going on.

The above point should be distinguished from another similar argument: “WoW is too complicated for eSports in reference to the actual amount of abilities”. This is something I completely disagree with. StarCraft 2, Dota 2, and League of Legends all require a high level of understanding to properly interpret what you’re seeing. This argument neglects to realize the actual computations. WoW arena always had specific team compositions that were more powerful than others (like tiers in fighting games). Out of the 11 classes, high level arena play would use maybe 3-4 of the classes. Each class has 20-30 unique abilities, but only a handful are used regularly. That’s a max of 120 items to remember, and probably closer to 60. League of Legends on the other hand has over 100 champions, of which roughly 20 are used regularly. Each has 4 abilities that are always used with 6 items that are always used. But the same 6 items aren’t selected by everyone, meaning that there are dozens of items you would need to memorize. So there are approximately 200 items and let’s say only 50 of them are used on a regular basis. That’s 20*4+50 = 130 items to memorize. Millions of League of Legends fans have done this easily. The argument that WoW is simply too complicated to understand only hinges on the fact that things happen so quickly, not that there are too many abilities.

Note: you may argue that I didn’t include gear which would add a new level of complexity, but this really isn’t the case because in professional WoW tournaments, gear is open for players to select before the match. This negates their effect because players already know what to select. It’s not a decision they have to make on the field based on what’s happening, and thus it’s need for memorization is negligible.

The game is too old.” This argument is immediately dismissed when you consider that Brood War, DotA, and Counter-Strike 1.6 have been played for around a decade each, even when new “fancier” titles were released to replace them. If WoW was a good eSport, people would play it regardless of the graphics or age.

There’s no developer support.” That’s always a valid point to consider, but it hinges on the reception they receive from the competitive community. I would imagine Blizzard learned everything they needed to know in the few years of running WoW tournaments with BlizzCon and MLG. It clearly didn’t pan out like other titles and died for a reason. Developer support is important, but only if people are going to play your game. For example, look at ShootMania: Storm right now, there is strong developer support, but the competitive community isn’t really picking it up. Of course that doesn’t mean that smaller niche communities aren’t important. One of the coolest aspects of eSports is all the small communities centered around less popular titles like WoW, Quake Live, and Enemy Territory.

Gear requirements are a problem.” This argument differs from above and actually is a problem in my opinion. The core game requires non-professional players to work for their PvP gear as opposed to a game like Guild Wars that offered a mode with all gear unlocked. This is problematic because it places a large barrier at the beginning of your competitive career. And we clearly see this because only a small percentage of WoW players bother with arena. They realize the time and effort necessary to earn the gear and thus don’t bother competing.

WoW arena is boring to watch.” This is sadly one of the primary problems plaguing competitive WoW. While you may argue that “boring” is a subjective term, companies disagree and instead look at numbers and measure ROI. WoW never had impressive turnout at MLG events compared to other titles and when considering that a different more popular title could replace it for the same cost, the decision is simple. People found it boring and hard to spectate and it was reflected in the numbers. A great example of why it’s boring, as mentioned above in the abilities section, is the difference between MOBA/RTS abilities and MMO abilities. Because there are so many used in rapid succession it leads to a “watering down” effect, which diminishes the noteworthiness of each used ability. Whereas when you have less abilities used more sparingly, it is exciting and critical to time their use accurately. The strategy is deeper and more apparent.

Lastly, balancing isn’t handled in the right context, and this is the real killer and ultimate reason why WoW isn’t played competitively. Since MMO’s have a variety of different environments, Blizzard is forced to balance across the board, rather than focusing on an individual category. PvE, raiding, arenas, battlegrounds, and world PvP all require different ways to balance properly because they utilize different variables. But since there isn’t separate balancing changes for each, we are fed blanket balance changes that attempts to satisfy them all at a mediocre level. Add on top of this the fact that Blizzard is constantly patching the game, and you have a competitive community that cannot train and perfect their skills. This completely destroys any chance of forming top tier talent and thus any real competitive community. Until this aspect of the game is remedied, WoW will never be an eSport.

Secret last point: I almost forgot to mention random crits. The fact that players can random crit one another for high amounts of damage and not respawn is another serious flaw in competitive game design. The best eSports titles avoid or eliminate any random chance since randomness impedes skill.

