Stream Quality
From a spectator's viewpoint the streaming quality was absolutely fine. On occasion we would see random pauses, game crashes and restarts, however I feel this is inevitable considering the size of the event. You simply cannot account for every little thing that could go wrong and I personally feel that the things that did go wrong were dealt with swiftly and appropriately by the organisers. The road towards improvement is essentially refining the spectacular setup that is already in place, progressively improving the smaller pieces of the big picture, culminating in flawless streams and production.
Commentators
The selection of broadcasters/stage hosts/commentators for this event was absolutely phenomenal, something we generally take for granted when spectating these large events. Each and every single individual that was hired by ESL to commentate CS:GO gave it their best shot and it showed. The talent line-up showed a very professional performance that didn't make the experience dry for viewers at the venue or at home. There was banter, emotions, analysis, all packed in a neat parcel. All of the usual faces were present: Anders Blume, Auguste ''Semmler'' Massonnat, Jason ''moses'' O'Toole, Henry ''HenryG'' Greer, Lauren ''Pansy'' Scott, Alex ''Machine'' Richardson, Matthew ''Sadokist'' Trivett, Janko ''YNk'' Paunovic, OJ Borg and William ''Chobra'' Cho.
The only strange part of the line-up for me personally was the fact that OJ Borg seemingly appeared infrequently and his position of stage host was taken by William 'chobra' Cho. Whilst this was not a negative substitute, I felt that OJ Borg was more of a fit in terms of his style of hosting. Chobra took a more mainstream approach to hosting, whilst OJ has a more authentic, raw way of presenting on stage. Other than the aforementioned I felt the casting was incredible and I am sincerely looking forward to future performances by these talented individuals.
The Schedule
The scheduling for the event was rather challenging as four eSports titles were presented at the event. Initially there was an issue whereby the CS:GO event was spread over four days, instead of the initial five. This was unexpected for individuals that bought tickets and planned their journey to Katowice, Poland around that fact. While this was indeed rather unorthodox, people seemed to put it past them quite shortly after the announcement.
The group stages were played in the player area of the venue, where there was no access for press or spectators, which essentially meant that two days of action were completely closed off. This may be perceived as a positive decision, as players were given privacy and seclusion from pesky press or overly emotional fans, however this was an international event and people set their minds on seeing some CS:GO action. Rather strange but it didn't really matter in the end, people were too hyped for the main event or simply watched the stream of the group stage.
Upon conclusion of the group stage we saw the playoffs. This is where a few problems emerged. The first game of the day started at 12:30 CET. Both quarter finals and semi-finals, a total of four best-of-three matches, were scheduled to take place on the 5th of March. In an ideal situation the matches would have been rather swift, with a clear favourite emerging and the day ending about 20:00-22:00-ish. In reality we saw lengthy matches where, astonishingly, the semi-final between Astralis and Fnatic only started at 23:30. This was a concern. The crowd slowly started leaving due to the fact that it was getting late, players and casters started getting tired as well. Imagine playing for a spot in the grand finals of one of the largest events this year whilst your body is slowly shutting down getting ready to sleep. You might say that the players were fully aware that this was a possibility and in case they were sleepy energy drinks were available on-demand, however they shouldn't be subject to such treatment, simply because the organisers were trying to fit in as many matches as they possibly could into a single day. This was unusual and I'm sure that ESL will address this in future tournaments that they host.
The Food
We never expected a three-star Michelin restaurant to be available at the venue, however something that wasn't a mushroom cheese baguette or a hotdog with fried onions would have been nice. A selection of pre-made salads, wraps, sandwiches, basically anything that was freshly prepared would have been absolutely amazing. Instead all that was available were hotdogs, mushroom cheese baguettes, lukewarm potato dumplings and other variations of fast-food. The only real thing to do in that situation was to venture outside of Spodek to find a place to eat some freshly prepared semi-healthy food. There was a Pizza Hut about 6 minutes' walk from the main entrance, however even that was packed to the rim, forcing people to venture further into Katowice in search of a meal. Whilst this allowed for a leisurely walk through the centre of the city, it was also rather frustrating as it meant visitors would miss parts of the very matches they flew into the country for. Providing healthy meals on-site would be something to add to improvements list.
The Venue
Amazing. This is the only word that would describe what we witnessed. A colossal arena, filled to the brim with fans cheering on the teams they love so passionately. There are very few words that could accurately describe the feeling when you hear ''Vir-tus-Pro'' or ''O-lof'' chanted by literally thousands of people. The lighting on-stage was incredible, with such well-orchestrated flashes during nail-biting moments and even chants.
StarCraft 2, League of Legends and CS:GO finals were all played in the area you see above, with an accompaniment of audio effects, lighting and the roar of the crowd. As a spectator you were literally frozen in your seat in anticipation of something amazing. Two large screens were available for people to watch the matches, even the view from way high up and back in the arena was decent. In terms of production everything was well planned and organised with only but a few insignificant hiccups that were remedied swiftly.
*This feature is a reflection of my personal opinion on the Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2016 event.
