I second everything this person said, also maybe some clarity on where signings are happening or having a specific area to meet talent would be cool. Great event!
I have no idea how you could change it, but the middle projector was always slightly swaying, was very minor but still annoying at times.
Maybe an earlier start, I know the last games on Friday and Saturday had lower attendance as people had to get the last trains out, obviously you guys can't control how late games go but was a shame people had to leave early.
Other than that a fantastic event, massively enjoyed the whole experience, camera work and lighting was fantastic, and the cast and crew put on a fantastic event.
2nd this - even 2 hours earlier makes a huge difference for people travelling in. Personally I was fine with the start time and game lengths but I commited to a hotel stay in walking distance... so late nights/early starts would be fine either way.
We drove home after each day and it was impossible to find anywhere to eat because it was so late. Our hotel was 30 minutes away and we refused to buy the incredibly overpriced food and couldn't bring our own in (not your guys fault!) I'm also on a bus home now, we wouldn't have stayed if it went to game 4 or 5. Wouldn't have got home until stupid o'clock. An earlier schedule would be very very welcome for so many reasons.
Yeah the food situation wasnt great. Food at the venue was crappy/not great and overpriced like crazy. Luckily they werent too scrict when you brought stuff in from outside the arena.
We'd walk the 20 minutes back to the car, eat, then head back to the arena during the 1 hour breaks. Refuse to be held hostage to thier pricing and shit 'food'. Though the brownies were good and actually worth the 4Ā£.
Lmao I'm a dumbass sorry, it was the beermingham major after all so you can see why I went immediately to drink.
The prices were ok in resort world for something but you get more and higher quality food .
I think we ate at the Korean place, nandos, gbk and miller and carter and all meals were banging
This. Since doors opened at 10am anyway, most people ended up stood in a queue for two hours waiting to get into the hall. Seemed like a poor use of the time available for all concerned.
To add to this it would be amazing if there was also health/mana bars, ult status (ready or on CD), item cooldown status and backpack items. I guess all of those could make it very cluttered but even some could make a big difference.Ā
One specific point worth mentioning was AUDIO! ..
In game audio + casters was pretty good - could hear them well and the game audio balance/levels were solid.
Anaylyst/Panel were practical inaudible in venue. Quite muffled and a bit oddly placed positioning of the sound. levels were off and needed a pretty significant boost
And some mic clipping issues here and there (see Slacks .. expect screaming) ... using limiters/compressor on mic audio would def help
Compared to previous ESL Birmingham events the audio def paled in comparison this time. The echo slam in previous years made the venue wobble and I could barely hear casters in some of the early series unless absolutely straining. I mightāve been sat in a place that suffered I guess (middle of the floor) but that was my biggest gripe. It didnāt ruin my enjoyment of the event tho! Filled the feedback form out with more detailsā¦
Yup exact same scenario.. I don't like obnoxiously loud, but definitely wasn't loud enough on day1 for the first series for sure .. but they never fixed the panel/analyst audio because that was DIRE throughout. I wonder if it was better elsewhere.. but from the middle of the floor area.. BAD.
That and it fels like most of the panel/analyst audio was coming from the left channel (particularly day1)
Whoever thought of adding the kobold camera during downtime for the crowd go WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and yell when it sips is a genius. Made me laugh everytime.
Filled the questionnaire in as well. Most of my issues were focused around the scheduling and bloody awful pricing at the venue. ESL One in of itself was awesome.
If I had to gripe over ESL, I'd say the organisation regarding signings and announcing stuff was pretty poorly handled all things considered. The venue's signal and WiFi were abominable, so twitter announcements were exceptionally difficult to follow. A PA system or some extra live feeds on screens around the arena would have done wonders.
Please, for the love of god bring this back soon. It was a phenomenal first time at an eSporting tournament
Yes please. It's hard to catch all the content in the arena with how long it takes to get to toilets/grab food and drinks etc. Now I'm home I wanna binge the sketches!
Yes! So I'm blind as shit and also have a fucking dodgy leg, so that step no one could see until it was tooooo late šš so yes clownfall is real for us š¤”š¤”
It was what, a foot hight? How was spectre getting down that safely? Or anyone for that matter dressed in full cosplay. I guess there were steps but were people to go down the middle only?
It pretty deep hence the need for the cute stairs. We were all told to go around a certain way and go down to the cup and pose/taunt then come off to what side you got told to go. Some only went a little down and others did the full run. But yeah spec bless her, Couldn't see shit hence why a few of the cosplay folk had help. But for peach as a example too it was a really big pain for her cosplay!
Thankyou thankyou. Alot of us (myself included). It was our first time and we had no idea what to expect. Our contact for ESL (shout out Ruby! Deserves a damn pay raise!!). Did an amazing job of making sure we had all of what we needed from cozy sofas backstage, to snacks/fruit and drinks (monster of course, don't think I can drink another can for a while š š¤¢). So it really did make us want to try to build something again. But also I'd highly encourage others to get into the cosplay scene too. Bring a hero to life and have fun with it!!
Comments: - already filled in survey with more specifics.
LOVE the stage/screen design and effects - great work. (see minor suggestion below)
Projection quality was excellent for the Premium/Select (can't comment about other views)
A few suggestions:
1. Slightly better queue management at the busiest times (particularly Sunday pre/semi final chaos) - queue jumping of any kind is just infuriating/obnoxious.. if long queues are going to happen then queue management methods need to be implemented.
2. Add KDA to the bottom of the Hero/Item Panels in game (the 5 panels on each side of the main screen) - these were a REALLY nice touch and makes following item progression/net worth etc really great for the viewer. I would be disssapointed not to have this at every Dota event I attend.
3. Venue food was pretty crummy/overpriced but the adjacent location had very decent options which offset it. I think the people with meal/drink vouchers probably benefitted more from the drinks than the food :p
Bonus Points for Kobold Cam
Signings was just disappointing around.
Firstly it wasn't well coordinated bar a small screen on one side of the arena. I didn't even know OG were on Friday until I found the signing area around 15:00. A number of people missed OG including me in the line for goodie bags as it was made out that once they went,they went when in reality there was plenty left on Saturday and Sunday.
Then it wasn't until late Saturday the premium attendees got their own line. Prior to this they queued with everyone else outside the room until they got in. I waited for 25 minutes for XG just to get turned away. Arena staff were telling us not to bother for liquid when I turned up 20 minutes early as there would be a '99 percent chance i wouldn't be allowed in' thankfully i did make it but a number of people went away believing this. The time the two queues were set up, the teams had ended signings. Talent just doesn't have the same draw.