The eSports Bulletin #77

It’s time for another episode of the eSports bulletin! This morning you’ll find a very full plate of eSports goodness since a ton of stuff happened this weekend and will be continuing on this week. Here are the topics covered:

1. Acer TeamStory Cup: acer.taketv.net
2. SK Planet Proleague Round 4 (SPL): http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012-2013_Proleague/Round_4
3. The Premier League (TPL): thepremierleague.eu
4. World of Tanks Pro League (WoT): wotproleague.com
5. Major League Gaming Winter Exhibition (MLG): majorleaguegaming.com
6. WCS/GSTL: GOMTV.net
7. Solomid European Invitational: solomid.net
8. GIGABYTE StarsWar League Season 2: http://leaguepedia.com/wiki/GIGABYTE_StarsWar_League
9. OLYMPUS Champions Spring 2013 (OGN): http://leaguepedia.com/wiki/OLYMPUS_Champions_Spring_2013
10. NVIDIA Game Festival 2013 Qualifiers: http://leaguepedia.com/wiki/NVIDIA_Game_Festival_2013/Qualifiers
11. League of Legends Championship Series (LCS): na.lolesports.com & euw.lolesports.com
12. Evil Geniuses RaidCall Dota 2 League: d2l.evilgeniuses.net
13. G-1 Champions League: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/G-1_Champions_League
14. DreamHack Dota 2 Invitational Playoffs: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/DreamHack_2013/Invitational/Playoffs
15. ShootMania Storm launch: maniaplanet.com/shootmania4all
16. RaidCall EMS One CS:GO: raidcall-emsone.com
17. Garena Premier League (GPL): gpl.garena.com
18. Tencent LoL Pro League: http://leaguepedia.com/wiki/Tencent_LoL_Pro_League/2013/Spring_Season
19. Call of Duty Championship (#CoDeSports): elite.callofduty.com/esports
20. Starladder Season 5 Finals (SLTV): starladder.tv
21. FGC: April Duels II: canada-cup.ca
22. IGN IPL $100,000 ShootMania Finals: ign.com/ipl

G-1 Champions League releases NA/EU qualifier bracket
The Dignitas B squad for League of Legends has left the organization; however 4 of 5 will remain together, with Zachary “SnEaKyCaStRoO” Scuderi joining Quantic Gaming
epic.11 LAN on July 25-28, has confirmed tournaments for CoD 4, CS:GO, and Dota 2 with up to 3000 EURO prize pools
The TF2 competitive community has launched another fundraiser to bring 1 NA team to Insomnia 49, $4,770/$10,800 raised so far

  • http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/send-a-north-american-team-fortress-2-team-to-the-i49-festival-in-the-uk

ClanBase Enemy Territory tournaments 3on3 OpenCup Spring 2013 and ClanBase ET EuroCup XXVII are set to begin shortly

Two new pages: “The eSports Whitelist for Adblock” and “The Spawn Room eSports Shows”

Today I added two new pages to The Spawn Room’s main site: “The eSports Whitelist for Adblock” and “The Spawn Room eSports Shows“. These two pages share in detail two aspects of TSR content that have been around for over a year. The first, the Whitelist for Adblock, explains what it is and why you should consider using it. By adding the whitelist to your browser, you can use Adblock on over 99% of websites, while disabling it on eSports community websites like The Spawn Room, Team Liquid, Twitch.tv, and Major League Gaming. I understand that ads can be annoying and Adblock is like a gift from the programming Gods of awesomeness, but disabling it within communities you support is actually pretty helpful. And you may even be surprised that some ads within eSports are actually somewhat relevant and can lead to discovering cool, new content. Either way, consider supporting eSports by using the whitelist.

The second page lists off all the different shows The Spawn Room produces. Each section contains a description of what the show is, why you should watch it, and when it airs. It also has an embedded playlist for each series with the most recent upload ready to watch! You should definitely go check it out and see if there’s anything you’re missing out on. There also a section for sponsorship and advertising opportunities. If you have a show, event, team, or anything else you’d like to get recognition for, you can sponsor episodes of any series for very minimal cost, in fact one of the options is even free!

Well, that’s the site update for now. Be sure to keep an eye on the shows page or our YouTube channel for upcoming eSports interviews and next weeks eSports bulletins.

