OWC Observing - Katowice Edition

What are your opinions on the observing for this leg of the World Cup? /cow seems to be losing it's mind with ppl being openly hostile about the subject. A lot of comparisons are being made to APEX and rightfully so imo, but I'm looking for some constructive criticism instead of the widespread flaming that seems to be running rampant in the subreddit.

Zunba's Opinion from our God TISrobin311 (Reddit):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6rw4ai/zunba_talks_about_the_wc_observers_on_stream/

Alchemister5's response to the criticism and the subreddit's reaction (Reddit):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6rw4ai/zunba_talks_about_the_wc_observers_on_stream/dl88y7w/

Do you think observing has had a negative, positive or no effect on viewership throughout this round? We saw some good numbers but could they have been higher with all the hype surrounding the SK team and their unsuspecting victims?

Remiska's post on viewership numbers (over.gg):
https://www.over.gg/5052/katowice-owc-qualifier-viewership

Let me know what you think, and how they could do better.

What i noticed is that sometimes they keep camera on one guys perspective for very long time for example during turkey vs singapore game on lijiang tower, camera is kept on pharra while most of the action happens on the ground (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/164839108?t=06h09m25s) and they stop only after she dies,
When it comes to watching dps, they can often be very chaotic and hard to follow for viewers (specialy genji) in my opinion much better heros to observe are supports coz they usually keep their distance and have much better view over the fight

I have to agree, I think they need to find a way to give more tank and support perspectives while keeping the flow from one player to another relatively coherent.

The Agilities 5k is a good example of what you're saying:
https://clips.twitch.tv/NastyElegantDonkeyCmonBruh

I, at least, found it hard to know wtf was going on other than the fact he was killing things.

Apparently APEX has an insane team of observers and their shotcalling is even more intense than the players! But I imagine this being much more difficult to coordinate than people think. A lot of viewers seem to talk as if they could do a better job without actually proposing effective solutions to the issue.

KuroiRyuu9625 [#3]

I have to agree, I think they need to find a way to give more tank and support perspectives while keeping the flow from one player to another relatively coherent.

The Agilities 5k is a good example of what you're saying:
https://clips.twitch.tv/NastyElegantDonkeyCmonBruh

I, at least, found it hard to know wtf was going on other than the fact he was killing things.

Apparently APEX has an insane team of observers and their shotcalling is even more intense than the players! But I imagine this being much more difficult to coordinate than people think. A lot of viewers seem to talk as if they could do a better job without actually proposing effective solutions to the issue.

obvieus solution is have more observers (apex has 5 i think?) and keep stream little bit delayed so you have time to see what happens from every perspective and decide what to show to viewer, problem is you cant delay by much coz it will create disconection for live viewers between what they see on screen and how players they see in front react

Do we know how many observers OWC has? I have no clue.

KuroiRyuu9625 [#5]

Do we know how many observers OWC has? I have no clue.

no idea

Sydney viewing was the best imo. This weekend, there were a few major kills (almost all of them by Tracers) happening off cam and stuff. But honestly, with this meta, it's hard to decide whether to follow a Tracer in the backline, chances are she's just being annoying to the backline.
And I totally agree that more support observing would be uber good. Better angle on the fight. Plus I wanna see more Tobi tbh.
It wasn't their best performance, but it wasn't bad at all. I'm sure the more time they get to do this together, the better observing will get.

KuroiRyuu9625 [#5]

Do we know how many observers OWC has? I have no clue.

https://twitter.com/Alchemister5/status/889081970054975491

They were 5 in Sydney, but 2 of those are observers for ESL AU, so I'm guessing the 3 others do all 4 destinations and get a couple of people in to help once there.

Involv3r [#8]

https://twitter.com/Alchemister5/status/889081970054975491

They were 5 in Sydney, but 2 of those are observers for ESL AU, so I'm guessing the 3 others do all 4 destinations and get a couple of people in to help once there.

Then as Remiska mentions they may just need a bigger team. I'm guessing Contenders 0, OWC and Contenders 1 will all be testing grounds for OWL. I do wish their was a better way to give feedback on these events. Good Reddit and Blizz forum threads often get buried with non constructive comments so the team needs to sift through them to get to the useful ones.

Giving feedback on such a technical matter is tricky imo. I feel like a coaches/players/casters feedback thread is better than everybody just saying whatever they think, even if legitimate, because they'll provide the why when how and all.
Cause as you said, you put a thread on Reddit and it goes to !remindmes and shit quickfast.

Like I wanna see a Lucio peeling for his Zen and fragging the Tracer, but then you have his Genji pulling his sword and I wanna see Winston/Dva tanking CCs for him. Yet they have to decide what to show and as I said before, this meta moves too fast too much to give the best viewing experience at all times.

Involv3r [#10]

Giving feedback on such a technical matter is tricky imo. I feel like a coaches/players/casters feedback thread is better than everybody just saying whatever they think, even if legitimate, because they'll provide the why when how and all.
Cause as you said, you put a thread on Reddit and it goes to !remindmes and shit quickfast.

Like I wanna see a Lucio peeling for his Zen and fragging the Tracer, but then you have his Genji pulling his sword and I wanna see Winston/Dva tanking CCs for him. Yet they have to decide what to show and as I said before, this meta moves too fast too much to give the best viewing experience at all times.

I think the technical side isn't something the viewer needs to be aware or mindful of. Really the goal here would be to provide feedback on what we liked to see, what we didn't, what made the game easiest to understand and what did not. Things along those lines so that they can take it and possibly improve the experience on future iterations.

Instead of looking at the practical and technical applications of the desired changes I think feedback should focus on the experience and they can do with that what they think would replicate that or what they feel could improve the flow and understandability of the game.

Like you mentioned right now the meta is crazy fast so I think it's even more important to have a good understanding of what will best convey the ongoing engagements.