Dahla Cup on a Beautiful Afternoon

[wildcaught]

The tournament was a nice afternoon. It was impressive how much players understood comps and banned eternals off of real time strategy. I just had a few thoughts as someone who’s more of a spectator than competitor in the past twenty years of gaming.

Spires is a little like the NFL with quick plays and lots of downtime. The positive of quick matches means more teams get to play per tournament. I think there is a comparison to Brood War and StarCraft 2.

Brood War is like a professional sport. The narrative of the match is much slower and gives time to use the restroom, order another beer, and chat with people you’re watching with. You can go to the bar and get a round of drinks and go back to your table and both opponents are both still on two bases a piece. Where StarCraft 2 if you blink you could miss it. The spectacle of SC2 is much better, the graphics are prettier, and the action is very cool. It just doesn’t flow with American sports, or international sports like cricket which have drawn out narratives.

I think that both modes have their place for spectacle. I have a feeling if there’s more modes coming for casual players that non turbo Ascension will be the one to watch where you can go get a snack and not miss a victory even if maybe you miss one fight on a floor.

I really enjoyed playing WoW Arenas when they came out twenty years ago but now I just watch. I think Arkheron has the potential to be a much better watch. When Bonfire got started there was the mention of the famous quote about games being fun for the computer, the designer, or the player. Rob Pardo made a good addition that he wanted to make games for the player not the audience. He referenced sports leagues that make changes to the game based on the audience which would actually be less fun for the athletes. I hope though that Bonfire is talented enough to do both and I believe they are.

[Matt_W]

Heya! I am at Bonfire helping shape competitive experiences and agree a lot, especially with the StarCraft comparisons. I spent most of my career working with BW & SC2, I created and ran the ESL SC2 Pro Tour from 2020-22 or so, and was around in the early years when we all had to figure out the best ways to broadcast SC2 from the first beta and WoL days.

I had a similar thought that the ratio of game to broadcast could probably be improved, I suspect we’ll tinker with formats like this to try to expend this. Maybe instead of a single in-match bo5 we will do sets with a pick/ban in between so teams can adapt and there is a bit more counterplay, something fun like that. We have a lot of room to grow and try to see what’s fun to play, what’s fun to watch.

And yes we will sometimes have to choose what is best for the athletes to suit the needs for competition. StarCraft players don’t like learning new maps, they agree to do it because it’s needed for the fans and broadcast. There is a push and pull there but in my experience as long as we can communicate to each other we can figure it out.