Official UGC St. Louis $20k Feedback Thread

[Proto]

The UGC St. Louis $20k just came to an end not too long ago - congrats to Denial for winning the event! Thanks to UGC for putting on this event as well!

 

As has become custom after each event, this will be the feedback thread for the event. The goal of this thread is to discuss and provide feedback for UGC and 343/the HCS to improve for future events. Please keep the criticism constructive and in line with the forum rules rather than just saying something is bad or that it sucks without explaining your reasoning. 

 

Some of the points in the different sections will overlap as they might have been done well but need to be improved upon. 

 

Things Done Well (The Good)

 

1. Casters: The casters were great all weekend. I am personally not a fan of Maven's casting but I will say he did well. He worked really well together with Walshy and I wouldn't mind seeing him at more. Bravo, Walshy, and Goldenboy did great as always. The caster desk and area also looked nice along with all commentators wearing suits making it look more professional which was again nice to see.

 

2. Venue Setup: Although they were not a lot of pictures of the venue setup, from the pictures I did see, it looked very nice and the mainstage looked great. Especially with the 4 POVs behind each teams similar to the MLG mainstage back in the day. 

 

Things Not Done Well (The Bad & Things That Need To Be Improved Upon)

 

1. Caster Combinations/Pro Players Commentating: Some of the commentator combinations could use adjusting to have a play by play commentator paired with an analyst rather than 2 color commentators together. Walshy plus any other caster worked well because he is a true analytic caster. Some people give Goldenboy a lot of shit for his casting but I think the struggle comes more when he is paired with Bravo for example - another play by play commentator. When Goldenboy was paired with Walshy throughout the weekend I thought they did fine.

 

And as well - more pro players should be brought into the booth if they have the oppurtunity. Ryanoob did a great job in the booth when he commentated and hearing the analysis of the pro players will always be a great addition to any stream at any event. 

 

2. Stream & Stream Quality: The stream this weekend seemed to have more issues than any other H2A event - to be perfectly honest. One of the things that bothered me was that Source quality on Twitch seemed to be locked to subscribers only? The High quality was still good but locking Source quality for subscribers only is something no TO's should do in my opinion. I'm hoping it was just a mistake rather than done on purpose. Another point was the audio was horrendous at times. Listen ins with no audio - casters coming back from listening ins and their volume being way too high, some listen ins having no audio at all, and so on and so on. These are problems that really shouldn't happen. An easy fix for this? Test the broadcast on Thursday or early Friday to ensure as little problems as possible. Put in the stream title or tweet that you are testing it and just do it. I don't think I've seen a single stream tested for issues for Halo in a very long time and I don't understand why.

 

Downtime was really, really bad this weekend. It's understandable in situations where a teams win a match quickly and it is ahead of schedule but something really needs to be done by all TOs and 343 about downtime. Whether it be replaying old matches or content made specifically for the downtime, it needs to be SOMETHING. Downtime drives the stream numbers down by thousands and NEEDS to be addressed. Again, I completely and fully understand the issues with the game and the Xbox One but we never even know what the reason for the downtime is. If it's the game and the Xbox One issues - that's understandable. If it's players being late - come down on them for being late. 

 

The stream overlay was really nice but one of my gripes was that the player & team name graphic was all one color (Blue) instead of being colored for the different teams. I saw some people asking which team was which so this should be changed and colored for each team. 

 

3. Interviews: Sadly, most of the interviews this weekend were once again nothing but cringe material to put it as honestly as I can. Nothing against Jessica Goch or Mohawk Mike - but the interviews were just not good. Mohawk Mike conducted himself well and seemed comfortable on camera but in the search of being professional - I would have him drop the "Mohawk Mike" thing and just do his hair normal, use his normal name and continue to work on doing interviews because I feel like he actually has potential. I also would not mind interviews taking place at the commentators desk rather than in a separate area. Have the pros sit down for a few minutes with the commentators and discuss the game. If you are going to bring in someone for interviews - I still think Dmaq should be that guy. Yes he is goofy and might not embody professionalism but he knows all the pro players, many of them he is close with, and is just a funny guy. I also think the interviews should be limited to the pro players and be done after big series. It just feels horribly out of place when random fans and players are interviewed. 

