NS2WC 2015
NeXuS
US Join Date: 2013-10-13 Member: 188681Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
US Join Date: 2013-10-13 Member: 188681Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
Comments
Not sure if a 3rd party production studio is 100% necessary. Then again, I lack perspective and concerte information.
That being said, i will donate anyway.
I think you're really underestimating the shear amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. The ESL studios are CRAZY GOOD. Even if you ignore spectators, you've still got 30 players, 2-4 casters, a ref, 1-2 camermen, 1-2 hosts, a producter, some people to bring food/etc. That's 40-50 people to feed and house for 5-10 hours. At the NS2WC, I alone drank at least 20 euros worth of bottled water.
Then you have the equipment requirements. I won't even get into the cameras/tvs/displays which are probably insanely difficult and costly to setup and use. You have 12 GOOD computers with 12 good monitors just for the players. Then you need 12 more good computers + decent monitors for the OTHER players to warm up on before their games. ESL had all of this! And they had removable SSDs that each player carried around with our preloaded settings, sensitivities, mods, etc. Because of how professional the ESL guys and their setups were, we could switch players out in 5-10 minutes instead of 20-30!. When two teams finished playing and the next two came in -- again, just 15 minutes or so to setup and get ready.
I first walked into the ESL studios, along with the other 25 people playing, on Friday -- one day before the tournament. I joked with the Titus guys "so this is what 20 or 30 grand buys you!" because I was a bit skeptical at first. The building is older (like most in Cologne) and wasn't much to look at. But man, that Saturday when things started rolling. I was quite impressed with the ESL guys (specially the head guy, Ollie(?), who let me and Rant borrow mousepads from one of his prize pools). The guy running around on stage telling us "TWO MINUTES, YOU READY?" and "NO YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR A PISS" was fantastic as well. He opened at least 10 of those bottled waters for me in between rounds (they come in glass bottles with real bottlecaps).
All in all, I don't know if UWE made or lost money on the event. IMO, though, the money they spent on the ESL studio was well worth it. I seriously cannot praise them enough for how well their studio and staffed worked with Wasabi, Reddog, Zefram, Blind, and the teams.
And the water! OMFG THE WATER! lol
Good to hear that you see the ESL studio as worth it.
This time I could even stay for the afterparty.