You did a great job. The problems with the stream were not your fault. At least you didn’t burn Gul’dan.

Cora, I like your usual work, I really do. But I think you were just the wrong person to be invited. That is however not your fault. And I don't mean you as a person and but any commentator. They used to pick streamers that have thousands of hours experience I'm talking while playing. Yes, you obviously can play and you obviously can talk. But doing it simultaneously is something you have never done before. Kibler and d9 know exactly how to think about your turn while talking and keeping your focus on the game while reacting to chat/peter. I've seen Frodan trying to play while talking and vice versa on omnislash. He literally stops in the middle of the sentence every time he decided to do his play. Ofc you accept that offer when they pick you as a host, but they should have never offered it to anybody who isn't used to multitask playing and entertaining.

However the bigger flaws of the stream were not yours Buggy cards, decks without a single new card, to many hosts making the focus about talking and not about gameplay. Also, regarding the previous revealstreams, Peter and the other guy weren't good there either, he just got carried by the streamer who is not only used to talking and simultaneously play, but also keep the interaction with boring ppl alive, you're used to have a constant pitch with the other commentator who were also picked because they can entertain. Btw. If ppl say they don't know you and thus think you were only picked because you're female obviously have never seen HS-proplay which is totally fine, but then they should keep their misogynic mouths shut when HS is the topic. Please be arrogant enough to ignore every accusation of anybody who said that they don't know you as they clearly have no clue about HS.

Huh, so you can reply regarding community feedback, but blizzard find it almost impossible to do anything like this. Just the fact you made this post alone shows how much you care versus how much blizzard do.

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shout out 89.1 WONC FM

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I have a suggestion: use colons instead of periods in your numbering. Reddit's weird and turns it into 1. 1. 1. instead of 1. 2. 3, but using a colon instead of period fixes that. :D

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Please ignore the trolls lol. Dude is clearly delusional.

Its okay, you guys are human too... HOWEVER that wont cure my immense disappointment about dr booms scheme...

this is def a calculated risk but the right call. if she doesn’t say anything Blizz could silently get rid of her later on by having her do less and less plus they’re benefitting from some people placing 100% of the blame on her.

now if they still do let her go she’ll have community good will and the narrative will be of a bumbling Blizz making people look bad with bad production. as of yesterday she was largely villainized by many and she’s successfully fought it back.

very adept and rare ability.

Blizzard absolutely has everything to do with the number of upvotes of the top comments here. Compare the number of votes to other post's top comments and dig down into the downvoted comments here. Vote buying on Reddit is commonly practiced by community and brand managers. If you cannot see it, you are dilusional, or blinded by it. You really were awful, and this is blizzard using you to try to save face. It's cruel to drag it out further like this, hope to can see that you are being used.

r/awardspeechedits

This is absolutely some blizzard set up community recovery. Sorry Cora, but despite what blizzard is trying to do here right now, you were awful. Any real, decent streamer could have done better.

Hey Cora! It seems I'm late to the party and this isn't exactly an AMA but I'll pose my question anyway:

Do you think HS cannibalizes itself too much? One of the most successful expansions ever was Knights of the Frozen Throne where they finally gave us the Lich King and the Death Knights. Personally I think these were a negative step from a game design standpoint but they were a massive win as far as pulling casuals in.

You mentioned getting fired up for callback cards which is a sentiment I don't echo at all. This game is 5 years old, nostalgia has no place here. On top of that, we just revisited Dr. Boom 8 months ago!

So, to you, and to those you know who work in design, do you think HS draws from its own well too often?

I was mostly thinking of this part.

Honestly if I'd asked Blizzard their opinion they probably would have told me not to.

In it you are implying that Blizzard follows a policy of a type which people on this subreddit like to hate on. Namely lack of transparency and/or admitting to mistakes in an honest and timely manner. And because that implication is pretty accurate, they might dislike it of a business partner admits that they are bad at admitting when they are bad.

But maybe I'm just talking out of my ass due to a frustration regarding how Blizzard has been handling certain things lately.

