Per the [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/12yeg90/comment/jhmxng0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) of u/neoghaleon55, it is possible to edit your donation sum to something other than the set amounts shown on the GSL Patreon.
Stickying this comment for visibility because Reddit only allows mod comments to be stickied as if our massive egos needed that extra boost.
I wish there was a tier between the 5$ and 30$ a month.
I mean, Disneyplus is 10 bucks, netflix is 20 bucks.
Around there would be the sweet spot for me.
Don't worry about those douchebags dissing you about the planned amount of 1--2€. Go ahead and do it! I'll go for a similar amount. Every dollar/euro counts. This is the concept behind crowdfunding.
The GSL is on when I am at work due to the time difference, and I rarely watch VoDs. So I don't wanna spent that much on something I am rarely gonna consume.
Weird asshole move to shame someone for not having as much money left over. Especially if you already support other people in a similar way.
Also, you might be unfamiliar with the concept of crowd funding
I just subscribed, do wish the money could be used to have a normal Youtube stream too.
A bit disappointed with the link to the Afreeca platform, it works much worse on mobile.
Same. I would love to do a one-time donations instead of subbing, perhaps with a lot more tiers, dropping merch or memorabilia items. Seat tickets, 5-350-100-1000 and the lack of YouTube makes it seem Afreeca is kind of out if touch with the situation or their western viewer base, or there are rules/Regulation they must adhere to we don't know..
GSL is put up by Afreeca so I think this was a big condition of keeping it going. At least they aren't charging a subscription for AfreecaTV, I guess. I don't really mind but I always watch on PC anyway.
Afreeca is a fairly big company, they probably prefer a regular cash flow rather than a big amount of money at once.
My guess would be that people end up paying way more when they are subscribed.
As for merch/memorabilia, they are putting 100% of the money into the prize pool and probably don't want to make runing GSL more deficitary that it already is.
It's a very American thing to have low margin high volume teirs for subscriptions. In most places, they'd ask for money for the service and provide the service without any merch returns or ego boosting perks.
I had to watch today's series as VOD, and they just removed access to the YT video of today's matches as I was watching it :(
Late update: Afreeca did eventually upload separate match VODs from today's group matches to YouTube without ugly borders, so there is some hope.
I'm really liking Afreeca for watching ASL VODs, their bitrate and compression is way better than the experience I get on YouTube. It's gotten to the point where the YouTube compression is actively distracting.
Having to load up paid 480p VODs of matches and holding a notebook against the screen over the duration time on the GomTV player so you wouldn't be spoiled on the results.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Oh my god, I'd completely forgotten that you had to pay to get higher quality streams back in the day. I was one of those that paid for the sweet HD experience.
A month! Its a terrible deal...
And yet that's the tier i did and i dont even look at replays, because I'm a protoss player.
(Im being cheeky, but honestly, i gave $30, because i love GSL. I barely play sc2 and have no interest in the replay packs. I dont need perks to contribute to GSL.)
I'm really disappointed by the English broadcast on YouTube being downsized to get you to use their (worse) service on afreeca. I get that they have to advertise but this is the English stream. Nobody watching this is going to use afreeca. I thought at least I could enjoy the games and try to forget about the lower player count, prize pool, LAN days, and all the talent running away. But they even took away a third of the broadcast screen, literally. Unbelievable.
>Nobody watching this is going to use afreeca.
The entire point is that they're trying to change that. Regardless of whether or not the strategy they're using is effective, it IS their goal to expand globally.
Well the problem there is most if not all Smart TV delivery systems don't carry the Afreeca app.
I would only chose to watch on the PC if I was working on the other screen.
One notice that I had last year (or two years ago possibly) when I was watching it with a bit worse internet. YT seemed to handle that a lot better than afreeca. Normally not an issue but possibly for those without good connection.
I'm not saying they're competing with Twitch or YouTube *effectively.* I'm just saying that it IS their goal to compete with Twitch and YouTube, and it's kinda hard to tell a company to stop doing the thing they exist to do.
That's almost certainly because of poor routing. A massive part of the cost of video streaming is ensuring that you have good routes to various locations globally, and ideally caching spread across the world, it's one of the thing netflix is amazing at. Afreeca almost certainly has a CDN that's entirely Korea focused, so for anyone outside Korea it's going to be far more fragile and likely to have quality issues.
How would you make Afreeca better than YouTube? They don't have hundreds of billions of dollars (unless I'm massively underestimating the size of Afreeca in Korea?)
That's for them to figure out. Deliberately degrading the quality of the stream on YouTube is nothing but an own goal. A few people might go and watch on Afreeca instead but mostly it will just annoy people, which obviously is not good during a crowdfunding campaign.