 

4. Tournament Payout: This is not an issue in terms of total prize money but the issue of how many teams to give prize money to. This was an issue talked about a few years back in discussions of how to get more players to events. I can understand wanting to take more of a community approach and payout to more players but I still feel as though payouts should only be to the Top 8. This isn't to just throw money at players placing in the Top 8 but when you space out the prize money to more and more teams you have problems with teams placing around 4th or 5th making as much as a team that placed 12th which shouldn't really happen. 

 

5. Updated Game Rules (Directed at 343, not UGC): Game deciding bugs and issues continued to plague the tournament this weekend and there needs to be a rule change made ASAP. You cannot have games being fully replayed when a team is winning 4-1 or by a large number of seconds to only have the game replayed. This absolutely kills the momentum of the winning team. This problem is different if the game is very close and an issue occurs but when the game is a blowout and the problem occurs - a rule needs to be in place to finish the game from the current score after a restart. 

 

6. FFA: The FFA on Friday was a bit of a disaster. Players dropping out, running very far behind schedule, and I think you could include playing it on a Forge map. I LOVE FFA but with all the problems the MCC has right now, it is not optimal to run it unless you have an event weekend be Thursday - Sunday and do the FFA on Thursday, allowing for 4v4 to be Friday - Sunday. 

 

Overall Tournament & HCS Side Notes

 

One of the major issues with this tournament is not the fault of UGC - but this is on you 343: The Master Chief Collection needs to be fixed. Game deciding glitches need to be fixed. The problems of players dropping out of games needs to be fixed or at least worked on to occur less (depending on if it's an actual game or Xbox One issue). This seems to happen more and more at each event but these glitches and issues 1,000% need to be a top priority. Imagine if one of these bugs happens during the finals of the Season 1 Championship? It's uncalled for and before anything else - these issues need to be fixed or else the integrity of each tournament is continuing to be lowered. Players right now are in a walking egg shells knowing that an issue they have absolutely 0 control over could cost them the tournament. These issue need to be fixed when you have this much on the line. 

 

I believe this covers everything. Again guys, post any and all actual feedback in the thread and help to improve future events and the HCS as a whole.

[CyReN]

Get rid of FFA.

[Moa]

Get rid of FFA. If you're keeping it, get rid of Simplex.

[AkaDemiK]

well said

[Proto]

Something that I forgot to add to the side notes section:

 

- Gametypes and maps need to be looked over - and the broken gametypes need to be fixed.

 

Just some quick notes on this.

• Sanc Bomb should be added back once fixed - It was a great gametype that required a complete set up for each bomb plant
• Once again, look into adding a powerup to the top mid of Lockout TS (although the standoffs weren't as bad this tournament, it is still a general issue).
• Look into using a good forge remake for additional maps and gametypes, My hope is for someone out there who already has or is making a good Beaver Creek forge remake that could be used competitively. 
• Warlord needs 2 versions of the map. One with the new spawns for CTF and one with the old spawns for Assault (Discussed by Snipedown earlier on Twitter). 

[Stephander]

Ads. Improved on Sunday but still. Adssssss

[Jay]

Why is there no continuation anymore? bo11's were so good to watch. Also when are settings/maps up for discussion?

 

Edit: Sword is just way to OP in h2a imo, it won't happen but I wouldn't miss it if it was gone.

 

Also, Walshy to cast every event.

[The Snazzer]

You know, we have been having these stupid feedback threads after every tournament and each and every one in the past 2 years has been dissapointing. Either the X1 is shit or the game is shit. Lets just stop this, really. I GUARANTEE you that the next event won't be any better, the event after that won't be any better either.

 

This is what we get and that's what its going to be from here on out.

[Stephander]

You know, we have been having these stupid feedback threads after every tournament and each and every one in the past 2 years has been dissapointing. Either the X1 is shit or the game is shit. Lets just stop this, really. I GUARANTEE you that the next event won't be any better, the event after that won't be any better either.