Off topic but I have a professor who shares your last name, I believe he is from Cyprus. Is this a common name?

/u/Cgsongbird I want to echo this comment. You do have room for improvement, but you identified those areas, and I really appreciate your style of casting and hosting and would be so sad to see you try to change it up to be more like the others. I've watched your events and been casted as both a player and coach by you in the TESPA tournament, and I think you do a fantastic job. Many people think they would do better, including my players haha, but the truth is it takes practice and experience. You have great potential and are already quite skilled. One of the reasons for the harsh criticism, speaking as a coach, is that the players are striking back a bit since it hurts when you call out their misplays on stream :P Good luck going forward, I hope to see you cast again soon, selfishly because it will mean my team made it further in the tourney :)

Don't you often get hired by Blizzard though? I'm not saying that as a criticism, I just worry that someone higher up in the Acti-Blizz hierarchy may react badly to this comment I'm replying to.

You're too afraid to make a mistake. You're looking for consensus from the other people in the room before making a decision. This slows the stream down so much. Then you rope and panic and misplay.

Next time, if there's no new cards that you just got, wait to talk until it is the opponent's turn.

You can't just ignore bad responses and push "it's ok we believe in you!" ideology, because it will lead to dominance of incompetent, but very motivated people.

Hey Cora, for what it’s worth I enjoyed the stream, I think y’all did an excellent job at showcasing the new cards and getting us excited for the new expansion.

P.S. I can’t wait to race you to a backwards alphabet competition after we win Tespa this season :)

For what a random stranger's opinion is worth, I genuinely enjoyed you on the reveal stream. You were funny, insightful, charismatic, and made it a lot better than it should have been given all the technical difficulties. You're a great commentator and not at fault for any issues the stream had.

Regarding all streamers. They're, as a rule, so overwhelmingly unprofessional on camera/mic, so ignorant of what is and is not entertaining, that I have to wonder if there is a market for an actual director to step in and make it better. Every video/VOD should be less than half its running length. No one knows mic technique, no one knows how to speak properly, no one has any presence in front of a camera. This stuff is easy to fix.

Hey Cora. Don't really have anything specific to add other than some big props for how you've handled this debacle, both here and on twitter. Reddit (and the internet as a whole) can be a scary place when the masses have chosen to antagonize you (which I can say from experience), it takes character to face the crowd and win them back like this!

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I genuinely hope they never ask you to do anything else for hearthstone

Jesus, this community is so hypocritical its unreal. One of the bigger points why the stream was dreadful, was also the fact that she constantly said weird and pointless stuff. Like when that dude on the left said the new rogue spell is like Assassinate and betrayal and she afterwards compares it to walk the plank and betrayal. If you dont have anything senseful to add, then its probably better to not say anything.

Of course the gender card is played..

The people you feel bad about letting down are the same ones who post monkey memes anytime a black person appears on stream. Fuck them.

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That's a lot of text to basically say: "Hey community, all the criticisms you had were accurate".

I haven't read any of the comments yet but I imagine this is where everybody comes out defending her and saying she did a good job.

EDIT: Nothing changes the fact that MANY in the community thought it was the worst, most boring reveal stream of all time. If I were Blizzard I wouldn't ignore those people and repeat my mistake because I wanted to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

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It wasn't my intention to offend. There is a distinct difference between the standard to uphold while casting and when posting on Reddit. I know my limits and would never be unprofessional when it matters most. This I felt was a time to be honest and relatable.

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Agreed with the above sentiment about your “final reveal stream”, comment Cora! Self depreciation is my style of humour, but as someone (female) much, much older than you I’ve found it has done me more harm than good, professionally speaking. I know exactly where you were coming from. My instinct is to do that, too! You already have it challenging enough being a strong female in a male dominated industry - don’t unintentionally make it harder with self deprecating jokes.

You’re already proving yourself by asking for feedback like this - take the lessons and apply. That’s all you can do. Maybe some improv classes on how to manage situations beyond your control? Only real piece of feedback I have because I thought you were truly excellent. I’m not gassing you, as the kids say. Anyone giving harsh criticism clearly hasn’t been in a situation like this stream.

