I think I’ll make a little write-up here about my experience as a first-time attendee of a halo event. Note that I won’t be addressing any stream issues here as I didn’t really watch the stream at all
PROS
Atmosphere: The event as a whole was amazingly hype. You could feel the energy in the venue and how everyone was incredibly excited to play/watch some classic halo. The mainstage seating was crowded and LOUD and there were a ton of people at the side stations as well. 343 definitely needs to take note that THIS is what the people want to see in a Halo game.
Venue: The venue was well-organized and the perfect size for an event like this. Not too small that it was super crowded, but not too big as to dilute the people out. The mainstage looked sick and it felt deserving of a classic halo event. I was able to easily move to watch whichever team I wanted close-up on the side stations as well.
CE Setup: The CE setup was really cool, and made it very accessible for anyone to watch. The overlays were incredible and gave a lot of useful info for those (like me) who aren’t really familiar with CE strats. They kept all the boxes out for the whole event too for the CE folks to continue LANning and I know they all loved that. Minor gripe: It would have been nice if we could have seen both the teams POVs who were playing on mainstage.
Player Approachability: I’m a big REC fan, and I was able to spend a ton of time being around and chatting with the squad, especially Lunchbox and Pistola. This is one thing which definitely surpassed my expectations, as I thought I would just get to take a quick photo and that would be it. Shoutout to all the guys on REC, again especially Lunch and Ola, they are are incredibly nice people.
4 Player POV: It was awesome to be able to see all POVs on mainstage, and they were well positioned above each team. This definitely added a lot to the spectator experience.
Gameplay: The gameplay this weekend was amazing. Obviously I’m disappointed that REC only got 3rd, but it was clear they still had the skill and just need to work on teamwork and objective efficiency (they lost multiple objective games while outslaying their opponents). TOX played great and deserved the win. Super happy for APG but sad for Aries and Str8 Sick, guys who have grinded so hard for so many years and came so agonizingly close to their first event win. And Shele, online kid??? Way to shut your haters up in the best way.
CONS:
Feature Stations:
The feature stations were oddly positioned, which hurt the spectator experience. It was hard to get a good view of the players comparedgto the side stations. It also was a big problem for the competitors (Towey had to stand on a chair behind a railing to even coach his team). That whole area should have been opened up a little.
Registration: The registration was very inefficient, and people were waiting in line for a VERY long time. It feels like they didn’t expect so many people and so didn’t have enough check-in booths. Something which definitely should be improved upon.
Audio Issues: There were audio issues even at the venue, with many competitors complaining about the quality of the mixamps and headsets. There was apparently a large amount of static in some of them, and many had to be switched out, which probably contributed significantly to stream downtime.
VIP Area: I paid extra for the VIP area, and while the couches and general area was nice, it was poorly positioned to be able to watch matches on mainstage. It was far too much to the side, and I could not see any matches well from there. This area should be more centrally positioned.
Food: The food in the venue was pretty abysmal. Just because it’s a video game event doesn’t mean that the only edible food there has to be overpriced pizza and hot dogs. Their selection of beers was also very poor. This might obviously be a venue issue rather than anything to do with UGC.
CE Announcements: There were no announcements in the venue for the CE tournament, not even for the finals. I wasn’t even aware it was going on until halfway into the first game. They should have at least made an announcement to let interested people know. They also didn’t even give out the trophy then? But waited until the next day.
All in all, I had a great time at my first event. Certainly things which can be worked on, but it definitely did not detract from my enjoyment of the event, even with my favorite team placing 3rd. As a guy living in Texas, I can’t wait for Austin and Dallas to come around.
Special shoutout to the Beyond bros at the event, especially @Humpflung @Silos @Zavehi, and a big shoutout to @Hard Way for teaching me some CE strats . That’s all I got!
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