Growing the NS2 Competitive Scene: Calling All Clans and Potential Casters
casan0vax
Cloverfield, USA Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166663Members, WC 2013 - Shadow
Cloverfield, USA Join Date: 2012-11-04 Member: 166663Members, WC 2013 - Shadow
Greetings all~
soz here. Some of you may recognize me, I play quite a bit on the KKG/National Gaming servers.
The purpose of this post is two-fold, so let me just dive right in.
_____
Part I - Casters for Hire (Except you don't have to pay us)
My buddy datto and I are really interested in casting NS2 scrims/matches. We both have a real passion for the game--but for different reasons are unable to really get engaged in the competitive scene (I'm in grad school, he works full-time... it's hard to really fit in any serious scrim/practice time into our schedules).
But we still really want to get involved in the scene, and casting seems to be the best alternative route.
Now, personally, I've been following the competitive scene pretty closely--but by and large, most scrims that are cast are upper-echelon teams (i.e. nxzl, all-in, dn, etc.). And for obvious reasons; they're just scrims, nothing's on the line (I know most, if not all, ENSL matches are cast which is cool), but because they're the higher-skilled clans in NA, people will still watch.
Datto and I are pretty adamant about getting involved while at the same time getting some publicity out there for lesser-known teams who don't have the fanbase/notoriety of more established clans. The main catalyst for this thread was Virsoul and Bitey's announcement of a tournament for "underdogs, dark horses and longshots."
I'm really excited to watch this, but I couldn't help but notice one thing: I know that this is a tournament for the "underdogs and longshots," but of all the clans listed to participate so far (18 as of this writing), I only recognize five of the teams, and of those five, two are by reputation, while the remaining three are by actually having watched streams involving them. This is not at all a slight against the rest of the field; I think it's just a product of the lack of competitive awareness outside of the top 3 or 4 teams in NA, and being the patriot that I am, I would love to see more NA teams springing up.
So, what I'm proposing is this:
If there are any teams out there who want their scrims streamed and saved for later viewing (and matches even, although I'm not too sure about the rules on that, if casters have to be ENSL sanctioned or anything; clarification on this would be appreciated), please don't hesitate at all to post here or friend me on Steam and shoot me a PM so we can set up times and such (Link to my Steam profile is in my sig). We're really stoked to do this, so seriously, don't hesitate.
_____
Part II - Caster Casting Call
I want to gauge the interest in casting itself.
In other words, if there are any other people out there in the same boat as Datto and I who are:
* casual players,
* but follow the competitive scene regularly,
* and would be interested in casting.
I find it pertinent, especially given Hugh's recent post about the potential for NS2 Play Systems and how it could facilitate casting as well as Gathers/pugs. I can only see this increasing the amount of teams in the field. And personally, if there're enough people interested, I think it would be cool if teams had their own casters (similar to how sports teams have their own radio casters).
________
Epilogue
So just to close, if there's any interest at all from either side of the fence (i.e. teams that want their scrims cast, or potential casters wanting to stream games), please express it here and I'll organize a list so we can see what we have to work with. I know that there are already a lot of well-known casters (Wasabi, blind, reddog, etc.), but they're pretty big-time in terms of their stature, and as such only cast big-time scrims and matches (which, in no way, is meant as an attack on them; it's awesome and they all do a great job).
My purpose isn't to guilt Wasabi and co. to cast and bring more attention to these lesser-known clans. This post is more for those who are new to the scene; for those who want to get involved but don't necessarily have the platform to do it; for those who aspire. Teams that aspire to practice, to be able to review their scrims and matches to see what they did wrong, what they did right, and to improve; fans that aspire to be involved--to be more than just spectators and become Casters. More attention and publicity for up-and-coming teams and casters would only help to stimulate the growth of the NS2 competitive scene.
I'm really hoping that there'll be some general interest in this.
Thanks for your time guys!
~soz
soz here. Some of you may recognize me, I play quite a bit on the KKG/National Gaming servers.
The purpose of this post is two-fold, so let me just dive right in.
