RBW4 | Main Event Announcement

Main Event Announcement​

The main event is right around the corner, and after some fantastic qualifiers, we have all our players ready to battle it out.
We have an incredible four new players participating in the main event for the first time, which is sure to shake things up and create a very exciting tournament.

Bracket & Information

Groups & Pairings​

​

Eight returning champions:​

• ACCM
• Mr_Yo
• DauT
• TheViper
• Hera
• Villese
• Liereyy
• Vinchester

Qualifier 1 winners:​

• dogao
• JorDan
• MbL
• Sitaux

Qualifier 2 winners:​

• Nicov
• SongSong
• Valas
• Vivi

First Weekend​

Saturday 19th June 13:00 UTC: Group Stage
Sunday 20th June 13:00 UTC: Group Stage

Second Weekend​

Friday 25th June 14:00 UTC: Decider Matches
Saturday 26th June 14:00 UTC: Quarterfinals
Sunday 27th June 14:00 UTC: Semifinals & Grand Final

Both semifinals will be played at the same time, and the 2nd will be cast as recorded games.​

 

I didn't mind the observer. There was only one instance in I think Lierrey vs Dogao where he kept switching between his POV and what the casters where talking about and we ended missing both fights, but that is no biggie.
What annoyed me more was T90 being ahead quite a bit and spoiling some major mangonel shots.

As others have mentioned already, I thoroughly enjoyed Memb and Nili casting together. Feels like they took it to the next level, with Memb being the play by play caster and asking Nili leading questions for him to go into a deeper analysis. Can't wait for the second part of that today.

Did anyone catch the announcement they were teasing throughout the day? I went to sleep before the final series and couldn't find anything while skipping through the vod.

 

I found one issue yesterday - cameras are delayed and we see players who stop playing before the game ends which makes it a bit anticlimatic.

 

Did anyone catch the announcement they were teasing throughout the day? I went to sleep before the final series and couldn't find anything while skipping through the vod.

Memb and Nili will go to a studio in Germany next week and cast from there

 

Observer mode provides no objective benefit and should’ve been scrapped after what happened in RBW3. There were many times where T90 or Dave had to refer to “blobs” on the minimap without being able to show what it was they were talking about. It was also out of sync by a couple seconds so if a big mangonel shot landed we would hear the reaction from the casters before seeing it from the observer’s POV.

The cost-benefit just doesn’t add up here. As someone else said the absolute best case scenario is the observer POV is equivalent to a caster’s POV. So why create a problem where there previously was none?

 

Yes. Observer is completely unnecessary and actually hampers the viewing experience IMO.

What is the supposed benefit?
- Casters tend to "scroll around too much"? That's just nonsense, basically every viewer is fine with how the main casters scroll around etc. Heck, t90 has thousands of viewers for a reason, they clearly like his way of controlling the camera
- Casters "miss important things"? Hardly. They are professionals with lots of experience and there are two of them. Sure they miss something occasionally, but so does the "observer".

At the same time, the observer results in a disconnect between what we see and what is happening on stream, which is horrible.

 

Every major StarCraft 2 competition I can remember watching used an observer so I struggle to believe that any of the issues people complain about can be attributed to there being an observer rather than there being an imperfect implemention of having one.

 

Maybe because we and the casters are both not used to this style for the rest of the tournaments, it can feel clunky when there is inconsistencies.

 

Yea that is a long-term isue which was present during KOTD as well. I wonder if something could be done about that

I found one issue yesterday - cameras are delayed and we see players who stop playing before the game ends which makes it a bit anticlimatic.

 

Memb and Nili will go to a studio in Germany next week and cast from there

What, that's awesome news! Do you mind sharing where this was announced? Only if it's not too much trouble <3

 

Between series 7 and 8 during yesterdays stream

 

May I ask how the pairings in QFs are determined? Is it random or is it like 1st of group A vs 2nd of group C etc?

 

if Daut beats Nicov, he will have a semifinal guaranteed with possibly Liereyy waiting for him in the 1/4.

 

Last time it was A against D and B against C, so if that holds true this time, the winner of Daut vs. Nicov would probably face Hera in the quarters.

 

First time I'm watching Memb and Nili casting together and I'm lovin' it!

 

The cost-benefit just doesn’t add up here. As someone else said the absolute best case scenario is the observer POV is equivalent to a caster’s POV. So why create a problem where there previously was none?

I disagree, why do you think the best case scenario is equivalent to having a casters POV? Right now I'll agree that it's worse, but I can see that there's potential in the future with an observer with a bit more practice and more chemistry between the observer and the casters. When I watch streamers I get annoyed quite a bit by how often they're clicking on buildings and other useless units, with an observer this isn't the case. The observer will also notice sneaks, raiding and side-attacks more often.

