Hello all,
Over the past few months, we have organised and run four tournaments under the DreamHack Community Clash banner (NA/EU each with a Newcomer and Open tournament). Alongside the event, we ran numerous livestreams to provide coverage for the event. Now that we're all wrapped up and working on prize distribution we thought it would be a good time to hear your feedback on the production and event on the whole.
We would like feedback on:
- Production
- NA Clash Organisation/Structure
- EU Clash Organisation/Structure
- Event as a whole
- Anything else you can think of
Here are some general details about the events we ran over the past 2 months.
General Approach
- Newcomer & Open Tournaments
- Multi-weekend event
- Soft-region locks (w/ exceptions)
- Minimising downtime, both on stream and for players
NA Clash
- First weekend was planned for Invite Qualifiers if needed, second weekend was the main event
- Open Swiss and 8 Team Invite, following into a 16 team Single Elim Playoffs (all Bo3)
- Staggered schedule (Open, Invite and Newcomer run at different times)
- ~6-9 maps on Day 1, up to 12 maps on Day 2
- 9-10 Hours Day 1, with 7-8 hours Day 2
EU Clash
- First weekend was group stages, playoffs in second weekend
- Open Swiss and 6 Team Round Robin Invite, following into a 16 team Double Elim Playoffs (UB Bo3/LB Bo1)
- Synced Schedule (Group stages ran at the same time)
- 3 maps on Day 1, up to 4 maps on Day 2, up to 9 on Day 3, up to 9 on Day 4
- Around 4 hours per day for Weekend 1, and 6 hours for Weekend 2
Thank you to everyone who took part, and special shoutouts to ArchRhythm, Jon and Kirsty for setting this all up. Additional thanks to all the staff involved in the behind the scenes operations of this event. Couldn't do it without you.
Hello all,
Over the past few months, we have organised and run four tournaments under the DreamHack Community Clash banner (NA/EU each with a Newcomer and Open tournament). Alongside the event, we ran numerous livestreams to provide coverage for the event. Now that we're all wrapped up and working on prize distribution we thought it would be a good time to hear your feedback on the production and event on the whole.
We would like feedback on:
[olist]
[*] Production
[*] NA Clash Organisation/Structure
[*] EU Clash Organisation/Structure
[*] Event as a whole
[*] Anything else you can think of
[/olist]
Here are some general details about the events we ran over the past 2 months.
[b]General Approach[/b]
[list]
[*] Newcomer & Open Tournaments
[*] Multi-weekend event
[*] Soft-region locks (w/ exceptions)
[*] Minimising downtime, both on stream and for players
[/list]
[b]NA Clash[/b]
[list]
[*] First weekend was planned for Invite Qualifiers if needed, second weekend was the main event
[*] Open Swiss and 8 Team Invite, following into a 16 team Single Elim Playoffs (all Bo3)
[*] Staggered schedule (Open, Invite and Newcomer run at different times)
[*] ~6-9 maps on Day 1, up to 12 maps on Day 2
[*] 9-10 Hours Day 1, with 7-8 hours Day 2
[/list]
[b]EU Clash[/b]
[list]
[*] First weekend was group stages, playoffs in second weekend
[*] Open Swiss and 6 Team Round Robin Invite, following into a 16 team Double Elim Playoffs (UB Bo3/LB Bo1)
[*] Synced Schedule (Group stages ran at the same time)
[*] 3 maps on Day 1, up to 4 maps on Day 2, up to 9 on Day 3, up to 9 on Day 4
[*] Around 4 hours per day for Weekend 1, and 6 hours for Weekend 2
[/list]
Thank you to everyone who took part, and special shoutouts to ArchRhythm, Jon and Kirsty for setting this all up. Additional thanks to all the staff involved in the behind the scenes operations of this event. Couldn't do it without you.
i liked that bany came 2nd
i liked that bany came 2nd
it was great as a spectator. thanks for doing it
it was great as a spectator. thanks for doing it
For EU:
2 weekend spread worked well. Never felt like we had too much tf2 to play.
Nevertheless, golden rule of esports is that bo1's in knockout stages suck at all times, 0 exceptions. I know you did it to have less time between games and less blank time on the broadcasts, but, I think a better way to do it would be to have everything bo3. Then maybe move playoff round 1 to the first weekend, and stretch the games out further seeing as the grand final finished only 20 minutes after scrim time generally starts, and even if it went to a full 3 maps would only have ended around 21:15.
Regardless though, still probably the best ran cup I've taken part in over the last 3 years or so. So Thank you to all.
For EU:
2 weekend spread worked well. Never felt like we had too much tf2 to play.
Nevertheless, golden rule of esports is that bo1's in knockout stages suck at all times, 0 exceptions. I know you did it to have less time between games and less blank time on the broadcasts, but, I think a better way to do it would be to have everything bo3. Then maybe move playoff round 1 to the first weekend, and stretch the games out further seeing as the grand final finished only 20 minutes after scrim time generally starts, and even if it went to a full 3 maps would only have ended around 21:15.