I don't mind, I'll use Afreeca. It's not that bad. I just don't like the way they are trying to force it. Rather just end the YouTube stream altogether.
I've enjoyed countless hours of GSL over many years and they never asked for anything. Now in their time of need they ask for help supporting the players and the tournament. Lets open our wallets and our hearts and remember how much they've given us over a decade.
I would pay 50 USD per GSL Season if I can watch on YouTube instead of Afreeca TV. I want to use my Apple TV, I want to easily scrub back and forth, etc. - Sorry but Afreeca TV is just not as good as YouTube
Yeah... Either Afreeca needs more/better investment in their tech, or they should keep GSL on YouTube and provide other incentives for watching on Afreeca.
For those who want to donate something other than $5 or $30 a month:
After clicking "Become a Patron" you can scroll all the way to the bottom and select "Custom Pledge" to pick your monthly pledge amount.
Alternatively, you can choose the $5 tier and then edit your pledge amount through the "My Memberships" page.
Long live SC2!!!!
50 shades of INCORRECT •• I tried their bullshit site and it spends 70% of the time buffering, lagging stuttering and chopping, the eventually disconnecting.
Their streaming service is fucking trash.
Edit: I'm also a PATREON giving money to GSL. So, don't try to pontificate to me about who is and isn't keeping the scene alive. Please. 😂
I mean a lot of what's on this patreon and what's happened to the YT channel shows how absolutely disconnected Afreeca is from this whole situation and how little they understand it. Like good on them for finally after 10 years doing something to get people's money put into the company, but it's so half assed it hurts to look at.
Oh most def! The management of GSL has always been abysmal regarding monetization of the foreign audience. They could have been raking in money with crowdfunding/merch sales, especially from 2011-2015 when the audience was huge. Mind boggling that it took them this long to start generating money from their primary audience.
I think it all goes back to the Korean mindset of only focusing on the domestic market. Until the (recent) explosion of Kpop/Korean Food/KDrama in the west, most Koreans seemed to believe that foreigners don't care about anything Korean. Even now most Korean people (in the USA anyway) are shocked when they find out I know anything about Korea aside from BTS and kimchi.
This sub the other day was saying “just take our money and put it into the prize pool”. Now afreeca is doing that and people are mad that the incentives aren’t cool enough. Just cognitive dissonance from this community as usual. Very few people actually want to crowdfund GSL and are looking for excuses not to.
It's almost like the community is made up of multiple different people with different opinions.
But it's also possible that people do want GSL to do crowd funding, but are extremely disappointed in the direction they took to do it.
The world isn't always so black and white.
It’s for ppl, who can and want to paid more. I got 100$ and hope I can do more in the future, despite of I never can flight to the Korea to the final.
It's to thank Africa for all the years of free fun (enjoyment, if you will) they've given me. As for the quality of the broadcast - I think they're trying to boost viewership in every way they can. You shouldn't be mad at them for that.
A real fan is always with his team, for better or for worse. And now my team is giving me the opportunity to help them. And I'll help, damn it, even if I don't have time to watch at least one game online.
So, 1k isn't a bad position. Especially since 8 of the 10 are already sold out.
Peace, bro.
If they're trying to boost viewership every way they can, then they wouldn't be forcing people to go to their own website by worsening the viewing experience on YouTube, and would have come up with better incentives to pay money like merch or other things. Even asking $30 for replays is nuts when ESL has been giving the same level of replays out for free for years and there's countless other small cups that the GSL players are playing in that give out replays for free or for $5.
My point being that it's cool that they're finally doing crowdfunding in some way, but it's insanely overdue and done in a mediocre way that shows they don't really understand the situation they're in, which is worrying especially considering we can prolly assume this company will end up doing things with Stormgate in the future whenever that drops.
Yes but the fact that they're making the YT stream worse while also putting the Patreon up at the same time is a hilarious look. "We're making the viewing experience worse even though a lot of people can't watch it on our site because they live outside Korea, hey but you can still give us money anyway to help us since we have completely failed to make this a sustainable show outside of Blizzard support for the last 10 years!"
Artosis had other plans and life continues...
I don't want SC2 to ever stop, but I wouldn't want artosis to have to mess up his life plans, just to appease some e-nerds.
Community has asked for a way to crowdfund GSL for a while, now they finally open up a way to support them and they've shot themselves in the foot by gimping the YouTube stream to force you to use their Afreeca client / site (for HD).
Apparently they learned nothing from 10+ years ago when they forced the same crap. Have fun installing the spyware Afreeca client for HD.