Also, Dave talking about a blob while it not being on stream happens a lot when T90 is controlling the camera, so it "only" happens about twice as much as compared to normal. I will say that it was quite annoying that mainly t90 was ahead for a few seconds, which was very annoying, but hopefully they'll be able to fix that in the future.

- Casters tend to "scroll around too much"? That's just nonsense, basically every viewer is fine with how the main casters scroll around etc. Heck, t90 has thousands of viewers for a reason, they clearly like his way of controlling the camera

So we shouldn't change anything because t90 has thousands of viewers? Just because t90 has thousands of viewers doesn't mean his camera control is flawless 11

- Casters "miss important things"? Hardly. They are professionals with lots of experience and there are two of them. Sure they miss something occasionally, but so does the "observer".

I agree with you here though. In general casters won't really miss any big things, however they could be noticed a bit faster sometimes, which is where the observer could help I think

 

If the casters miss things (which I doubt is a problem), you can just have an "observer" in the background who e.g. gives them some kind of internal map flare.

I honestly completely fail to see the benefit of an observer. I mean, someone like Nili and t90 is a really good AoE2 player. I WANT someone like him to have control over the camera. And I WANT camera and casting to align. That will NEVER happen with an observer, at least not to the same degree.

 

Something else entirely:

I find Riley really sympathetic and cool. Haven't seen him around before and Idk if he has casted/followed the aoe2 scene before, so I was a bit skeptical at first.

But he is not awkward at all, doesn't feel out of place and does a great job!

 

"We will hold hands, we will cuddle, and do some stuff when the cameras are off" 11. Finally Nili with a good joke. Just joking, but ya, that was a funny one lol.

 

The cost-benefit just doesn’t add up here. As someone else said the absolute best case scenario is the observer POV is equivalent to a caster’s POV. So why create a problem where there previously was none?

Umnn... no. Casters especially T90 click all time which adds nothing for viewers but distracts. Or focus on memes and other unimportant stuff instead of actual match. Observer only follows the game

 

Umnn... no. Casters especially T90 click all time which adds nothing for viewers but distracts. Or focus on memes and other unimportant stuff instead of actual match. Observer only follows the game

But they do that regardless of whose POV is being shown.
During yesterday's set between Vivi and ACCM T90 started laughing about some villager chasing another villager close to Vivi's base, while the observer POV was showing the middle area, and it took him a while to figure out what T90 was talking about to pan to it.
It's just a weird disconnect between what we see and what we hear that feels a bit unnecessary

It's no biggie all in all though imo

 

Some people think Aoezone is all about criticising, but I think this forum is also used by many people to point out when they find something cool. Credit is generally given where it is due.

For example: as some others pointed out - the host Riley Knight is pretty cool. I had not heard him earlier, but his short interviews, knowing what to ask, smooth conversations have already made me a fan of his hosting. Great job there, Redbull.

 

As much as I like T90 and Dave, I have to admit Nili and Memb are just killing it. They work so well together and importantly they also are working much better with the observer with Memb in particular consistently commenting on what Mapu was pointing out. Mapu is also just getting better and better(he's a professional observer for a reason) but the point of having him around is much more apparent when Mili are casting than when Tnave are. Maybe that's a reason why the observer is unpopular since the more popular casters aren't really working as well with him.

 

Umnn... no. Casters especially T90 click all time which adds nothing for viewers but distracts. Or focus on memes and other unimportant stuff instead of actual match. Observer only follows the game

Yeah I've heard that argument before. I'm not buying it. Replacing the idiosyncrasies of an experienced caster with the idiosyncrasies of a presumably less experienced observer isn't a recipe for success. And if it was, you wouldn't be seeing about a 10:1 ratio of people who dislike the observer mode.

 

Some people think Aoezone is all about criticising, but I think this forum is also used by many people to point out when they find something cool. Credit is generally given where it is due.

For example: as some others pointed out - the host Riley Knight is pretty cool. I had not heard him earlier, but his short interviews, knowing what to ask, smooth conversations have already made me a fan of his hosting. Great job there, Redbull.

He's excellent. I hope we see him on a more consistent basis.

 

Where i feel the observer really helps is when casters drift of telling some storys. They often dont really show whats foing on then. Now they can do such stuff while we can still follow the game.

Also the observer is catching way more movements than we usually see
I can remember so many moments where even t90 or nili would be like:"oh i havent noticed that raid 3 mins ago, thats why he has no more wood at all".

Observer is basically not missing any army movement.


On the other hand there are obviously points to improve from both sides. But i so start to really like it or at least see the potential.