 

This is what we get and that's what its going to be from here on out.

We all just need to migrate to waypoint or neogaff, I reckon.

[Bionic Cell]

I think that MCC and Xbox One were the real culprits for the bad fluidity in this tourny. 

[GunRanger]

FFA can stay, just play longer on saturdays. no reason for the tourney to end at 11.

 

 

more maven and walshy. i want Walshy to cast the grand finals over Goldenboy

 

 

there really needs to be more maps by 343. I also don't think Ascension is that bad of a map for a tournament.

[GoldenboyFTW]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for sticking with us this weekend. While the matches were great there are certainly a ton of improvements to be made. This is only season 1 and we expected bumps in the road, it's inevitable in the live event space.

 

The plan is to revise some things (hopefully by Gamers For Giving) and ensuring the event flows as smoothly as possible.

 

Personally, I want Walshy to join myself AND Bravo for a tri-cast finals (I wanted to do it here) and perhaps we can accomplish that for the finals. I notice there are still gripes with my casting and that's fine because I know you can't please everyone but I read everything sent my way and I know that from UMG Halo to today I've improved drastically for you guys.

 

My improvement won't stop there and I thank you for watching UGC this weekend. See you all at Gamers For Giving!

[Warlord Wossman]

My biggest suggestion is using forged maps. I still think having only 3 maps makes it so boring.

[VODE]

The Finals should be casted by Walshy and another person. Or three like you said. Walshy's knowledge bombs and analysis are way more interesting than casters just narrating what I see on screen.

 

@@GoldenboyFTW

[AkaDemiK]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for sticking with us this weekend. While the matches were great there are certainly a ton of improvements to be made. This is only season 1 and we expected bumps in the road, it's inevitable in the live event space.

 

The plan is to revise some things (hopefully by Gamers For Giving) and ensuring the event flows as smoothly as possible.

 

Personally, I want Walshy to join myself AND Bravo for a tri-cast finals (I wanted to do it here) and perhaps we can accomplish that for the finals. I notice there are still gripes with my casting and that's fine because I know you can't please everyone but I read everything sent my way and I know that from UMG Halo to today I've improved drastically for you guys.

 

My improvement won't stop there and I thank you for watching UGC this weekend. See you all at Gamers For Giving!

 

Salute. Continue to perfect your craft. Good job this weekend.

[Philosopher]

@Goldenboy Just keep doing what you're doing, bud. There's very few with the drive to continually improve their carft, their profession, their love, like you do. It's been nothing but improvements from my p.o.v.

 

A Walsh, Bravo, Goldenboy tri-cast for finals would be stellar. Definitely want to see that happening.

[overuled]

I'll add more feedback later but one of my biggest gripes was obviously the downtime and starting time.

 

The tournament was scheduled to start at 11EST which is midnight where I live. I have no problems staying up and pulling all nighters to watch tournaments (I've been doing it for years now) but I lose a lot of interest when I'm sitting in front of my computer at midnight and then watch it get later and later without any gameplay.

 

A lot of emphasis needs to be put on starting on time, and by that I mean if the stream is scheduled to go live at 11, we should have an intro running a few moments before and then go straight into caster introductions maybe do an interview and then into the first game.

 

There were a lot of times where commercials were used while waiting for the game to be ready and it just gets frustrating wondering how long the wait is going to be.

 

A lot of blame for this falls on the reliability of MCC but we've known about it for a few tournaments now and there needs to be serious discussion about workarounds for it while we wait for the game to be fixed.

[Antidope]

Of the bit I watched I saw that they added more map fly throughs which is awesome. The number one issue is how long Sunday ran. Once a break happened I fell asleep on it, it was almost One

[FireAtWill]

Ok, maybe I am beating a dead horse but I must leave some feedback.