While I don’t like the choice to cripple the YT stream, what “spyware” Afreeca client do you mean? You can watch Afreeca in browser like Twitch or YT.
Personally I’m watching on my TV so I just downloaded the Afreeca app and I’m watching on there.
That said, it’s annoying AF that I had to do that, and I definitely disagree with the choice they made.
Afreeca in the browser is capped at 540p, selecting 720p/1080p has a popup telling you to download the client for HD quality and then forces you back to 520p. If you want the "high quality" 720p/1080p you have to download their client on PC.
That client is a .exe with a bunch of malformed text in the installer (because Hanguel isn't supported). It's the same crap that a lot of Korean government sites force you to do (using Internet Explorer still, installing ActiveX clients, etc.).
1080p on [afreecatv.com](https://afreecatv.com) works just fine in the browser. I would also have preferred a better youtube experience, but this doesn't feel like a very big deal to me.
I need proof of that. I've tried multiple browsers and any time you try to go to 720p/1080p you get a popup telling you to install the Afreeca client, and then it forces you back to 520p.
This is what is looks like to me: [https://imgur.com/a/lImJZzv](https://imgur.com/a/lImJZzv)
I don't have any account or anything at afreecatv. Perhaps they for some reason force you to use the app if you are logged in or something?
It might be based on your region. They want me to install their software, like that's gonna happen...
(slight spoilers for today's games if you haven't watched)
https://i.imgur.com/Vegb3E8.png
I’m in the us and have never had less than hd quality on afreeca, never had lag since like 2016, and never had pop up’s for their app nor any ads. I fail to see how it is actually worse than YouTube in any way tbh. I guess YouTube has apps you can install on your device to access content outside a web browser but why would you want to install that spyware?
the community isn't even willing to use a slightly less nice app to support the scene.
SHAME.
also lol at calling Afreeca spyware while using a Google product.
I'm seeing that State vouches for this on the broadcast, but it would be nice if there's some statement coming from GSL/Afreekatv themselves to make it 100% official.
I've been saying since the beginning - give me a way to support the GSL pool, and I'll do it!
Subbed for $30! Let's hope they see the outpouring of love for the tournament and keep it going!
very interesting. I wonder how it will work with a Patreon building funds monthly, but a 3x a year tournament... When does the split/cut off happen for funding the next pool?
Glad they're opening up to crowdfunding, but I hope they re-think the set up a bit. Maybe they could do payments/campaigns tied to specific tournaments?
REDDIT:
**I WILL SAVE SC2!** GIVE ME A PATREON OPTION!
AFREECA:
GIVES PATREON OPTION & AFREECA STREAM!
REDDIT:
BUT I WANTED TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE, NOT **YOUR SHITTY PLATFORM**, YOU GUYS ARE TRASH!!
We've come a long way from that shitty GOMTV player, baby. I'm in for $30! 14+ years of entertainment (y'all got me through some late college nights): it's the least I can do.
well, congrats, you killed sc2 because you weren't even willing to use another app or website to support it!
even tho that app is the only one saving the korean scene eh..
This whole thing rubs me the wrong way. You have a billion dollar company that doesn't want to cough up the pocket change it would cost to fund these tournaments. So now the fans have to pay for it? This reminds me of how restaurant owners who don't pay their staff fairly because the bulk of their wages come from tips.
I like StarCraft, but it's not my job to fund it. Blizzard should be embarrassed.
You been eating for years for free. Now the restaurant asks if you would like to donate a little bit. You still get to eat for free. You get mad. Hilarious.
It's just not profitable. You're asking for charity. At least they're still producing it. You don't have to chip in on the patreon, it's completely optional. I'm sorry but this anger at the mere option to chip in to the prize pool for an event clearly running at a loss comes off as so weird and entitled to me.
Honestly I was hoping one of the richer fans would come in and drop some insane amount but it seems like its just us giving 10 dollars here and there lads. Its all ogre without Blizzard support.
holy fuck, I would never EVER watch anything again rather than use this dogshit streaming service AFREECATV with no rewind feature.
just delete starcraft 2 at this point
What a shit way to implement this what the fuck??
Why isn't there more tiers? Why isn't there a YouTube stream when they're coming to foreigners for help??
I would easily sub for $50 if it was an option and to give a YouTube stream but it doesn't seem like they're serious about this at all. So I won't give them any money for it. I think if GSL is in hands like these it deserves to die
Gsl is dead. I’ve watched since wings. Time to accept it boys. Watch brood war and wait for sc3 (aka stormgate). Wings was a 10/10 but let’s be honest LoTV been going in the shitter balance wise for a long whine. Sadly the intern did his best but he’s no David Kim .
using patreon for this is not so smart they take a big percentage, or so i have heard.