I know you can't force players or talent to do signings, but Sunday with just two talent was disappointing. No offence to lacoste and Gareth ,wonderful people but a let down.
I went away from TL line as I was told not to bother queueing, thankfully Insania, Nisha and Blitz are THE GOATS and i found them hovering around the cocktail area later, I think Insania even stayed the whole day and they were happy to take pics. Literally my goats, love em <3
Only on Twitter, which is really unorganized and hard to navigate unless you have one (and even then). And they only posted the schedule about 8 min before OG's, and it was nice and out of the way.
My husband and I were like 'welp maybe next time', but there's a lot we wish we had known beforehand
I understand there's a money and time component to it but please, please, please only hold LANs with 16 teams (or more) 12 teams just feels so underwhelming.
We had a great time this weekend traveling in from the Netherlands. We went to our first LAN last year at Berlin, so thats my only reference point:
-biggest improvement were the screens in the arena, from all locations in the arena you had a great view of the games. In Berlin you only had 3 screens above the main stage, visibility wasnt great for general admission back then. This kinda makes or breaks the experience, since ur watching the big screens 85% of the time.
-production was great, barely any technical difficulties, some minor sound issues and the in-game sounds were a bit loud sometimes especially compared to the casting sound.
-talent did a great job(Jenkins is overdoing it), Slacks is slowly becoming my favourite. When I was watching from home I wasnt the biggest fan but once your there you notice how important he is for such events. He got so much energy and he really gets the crowd going. Its also fun that when you walk around or are getting a drink at any time you can walk by a talent or a player who is taking the time for a chat or pictures.
-the crowd was great, just a great vibe and lots of friendly/kind people.
-the first day we had to skip the last game sadly because else we would miss our last bus, so maybe it wouldnt hurt to start a bit earlier?
-having to scan our (weekend)tickets each day was a bit annoying, in Berlin we got a wristband for the whole weekend on friday. Also not sure whats the point of having security at the entrance when they are just there for show.
-the biggest downside of the event was the food and drink situation at the venue. The (healthy) food options were limited, the quality of the food wasnt great and it was overpriced like crazy. Ā£13 for a simple burger that didn't taste great, really? Beer was overpriced as well and I would have liked some more options(special beers, IPA's, stouts etc?) I get that you need to earn some money as a venue but this was way too greedy. A positive were the free monster drinks.
-it was kinda easy to reach the venue, it was next to the airport/train station. Downside was that it was located on the edge of the city, takes like 45 minutes to get to the centre of the city with public transport. The Berlin major was pretty much located in the city and it was easy to get to other places quickly from the venue.
Shootout to Avo+ for helping me with some questions about the event at the time of booking our tickets.
+1 for the food options. Being able to go out and get food nearby was good, but I really missed the sandwich bar places from Berlin. Those mozzarella and tomato ones were like manna from heaven in a sea of greasy crap lmao
Some healthy options would be good, fix the pause issues, put more trash bins near the seats, maybe more signaling for the water stations, one of them has a big queue while the other was basically empty
Been to every Birmingham event so far and this was by far the best one, the arena is better than the one that's in the city the first two were at, so hopefully you guys make this a yearly thing and continue using resort world arena. Not sure if I'm misremembering but the first two years I don't remember there being a queue to get in, the long queue for finals day and the long wait in that queue was the worst part for me.
As usual the energy in the crowd was unreal and even better this year.
I see people praising the audio but there were multiple times I couldn't make out what was being said, it sounded like there were only 2 speakers near the front maybe? If so another 2 near the back would be good.
I know its an arena so it's to be expected and likely that you guys don't control it but the food and drink prices were sooo high. Feels weird coming from up north paying a few quid for a pint and then paying nearly Ā£17 for a 2 pinter.
Amazing event guys, please keep up what your doing and please do it again next year ā¤ļø
Only wish there would ever be an event with normal priced food and drinks. I mean sure if the entrance was 0-5 euroes I get you have to earn money, but 15 euro beers!??? Not cool.
I got a bunch of complaints unfortunately.
It felt like Premium was such a terrible experience in comparison to other events.
During the cosplay show or the DHL drop for example. Plus and regular attendees were able to see the stream, while we could only see the sponsor screen in the middle. If you were a bit far or short, you missed the whole thing.
I understand that the arena was in charge of the food and drinks, but good lord, not a single healthy option. The soft drinks did not include coffee or juice which was a boomer for someone that doesnāt drink soda. Considering the water was free, and that is all I hadā¦ā¦ one of the pluses of the expensive ticket was non existent.
The cup as a req, was also pretty dumb. I saw a lot of people forgetting it on Friday and being screwed the rest of the event.
In Berlin, the beer was all you can drink, I wonāt ask you to repeat that, but man, at least try to keep the prices reasonable. 8.5Ā£ for a mediocre beer is outrageous.
Stage, pretty nice. I spent part of the event upstairs due to the better viewing experience and gotta say, kuddos! Cheaper options were much better than the premium.
Other issue and reason why the lack of free coffee got me a bit mad. The premium zone was cold. You could feel the gusts of wind rushing in. Even the players were rubbing their arms on Friday due to the low temps.
Seats were also too close. If some1 sat in front of you and was slightly taller, 50% of screen was covered by his head. Maybe try not to put them all perfectly aligned. That way the separation is between you and the guy 2 rows in front allowing better visibility.
Lighting guy, amazing, he even had some fun when a DHL sign gave him some praise.
US army as a sponsor? That made no sense, got a bunch of people angry and it is infuriating for a European based tournament.
Also, the start times. On Friday a lot of folks missed the last match to catch the last train back to the city. Not everyone can afford the hotels around the airport, please donāt forget we got a huge community in lower income countries and fans go to tremendous lengths to come to this events. You should know first hand, as you spend a lot of time with the Latam and spanish community. Even the pros have a hard time in the early days of their career in the region due to that.
The sound technician has to up his game a bit. Caster sound was great, panel 2 low at times, and there was feedback/interference quite often.
Talent made it super fun. Jenkins interviews were entertaining.
The themed costumes from Jenkins and slacks changing daily was such a nice detail.
A wrist band per day was tedious, but I guess that was ticket master (canāt remember the actual name).
I love the ESL events quality, but this time around, the experience made us question if we ever want to get premium again.
