INKSTORM 2 Feedback Thread

[Kbot]

Hey everyone, it's Kres from EndGame.

First, I'd like to thank everyone that participated and made this a smooth tournament. I really enjoyed TOing, and I hope you all stick around for InkStorm 3! More details on that coming soon.

While we're preparing, we'd like to hear your opinions on how things went. You can be as general or as specific as you wish, any feedback is welcome!

Some specific points that we'd like opinions on:

• Use of Discord
  • Private Group rooms-better/worse than open to public?
• Commentating/overall cast experience (for spectators)
  • Breaks?
  • Did you like seeing the map selection in the CSGO section?
• Use of CS:GO Style rules
• Use of SplatMaps client for CS:GO
• Website design/experience.
  • We are fully aware that there were some problems to fix with the website and we are making our own internal
• Thoughts on General rules
• Thoughts on TOs and their job
• Thoughts on Charity Tournament

Of course, feel free to talk about whatever you would like!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Njok]

About the charity:

I support the idea of doing this, let that be clear. But if you are gonna do this, this needs to be handled well. And it wasn't. I registered and paid for my team before you changed to a charity event and while I don't mind to donate 20 dollar, i'd like that to be my own choice. Imo it's absurd that you didn't at least ask me about it.

Registering:

Won't go into much detail here since I already voiced my irritations about this to you earlier. But once you open registrations, make sure you have someone handling it. Sure I was early with registration, but even if you guys weren't ready to make confirmations for some reason, someone could have at least replied to me when I was repeatedly asking about it.

As for the tournament, it was great and very hype again. I liked the map/modes for group stages better than last time. Glad you changed to this system.

Can only speak about csgo as a spectator unfortunately but I gotta say I was kinda done with the constant Port Mackerel at some point. Other than that I really enjoyed watching top 8. Smart move to make sure every match got broadcasted.

 

[DC~Zolairx]

I speak only about that :

Cyberbullies have one dc but they continue the match after that and after one member Cocos Graines ko with the rainmaker , they would the rematch and Fire ( group H leader ) he said yes rematch but yesterday in the top 8 Team Nintendome have a dc too and they continue the match and loose but this time no rematch !

And after I ask the leader group H ( fire ) for host the 2nd match versus BMT ( lot of lag and latency time ) He don't respond... BMT don't have discord and it's Fire the only one Intermediate

But after that all it's a really good tournament with lot of hype !

 

[LittleSoundDJ]

Good tournament, time to get ready for the next one!

Still not a fan of CS:GO style. It just feels like an unnecessary step, even if it was faster this time around. Halo-style all the way through is fine. The better team is going to come out with the win in the end anyway. The fact that many series ended up with similar maps and also that many times teams would win on the OTHER team's picks and lose on their own are both examples of why i think it's a waste of time.

Gonna re-iterate my opinion that rainmaker doesn't belong in competitive play in its current state. Just because it SOMETIMES plays well doesn't justify the many times it doesn't.

 

[Agosta44]

-Commentary was spotty at times. Felt like some of the topics weren't necessary and it felt off balance at points.
-Didn't get a chance to use splatmaps. I got a link from Sly in offshore chat and tried to use it myself, but it didn't load. Not sure why. A full version should be released for all teams to be able to use outside of tournament.
-Change SplatMaps from text-based to image based. You can pull all the map icons from SplatNet.

-Kres as a TO is very combative and gets defensive if issues with rules are brought up. Things feel more like staff prefers less work > fairness to players. I really have not had a pleasant experience with him during either Inkstorm tournament.
-Bringing up my point about "less work", when the map/mode choices for Inkstorm2 were released, almost -every single round- was copy/pasted. How can an error like this exist? It came off as very amateur and worries me that TOs care more about doing less than running a proper tournament and taking consideration to player concerns.

-Rainmaker frequency is fine IMO. Personally I would prefer to see better management of map/mode picks and when they show up in bracket (ie: if a round has port mackerel show up multiple times, have the map show up early in 1 round and game 5 in the other to allow better variation).


It went much more smoothly this time around. It was a better experience due to rounds being completed more quickly.

 

[Kbot]

About the charity:

I support the idea of doing this, let that be clear. But if you are gonna do this, this needs to be handled well. And it wasn't. I registered and paid for my team before you changed to a charity event and while I don't mind to donate 20 dollar, i'd like that to be my own choice. Imo it's absurd that you didn't at least ask me about it.

Crap, you're right. And I'm sorry that I didn't mention that to you, that was something that I was going to ask you and then I got sidetracked with other things. My apologies.

-Didn't get a chance to use splatmaps. I got a link from Sly in offshore chat and tried to use it myself, but it didn't load. Not sure why. A full version should be released for all teams to be able to use outside of tournament.