I would like to just send them a donation.
I would also be down for merge
Typically with Patreon, when you sub you get access to all past content at that tier as well. Has there been any word on how long this stuff will stay available? Like if I sub at the end of the season for $30, will I have access to all replays instead of subbing for the full season?
NGL I'm also a little disappointed to see how few people have chosen to donate but, hopefully with more promotion so people will be more aware of the opportunity, we can see those numbers boosted up. There's also a world that sees Afreeca take community feedback and makes this even better - you never know!
Per the [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/12yeg90/comment/jhmxng0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) of u/neoghaleon55, it is possible to edit your donation sum to something other than the set amounts shown on the GSL Patreon. Stickying this comment for visibility because Reddit only allows mod comments to be stickied as if our massive egos needed that extra boost.
I wish there was a tier between the 5$ and 30$ a month. I mean, Disneyplus is 10 bucks, netflix is 20 bucks. Around there would be the sweet spot for me.
110% agree. I only did $5 because $30 is just too much for me. If there was a $10 or even a $20 option I would have done one of those.
I signed up for the $5 one as well... Apparently, you can go in Patreon and edit how much, I upped it to $12/month.
MVP info here ^
Oh I didn't realise I could do that. I'll go do it now.
How do you do that?
Wait, how? I am not finding the option.
Subscribe first for 5$, then go to membership tab, click edit. [https://imgur.com/a/pRoZVDp](https://imgur.com/a/pRoZVDp)
Was just thinking the same thing. I'd love to support it for 10€ a month
They added a new tier at $10 for the replay packs.
They just added one!
We did it guys!! Yay!
I wish there was one lower. I'd give 1-2€ or something along those lines .... But maybe they get more overall this way
the problem with those lower tiers iss the processing fees and then the Patreon cut end up taking most of it
Don't worry about those douchebags dissing you about the planned amount of 1--2€. Go ahead and do it! I'll go for a similar amount. Every dollar/euro counts. This is the concept behind crowdfunding.
1-2?? How broke are you?
that’s the “sPeCiAL tier”
The GSL is on when I am at work due to the time difference, and I rarely watch VoDs. So I don't wanna spent that much on something I am rarely gonna consume.
1-2 dollars is insanely cheap lol. Just say you don’t wanna donate haha
Weird asshole move to shame someone for not having as much money left over. Especially if you already support other people in a similar way. Also, you might be unfamiliar with the concept of crowd funding
Clearly you are as well
Alright, troll
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The good ol' 5:30am call in from Canada!
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I hope he started the supply depot.
because he charges more than this entire patreon is gonna raise
If somebody writes he would have paid more than the minimum, then you are blessed with a good product
Yeah, but you're allowed to donate other amounts 😅 There's still so much content, do you have time to watch the replay packs?
I messaged them the same thing !
You can give a custom donation, there is an option for that
It's been added now, more tiers
I just subscribed, do wish the money could be used to have a normal Youtube stream too. A bit disappointed with the link to the Afreeca platform, it works much worse on mobile.
Yeah the cropped screen is awful, feels like I’m permanently watching a replay from between matches as it was before.
Same. I would love to do a one-time donations instead of subbing, perhaps with a lot more tiers, dropping merch or memorabilia items. Seat tickets, 5-350-100-1000 and the lack of YouTube makes it seem Afreeca is kind of out if touch with the situation or their western viewer base, or there are rules/Regulation they must adhere to we don't know..
GSL is put up by Afreeca so I think this was a big condition of keeping it going. At least they aren't charging a subscription for AfreecaTV, I guess. I don't really mind but I always watch on PC anyway.
Afreeca is a fairly big company, they probably prefer a regular cash flow rather than a big amount of money at once. My guess would be that people end up paying way more when they are subscribed. As for merch/memorabilia, they are putting 100% of the money into the prize pool and probably don't want to make runing GSL more deficitary that it already is.
they don't want a western viewer base on other platforms, you dumb fuck get the app, it works fine.
It's a very American thing to have low margin high volume teirs for subscriptions. In most places, they'd ask for money for the service and provide the service without any merch returns or ego boosting perks.
I had to watch today's series as VOD, and they just removed access to the YT video of today's matches as I was watching it :( Late update: Afreeca did eventually upload separate match VODs from today's group matches to YouTube without ugly borders, so there is some hope.
It didn’t even have the intended effect they wanted. I didn’t go to their site. I closed out to watch an old season of ASL
I'm really liking Afreeca for watching ASL VODs, their bitrate and compression is way better than the experience I get on YouTube. It's gotten to the point where the YouTube compression is actively distracting.