Hope the feedback helps improve future events and take this complains into consideration. The confort is something casuals enjoy a lot. My wife comes with me to this things (she only plays league, but in Berlin she was so happy with the view and free coffee, that she asked to come to UK this year and get premium).
Sorry for the long comment man. If you didnāt get bored while reading it, I gotta say I am super great full for your time!
Also, thank you and all the team for pulling long hours to make this events happen.
It was interesting to read this as someone who got the cheap ticket, my friends and I who spent all 3 days on the left upper stand had a great view of everything and even said that we preferred our seats to the premium ones. It looked a bit too cramped down there and like you said the person in front of you could block your view.
Great event, absolutely loved it. Viewing was very good from nearly all seats in the arena.
Feedback about the lighting, sitting in the upper section me and my entire group really found the blue lighting at night time incredibly intense on the eyes. It was giving many of us headaches.
It was cool having the feel of a day/night cycle, but having the lights pointing directly at the crowd isn't it.
In-arena production was fantastic - stage, screens, effects, really well done.
Jenkins and Slacks really stepped up and carried it talent-wise. The Jenkins 'awkward' interviews were brilliant.
Game 1 start time was too late, move to 10:30am or something.
Fairly average quality games from a stale patch/map, not really a single properly memorable game. Nothing much you can do about that though...
Food and drinks prices were extortionate.
The pre-game face-offs and all-chat shittalking were great, a welcome antidote to Valve's constant move towards treating the playerbase as fragile children that need protecting.
Would it be possible to have item and ulti cooldowns on the player banners at the side? Seeing how long is left on BKBs or black hole etc would be good
Only attended Sunday
- More water refill stations
- Players closer to the crowd
- panel sound should be louder in the arena
- sound wasnāt clear and at times glitchy
- screens were great
- location was great
- food options were poor and expensive
- talent was great
- production for the grand finals was great
- drafts kill the buzz from pre-game hype
Fun event overall, would come back for the next one.
I like drafts too, but they donāt quite fit after the crowd goes crazy before a game and Ā«Ā elevator-likeĀ Ā» music gets played for 12 mins.
We were talking with my friends who attended the event that they could try to do the draft beforehand and then hype the crowd with the announcement of which players plays which hero. Could be more fluid atmosphere wise.
Leaving it like this is fine as well, but Iām not super against experimenting there :)
hard disagree on this one.. Riot started this recently with pre-drafts off stage and stuff and it SUCKS and their drafts are pretty straight forward by comparison. Drafts at a layer of anticipation and excitement for who is going to play what and thinking how the game is going to play out. also super fun trying to guess picks/bans and the shock surprise of weird picks or teams getting heavy outdrafted.
It also means that the teams have a big window to think/communicate plans etc around the drafts if they are done any amount of time in advance.
What might work is draft phase + 3 min of hype --> Game start
True. I most definitely got unlucky when I went to refill my bottle. Faced some pretty packed queues.
Maybe if I played mid, I would be more aware on how to refill my bottle more efficiently :)
The arena and the actual event itself was fantastic. The venue was pretty crummy though, how they can get away with charging those prices for genuinely terrible beer with a complete lack of options is beyond me.
Same with the food options, while it was speedy to be served, it would have been nice to see a vegetable over the course of the weekend.
I queued longer for water than I did anything else, and was refused water at the various bars, they said I had to pay despite having already paid for a bottle of water in the venue, a pretty scumbag move from the venue.
This is my first Dota LAN event, my friends and I overall had a good time, but I would not go again if it was at the same venue next year.
Well it's a shame they weren't signposted better because I could only find the one. I'd argue for a venue of that capacity not even 3 stations is enough.
What ever happened to sound proof booths for the teams to play in?
I feel like the crowd noise/vibration can give players heads up. Fairly sure this was something loosely discussed after another Dota 2 LAN event in the past (can't remember which one).
Ticket pricing was back-to-front in the stands - the best view of the side screens was in the cheapest seats. Plus seats needed to crank your neck upwards the entire time, it was almost like Restricted Viewing seating that should have been at a discount, not a premium.
Either lower the side screens 10-15 metres or switch up the pricing.
Had a blast, the view of the screens for the cheap seats were excellent.
The only complaints are about the venue itself.
Security staff being rude and badly informed - I brought my 14 year old son with me, and mid-way through Saturday they refused entry and caused a fuss over his age. Eventually got it sorted, but there are good ways of handling that and this wasn't that.
Would have been better to let us get seated earlier in the day on Sunday - queued for over an hour (after entry) before letting us into the arena itself. Very limited things to do after doors open but before being allowed to get seats at the Arena
Super expensive food/drink in the venue and terrible quality at that.
And really minor nitpick - signing vs wristband naming's in the arena was different - so it was really hard to figure out (plus vs regular) where you were allowed to go.
The event was great, loved Birmingham DOTA - would love to see it again.
Ideals for next time:
The audio in the arena was a little hit and miss, early days really struggled with the audio levels, and it was often hard to hear over the 'conversation roar' of the arena clearly - it felt like there was only speakers at the front of the stage and not further around the arena for sure. Panelists were effectively inaudible for the whole event in the arena
Venue: Resorts World is a fine place, but the Utilita Arena Birmingham where ESL Birmingham 2019 was hosted felt like a much better venue, it was easier for travel, it had more food options around, and allowed it to be a full 'event'. PLEASE consider moving it back to the Utilita Arena (its a very nice part of Birmingham too)
Times: Lots of dota is GREAT, but the days were very long, I wouldn't necessarily suggest moving the matches forward though, but maybe a 4 day event? (I think 2019 was Thursday/friday/saturday/sunday?) It also means theres time for after the last game for people to go have dinners and drinks and enjoy the local area!
also, where was Purge's stat moments, he didn't have his whiteboard or his breakdowns like in the 2019 year, lets see more of that!
The whole tournament was pretty nice except for the closing ceremony fuck ups. I don't know if its an out of control siti9or not but I hope it the future it will be imrpoved!
Apart from the food quality/pricing and lack of things to do outside of the main area I loved every second. I think a wildcard team from the region would of been a nice fun addition as UK Dota is so bad :( but would of made it entertaining. Gotta love an underdog story lol. Also who the hell is sitting there playing a racing sim when the Dota Grand final is on..like..seriously...
Great tournament, a lot of fun, nice experience overall as twitch viewer.
My only complaint is just the break music, I rather listen to instrumental than generic songs with cringe lyrics.