_____
Part I - Casters for Hire (Except you don't have to pay us)
My buddy datto and I are really interested in casting NS2 scrims/matches. We both have a real passion for the game--but for different reasons are unable to really get engaged in the competitive scene (I'm in grad school, he works full-time... it's hard to really fit in any serious scrim/practice time into our schedules).
But we still really want to get involved in the scene, and casting seems to be the best alternative route.
Now, personally, I've been following the competitive scene pretty closely--but by and large, most scrims that are cast are upper-echelon teams (i.e. nxzl, all-in, dn, etc.). And for obvious reasons; they're just scrims, nothing's on the line (I know most, if not all, ENSL matches are cast which is cool), but because they're the higher-skilled clans in NA, people will still watch.
Datto and I are pretty adamant about getting involved while at the same time getting some publicity out there for lesser-known teams who don't have the fanbase/notoriety of more established clans. The main catalyst for this thread was Virsoul and Bitey's announcement of a tournament for "underdogs, dark horses and longshots."
I'm really excited to watch this, but I couldn't help but notice one thing: I know that this is a tournament for the "underdogs and longshots," but of all the clans listed to participate so far (18 as of this writing), I only recognize five of the teams, and of those five, two are by reputation, while the remaining three are by actually having watched streams involving them. This is not at all a slight against the rest of the field; I think it's just a product of the lack of competitive awareness outside of the top 3 or 4 teams in NA, and being the patriot that I am, I would love to see more NA teams springing up.
So, what I'm proposing is this:
If there are any teams out there who want their scrims streamed and saved for later viewing (and matches even, although I'm not too sure about the rules on that, if casters have to be ENSL sanctioned or anything; clarification on this would be appreciated), please don't hesitate at all to post here or friend me on Steam and shoot me a PM so we can set up times and such (Link to my Steam profile is in my sig). We're really stoked to do this, so seriously, don't hesitate.
_____
Part II - Caster Casting Call
I want to gauge the interest in casting itself.
In other words, if there are any other people out there in the same boat as Datto and I who are:
* casual players,
* but follow the competitive scene regularly,
* and would be interested in casting.
I find it pertinent, especially given Hugh's recent post about the potential for NS2 Play Systems and how it could facilitate casting as well as Gathers/pugs. I can only see this increasing the amount of teams in the field. And personally, if there're enough people interested, I think it would be cool if teams had their own casters (similar to how sports teams have their own radio casters).
________
Epilogue
So just to close, if there's any interest at all from either side of the fence (i.e. teams that want their scrims cast, or potential casters wanting to stream games), please express it here and I'll organize a list so we can see what we have to work with. I know that there are already a lot of well-known casters (Wasabi, blind, reddog, etc.), but they're pretty big-time in terms of their stature, and as such only cast big-time scrims and matches (which, in no way, is meant as an attack on them; it's awesome and they all do a great job).
My purpose isn't to guilt Wasabi and co. to cast and bring more attention to these lesser-known clans. This post is more for those who are new to the scene; for those who want to get involved but don't necessarily have the platform to do it; for those who aspire. Teams that aspire to practice, to be able to review their scrims and matches to see what they did wrong, what they did right, and to improve; fans that aspire to be involved--to be more than just spectators and become Casters. More attention and publicity for up-and-coming teams and casters would only help to stimulate the growth of the NS2 competitive scene.
I'm really hoping that there'll be some general interest in this.
Thanks for your time guys!
~soz
Comments
I love watching matches with 2 good casters with a quality stream that is entertaining! This way I can show friends my matches who have not played games or ns2.
Components I have scene that seem to grab my friends attention:
-Entertaining casters that highlight personable background info on the teams and players.
-Quality streams and camera work in capturing the engagements.
-And pre post game talk with animation music hype like content. Even edited footage from other matches which I have only scene in the highlights of the live match germany.
Anyways I hope u continue to try and help out the caster side of ns2. If you want I can arrange you to cast one of our scrims for dys. Just pm me if ur interested.
Cheers!
There's something wildly pleasing about being able to see everything on the map all the time - having a giggle to myself when Marines are being seen by a Drifter, for example.
I would love to get a chance to co-cast a game, even if it's just a PCW/Scrim between two reasonably-unknown teams.