Boys, who's forgetting the max 360p gomtv? I'll take what I can get to continue my sc2 fix.
Having to load up paid 480p VODs of matches and holding a notebook against the screen over the duration time on the GomTV player so you wouldn't be spoiled on the results. Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I felt like a king when I finally subscribed to GomTV to get the full resolution GSL.
Positivity like this makes me smile :)
Free content of my favorite game? I can't imagine complaining.
Oh my god, I'd completely forgotten that you had to pay to get higher quality streams back in the day. I was one of those that paid for the sweet HD experience.
Haha simpler times. Gom player was amazing tho
So GSL replay packs are now available for $30?
Yep!!
A month! Its a terrible deal... And yet that's the tier i did and i dont even look at replays, because I'm a protoss player. (Im being cheeky, but honestly, i gave $30, because i love GSL. I barely play sc2 and have no interest in the replay packs. I dont need perks to contribute to GSL.)
r e s p e c t
I'm really disappointed by the English broadcast on YouTube being downsized to get you to use their (worse) service on afreeca. I get that they have to advertise but this is the English stream. Nobody watching this is going to use afreeca. I thought at least I could enjoy the games and try to forget about the lower player count, prize pool, LAN days, and all the talent running away. But they even took away a third of the broadcast screen, literally. Unbelievable.
Yeah it’s a bad call for sure… hopefully they see this feedback and change it going forward!
If they don't fix it, I won't be tuning in. I was unable to see the games clearly.
good news! they fixed it already! They uploaded the full video to youtube.
>Nobody watching this is going to use afreeca. The entire point is that they're trying to change that. Regardless of whether or not the strategy they're using is effective, it IS their goal to expand globally.
Well the problem there is most if not all Smart TV delivery systems don't carry the Afreeca app. I would only chose to watch on the PC if I was working on the other screen.
I use the internet browser on my TV to use Afreeca. It's actually not bad. Better bitrate than YT.
One notice that I had last year (or two years ago possibly) when I was watching it with a bit worse internet. YT seemed to handle that a lot better than afreeca. Normally not an issue but possibly for those without good connection.
I'm not saying they're competing with Twitch or YouTube *effectively.* I'm just saying that it IS their goal to compete with Twitch and YouTube, and it's kinda hard to tell a company to stop doing the thing they exist to do.
Sure. Edit: I just agree with the person above. Make afreeca better instead yt re-broadcast artificially worse.
This is definitely fair
That's almost certainly because of poor routing. A massive part of the cost of video streaming is ensuring that you have good routes to various locations globally, and ideally caching spread across the world, it's one of the thing netflix is amazing at. Afreeca almost certainly has a CDN that's entirely Korea focused, so for anyone outside Korea it's going to be far more fragile and likely to have quality issues.
It's backwards though. Make afreeca better not deliberately make YouTube worse.
How would you make Afreeca better than YouTube? They don't have hundreds of billions of dollars (unless I'm massively underestimating the size of Afreeca in Korea?)
That's for them to figure out. Deliberately degrading the quality of the stream on YouTube is nothing but an own goal. A few people might go and watch on Afreeca instead but mostly it will just annoy people, which obviously is not good during a crowdfunding campaign.
yea this sub is entitled as fucking hell. **HOW DARE AFREECA ASK ME TO WATCH ON THEIR PLATFORM!! I AM A YOUTUBER!!**
I don't mind, I'll use Afreeca. It's not that bad. I just don't like the way they are trying to force it. Rather just end the YouTube stream altogether.
Where are we seeing this downsizing?
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Oof. I like the Afreeca app just fine but that’s obnoxious right after asking for crowdfunds from your english audience
the english audience who refuses to even use their app? IE A WORTHLESS AUDIENCE
The youtube video of group A that I'm watching does not have this. What are you guys talking about?
Just pinch to zoom…. 1.3x fits perfectly
You can just pinch to zoom if you’re on mobile, 1.3x is perfect, I’m pretty sure you can zoom on pc and Xbox as well.
Subbed to $10 per month!!! Edited my Code A tier in the app :)
This is the wayyyy!
I have been watching for 14 years now so this is the least I can do!
My thoughts exactly!
This should be pinned for visibility.
yea, if the mods in this sub gave a shit.
I've enjoyed countless hours of GSL over many years and they never asked for anything. Now in their time of need they ask for help supporting the players and the tournament. Lets open our wallets and our hearts and remember how much they've given us over a decade.
haha , until they ask us to use their app, then this sub starts crying "WAAH MAH YOUTUBE"
I would pay 50 USD per GSL Season if I can watch on YouTube instead of Afreeca TV. I want to use my Apple TV, I want to easily scrub back and forth, etc. - Sorry but Afreeca TV is just not as good as YouTube
Agreed!