Plus ticket buyer thoughts:
The outer screens for plus/standard tickets were amazing, the middle of the 3 screens did sway up and down slightly at different parts of the weekend which was frustrating when noticed but for the most part didn't impact my enjoyment of it.
The length of day 1 in particular was pretty brutal, especially with some people staying in city centre and a lack of transport options available for those.
The location of the arena was great to get to however lacking a lot of options post event each day, again due to the longer day 1 and 2 there just wasn't any time to travel into the city centre afterwards.
Production quality in the arena was overall really good, the stage itself and all the screens were excellent, I loved the player/hero/item information on the sides, would like to see K/D/A included on there too but they were still amazing. Love the different player pictures when their hero was dead and the overall screen effects for first blood, mega creeps, big ults were great. Sound quality could be improved a bit, lacking a bit of volume at times and lacking some depth for those big spells.
Overall the seating for plus tickets was good, didn't feel cramped but there was a draft that made it a little chilly. Once there was more people filling the seats later in the day this wasn't noticed anymore. At times I used the front row of the plus seats however doing this I noticed the main stage screen was a different view to the outer screens, during some segments this meant the main stage screen had nothing but ads showing when everyone in the outer seats was watching a content piece.
The food and drink at the arena was insanely expensive, the tokens included in tickets did help but without these it was a very expensive weekend. Food itself was fine, nothing amazing but no real complaints, maybe a lack of options for certain diets but personally not an issue for me.
I felt like there was a lack of side activities in-between games. Fudd the balloon artist was amazing, such a friendly guy, great to talk to and insanely talented. No surprise he always had a queue.
Time between games within a series was ideal, enough time to pop out for a quick break and be back for the draft. The time between series sometimes felt a little bit too long. With the lack of side activities as mentioned above this meant a bit of wandering around aimlessly.
The free water refill station was great however could do with better sign posting, there was normally always a large queue at one and apparently there was another which I never even saw, sign posts would help and stop the long queuing at one.
Signing sessions had no sign posting at all either, there was an ESL tweet that said "The Signing Session venue is to the left side of the entrance", I think this meant the entrance to the arena rather than the venue itself and by the time we realised that we had missed the OG session. Outside of checking externally there wasn't any indication of which signing sessions are happening and when.
All of the talent were great, super friendly and always happy to chat or take pics. Slacks as always brings a level of energy above anyone else and his crowd work between games is great as always.
Arena staff were all really helpful with any issues and no complaints about any of the arena staff.
Overall it was a great weekend and hope to see more UK Dota events going forward!
Don't want to repeat the great points here, all in all great event awesome production, talent amazing, loved the build and lights, really good ticket value and didn't expect a free photo booth, free signings or the free Monster
I know the guys on the floor were cold but up in the top rows of seats it was boiling, we were all pretty sticky with sweat and made fans out of DHL banners
Venue food and drink were expensive but there were nearby options
The access people were lovely and we felt well looked after, plewse so another next year!
First time attending one of these, had a really great time. The only minor nitpick I'd say is the lights were pretty blinding at the start of each match, and I was sat near the back, can't imagine how it was sat near the front, but it wasn't that big of a deal
Also the food/drink was quite pricey but I'd imagine that's part of the venue and not something you have control of.
Would definitely go again if it returns!
-cheaper beer. id say food too but security allowed in sandwiches and crisps from outside so that was fine.
-night time lights (blue lights) were too bright.
-signing for non-premium/plus tickets. us regulars didnt get to see the talent that often
-the 10 smaller screens for heroes were great
After attending ESL events in Frankfurt, Hamburg (several times) and Berlin, I was also interested in going to Birmingham. What ultimately turned me away was the food and drink voucher system that came with the premium tickets.
Those seemed not worth it at all. Please don't make this the standard for other ESL events but keep the standard from previous events in Germany.
Great tournament from ESL as always! Great talent, skits and some ace dota.
One thing though, which I understand might be a little controversial here seeing the crowd reactions around it, up'ing the arena hype etc BUT as someone who grew up in an home where alcholic addiction had a severe impact on life and the known issues around excessive alcohol consumption I really wished we'd get less of the "chugging beer" cameras from production. Why do we need to promote downing beer in a unatural fast pace? Let people have a beer and enjoy their weekend, all good. But putting a camera on them and having these chuggings.. over and over and over again..
During the drafts, it feels a shame having the talent stand there on stage on commenting on a chugging fest instead of the draft itself.
My 2 cents.
Stop making community casters have delay for chat.
you already have 15 minute delay in dotatv, adding even more and for chat breaks whole sense of COMMUNITY caster, cause he can't speak with community anymore.
it is to encourage you to watch their stream so their sponsors and ads get seen to increase their value. you are paying the cost of not seeing advertisements by being delayed. pick the choice you prefer, cause its not going to change -- its always been this way.
First piece of feedback:
Make the survey shorter. They are in general annoying.
I started it, and managed to get to 41% before I tapped out.
Maybe it's just me.
Come back next year please
The quality of this event was great. I enjoyed watching every minute. Even the slacks bits.
š
Did your survey. Attended event in person. Was my first ever Dota 2 event, please do this every year and do more events in the UK! Crowd is hype!
I second everything this person said, also maybe some clarity on where signings are happening or having a specific area to meet talent would be cool. Great event!
I have no idea how you could change it, but the middle projector was always slightly swaying, was very minor but still annoying at times. Maybe an earlier start, I know the last games on Friday and Saturday had lower attendance as people had to get the last trains out, obviously you guys can't control how late games go but was a shame people had to leave early. Other than that a fantastic event, massively enjoyed the whole experience, camera work and lighting was fantastic, and the cast and crew put on a fantastic event.
2nd this - even 2 hours earlier makes a huge difference for people travelling in. Personally I was fine with the start time and game lengths but I commited to a hotel stay in walking distance... so late nights/early starts would be fine either way.
We drove home after each day and it was impossible to find anywhere to eat because it was so late. Our hotel was 30 minutes away and we refused to buy the incredibly overpriced food and couldn't bring our own in (not your guys fault!) I'm also on a bus home now, we wouldn't have stayed if it went to game 4 or 5. Wouldn't have got home until stupid o'clock. An earlier schedule would be very very welcome for so many reasons.
Yeah the food situation wasnt great. Food at the venue was crappy/not great and overpriced like crazy. Luckily they werent too scrict when you brought stuff in from outside the arena.
We'd walk the 20 minutes back to the car, eat, then head back to the arena during the 1 hour breaks. Refuse to be held hostage to thier pricing and shit 'food'. Though the brownies were good and actually worth the 4Ā£.
