Hi everyone,
With the end of the first ECL coming up, I thought I'd post this in the spirit of constructive criticism, in the hopes that this event will continue. First of all, a huge thanks to everyone at Escape Gaming for their amazing work on this tournament, for their big dreams and for their long-standing efforts to forge this game into a full-fledged esport. Hopefully this thread can give the guys some ideas to keep this league going and keep it fresh.
The best part of the tournament, in my opinion (and not having had the LAN yet), was the "stages" structure with each round being a mini-tournament. This was a really good way to give each round its own stakes, without losing sight of the overarching league system. I also thought the map contest was a really nice touch.
That said, if I have three concerns/gripes with this first iteration they are the following:
1. Too long and exclusive. As many people have pointed out, the length and volume of the tournament has had a chilling effect on other team tournaments over this period. This has meant that a lot of players just under the skill threshold for the ECL have basically been locked out of team competitions. (When players like Vinchester can't qualify for team competitions for a year then something's very wrong.)
2. Uncompetitive. After the first few rounds the entire league essentially became a contest for second place. While the "stages" system meant that each individual round still had some drama, the overarching league wasn't particularly interesting.
3. Casting. I felt like the Escape Twitch channel started off with the wrong priorities—namely, trying to get as many people as possible to watch on the Escape channel itself, rather than simply trying to get as many people as possible to watch. This meant big-name streamers were pulled from their big-name streams and paired together in often awful combinations. Once they'd abandoned this approach, the last few stages were casted exclusively by Zak and Robo, while other streamers would show the games only sporadically. I feel like a lot of the hype for the tournament had died by this point, which is probably related to the other two points as well.
With this in mind, my main suggestions for future iterations would be:
1. Introduce a second tier with promotion and relegation (with potential for more tiers in future). This will give more meaning to the league system and give teams like VNA and BzK something to fight for. It will also make the competition more inclusive. The second tier could just be a simple round robin style if the whole "stages" thing is too admin-intensive.
2. Halve the number of stages and make it a tournament that lasts a few months, not a year and change. Every stage will matter more, there can be fewer water maps (I admire Escape's commitment to water but the novelty wears off really quickly), and those feeling locked out of the competition will only have to wait half as long for their next chance to qualify. Aim to hold it once a year with a decent break in between to build hype.
3. Actively negotiate deals with streamers to get the matches shown on their channels. The aim should be to reach the largest audience possible, and channels like T90 and Memb are where the viewers are. Rather than simply make a streaming policy and hope the streamers come to you, try to recruit those big channels. Most viewers would prefer to watch the games with their favorite caster, so the more options out there, the better.
4. Lean into the stages format and give each event a clearer identity. I remember events like Battle of Africa, Legacy of the Huns, Hidden Cup etc; I don't remember anything about ECL Middle East 3v3. The geographic theme is a nice idea but the events need more of a "hook." (And having fewer of them should also help—see above.)
Despite my criticisms I just want to reiterate that I hugely admire the ambition, effort, and passion that has gone into this tournament. This is the kind of competition that AoE2 will need if we're to become a full-fledged esport and I want to thank Escape, the players, and the casters for all their work in this direction!
Sorry this ended up being so long. I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
With the end of the first ECL coming up, I thought I'd post this in the spirit of constructive criticism, in the hopes that this event will continue. First of all, a huge thanks to everyone at Escape Gaming for their amazing work on this tournament, for their big dreams and for their long-standing efforts to forge this game into a full-fledged esport. Hopefully this thread can give the guys some ideas to keep this league going and keep it fresh.
The best part of the tournament, in my opinion (and not having had the LAN yet), was the "stages" structure with each round being a mini-tournament. This was a really good way to give each round its own stakes, without losing sight of the overarching league system. I also thought the map contest was a really nice touch.
That said, if I have three concerns/gripes with this first iteration they are the following:
1. Too long and exclusive. As many people have pointed out, the length and volume of the tournament has had a chilling effect on other team tournaments over this period. This has meant that a lot of players just under the skill threshold for the ECL have basically been locked out of team competitions. (When players like Vinchester can't qualify for team competitions for a year then something's very wrong.)
2. Uncompetitive. After the first few rounds the entire league essentially became a contest for second place. While the "stages" system meant that each individual round still had some drama, the overarching league wasn't particularly interesting.
3. Casting. I felt like the Escape Twitch channel started off with the wrong priorities—namely, trying to get as many people as possible to watch on the Escape channel itself, rather than simply trying to get as many people as possible to watch. This meant big-name streamers were pulled from their big-name streams and paired together in often awful combinations. Once they'd abandoned this approach, the last few stages were casted exclusively by Zak and Robo, while other streamers would show the games only sporadically. I feel like a lot of the hype for the tournament had died by this point, which is probably related to the other two points as well.
With this in mind, my main suggestions for future iterations would be:
1. Introduce a second tier with promotion and relegation (with potential for more tiers in future). This will give more meaning to the league system and give teams like VNA and BzK something to fight for. It will also make the competition more inclusive. The second tier could just be a simple round robin style if the whole "stages" thing is too admin-intensive.
2. Halve the number of stages and make it a tournament that lasts a few months, not a year and change. Every stage will matter more, there can be fewer water maps (I admire Escape's commitment to water but the novelty wears off really quickly), and those feeling locked out of the competition will only have to wait half as long for their next chance to qualify. Aim to hold it once a year with a decent break in between to build hype.
3. Actively negotiate deals with streamers to get the matches shown on their channels. The aim should be to reach the largest audience possible, and channels like T90 and Memb are where the viewers are. Rather than simply make a streaming policy and hope the streamers come to you, try to recruit those big channels. Most viewers would prefer to watch the games with their favorite caster, so the more options out there, the better.
4. Lean into the stages format and give each event a clearer identity. I remember events like Battle of Africa, Legacy of the Huns, Hidden Cup etc; I don't remember anything about ECL Middle East 3v3. The geographic theme is a nice idea but the events need more of a "hook." (And having fewer of them should also help—see above.)
Despite my criticisms I just want to reiterate that I hugely admire the ambition, effort, and passion that has gone into this tournament. This is the kind of competition that AoE2 will need if we're to become a full-fledged esport and I want to thank Escape, the players, and the casters for all their work in this direction!
Sorry this ended up being so long. I'd love to hear others' thoughts.
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