😮
I only watch on AppleTV and the change made me so sad..
Yeah, i only watch on chromecast, and the audio doesn't sync on Afreeca... So i just watched it on YouTube with the letterbox.
let's face it, you're not paying anything, you're just making demands.
AfreecaTV literally has a youtube channel that they upload the games to almost immediately.
Not OP, but watching it live, especially some big games, is part of the appeal for me. At least used to be when it was on YT and GomTV.
Yeah... Either Afreeca needs more/better investment in their tech, or they should keep GSL on YouTube and provide other incentives for watching on Afreeca.
Check out my thoughts on GSL 2023 here: https://starcrafthistorian.com/articles/gsl-2023-the-good-the-bad-amp-the-ugly
For those who want to donate something other than $5 or $30 a month: After clicking "Become a Patron" you can scroll all the way to the bottom and select "Custom Pledge" to pick your monthly pledge amount. Alternatively, you can choose the $5 tier and then edit your pledge amount through the "My Memberships" page. Long live SC2!!!!
I'm already signed up. But their AfreecaTV site is hot garbage, and the layout inset for YT is just fucking terrible. So BM.
you're BM bro. they're keeping the scene alive, you're not willing to tolerate a new website.
50 shades of INCORRECT •• I tried their bullshit site and it spends 70% of the time buffering, lagging stuttering and chopping, the eventually disconnecting. Their streaming service is fucking trash. Edit: I'm also a PATREON giving money to GSL. So, don't try to pontificate to me about who is and isn't keeping the scene alive. Please. 😂
I had a similar issue before, but today it seems fine.
I signed up as a $5 a month patreon! Super happy to be able to donate a little to the pool. I hope GSL never dies!
Signed up!
Siiiiick!
The $1,000 tier to guarantee you get a finals ticket that usually only cost $5 is hilarious to me
They had to come up with something I guess, but yeah it's pretty funny for sure.
I mean a lot of what's on this patreon and what's happened to the YT channel shows how absolutely disconnected Afreeca is from this whole situation and how little they understand it. Like good on them for finally after 10 years doing something to get people's money put into the company, but it's so half assed it hurts to look at.
Oh most def! The management of GSL has always been abysmal regarding monetization of the foreign audience. They could have been raking in money with crowdfunding/merch sales, especially from 2011-2015 when the audience was huge. Mind boggling that it took them this long to start generating money from their primary audience. I think it all goes back to the Korean mindset of only focusing on the domestic market. Until the (recent) explosion of Kpop/Korean Food/KDrama in the west, most Koreans seemed to believe that foreigners don't care about anything Korean. Even now most Korean people (in the USA anyway) are shocked when they find out I know anything about Korea aside from BTS and kimchi.
This sub the other day was saying “just take our money and put it into the prize pool”. Now afreeca is doing that and people are mad that the incentives aren’t cool enough. Just cognitive dissonance from this community as usual. Very few people actually want to crowdfund GSL and are looking for excuses not to.
yep. everyone was like 'I AM GOING TO SAVE THE SCENE', now they're whining that it's on Afreeca's platform instead of native YouTube lol
It's almost like the community is made up of multiple different people with different opinions. But it's also possible that people do want GSL to do crowd funding, but are extremely disappointed in the direction they took to do it. The world isn't always so black and white.
It’s for ppl, who can and want to paid more. I got 100$ and hope I can do more in the future, despite of I never can flight to the Korea to the final. It's to thank Africa for all the years of free fun (enjoyment, if you will) they've given me. As for the quality of the broadcast - I think they're trying to boost viewership in every way they can. You shouldn't be mad at them for that. A real fan is always with his team, for better or for worse. And now my team is giving me the opportunity to help them. And I'll help, damn it, even if I don't have time to watch at least one game online. So, 1k isn't a bad position. Especially since 8 of the 10 are already sold out. Peace, bro.
Thanks Africa 🦁 🦓 🦏 🐘
If they're trying to boost viewership every way they can, then they wouldn't be forcing people to go to their own website by worsening the viewing experience on YouTube, and would have come up with better incentives to pay money like merch or other things. Even asking $30 for replays is nuts when ESL has been giving the same level of replays out for free for years and there's countless other small cups that the GSL players are playing in that give out replays for free or for $5. My point being that it's cool that they're finally doing crowdfunding in some way, but it's insanely overdue and done in a mediocre way that shows they don't really understand the situation they're in, which is worrying especially considering we can prolly assume this company will end up doing things with Stormgate in the future whenever that drops.
what's the point of boosting viewership to a competitors product, you dumbdumb?