It may have been for a number of reasons, and I had some trouble with it as well, but then I switched browsers and I was fine. So yeah, I dunno.

-Kres as a TO is very combative and gets defensive if issues with rules are brought up. Things feel more like staff prefers less work > fairness to players. I really have not had a pleasant experience with him during either Inkstorm tournament.

And I apologize for being such. If you would like to discuss further in Discord DMs, I would be more than happy to do so.

-Bringing up my point about "less work", when the map/mode choices for Inkstorm2 were released, almost -every single round- was copy/pasted. How can an error like this exist? It came off as very amateur and worries me that TOs care more about doing less than running a proper tournament and taking consideration to player concerns.

Interested to know what you mean by "Copy-pasted" here. Do you mean from InkStorm 1?

Keep them coming guys, I am all open ears.

 

[Power]

I will be stating what I have heard from others and from my opinion as a spectator:

Breaks:
Could have been handled better imo, I was very disinterested in the time taken out to watch the bans and picks. On that note, it took way too long for a top 8. I understand, entertainment purposes... but it lasted for around 8 and a half hours. Tournaments eating away at weekends seems like a drag that may not be preferable as time goes on.

CSGO Style:
I also agree with DJ's opinion on CS:GO style as we were beginning to see repeats of the maps. Once again I am going to assume you guys hoped to add to the entertainment aspect of it with analysis of the picks (imo it got stale) and a sense of depth, but repetition of the process just kinda made it "ehh" to me. If you would be able to do csgo style behind the scenes I wouldn't mind too much, but the repetition of maps is what worries me a bit.

-I was interested in checking out splatmaps, so a public release might be cool.
-Many people had criticisms regarding the commentary as being flat at times, (most notably during day 1). I share some of the sentiments, although not to an extreme, decent work, could be better.

 

[Agosta44]

Crap, you're right. And I'm sorry that I didn't mention that to you, that was something that I was going to ask you and then I got sidetracked with other things. My apologies.

It may have been for a number of reasons, and I had some trouble with it as well, but then I switched browsers and I was fine. So yeah, I dunno.

And I apologize for being such. If you would like to discuss further in Discord DMs, I would be more than happy to do so.

Interested to know what you mean by "Copy-pasted" here. Do you mean from InkStorm 1?

Keep them coming guys, I am all open ears.

IIRC when the maps were first posted, almost every round was port mackerel, arowana mall, hammerhead, blackbelly, and another map. They were all in the same order. Something like map pools should have been double checked and reviewed long before released to players.

 

[SlimyQuagsire]

I have to agree with others on the length that Day 2 took. Top 8 sets should not take that long. Not all matches should be casted from it, and another shared sentiment I have is broadcasting the CS:GO map picks. Let those be done by teams before the currently streamed match finishes, and then let the commentators speak their thoughts and give analysis when the set is starting.
To those who have criticized the commentary (including mine-) thanks! Know that I'll be doing my best every time you guys let me speak, and I will take all comments I can into consideration to improve.
As you all know I did not participate, but I will say that I believe rulesets should be finalized before launch (the sub rule wasn't determined until about 1 or 2 hours before the tourney started IIRC), and TOs should be try to be a bit more aware of how to communicate with participants about their gripes with the ruleset. (Love you tho Kres)

Also, rainmaker really did nothing wrong. Keep it in play tbh.

 

[WrongShoe]

Sunday went too long. If removing the casting of the picks/bans would have helped with that then the overall viewing experience would have been better. Otherwise watching the picks/bans was interesting the first time seeing it and less interesting each time after.

For a charity stream, it didn't feel like you plugged msf and asked for donations enough. I thought you could have been plugging them 10x more and it wouldn't have been too annoying.

As a captain, the TO's and discord did a good job. They were responsive whenever I had any questions or issues. I think sub rule should only be 2 per round. Any type of subbing slowed things down, so a limit would have been nice. In practice this was maybe an issue once in our 5 rounds.

 

[LockeExile]

The last time I posted in a feedback thread (BB4) I complained about the process for finding team captains. This was not a problem in Inkstorm 2. In fact, I was able to add all the players I needed to before the tournament even started. Even the Japanese team in our group. Communication in the private group channels was very efficient and we were starting our next match within just a couple minutes of finishing the previous one.

I don't remember if I said this last time or not, but as far as spectating goes, it'd be cool if you could update the teams' colors on the frame based on their ink color. That would help identify whose perspective we're watching, especially when you switch between multiple streams.

 

[Agosta44]

I agree with the sentiments of other posts that day 2 went too long. Cutting out picks/bans and making people sit through a 5+ minute countdown frequently could have easily shaved off over an hour. Considering how long matches are (10-35 min each) I don't think it's a good idea to cast every single match. That alone would've cut the time to complete top 8 in half.