On the other hand, I would like some of my clan's PCWs and Scrims to be casted, as being able to go back and see what we did right/wrong would be extremely useful.
Though I may have been following the competitive scene longer, I recognize at least 14 of the teams signed up at first glance. I know of a few twitch channels that are of lower div players and that cast a fair amount of lower div scrims. Perhaps I should try to make a list.
I think the problem is that people want to watch the best and the top players, so lower level players/scrims will always get less views. It's unfortunate because I think people may be discouraged from streaming. Those channels I spoke of get very few views when they stream, even those that are generally "good" players.
I think the thing we need is more low-mid/high-mid players streaming which non competitive people can learn from. Some of the basics won't be taught by watching a top level stream, and they don't often focus on the little things that make their game better but on the instances in a game where they lose.
Anyways, the purpose of this was not to discourage you. I want you to continue casting, even if you get low views; but that is the thing, please do not get turned off if you have low views in the beginning.
If anything, I think (if you guys are serious enough and get knowledgeable people) that you can make a brand of casting lower-level games. That is something that I think is missing, but it requires you to go all in on this casting thing.
I think commentary that focuses on helping those lower level teams would be an amazing thing for the community. Find the smartest NS2 player you know and ask them to share their knowledge. The bests casts have casters who have good voices, can talk strategy, and are overall entertaining.
It's hard enough to get 20 viewers when I'm the only one streaming the game (my record was 19 so far under that situation). As soon as the popular streams go live, my channel hardly hits 10 viewers. Also, the fact that Portuguese is my main and most commonly spoken language on the stream makes it slightly inaccessible to most of the world.
It is kinda discouraging, which is why I'm not streaming every day, but I still do it whenever I play scrims, gathers or tourneys (as long as my family doesn't complain about being unable to watch movies on Apple TV :P).
Has anyone created an Official Competitive Streamers steam group? Have a collection of all competitive casters who can create announcements when they start casting and/or events for casted matches.
I personally do not have twitter up when I'm at my computer the entire time, but since steam is an auto-loggin, maybe it would be a better option?
P.S. Why don't casters ever do WarRooms? Those were always extremely entertaining to listen to. They also give viewers some insight into what exactly goes in in team comms.
This, I've joined blindns2 and the official group in the hopes of steam announcement popups.
A more centralized group with all the casters making announcements would be better.
It's also better than Twitter 'cuz everyone has Steam (to play NS2 obv.)
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ns2casts
It seems to be used, but not to its full potential. We need ns2hub, or some other site, to be as user friendly as this http://teamfortress.tv/streams . When you click on the side list of streams on the main page of NS2hub it prompts you to log in. I don't know why, but you shouldn't require a log in if it's a place to host the collection of twitch streams. The main domain of teamfortress.tv has a side list of streams as well, but when you click on one it takes you to view the twitch stream while still on the website.
You could also make a team page on twitch for competitive NS2, though I don't know how. http://www.twitch.tv/team/teamfortresstv
The thing is, what site should the community flock to? ENSL.org probably has the position to be the #1 community site but it is definitely behind on the design/aim of their website. Yes, they're a league but if there site had features and UI better than NS2Hub it could help give exposure to shows like http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/129649/ns2-showtime-live-video-show and to other less-known streamers.
They did make a news post about it, but it's just a bit ugly and feels thrown in among the matches lists on the front page.
As far as I can tell, only twitch.tv partners can start a team and they have to request it through the Support Center. Once that's done, anyone can be a part of the team, regardless of partnership.
Another great example of a community site would be Team Liquid (for SC:BW, SC2 and Dota 2): http://www.teamliquid.net/
Sally, you bring up really great points--but fortunately, I'm not the kind of person who's looking for accolades or anything from this. I genuinely enjoy NS2 and casting games, even if no one is watching. I don't mind doing it for my own edification.
Since my initial post, I've been able to establish a lot of contacts within the competitive scene and have cast quite a number of games already, even some ENSL matches!
Once again, thanks for everyone's interest, and if there're any teams that want their scrims streamed, feel free to contact me! I'd love to be able to have a bigger platform to get these lesser-known teams some recognition!