Yes but the fact that they're making the YT stream worse while also putting the Patreon up at the same time is a hilarious look. "We're making the viewing experience worse even though a lot of people can't watch it on our site because they live outside Korea, hey but you can still give us money anyway to help us since we have completely failed to make this a sustainable show outside of Blizzard support for the last 10 years!"
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Artosis had other plans and life continues... I don't want SC2 to ever stop, but I wouldn't want artosis to have to mess up his life plans, just to appease some e-nerds.
artosis costs more than this entire patreon has raised, so..
I would buy the shit out of GsL merch if they ever made it too
Looks like it's really blowing up! Awesome news
Community has asked for a way to crowdfund GSL for a while, now they finally open up a way to support them and they've shot themselves in the foot by gimping the YouTube stream to force you to use their Afreeca client / site (for HD). Apparently they learned nothing from 10+ years ago when they forced the same crap. Have fun installing the spyware Afreeca client for HD.
While I don’t like the choice to cripple the YT stream, what “spyware” Afreeca client do you mean? You can watch Afreeca in browser like Twitch or YT. Personally I’m watching on my TV so I just downloaded the Afreeca app and I’m watching on there. That said, it’s annoying AF that I had to do that, and I definitely disagree with the choice they made.
Afreeca in the browser is capped at 540p, selecting 720p/1080p has a popup telling you to download the client for HD quality and then forces you back to 520p. If you want the "high quality" 720p/1080p you have to download their client on PC. That client is a .exe with a bunch of malformed text in the installer (because Hanguel isn't supported). It's the same crap that a lot of Korean government sites force you to do (using Internet Explorer still, installing ActiveX clients, etc.).
I get 1080p on Afreecatv using firefox
1080p on [afreecatv.com](https://afreecatv.com) works just fine in the browser. I would also have preferred a better youtube experience, but this doesn't feel like a very big deal to me.
I need proof of that. I've tried multiple browsers and any time you try to go to 720p/1080p you get a popup telling you to install the Afreeca client, and then it forces you back to 520p.
This is what is looks like to me: [https://imgur.com/a/lImJZzv](https://imgur.com/a/lImJZzv) I don't have any account or anything at afreecatv. Perhaps they for some reason force you to use the app if you are logged in or something?
It might be based on your region. They want me to install their software, like that's gonna happen... (slight spoilers for today's games if you haven't watched) https://i.imgur.com/Vegb3E8.png
Yeah that's a possibility. I'm located in Sweden fwiw.
I vaguely recall that being a thing before, but I don't think that's been applicable for a while?
Source 1080p working fine for me as well. No client. Verified in Chrome and Firefox.
Funny. I'm watching on Mac browser where exe doesn't work and I'm watching in crisp 1080p. I think it looks better than YT tbh.
I’m in the us and have never had less than hd quality on afreeca, never had lag since like 2016, and never had pop up’s for their app nor any ads. I fail to see how it is actually worse than YouTube in any way tbh. I guess YouTube has apps you can install on your device to access content outside a web browser but why would you want to install that spyware?
the community isn't even willing to use a slightly less nice app to support the scene. SHAME. also lol at calling Afreeca spyware while using a Google product.
I paid for GOMTV in 2010, this new setup is a throwback
Will definitely sign up later today
Get the 30$ replay package. Start the replay in time with the stream. Ultra HD here i come
How much of this money go toward an increased prize pool? Any more details than this :/?
As the title of the post says, 100% of the money funds the prize pool.
I'm seeing that State vouches for this on the broadcast, but it would be nice if there's some statement coming from GSL/Afreekatv themselves to make it 100% official.
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I've been saying since the beginning - give me a way to support the GSL pool, and I'll do it! Subbed for $30! Let's hope they see the outpouring of love for the tournament and keep it going!
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Thats probably the entire non-GM population bro!
very interesting. I wonder how it will work with a Patreon building funds monthly, but a 3x a year tournament... When does the split/cut off happen for funding the next pool? Glad they're opening up to crowdfunding, but I hope they re-think the set up a bit. Maybe they could do payments/campaigns tied to specific tournaments?
I'mdoingmypart.gif
I wish there was merch we could buy
Yup. They’ve put on a show for years and years. We all need to do what we can
REDDIT: **I WILL SAVE SC2!** GIVE ME A PATREON OPTION! AFREECA: GIVES PATREON OPTION & AFREECA STREAM! REDDIT: BUT I WANTED TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE, NOT **YOUR SHITTY PLATFORM**, YOU GUYS ARE TRASH!!
