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My Two Cents On The SC2 Arena / Stage Controversy

Hey folks,

The 2017 Blizzcon Schedule has been released (https://blizzcon.com/en-us/schedule#fri-nov-3). There's some controversy (https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/7431co/blizzcon_2017_schedule_released/) regarding StarCraft II's move from the Arena (2016) to Hall A (this year), which could arguably be considered a downgrade.

This event has not yet been produced. This means we can't know if it will be higher- or lower-quality than last year, more or less epic for in-person viewers, etc. It's not possible to conclude that it's a downgrade without having watched or attended the event.

"But it was in the Arena last year! Now it's in Hall A!" But what does that say about the production value of the actual event? Last year I put together a write-up on excellence in StarCraft broadcasting, highlighting the Nation Wars tournament: https://illiteracyhasdownsides.com/2017/01/10/starcraft-broadcasting-and-the-excellence-of-nation-wars/. One thing I learned from researching this piece is that many different, subtle factors come together to produce a really solid, high-quality broadcast. It's a lot more than just a venue. Consider the recent AIMAG 2017 qualifiers; much credit to the casters for doing their best to salvage it, but the impressive venue (https://go.twitch.tv/videos/177801364?t=50m) did nothing to make up for the lackluster production quality. Not surprisingly, viewership suffered as a result.

I'm not familiar with the Blizzcon venue, but presumably not every game can appear in the Arena due to time and space constraints. It's not surprising that Blizzard chose Overwatch - a recent release and a game they're pouring money into - over older games like SC2, Heroes, WoW, and so on. That doesn't say anything about the quality of the SC2 broadcast.

Look, if you watch the event itself and conclude that it's bad or worse than last year, then complaints are completely understandable. But we don't know anything yet, so we can't draw any conclusions. Let's be patient.

brownbear