 

[Kbot]

So, seeing as how the majority believes that every single match should not be cast, at what point do you think would be a good time to start casting every match? Losers Semifinals? Winners/Losers Finals? Curious to hear opinions.

 

[Pchan]

Feedback from a spectator point of view.

Overall great tournament to spectate! It felt much smoother than the first Inkstorm.

Commentators were great! Both informative and entertaining. It is remarkable how well you do with the limited tools Splatoon offers for spectating :)
I did not get to watch the finals due to the long duration of top 8. I would rather not watch map selection if it could save time.
If you another charity event, then the Twitch overlay should show the current donation status. As it were the charity part felt like a rushed afterthought...

So, seeing as how the majority believes that every single match should not be cast, at what point do you think would be a good time to start casting every match? Losers Semifinals? Winners/Losers Finals? Curious to hear opinions.

Cast at least every match starting from top 4 (starting from Winners Finals) as those are the most important matches in the tournament in terms of final results.

 

[Fightersword]

So, seeing as how the majority believes that every single match should not be cast, at what point do you think would be a good time to start casting every match? Losers Semifinals? Winners/Losers Finals? Curious to hear opinions.

I think matches that should be high profile, as well as generally just semis and of course finals should be casted. Casting every match in a double elim sounds like it'd take a very long time. Just pick out one every round to cast and then you can do casting with semis and finals (maybe less in a double elim, where you only do winners semis, losers finals, winners finals, and grand finals or something like that).

 

[BonFire]

IIRC when the maps were first posted, almost every round was port mackerel, arowana mall, hammerhead, blackbelly, and another map. They were all in the same order. Something like map pools should have been double checked and reviewed long before released to players.

I did the gametypes for Halo like that, every gametype only appeared ONCE and only one appeared twice, so from my part, there wasnt almost everyone round mackerel or Arowana, because these maps only appeared 3 times in the whole System. I don't know whether someone changed the gametypes or anything o.o but if then, I apologize for it

 

[Power]

Imo, I believe casting of the winners/losers semis and finals should be done,losers finals should be broadcasted (Pick one losers semis or both to broadcast)
This would significantly reduce the top 8 time, to around 3 hours. (Going by the notion that every match is 30 minutes.)

 

[BonFire]

I speak only about that :

Cyberbullies have one dc but they continue the match after that and after one member Cocos Graines ko with the rainmaker , they would the rematch and Fire ( group H leader ) he said yes rematch but yesterday in the top 8 Team Nintendome have a dc too and they continue the match and loose but this time no rematch !

And after I ask the leader group H ( fire ) for host the 2nd match versus BMT ( lot of lag and latency time ) He don't respond... BMT don't have discord and it's Fire the only one Intermediate

But after that all it's a really good tournament with lot of hype !

Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about but whatever^^

 

[Jill]

I speak only about that :

Cyberbullies have one dc but they continue the match after that and after one member Cocos Graines ko with the rainmaker , they would the rematch and Fire ( group H leader ) he said yes rematch but yesterday in the top 8 Team Nintendome have a dc too and they continue the match and loose but this time no rematch !

And after I ask the leader group H ( fire ) for host the 2nd match versus BMT ( lot of lag and latency time ) He don't respond... BMT don't have discord and it's Fire the only one Intermediate

But after that all it's a really good tournament with lot of hype !

Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about but whatever^^

Hi, what Zolairx is trying to say is:
- The Cyberbullies Team apprently had one of their member disnnected in the middle of a push from our Team that ended up by a Knock-out. And we didn't understood why they kept fighting if they wanted a rematch, wich happened anyway.
But on Sunday Nintendome got a disconnection too but there was no rematch for them.

- Also we got trouble in the communication with Fire (Group H moderator) who was our intermediate with the BMT Team. Because they didn't answered to Zolairx after our first battle we couldn't host and had very laggy battles for the whole Round.

You're welcome for the translation, have a nice day. ;3

 

[BonFire]

Hi, what Zolairx is trying to say is:
- The Cyberbullies Team apprently had one of their member disnnected in the middle of a push from our Team that ended up by a Knock-out. And we didn't understood why they kept fighting if they wanted a rematch, wich happened anyway.
But on Sunday Nintendome got a disconnection too but there was no rematch for them.

- Also we got trouble in the communication with Fire (Group H moderator) who was our intermediate with the BMT Team. Because they didn't answered to Zolairx after our first battle we couldn't host and had very laggy battles for the whole Round.

You're welcome for the translation, have a nice day. ;3

Nintendome actually said that they don't want to replay the map, thats why the match went on, but in general every team has one disconnection free according to the ruleset.
For the other point, you guys told me the point of changing the host when it already was 2-0 by the likes of BMT, I told them about the problem, but the 3rd map have already started and they did answer me after they already won the round