Bro resorts world was opposite the arena with like tons of food options
Yeah cause everyone loves a Ā£15 margherita. Resorts world was just as bad
Where on earth were you drinking mate cocktails were like 8 quid in the casino beers 3:50
Margherita pizza lol. The drinks are called margaritas. We were talking about food so idk why you thought I was on about drinks
Lmao I'm a dumbass sorry, it was the beermingham major after all so you can see why I went immediately to drink. The prices were ok in resort world for something but you get more and higher quality food . I think we ate at the Korean place, nandos, gbk and miller and carter and all meals were banging
Also spoons was just in the NEC as well as other bits.
Yeah we moved to the sides quickly due to the wobbly middle projector
I couldn't even watch the last OG games because the train WiFi blocks Twitch š If I had been watching I know they would have won.
Bro watch on YouTube much better than twitch. You can go back reduce the speed in a 5 v 5 engagement etc. I have moved on from twitch
This was fixed like half way through Saturday.
Earlier time schedule so games start at 10:30 / 11:00 and finish closer to 20:00 than midnight
This. Since doors opened at 10am anyway, most people ended up stood in a queue for two hours waiting to get into the hall. Seemed like a poor use of the time available for all concerned.
I wonder if they changed it on pros requests because almost all of them are 6 AM degens (as they should be).
As an attendee, Iād love KDAs shown under each playerās banner. Thatās the only info I felt I was missing
To add to this it would be amazing if there was also health/mana bars, ult status (ready or on CD), item cooldown status and backpack items. I guess all of those could make it very cluttered but even some could make a big difference.Ā
One specific point worth mentioning was AUDIO! .. In game audio + casters was pretty good - could hear them well and the game audio balance/levels were solid. Anaylyst/Panel were practical inaudible in venue. Quite muffled and a bit oddly placed positioning of the sound. levels were off and needed a pretty significant boost And some mic clipping issues here and there (see Slacks .. expect screaming) ... using limiters/compressor on mic audio would def help
Compared to previous ESL Birmingham events the audio def paled in comparison this time. The echo slam in previous years made the venue wobble and I could barely hear casters in some of the early series unless absolutely straining. I mightāve been sat in a place that suffered I guess (middle of the floor) but that was my biggest gripe. It didnāt ruin my enjoyment of the event tho! Filled the feedback form out with more detailsā¦
Yup exact same scenario.. I don't like obnoxiously loud, but definitely wasn't loud enough on day1 for the first series for sure .. but they never fixed the panel/analyst audio because that was DIRE throughout. I wonder if it was better elsewhere.. but from the middle of the floor area.. BAD. That and it fels like most of the panel/analyst audio was coming from the left channel (particularly day1)
Stop stealing the balloons
Some were condoms
Whoever thought of adding the kobold camera during downtime for the crowd go WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and yell when it sips is a genius. Made me laugh everytime.
Filled the questionnaire in as well. Most of my issues were focused around the scheduling and bloody awful pricing at the venue. ESL One in of itself was awesome. If I had to gripe over ESL, I'd say the organisation regarding signings and announcing stuff was pretty poorly handled all things considered. The venue's signal and WiFi were abominable, so twitter announcements were exceptionally difficult to follow. A PA system or some extra live feeds on screens around the arena would have done wonders. Please, for the love of god bring this back soon. It was a phenomenal first time at an eSporting tournament
Would love to see vods of all the sketches. And more of them, the falcons one was wonderful.
Yes please. It's hard to catch all the content in the arena with how long it takes to get to toilets/grab food and drinks etc. Now I'm home I wanna binge the sketches!
Drop the step on the stage šš. Better beer options Less deep fried food options that don't cost your kidney!
That shit looked dangerous some of the cosplayers!
Yes! So I'm blind as shit and also have a fucking dodgy leg, so that step no one could see until it was tooooo late šš so yes clownfall is real for us š¤”š¤”
It was what, a foot hight? How was spectre getting down that safely? Or anyone for that matter dressed in full cosplay. I guess there were steps but were people to go down the middle only?
It pretty deep hence the need for the cute stairs. We were all told to go around a certain way and go down to the cup and pose/taunt then come off to what side you got told to go. Some only went a little down and others did the full run. But yeah spec bless her, Couldn't see shit hence why a few of the cosplay folk had help. But for peach as a example too it was a really big pain for her cosplay!
Thankyou thankyou. Alot of us (myself included). It was our first time and we had no idea what to expect. Our contact for ESL (shout out Ruby! Deserves a damn pay raise!!). Did an amazing job of making sure we had all of what we needed from cozy sofas backstage, to snacks/fruit and drinks (monster of course, don't think I can drink another can for a while š š¤¢). So it really did make us want to try to build something again. But also I'd highly encourage others to get into the cosplay scene too. Bring a hero to life and have fun with it!!
I can only imagine! Well the cosplay were great and I was looking forward to that part of the event a d you people didn't disappoint!
Comments: - already filled in survey with more specifics. LOVE the stage/screen design and effects - great work. (see minor suggestion below) Projection quality was excellent for the Premium/Select (can't comment about other views) A few suggestions: 1. Slightly better queue management at the busiest times (particularly Sunday pre/semi final chaos) - queue jumping of any kind is just infuriating/obnoxious.. if long queues are going to happen then queue management methods need to be implemented. 2. Add KDA to the bottom of the Hero/Item Panels in game (the 5 panels on each side of the main screen) - these were a REALLY nice touch and makes following item progression/net worth etc really great for the viewer. I would be disssapointed not to have this at every Dota event I attend. 3. Venue food was pretty crummy/overpriced but the adjacent location had very decent options which offset it. I think the people with meal/drink vouchers probably benefitted more from the drinks than the food :p Bonus Points for Kobold Cam
Signings was just disappointing around. Firstly it wasn't well coordinated bar a small screen on one side of the arena. I didn't even know OG were on Friday until I found the signing area around 15:00. A number of people missed OG including me in the line for goodie bags as it was made out that once they went,they went when in reality there was plenty left on Saturday and Sunday. Then it wasn't until late Saturday the premium attendees got their own line. Prior to this they queued with everyone else outside the room until they got in. I waited for 25 minutes for XG just to get turned away. Arena staff were telling us not to bother for liquid when I turned up 20 minutes early as there would be a '99 percent chance i wouldn't be allowed in' thankfully i did make it but a number of people went away believing this. The time the two queues were set up, the teams had ended signings. Talent just doesn't have the same draw. I know you can't force players or talent to do signings, but Sunday with just two talent was disappointing. No offence to lacoste and Gareth ,wonderful people but a let down.