Mad, mad respect for you. In so many ways. Keep it up - you’ve got a fan in me. Looking forward to your next event!!!

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Your third point is a little weird to me because I didn't see that criticism at all here on Reddit. Most people here are familiar with you as a caster and understand why you were chosen. It would be no different than Raven or Sottle, who aren't big name streamers but are well known casters. The tournament watchers, which most of this sub is, know you.

I'm a huge fan of Kibler and Day9 reveal streams myself, so I understand wanting to see them up there instead of myself. I have a much more calm delivery style than them that probably just wasn't the right fit in the grand scheme of things.

And on this point, don't compare yourself to them, you're not them. You're you. And I wouldn't let people get you down who wish you were them. In time, people who aren't familiar with you will come around to who you are rather than you being someone who you're not.

But on the criticism side of the things, I don't think the issue was any one of the 3 of you. I think it was that there was 3 of you. It's one too many people for this kind of stream. You spend too much time discussing things than doing things. If it was just you and Peter or you and the other guy whose name I don't know it would have flowed a lot smoother. You're bouncing conversation points off two people and it just slows things down considerably.

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ITT : Cora is great, every other opinion is downvoted.

Which makes no sense based on what was posted and upvoted on this subreddit last night, but oh well who cares anyway.

Just to echo the majority of comments here, I appreciate that you’re taking the criticism so well but there is absolutely no need for apologies. You did a great job with the stream and whilst you did rope and misplay because you were talking about the cards, this is nothing new for reveal streams. Check out twitch chat and Reddit for any previous streams and you’ll see the same complaints against Kibler, Day9, Frodan etc.
Personally I do not care about misplays, that’s not why I watch the streams, I watch to see the new cards. I hope Blizzard read the comments here and learn from them when organising future reveals. A few quick games to showcase the cards is all most viewers want. The lengthy intro and pointless extra games only served to annoy.
I do have a question about the prep you receive when planning for these streams, are you given any guidance about how to play or what not to do?

That Cora is really good with cannot be targeted adapt

I really enjoyed the stream. You did great, Cora - you have nothing to apologize for.

I wonder if there's a market for coaching / directing streamers to be less amateurish and more generally appealing to watch.

Oh sorry, I was just making a general statement. Not so much saying this happened.

I didn't watch the stream, I only got heresay. So I cannot comment on what you did/didn't do with certainty. I just know of only one occasion where people claimed you could have played coins to play the wand (rogue togwaggle game) or something like that. But yeah, most of what I said was just an example.

You are missing probably the most important point in the critique. People tune in to watch the content (card art, text lines, various interactions). These need to be front and center for a reveal stream, everything else is secondary.

Well to be fair... it isn't so much misplays of playing the game, it is misplays of not playing new cards.

It is a reveal stream. We want to see new cards. So if you are holding a new card, but instead decide to just play safe and play an old card, to me. that is a misplay. The point of a reveal stream is yes, to have fun, and that is by showing us new cards.

So it isn't so much fair to say "they can fuck right off", a lot of the people who were criticizing the misplay are in the right.

Genuine or not, it's not like you have a choice.

Knowing that negative opinions might influence your relationships with /potential employers and create a negative reputation most likely affects your public image.

So when you're saying that they don't pay you for shilling, there's a high chance of implication that you're doing it for free.

Don't you understand, the expansion pre-order season is here and these are all PR stunts.

They don't want people to get pissed off at their slightest.

That's what a Blizzard employee would say! Shill confirmed.

I don't get paid by Blizzard for my opinions so please understand that this is all genuine

You just know when that is the second sentence in a post that the opposite is probably true. ;)

You did a great job. The problems with the stream were not your fault. At least you didn’t burn Gul’dan.

Lets hope this is a good expansion,reasons I bought: 1: Elderscrolls legends new expansion is 3-4 months out. 2. Made initial decision also on first revealed cards thinking this can be a good expansion. 3. Nothing else to play until New Elder scrolls legends full expansion is out.