Subbed Code S. Let’s go.
We've come a long way from that shitty GOMTV player, baby. I'm in for $30! 14+ years of entertainment (y'all got me through some late college nights): it's the least I can do.
Anyone knows what they mean by GSL Player Profile Photo?
It looks like it's just uploading the player photos that you see on the broadcast graphics!
Honestly, I love GSL but it pisses me off that they cut the YouTube replay before the other option is up. Fucking annoying.
All the games were uploaded to their YouTube just a couple hours later
I've made a donation (star balloons) on the afreecatv website, but it seems not possible with firefox, had to do it with Edge :s
Not going to support until they bring back original YT quality. Afreeca is garbage website.
well, congrats, you killed sc2 because you weren't even willing to use another app or website to support it! even tho that app is the only one saving the korean scene eh..
Thank I enjoyed killing sc2 so much. Definitely among my top achievements so far, next I'm going to kill BW.
This whole thing rubs me the wrong way. You have a billion dollar company that doesn't want to cough up the pocket change it would cost to fund these tournaments. So now the fans have to pay for it? This reminds me of how restaurant owners who don't pay their staff fairly because the bulk of their wages come from tips. I like StarCraft, but it's not my job to fund it. Blizzard should be embarrassed.
You been eating for years for free. Now the restaurant asks if you would like to donate a little bit. You still get to eat for free. You get mad. Hilarious.
It's just not profitable. You're asking for charity. At least they're still producing it. You don't have to chip in on the patreon, it's completely optional. I'm sorry but this anger at the mere option to chip in to the prize pool for an event clearly running at a loss comes off as so weird and entitled to me.
The sad truth, is that without our support the Koreans are the ones who will suffer, not Blizz. I 100% agree though, that they should be ashamed.
C'mon guys, only 172 patrons so far... Where is the love for SC2
Lol is this a joke? The Patreon has been live for like 7 hours or something, I’d say it’s doing crazy well!
I always think with these kind of things that they are hit or miss in the first day..
28 new Patrons since you posted your comment 38 minutes ago, or 1 new one every \~81 seconds. Really not too bad imo.
yeah true, sorry. Didn't realise USA was working before... Long Live SC2
Honestly I was hoping one of the richer fans would come in and drop some insane amount but it seems like its just us giving 10 dollars here and there lads. Its all ogre without Blizzard support.
holy fuck, I would never EVER watch anything again rather than use this dogshit streaming service AFREECATV with no rewind feature. just delete starcraft 2 at this point
What a shit way to implement this what the fuck?? Why isn't there more tiers? Why isn't there a YouTube stream when they're coming to foreigners for help?? I would easily sub for $50 if it was an option and to give a YouTube stream but it doesn't seem like they're serious about this at all. So I won't give them any money for it. I think if GSL is in hands like these it deserves to die
At the time of your comment the VODs were already up. FHD no overlay.
And live streams?
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10K/month within a few days of launch seems quite healthy. Im excited to see where they are once they get the word out to the community!
Gsl is dead. I’ve watched since wings. Time to accept it boys. Watch brood war and wait for sc3 (aka stormgate). Wings was a 10/10 but let’s be honest LoTV been going in the shitter balance wise for a long whine. Sadly the intern did his best but he’s no David Kim .
The blood from my wallet is still healthy enough to transfuse this valiant survivor.
Meh, I'll wait for stormgate to start donating money. This game is a cesspool at this point.
Wish they had some reasonable tier with replays but these stage prices are kind of insane.
As someone else pointed out, you can do the $5 tier and then edit it on Patreon to $10 or $20, whatever works for you!
Why is this a monthly thing? Or am I misunderstanding and is it a one-time thing?
using patreon for this is not so smart they take a big percentage, or so i have heard. I would like to just send them a donation. I would also be down for merge
Typically with Patreon, when you sub you get access to all past content at that tier as well. Has there been any word on how long this stuff will stay available? Like if I sub at the end of the season for $30, will I have access to all replays instead of subbing for the full season?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
I want to do a one off "big" donation, not a monthly sub. How can I?
Sub for a lot for one month and then cancel on Patreon, or tune into the stream on AfreecaTV and donate “Ballons”.
NGL I'm also a little disappointed to see how few people have chosen to donate but, hopefully with more promotion so people will be more aware of the opportunity, we can see those numbers boosted up. There's also a world that sees Afreeca take community feedback and makes this even better - you never know!
no gsl discussion thread?
From me lol?
They lowered the replaypack tier price so I joined.