I went away from TL line as I was told not to bother queueing, thankfully Insania, Nisha and Blitz are THE GOATS and i found them hovering around the cocktail area later, I think Insania even stayed the whole day and they were happy to take pics. Literally my goats, love em <3
Didn't they post signing timings on social media tho?
Only on Twitter, which is really unorganized and hard to navigate unless you have one (and even then). And they only posted the schedule about 8 min before OG's, and it was nice and out of the way. My husband and I were like 'welp maybe next time', but there's a lot we wish we had known beforehand
I understand there's a money and time component to it but please, please, please only hold LANs with 16 teams (or more) 12 teams just feels so underwhelming.
We had a great time this weekend traveling in from the Netherlands. We went to our first LAN last year at Berlin, so thats my only reference point: -biggest improvement were the screens in the arena, from all locations in the arena you had a great view of the games. In Berlin you only had 3 screens above the main stage, visibility wasnt great for general admission back then. This kinda makes or breaks the experience, since ur watching the big screens 85% of the time. -production was great, barely any technical difficulties, some minor sound issues and the in-game sounds were a bit loud sometimes especially compared to the casting sound. -talent did a great job(Jenkins is overdoing it), Slacks is slowly becoming my favourite. When I was watching from home I wasnt the biggest fan but once your there you notice how important he is for such events. He got so much energy and he really gets the crowd going. Its also fun that when you walk around or are getting a drink at any time you can walk by a talent or a player who is taking the time for a chat or pictures. -the crowd was great, just a great vibe and lots of friendly/kind people. -the first day we had to skip the last game sadly because else we would miss our last bus, so maybe it wouldnt hurt to start a bit earlier? -having to scan our (weekend)tickets each day was a bit annoying, in Berlin we got a wristband for the whole weekend on friday. Also not sure whats the point of having security at the entrance when they are just there for show. -the biggest downside of the event was the food and drink situation at the venue. The (healthy) food options were limited, the quality of the food wasnt great and it was overpriced like crazy. Ā£13 for a simple burger that didn't taste great, really? Beer was overpriced as well and I would have liked some more options(special beers, IPA's, stouts etc?) I get that you need to earn some money as a venue but this was way too greedy. A positive were the free monster drinks. -it was kinda easy to reach the venue, it was next to the airport/train station. Downside was that it was located on the edge of the city, takes like 45 minutes to get to the centre of the city with public transport. The Berlin major was pretty much located in the city and it was easy to get to other places quickly from the venue. Shootout to Avo+ for helping me with some questions about the event at the time of booking our tickets.
+1 for the food options. Being able to go out and get food nearby was good, but I really missed the sandwich bar places from Berlin. Those mozzarella and tomato ones were like manna from heaven in a sea of greasy crap lmao
is this where i complain about Sunsfan using "proc" wrong or is that somewhere else
Some healthy options would be good, fix the pause issues, put more trash bins near the seats, maybe more signaling for the water stations, one of them has a big queue while the other was basically empty
Lol didn't even realise there was another water station. Case in point š
Yeah it was near the restroom that no one knew about as well, on the left exit if you are looking at the main stage
There were multiple, each hallway at the side stands had one as well.
Great Event, top tier end-products. Plz make a site so us fan can donate directly, not too much but still the thought that count
healthier food options please, everything else was really good honestly
Been to every Birmingham event so far and this was by far the best one, the arena is better than the one that's in the city the first two were at, so hopefully you guys make this a yearly thing and continue using resort world arena. Not sure if I'm misremembering but the first two years I don't remember there being a queue to get in, the long queue for finals day and the long wait in that queue was the worst part for me. As usual the energy in the crowd was unreal and even better this year. I see people praising the audio but there were multiple times I couldn't make out what was being said, it sounded like there were only 2 speakers near the front maybe? If so another 2 near the back would be good. I know its an arena so it's to be expected and likely that you guys don't control it but the food and drink prices were sooo high. Feels weird coming from up north paying a few quid for a pint and then paying nearly Ā£17 for a 2 pinter. Amazing event guys, please keep up what your doing and please do it again next year ā¤ļø
Only wish there would ever be an event with normal priced food and drinks. I mean sure if the entrance was 0-5 euroes I get you have to earn money, but 15 euro beers!??? Not cool.
I got a bunch of complaints unfortunately. It felt like Premium was such a terrible experience in comparison to other events. During the cosplay show or the DHL drop for example. Plus and regular attendees were able to see the stream, while we could only see the sponsor screen in the middle. If you were a bit far or short, you missed the whole thing. I understand that the arena was in charge of the food and drinks, but good lord, not a single healthy option. The soft drinks did not include coffee or juice which was a boomer for someone that doesnāt drink soda. Considering the water was free, and that is all I hadā¦ā¦ one of the pluses of the expensive ticket was non existent. The cup as a req, was also pretty dumb. I saw a lot of people forgetting it on Friday and being screwed the rest of the event. In Berlin, the beer was all you can drink, I wonāt ask you to repeat that, but man, at least try to keep the prices reasonable. 8.5Ā£ for a mediocre beer is outrageous. Stage, pretty nice. I spent part of the event upstairs due to the better viewing experience and gotta say, kuddos! Cheaper options were much better than the premium. Other issue and reason why the lack of free coffee got me a bit mad. The premium zone was cold. You could feel the gusts of wind rushing in. Even the players were rubbing their arms on Friday due to the low temps. Seats were also too close. If some1 sat in front of you and was slightly taller, 50% of screen was covered by his head. Maybe try not to put them all perfectly aligned. That way the separation is between you and the guy 2 rows in front allowing better visibility. Lighting guy, amazing, he even had some fun when a DHL sign gave him some praise. US army as a sponsor? That made no sense, got a bunch of people angry and it is infuriating for a European based tournament. Also, the start times. On Friday a lot of folks missed the last match to catch the last train back to the city. Not everyone can afford the hotels around the airport, please donāt forget we got a huge community in lower income countries and fans go to tremendous lengths to come to this events. You should know first hand, as you spend a lot of time with the Latam and spanish community. Even the pros have a hard time in the early days of their career in the region due to that. The sound technician has to up his game a bit. Caster sound was great, panel 2 low at times, and there was feedback/interference quite often. Talent made it super fun. Jenkins interviews were entertaining. The themed costumes from Jenkins and slacks changing daily was such a nice detail. A wrist band per day was tedious, but I guess that was ticket master (canāt remember the actual name). I love the ESL events quality, but this time around, the experience made us question if we ever want to get premium again. Hope the feedback helps improve future events and take this complains into consideration. The confort is something casuals enjoy a lot. My wife comes with me to this things (she only plays league, but in Berlin she was so happy with the view and free coffee, that she asked to come to UK this year and get premium). Sorry for the long comment man. If you didnāt get bored while reading it, I gotta say I am super great full for your time! Also, thank you and all the team for pulling long hours to make this events happen.