 

• As an European it is pretty sad that I always miss the finals because they never can hold the schedule. It is not like they are 30 minutes behind. I know that it is impossible to get a perfect schedule for the whole Earth but please...most of us do have a life and many do plan in advance to follow the tourney and then we get no feedback at all when the games will start and so on. Following Halo esport is like waiting on the bus in Egypt.
• Audio and video quality was extremely poor. Why is this so hard when random kid can stream his game with perfect audio and video quality?
• Overall the production was amateurish at best. If this is the quality we can expect in the future I actually prefer the online tournaments. Then I get good video and audio quality with listen ins and with multi twitch I can actually follow more than one POV. And after the game I can listen when the players analyze their performance.
• The casters I do like. If I as a viewer have a problem with the quality of the production I think the casters also have problems. Of course their performance will be reflected by the working environment. So with that in mind I think they did well and if everything else worked as it should have I think most of us had enjoyed the casting much more. Bravo needs to work on his facial expressions....he is the face of 343 and he do look tired and almost dejected sometimes. He is an awesome dude and I certainly understand the pressure he is under.
• The content between the games should be something that the production company take serious and actually plan for. The drop in viewers between games is jaw dropping. Just watching ads for 30 minutes is so dumb. Combine that with no information at all when the games start and you have a problem to add up the viewers.
• MCC and Xbox One failures. To many problems and seriously 343....fix it.

 

343 have made it clear that they want Halo back in esport and HCS is their baby. With all the resources 343 and Microsoft have I can´t understand that they don´t seem to have any quality control? It is their franchise that gets a bad reputation. But then I start to think about the launch of MCC and...ehhh...well, this is maybe the level of quality they are capable of?

 

And why is it so quiet from Lenoxcoolgamer? He is the video director for 343 Halo esport. What do he think about the quality? Is it something that 343 is satisfied with? The only serious feedback I can find is from Goldenboy so kudos to him.

[Lukes]

Pretty much all of my complaints were addressed in the OP.

 

Someone suggested in the chat to run montages during the downtime instead of the same ads or videos the whole time and I thought that was a good idea. I'm sure the people competing wouldn't mind theirs being shown as long as there weren't issues with the music in the video for copyright problems with being played on stream.

 

What I don't get is it seems like Groundhog Day with these tourneys when it comes to stream or audio issues. By now, you should expect that things will mess up during the first day or two given the track record of these tourneys so maybe changing the way you test things prior to the tourney or doing more test streams are in order.

[EUPenguin]

Really excited for the EGL event next month, although I'm kind of gutted that it's invite only. I'm still planning on going to spectate though. There have been a lot of team changes in Europe since TCM split so it'll be interesting to see who comes out on top at the event. 

 

 

Did anyone see Ryanoob and Chig jump to ring 3 from bonfire on the sanc TS game? Can't believe the casters missed it.

 

[logfish111]

Do they actually have VOD for the event? Can't find the grand finals anywhere.

[FireAtWill]

Do they actually have VOD for the event? Can't find the grand finals anywhere.

 

Around 10:57:31 the grand finals starts.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/ugc/v/3660366

[logfish111]

Around 10:57:31 the grand finals starts.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/ugc/v/3660366

Dang I'm stupid for not seeing that. Thanks for the link.

[Computer]

I was at the event Saturday and Sunday. The UGC employees worked their asses off to put on a good show. They were very nice to everyone. Even handing out the rental listen in headsets for free during the semi and grand finals. Most of them had not slept in a few days and were passed out on the lobby couches. I can't really speak for the stream because I did not watch it. Gaming stations were very nice with good equipment. They had a lot of gaming stations enough to fill the back side of the room. Honestly they needed a bigger venue. It was very crowded at times. Could not see a lot of the games on the stations due to the crowd and lack of space. Main stage was awesome once they had all 3 screens up and running. The 4 player screens were very dark and almost un-watchable. Main stage audio was also not that great. Could barely here the game or casters unless you sat next to the speakers. There was also a lack of space for the audience to watch the main stage. Spectator turn out was on the low side Sunday night. Ending so late on a Sunday night / Monday morning did not help. Despite that the atmosphere and audience was pumped and made it the event very fun. Over all I hope they were able to profit and host more tournaments. These events need more promotion. No one knows that they are going on unless they are already deep into the Halo community. There needs to be promotion screens in the MCC or ads on twitch prior to the event if they are ever going to get more then 10,000 viewers.