The eSports Bulletin #76

After a 5 month hiatus, I’ve decided to restart the eSports Bulletin. I had initially stopped because it was too time consuming to produce each episode, but recently I’ve been really wanting to do it and I think I can find a way to make it more efficient and less strenuous. The eSports Bulletin is a daily eSports news show that works to deliver relevant content in an extremely efficient manner. The design I chose revolves around this scenario:

  • “I left eSports for X amount of time and I need to get caught up. What events or matches are going on today or in the near future that I might be interested in? What shows or podcasts are happening so I can catch up on eSports culture? What is my scene talking about right now?”

The bulletin is here to help fans and players keep up with eSports and even discover new content. I am constantly seeking out tournaments and shows to add to the list. Another aspect that makes the eSports bulletin unique is that it spans all genres and scenes. From the biggest ones like League of Legends to small niche communities like Enemy Territory. My goal is to keep you connected at the least possible cost. So if you want a great way to keep up with eSports, or to introduce a friend to eSports, let them know about the eSports bulletin and we can help grow eSports together!

The eSports Bulletin is released Monday through Friday at 8AM EDT / 7AM CDT. That way you can get the earliest report of that days happenings and be prepared for any upcoming matches you’re dying to see. All bulletins are uploaded to YouTube at YouTube.com/SpawnRoom. This show is not streamed live on Twitch, so don’t go looking for it there. I had released a couple episodes of the eSports Nightly which was a once-weekly show on Sunday’s/Monday’s that I filmed live, but that was incredibly time consuming and difficult to do. So I scrapped it.

I also wanted to note that during the past 5 months, a variety of eSports shows have died. In each episode I list upcoming podcasts and shows you might be interested in. I had a nice sized list of shows 5 months ago and during my update today I had to go through and see which were still active. Of the approximately 50 shows I had found, around half have died since then! And some of them were produced by large eSports organizations. It just goes to show how fragile and dynamic the eSports industry is. Here are some of the best shows that have died:

  • eXtravision by eXtelevision, a competitive Team Fortress 2 show.
  • All shows by Definitive eSports, although it looks like their organization will be back soon.
  • All shows by The Dota Show, aka LuminousInverse.
  • Big Two Tournament Series by Next Level, a fighting game show that features match play.
  • Meta Musings by ggChronicle. They still do the Trinity Force Podcast, but apparently don’t upload to YouTube anymore.
  • MOBA Weekly and The Executives by Complexity Gaming.

Some other shows have become what I call “variable” where they are released off and on, rather than on a regular schedule. An example would be the Day9 Dailies which used to be released consistently, but are not interspersed with Let’s Play’s and other content.

Getting To Know eSports: Interview with Sean “EroSennin” Gough

Over the past few months I’ve been debating how I want to approach eSports. I officially put the eSports bulletin on hiatus because each episode took hours to make and I didn’t have enough time everyday to get them done. I would like to keep making Behind The Play episodes covering strategy for fans and players, but those take a lot of time per episode and only allow me to publish once-in-awhile. So I began brainstorming other options because I didn’t just want to step away from eSports and be done. So now I present a new series that I think will work out a lot better because it doesn’t require hours and hours of time I don’t have right now. Getting To Know eSports will introduce players, casters, event coordinators, community managers, website owners, and more, to the eSports world through a series of questions that help you get to know the person on a more personal level. Rather than interviews that cover the latest news or tournament results, which there is already plenty of, I wanted to create a more intimate, sit down and get to know someone series. My first guest was Sean “EroSennin” Gough, a StarCraft 2 player from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is currently playing for the Complexity Gaming Academy and I met him in person at a Teh Pwn Gaming CSL StarCraft 2 event in 2011. He’s a great guy and was a fun guest so be sure to check out the interview embedded below, or watch it on YouTube.

Other Tags: Ero-Sennin, Collegiate StarLeague, TPG, University of Minnesota: Twin Cities, coL Academy, SC2, StarCraft II

Realm of the Mad God gameplay analysis and quick start tips

My friends and I were looking for a new game to play this weekend, something quick and easy to install and get into. We discovered Realm of the Mad God on Steam. It was a pretty fun way to waste a few hours and I decided to create a quick start tutorial to help new players get into the game and understand what is going on. Especially since, the first time I jumped in, I got pulled into the end-game right away and died immediately. I had no idea what had happened. Hopefully this will explain some of the basics to get you off the ground.

More game information can be found here.

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