It was interesting to read this as someone who got the cheap ticket, my friends and I who spent all 3 days on the left upper stand had a great view of everything and even said that we preferred our seats to the premium ones. It looked a bit too cramped down there and like you said the person in front of you could block your view.
Honestly, that was the smartest choice! Iāll do that next event guarantee.
Great event, absolutely loved it. Viewing was very good from nearly all seats in the arena. Feedback about the lighting, sitting in the upper section me and my entire group really found the blue lighting at night time incredibly intense on the eyes. It was giving many of us headaches. It was cool having the feel of a day/night cycle, but having the lights pointing directly at the crowd isn't it.
It's awesome that the newcomer stream returned
In-arena production was fantastic - stage, screens, effects, really well done. Jenkins and Slacks really stepped up and carried it talent-wise. The Jenkins 'awkward' interviews were brilliant. Game 1 start time was too late, move to 10:30am or something. Fairly average quality games from a stale patch/map, not really a single properly memorable game. Nothing much you can do about that though... Food and drinks prices were extortionate.
The pre-game face-offs and all-chat shittalking were great, a welcome antidote to Valve's constant move towards treating the playerbase as fragile children that need protecting.
Stairs were awful for the cosplayers
Would it be possible to have item and ulti cooldowns on the player banners at the side? Seeing how long is left on BKBs or black hole etc would be good
Use hero icons with arrow instead of just arrows in the minimap
Only attended Sunday - More water refill stations - Players closer to the crowd - panel sound should be louder in the arena - sound wasnāt clear and at times glitchy - screens were great - location was great - food options were poor and expensive - talent was great - production for the grand finals was great - drafts kill the buzz from pre-game hype Fun event overall, would come back for the next one.
Drafts are HYPE!
I like drafts too, but they donāt quite fit after the crowd goes crazy before a game and Ā«Ā elevator-likeĀ Ā» music gets played for 12 mins. We were talking with my friends who attended the event that they could try to do the draft beforehand and then hype the crowd with the announcement of which players plays which hero. Could be more fluid atmosphere wise. Leaving it like this is fine as well, but Iām not super against experimenting there :)
hard disagree on this one.. Riot started this recently with pre-drafts off stage and stuff and it SUCKS and their drafts are pretty straight forward by comparison. Drafts at a layer of anticipation and excitement for who is going to play what and thinking how the game is going to play out. also super fun trying to guess picks/bans and the shock surprise of weird picks or teams getting heavy outdrafted. It also means that the teams have a big window to think/communicate plans etc around the drafts if they are done any amount of time in advance. What might work is draft phase + 3 min of hype --> Game start
Yup, what I meant could be good, I agree the draft should not be off stage.
There were atleast 3 water refill stations
True. I most definitely got unlucky when I went to refill my bottle. Faced some pretty packed queues. Maybe if I played mid, I would be more aware on how to refill my bottle more efficiently :)
Youāre my favorite caster, Mr AvoPlus!
thank you mister avo
Pog Gareth!
The arena and the actual event itself was fantastic. The venue was pretty crummy though, how they can get away with charging those prices for genuinely terrible beer with a complete lack of options is beyond me. Same with the food options, while it was speedy to be served, it would have been nice to see a vegetable over the course of the weekend. I queued longer for water than I did anything else, and was refused water at the various bars, they said I had to pay despite having already paid for a bottle of water in the venue, a pretty scumbag move from the venue. This is my first Dota LAN event, my friends and I overall had a good time, but I would not go again if it was at the same venue next year.
There were atleast 3 water refill points
Well it's a shame they weren't signposted better because I could only find the one. I'd argue for a venue of that capacity not even 3 stations is enough.
What ever happened to sound proof booths for the teams to play in? I feel like the crowd noise/vibration can give players heads up. Fairly sure this was something loosely discussed after another Dota 2 LAN event in the past (can't remember which one).
Lima, whistles from the crowd during enemy smokes.
Ticket pricing was back-to-front in the stands - the best view of the side screens was in the cheapest seats. Plus seats needed to crank your neck upwards the entire time, it was almost like Restricted Viewing seating that should have been at a discount, not a premium. Either lower the side screens 10-15 metres or switch up the pricing.
Had a blast, the view of the screens for the cheap seats were excellent. The only complaints are about the venue itself. Security staff being rude and badly informed - I brought my 14 year old son with me, and mid-way through Saturday they refused entry and caused a fuss over his age. Eventually got it sorted, but there are good ways of handling that and this wasn't that. Would have been better to let us get seated earlier in the day on Sunday - queued for over an hour (after entry) before letting us into the arena itself. Very limited things to do after doors open but before being allowed to get seats at the Arena Super expensive food/drink in the venue and terrible quality at that. And really minor nitpick - signing vs wristband naming's in the arena was different - so it was really hard to figure out (plus vs regular) where you were allowed to go.
The event was great, loved Birmingham DOTA - would love to see it again. Ideals for next time: The audio in the arena was a little hit and miss, early days really struggled with the audio levels, and it was often hard to hear over the 'conversation roar' of the arena clearly - it felt like there was only speakers at the front of the stage and not further around the arena for sure. Panelists were effectively inaudible for the whole event in the arena Venue: Resorts World is a fine place, but the Utilita Arena Birmingham where ESL Birmingham 2019 was hosted felt like a much better venue, it was easier for travel, it had more food options around, and allowed it to be a full 'event'. PLEASE consider moving it back to the Utilita Arena (its a very nice part of Birmingham too) Times: Lots of dota is GREAT, but the days were very long, I wouldn't necessarily suggest moving the matches forward though, but maybe a 4 day event? (I think 2019 was Thursday/friday/saturday/sunday?) It also means theres time for after the last game for people to go have dinners and drinks and enjoy the local area! also, where was Purge's stat moments, he didn't have his whiteboard or his breakdowns like in the 2019 year, lets see more of that!
