/u/eSportsMatt Not that it involves me, but any change to the patch Open Division players play on? I know that seemed to be an issue when pro teams needed to scrim amateur teams.
Not directly, at least not yet. We are looking to align the HGC much closer to the live patches moving forward though so this should alleviate some of that.
So the feeling is that a schedule is great, and stick to it is better for the viewers (I strongly agree), but that makes me wonder why the Mid Season Brawl wasn't run this way? Is that more of a Dreamhack decision that series were just run one after the other, ignoring the previously defined schedule? Sunday's early 3-0 and 3-1 meant that the Fnatic vs Dig Upper Finals started 2 hours early.
Live events have far more variance. Something can go wrong at any time that could be out of our control so running through the schedule quickly on most days is generally a safer option.
Moving times of second match for each region up thirty minutes each day, from 11:30 a.m. PT to 11:00 a.m. PT and 4:30 p.m. PT to 4:00 p.m. PT.
Sam: If the first series was 3-0, fans were stuck with a 45-minute countdown while waiting for the next series. These long countdowns kill momentum and make it difficult for us to retain viewership. We realize some series that go the full five games could run over the 2 hour allotted time but we believe that fans would rather tune in at a specific time and find out that the previous series was running over than tuning in to the series they want to watch and miss a draft or have a game spoiled for them.
Edit: So if we get two 3:0 games there will be a really long break? One long break is better i guess,.
If we get back to back 3:0s yeah there will be a break, we believe it makes more sense to align the starts of the regions for the fans than to run straight through.
Matt MacNeil
Not directly, at least not yet. We are looking to align the HGC much closer to the live patches moving forward though so this should alleviate some of that.
Matt MacNeil
Live events have far more variance. Something can go wrong at any time that could be out of our control so running through the schedule quickly on most days is generally a safer option.
Matt MacNeil
If we get back to back 3:0s yeah there will be a break, we believe it makes more sense to align the starts of the regions for the fans than to run straight through.