INKSTORM 3 Feedback thread

[Kbot]

Hello everyone, KT from EndGame here again.

Thank you all for participating in our final InkStorm tournament. We're busy finalizing details for the eSPL, but we'd like to hear your thoughts on our final InkStorm. Note that this may not be our final tournament, but rather is the final InkStorm. We'll still be doing much more with competitive Splatoon, so do not worry!

But yeah. If you all could give us your constructive criticism that'd be great. A few things specifically that we'd like to hear your thoughts on:

• Use of Discord
  • How was the inclusion of the Japanese teams in the server handled?
• Commentating/overall cast experience (for spectators)
  • Thoughts on seeing every match played for top 8, where some matches could have been played at the same time.
• Use of all Halo style rules and no choice in map selection
• Website design/experience.
• Thoughts on General rules
• Thoughts on TOs and their job

I am fully aware of the arguments on the New Order/Team Infinity/CoolDown tiebreak and we are looking into how to handle those situations more effectively in the future. However, we would prefer if that is not discussed here. Thanks!

 

[Tparty4]

Better seeding, that's really the only complaint I have.

 

[Light Brand]

Better seeding, that's really the only complaint I have.

How so? I felt it was fine.

 

[BattleCityGym]

One thing that kept confusing myself and other viewers was that the team/scores keep switching sides.
The point of view should always be on the left aka (good guys) and (bad guys) on the right.

Was watching NSTC from their point of view but the score was on the right, so I kept thinking the other team was winning.

 

[ChaoticEnergy]

Some of the team's names showed up as a "?" I think. I liked that the top 8 matches were not played at the same time for viewer purposes and also the teams got to rest.

 

[Raymie]

Some of the team's names showed up as a "?" I think. I liked that the top 8 matches were not played at the same time for viewer purposes and also the teams got to rest.

The main problem there is with Unicode handling Japanese characters, I think — that's something for our site developer.

 

[Squid__Kid]

So, overall I had no major problems with the tournament except the way the NO and Infinity tie was handled. I think there needs to be some serious thought gone into tiebreakers in the future. I think that 1v1 should be the only tiebreaker, valued above games in sets.

 

[Kbot]

So, overall I had no major problems with the tournament except the way the NO and Infinity tie was handled. I think there needs to be some serious thought gone into tiebreakers in the future. I think that 1v1 should be the only tiebreaker, valued above games in sets.

Alright, I'm going to put an end to this once and for all.

Here's our reasoning: There are 3 teams tied. Each of those teams beat another team in a head to head and lost to a team in a head to head. So, we can't rule on head to heads, because that gets us nowhere.

So, we use game differential. As we firmly believed that forfeits should not count the same as clean sweeps, all Squidegons matches were taken out. After a mess up in math, we corrected ourselves and Infinity was to move on.

After the fact, it was pointed out to us by many members of New Order that rule 7.5 stated that matches would be marked as clean sweeps, thus being fair to count Squidegons' in, and CoolDown would have an extra 3 in the game differential. In this scenario, New Order would have advanced.

Thus, New Order has been refunded their entry fee of $20 for our mistake in the rules. Thank you all for your understanding, and trust us, we thought about this one.

Now if I hear another word about this I think I might blow a fuse.

 

[FloppyChode]

I would have liked InkStorm 3 to be named InkStorm Qualifier because it was only until after the fact I learned about the Premier League. It is a cool idea. The marketing really fell short though. That is just a personal preference.

 

[Admiral Ackbar]

My favorite part is inkstorm is the commentary that comes with the matches. I could easily just watch the games on the player's channel, but the commentary and chat of these tournaments adds to the experience a bit. Kudos to the commentators and all the TOs for putting so much work into this.

 

[LittleSoundDJ]

Please designate someone to QC the stream that is in direct contact with Eirik. I obviously was playing, so I didn't get to watch much, but every time i tuned in there was some issue, small or large, that wasn't being addressed even though the stream chat was being vocal about it. It doesn't have to be acknowledged publicly via the streamer, but mods in chat telling people "It's being fixed" would be helpful.

For example:
A lot of points the stream was going at about 10fps, and for me was nigh un-watchable.
Audio levels had issues at points, and something that kind of became a joke for my team was "OMG THE MUSIC IS SO F***ING LOUD!" Especially was a problem when they were trying to do commentary over the music.

Also, for day 2 scheduling, I'd really love some way for a more accurate schedule to exist, especially later in the day. After we played our winner's semis match we had a huge downtime, and got told multiple times that we were about to play, only to be told at the last second "wait, we're going to do another match." Yes, this isn't a huge deal, but getting my team warmed up and in tournament mentality 2 extra times for no reason wasn't very helpful.

I'm super excited for eSPL, but I really think Inkstorms should keep happening. Especially considering the Japanese scene. Not every team over there can commit to a league on western time zone, and Inkstorm has been our best effort at bringing the two communities together.

Overall, from a player's point of view i think this was the best Inkstorm yet. Halo-style all the way through i think is the way to go, but we need to start having a conversation about certain maps and modes having less frequency. We've had enough time people, Rainmaker in general and Saltspray as a map aren't going to magically get better any time soon. Not a ban, just less of them. Also end of the bracket (winner's finals, loser's finals, grand finals) I feel should be more selective in the gametypes. Rather than pure RNG, try to create the most competitive sets manually based on what we know are good gametypes already, and to create a balanced variety (not heavily favoring close range, etc.) Also prevent GF and bracket reset from having any of the same gametypes.

Thats all I can think of atm.

 

[Dylan26]

Great tourney overall, would totally keep wanting to see them!!

I generally agree with everything LSDJ said but also sometimes eirik just got really quiet haha. I also like that we actually have commentary!

Halo style all the way through was probably the most effective way to keep the tourney rolling, and made us see a lot of modes we would have otherwise not seen (i.e. Probably some games on moray and blackbelly and probably less on trigger and walleye).

Im hype for eSPL and i cant wait to see more info about that!

 

[BetoMan]

Some of the team's names showed up as a "?" I think. I liked that the top 8 matches were not played at the same time for viewer purposes and also the teams got to rest.

Yeah that was a known problem that I just didn't have time to fix. Starting from the next tournament it won't happen again :)

 

[Kbot]

I would have liked InkStorm 3 to be named InkStorm Qualifier because it was only until after the fact I learned about the Premier League. It is a cool idea. The marketing really fell short though. That is just a personal preference.

If you read a lot of other places where the eSPL has been mentinoed, you'll note that the eSPL is to take the top teams from all the InkStorm tournaments, not just this last one. I guess it's an interesting note that we'll keep in the back of our heads. or at least me.

Also, for day 2 scheduling, I'd really love some way for a more accurate schedule to exist, especially later in the day. After we played our winner's semis match we had a huge downtime, and got told multiple times that we were about to play, only to be told at the last second "wait, we're going to do another match." Yes, this isn't a huge deal, but getting my team warmed up and in tournament mentality 2 extra times for no reason wasn't very helpful.

It'd definetley help if things went as planned, when they didn't from the get-go. Sorry about that, but we had to try to shift the schedule around at the last minute (which I'd like to hear the full story on out of curiousity, but I digress).

And on your second to last point, I've been thinking of stuff, but I don't think we have the resources to run a concurrent eSPL and tournaments. Just my view, unfortunatley. But we'll be back eventually. And I hope a lot of other Japanese teams have a slight bit of interest on other tournaments.