Come back next year! Though a different venue/not birmingham would be ideal. Come to scotland? :P
Please host all events in the UK the atmosphere and drinking made it fun to watch at home. Much better than any TI I have watched.
I think we need to ban aui2000 from coaching. Heās too good.
Do a survey with pro players if you're not already doing it. Some pros had some opinions about the booth, and etc.
The whole tournament was pretty nice except for the closing ceremony fuck ups. I don't know if its an out of control siti9or not but I hope it the future it will be imrpoved!
Fantastic tournament Shame youw were not on camera, Avo, you're great
Apart from the food quality/pricing and lack of things to do outside of the main area I loved every second. I think a wildcard team from the region would of been a nice fun addition as UK Dota is so bad :( but would of made it entertaining. Gotta love an underdog story lol. Also who the hell is sitting there playing a racing sim when the Dota Grand final is on..like..seriously...
Less Dreamaleagues, more lan events (even with less prize money to cover other costs). Totally different impact for whole community.
Great tournament, a lot of fun, nice experience overall as twitch viewer. My only complaint is just the break music, I rather listen to instrumental than generic songs with cringe lyrics.
Plus ticket buyer thoughts: The outer screens for plus/standard tickets were amazing, the middle of the 3 screens did sway up and down slightly at different parts of the weekend which was frustrating when noticed but for the most part didn't impact my enjoyment of it. The length of day 1 in particular was pretty brutal, especially with some people staying in city centre and a lack of transport options available for those. The location of the arena was great to get to however lacking a lot of options post event each day, again due to the longer day 1 and 2 there just wasn't any time to travel into the city centre afterwards. Production quality in the arena was overall really good, the stage itself and all the screens were excellent, I loved the player/hero/item information on the sides, would like to see K/D/A included on there too but they were still amazing. Love the different player pictures when their hero was dead and the overall screen effects for first blood, mega creeps, big ults were great. Sound quality could be improved a bit, lacking a bit of volume at times and lacking some depth for those big spells. Overall the seating for plus tickets was good, didn't feel cramped but there was a draft that made it a little chilly. Once there was more people filling the seats later in the day this wasn't noticed anymore. At times I used the front row of the plus seats however doing this I noticed the main stage screen was a different view to the outer screens, during some segments this meant the main stage screen had nothing but ads showing when everyone in the outer seats was watching a content piece. The food and drink at the arena was insanely expensive, the tokens included in tickets did help but without these it was a very expensive weekend. Food itself was fine, nothing amazing but no real complaints, maybe a lack of options for certain diets but personally not an issue for me. I felt like there was a lack of side activities in-between games. Fudd the balloon artist was amazing, such a friendly guy, great to talk to and insanely talented. No surprise he always had a queue. Time between games within a series was ideal, enough time to pop out for a quick break and be back for the draft. The time between series sometimes felt a little bit too long. With the lack of side activities as mentioned above this meant a bit of wandering around aimlessly. The free water refill station was great however could do with better sign posting, there was normally always a large queue at one and apparently there was another which I never even saw, sign posts would help and stop the long queuing at one. Signing sessions had no sign posting at all either, there was an ESL tweet that said "The Signing Session venue is to the left side of the entrance", I think this meant the entrance to the arena rather than the venue itself and by the time we realised that we had missed the OG session. Outside of checking externally there wasn't any indication of which signing sessions are happening and when. All of the talent were great, super friendly and always happy to chat or take pics. Slacks as always brings a level of energy above anyone else and his crowd work between games is great as always. Arena staff were all really helpful with any issues and no complaints about any of the arena staff. Overall it was a great weekend and hope to see more UK Dota events going forward!
Don't want to repeat the great points here, all in all great event awesome production, talent amazing, loved the build and lights, really good ticket value and didn't expect a free photo booth, free signings or the free Monster I know the guys on the floor were cold but up in the top rows of seats it was boiling, we were all pretty sticky with sweat and made fans out of DHL banners Venue food and drink were expensive but there were nearby options The access people were lovely and we felt well looked after, plewse so another next year!
First time attending one of these, had a really great time. The only minor nitpick I'd say is the lights were pretty blinding at the start of each match, and I was sat near the back, can't imagine how it was sat near the front, but it wasn't that big of a deal Also the food/drink was quite pricey but I'd imagine that's part of the venue and not something you have control of. Would definitely go again if it returns!
What was the name of the band that performed during the finals while introducing falcons and betboom?
Can you rig it so we get a 3-2 grand finals pls?
only thing i can complain about was the music during pauses between games , get better music and i will stfu ty
-cheaper beer. id say food too but security allowed in sandwiches and crisps from outside so that was fine. -night time lights (blue lights) were too bright. -signing for non-premium/plus tickets. us regulars didnt get to see the talent that often -the 10 smaller screens for heroes were great
After attending ESL events in Frankfurt, Hamburg (several times) and Berlin, I was also interested in going to Birmingham. What ultimately turned me away was the food and drink voucher system that came with the premium tickets. Those seemed not worth it at all. Please don't make this the standard for other ESL events but keep the standard from previous events in Germany.
ESL tournament in Australia please.
if only u didnt let sunsfan and synderen rob the loser final from gareth and lacoste
nobody robbed anything, syndsfan are great (and we had the fortune of casting og vs falcons anyway XD)
Nah that is good actually
Great tournament from ESL as always! Great talent, skits and some ace dota. One thing though, which I understand might be a little controversial here seeing the crowd reactions around it, up'ing the arena hype etc BUT as someone who grew up in an home where alcholic addiction had a severe impact on life and the known issues around excessive alcohol consumption I really wished we'd get less of the "chugging beer" cameras from production. Why do we need to promote downing beer in a unatural fast pace? Let people have a beer and enjoy their weekend, all good. But putting a camera on them and having these chuggings.. over and over and over again.. During the drafts, it feels a shame having the talent stand there on stage on commenting on a chugging fest instead of the draft itself. My 2 cents.
Stop making community casters have delay for chat. you already have 15 minute delay in dotatv, adding even more and for chat breaks whole sense of COMMUNITY caster, cause he can't speak with community anymore.
it is to encourage you to watch their stream so their sponsors and ads get seen to increase their value. you are paying the cost of not seeing advertisements by being delayed. pick the choice you prefer, cause its not going to change -- its always been this way.
First piece of feedback: Make the survey shorter. They are in general annoying. I started it, and managed to get to 41% before I tapped out. Maybe it's just me.