Regardless though, still probably the best ran cup I've taken part in over the last 3 years or so. So Thank you to all.
was gonna say exactly the same as above (minus eSports) ^
knockout bo1s is nasty, if you really NEED a bracket to be bo1s, i think its preferable for the upper bracket to be bo1s and lower bo3s, but best solution is definitely having both as bo3s and spreading it out to first weekend (having group stages be two days for 5 maps in invite seemed unnecessary).
was very fun to watch and be part of as always <3
was gonna say exactly the same as above (minus eSports) ^
knockout bo1s is nasty, if you really NEED a bracket to be bo1s, i think its preferable for the upper bracket to be bo1s and lower bo3s, but best solution is definitely having both as bo3s and spreading it out to first weekend (having group stages be two days for 5 maps in invite seemed unnecessary).
was very fun to watch and be part of as always <3
BumFreezewas gonna say exactly the same as above (minus eSports) ^
knockout bo1s is nasty, if you really NEED a bracket to be bo1s, i think its preferable for the upper bracket to be bo1s and lower bo3s, but best solution is definitely having both as bo3s and spreading it out to first weekend (having group stages be two days for 5 maps in invite seemed unnecessary).
was very fun to watch and be part of as always <3
no idea why I capitalized that S im so sorry for my sin I will never do it again :c
[quote=BumFreeze]was gonna say exactly the same as above (minus eSports) ^
knockout bo1s is nasty, if you really NEED a bracket to be bo1s, i think its preferable for the upper bracket to be bo1s and lower bo3s, but best solution is definitely having both as bo3s and spreading it out to first weekend (having group stages be two days for 5 maps in invite seemed unnecessary).
was very fun to watch and be part of as always <3[/quote]
no idea why I capitalized that S im so sorry for my sin I will never do it again :c
EU Clash:
I already mentioned this to Jon but the first weekend the games (in swiss) were very good in general. Only our first game wasn't really fair since we had to play a open/low etf2l team. I feel like this could've been prevented when you put the top half of the teams in a hidden group so they can only play each other in the first round. I believe ETF2L does something similar in the first week of swiss.
The schedule of the second weekend wasn't very good for most of the open teams that made it to playoffs. Since half of the open teams dropped before the second weekend even started I think it's a good idea to think about alternatives for the (playoffs) schedule. We dropped as well but if we had played our schedule would be this:
First BO3 match at 15cest against a div 1 team, probably would've been a quick roll which means we have to wait around 2.5 hours for the first BO1 lower bracket match. The team we had to play dropped as well > waiting another hour and 15 minutes. The next BO1 at 19:30 was against another prem/div 1 team, so a 15 min game max and you're done.
The problem is not that the games aren't close cause that's just what happens when most open teams play in invite bracket. But in our case people didn't want to reserve a big part of the Saturday just to wait the majority of the time. Maybe this can be fixed by moving the first two rounds of playoffs (so round 1 upper bracket and round 1 lower brocket) to the same day as the last few swiss games.
The first weekend went very smooth however, also production was very good. Thanks to all the people involved
EU Clash:
I already mentioned this to Jon but the first weekend the games (in swiss) were very good in general. Only our first game wasn't really fair since we had to play a open/low etf2l team. I feel like this could've been prevented when you put the top half of the teams in a hidden group so they can only play each other in the first round. I believe ETF2L does something similar in the first week of swiss.
The schedule of the second weekend wasn't very good for most of the open teams that made it to playoffs. Since half of the open teams dropped before the second weekend even started I think it's a good idea to think about alternatives for the (playoffs) schedule. We dropped as well but if we had played our schedule would be this:
First BO3 match at 15cest against a div 1 team, probably would've been a quick roll which means we have to wait around 2.5 hours for the first BO1 lower bracket match. The team we had to play dropped as well > waiting another hour and 15 minutes. The next BO1 at 19:30 was against another prem/div 1 team, so a 15 min game max and you're done.
The problem is not that the games aren't close cause that's just what happens when most open teams play in invite bracket. But in our case people didn't want to reserve a big part of the Saturday just to wait the majority of the time. Maybe this can be fixed by moving the first two rounds of playoffs (so round 1 upper bracket and round 1 lower brocket) to the same day as the last few swiss games.
The first weekend went very smooth however, also production was very good. Thanks to all the people involved
Production was really nice as always, but I am wondering if a B stream would be possible, so that more games could be streamed. I'm aware of the difficulties it might cause but maybe it'd be easier if the B stream was only there for playoffs ? I'm just saying that cause the way the double elim was setup, a lot of juicy, must-win games did not get seen unless you hopped on a third party stream.
Production was really nice as always, but I am wondering if a B stream would be possible, so that more games could be streamed. I'm aware of the difficulties it might cause but maybe it'd be easier if the B stream was only there for playoffs ? I'm just saying that cause the way the double elim was setup, a lot of juicy, must-win games did not get seen unless you hopped on a third party stream.