Will SHOUTcraft America ever have a future?

This is an opinionated article and the opinions expressed in it do not reflect those of GosuGamers.net or any affiliates.

Amid all the WCS action across three continents, a certain small scale tournament with ambitious goals was born. Announced on 24 April, SHOUTcraft America was to focus on the North American StarCraft 2 scene in the hopes of spurring internal growth and development, something the region had not experienced in a long time. With renowned eSports couple TotalBiscuit and Intricacy running the show, titillation filled the air.

The idea of SHOUTcraft came in response to the fiasco that was (and still is) WCS America. Plagued by Korean exiles, the American circuit did little to develop the local scene. On the contrary, it was far from giving players in the region a chance to shine and evolve and ultimately did more harm than good. Every American representative was knocked out by the end of the round of 16, turning the entire tournament into a GSL spin-off, full of names that were either too familiar or too dull to interest viewers.

The goals of SHOUTcraft America could thus be easily justified and one could label it a successful tournament even before its start. The community and the players alike have long been looking for a real American tournament, a protest in the face of WCS America’s failures. They were thirsty for pure and untainted American competition. The promises of region-locked competition with only the best NA ladder players and a prize pool of $10,000 made it all sound splendid on paper.

In reality, things ended up a bit differently. In spite of good promotion through social media, SHOUTcraft America remained more or less in the shadows of the other ongoing tournaments. The tournament never reached the bold prediction of 50,000 concurrent viewers thrown out by djWHEAT, and according to TotalBiscuit, the highest that SCA hit was 36,300 during the opening day. While the matches themselves were enjoyable and the community and players readily applauded organizers’ initiative, the admirable pathos with which the project launched didn’t bloom into what many expected and hoped for.

The same post linked above listed the significantly higher viewership numbers for SHOUTcraft Invitational 4 but one could easily see where those came from. SCI4 had collected eight of the best known players in Europe and had compressed the entire tournament into a 2-day timeframe in a week when they didn’t have to fight with premier tournaments for viewership. With Stephano playing Grubby, it’s surprising SCI 4 didn’t go higher than 49,000.

A popular recipe for viewership numbers 
Photos: WellPlayed.org

Such was not the case with SCA. There was a multitude of reasons that prompted SCA’s lower popularity. Even if we disregard all the technical difficulties, which we shouldn’t but choose to because they were out of organizers’ control, there were still the awkward scheduling, the lack of storylines leading into the tournament and the minimal renown across the entire line-up. While the latter was the very essence of SCA, it was also its hardest hitting recoil. Harsh as it may sound, very few people will tune in at 14:00 EDT to watch players whose main achievement is being top 16 in the North American grandmaster league. With nothing to elicit strong interest or distinguish itself from every other tournament, what boasted to be different to WCS NA became basically “more of the same”.

It must be pointed out that it might not have all been SHOUTcraft’s fault. There might be another underlying reason for it missing its goals. Considering the current state of the scene as well as the past year and a half of American competition, or rather lack thereof, one must ask oneself the question of whether the region is already beyond saving. Because noble as its intention might be, SCA could very well be a doomed to fail quest if it can only draw viewers with extraordinary effort.

Skimming the development of the region throughout the years could certainly suggest so. It’s not like American StarCraft was always unpopular – earlier years’ tournaments like IPL 1, MLG Raleigh and MLG DC proved exactly the opposite – and it’s not like high level and high quality entertainment potential are lacking. It’s a case of the NA scene being choked into irrelevance over the years by the very tournaments created to promote it. Having attended 2012 MLG Summer live further confirmed my fears after seeing how little attention the US nationals drew from the local crowd. Granted, the weekend was overflowing with StarCraft content and in addition to the WCS US nationals the MLG Summer Championship, the KeSPA promotional tournament and the HotS beta hands-on were also held, but something was off still.

Vibe after winning 2012 WCS USA 
Photo: TeamLiquid

It is no surprise that SCA’s reception was much smaller than TotalBiscuit and Intricacy expected. What did come as a surprise, was Genna Bain’s tweet after the end of the tournament, stating a possible shutdown for SHOUTcraft America. Her response in the Reddit feedback thread addressed some of the issues already mentioned and further supported her decision:

“You don't think the games were that great? I can't play them for you. You don't want to watch an event unless the big names are there? Tell them to stop sharing accounts or playing so much on one ladder. Technical issues aside, the single biggest issue I'm getting constantly brought up is it shouldn't be region locked.... Well I guess we know where Blizzard got its reasoning for not locking WCS, don't we? I ran this event to try and help the NA ladder to have a bigger role in fostering foreign talent. If the top tier of NA players isn't on the ladder to compete against, what options are there for up and coming players?

The worst part of the feedback I've seen so far is honestly about the quality of the games and the players participating. With so many people claiming that the skill level of these players was sub par, how do you think that motivates these players to compete in another event like this or any other? It's no wonder Kane didn't even take his trophy with him.”

Which brings us to the title of the article: Will SHOUTcraft ever have a future and will it ever reach the ambitious goals it started with?

Reflecting back on the entire experience, we can easily pin down a few bullet points. Keeping the current form will not work. Shortening it to a weekend-long event or drawing it out into a league format – which were several of community’s suggestions – can change the viewership count but overall will, either make the tournament indistinguishable from a regular SHOUTcraft Invitational or draw out too many resources, respectively. While the former might not necessarily be all bad, it does leave the impression of more of a mini showmatch event rather that a tournament aimed at spurring competitive growth in a certain region.

Stubbornly sticking to the “top X American grand masters only” preface is also hurtful, at least for the time being. While it’s certainly in the interest of laddering players and nourishes organic competition inside the game itself, it’s an act against viewership numbers, and those are needed to maintain the symbiosis every such tournament needs. Viewers fuel the competition and vice versa: until players have forged storylines worthy of attention, and this can’t be achieved if they only compete against other players of equally minor legacy, this idea will not have a positive effect. While I do believe there’s a future for SCA where it can be build on the ladder stories alone, those days are still far away.

Similar clashes of power are at the same time American, awesome and very necessary 
Photo: TeamLiquid

What SHOUTcraft needs to undergo for the better of everyone involved is a conceptual redesign or adjustment, involving the few things from its first iteration that contributed positively. Lining up a plethora of celebrity casters is a good start, but there is a bundle of other aspects that must be considered if SCA is to evolve into a relevant tournament. Players’ storylines need to be expanded, explained and presented uniquely as to engage viewers and make them give a damn. The “ladder heroes” experience needs to be blended with the “familiar faces” component to create parallel plots and make for a comparative competition. As we approached Fnatic's Zifeng "Hellokitty" Wang to get the participants' viewpoint, the need for emphasis on personality was again brought to the forefront.

 “I think the tournament was very well ran, the players didn't really get much of their personality exposure through the smack-talk though, I think there should be like a "fun fact" area per player per match, that way it will keep viewers more entertained than just seeing a few nerds trying to fail at smack-talking.”

There are additional factors which SHOUTcraft can take advantage of in favor of its resurrection. The residency rule of WCS will likely not change this year, which means more chances for SCA to feed on community’s discontent and “punish” Blizzard’s own circuit by becoming a legitimate rival product. The quote of TotalBiscuit strongly indicates that SHOUTcraft is, in fact, already on this track.

“We beat WCS and not just by a small margin, we buried it. WCS NA could not compete with us in terms of concurrent and overall views. We were soundly exceeding their numbers by upwards of 10,000 concurrents on our good days. We were even competitive with WCS EU. I have it on good authority (and of course common sense) that SHOUTcraft generated significantly more ad revenue in its run than WCS NA has throughout the entire RO32. Add into the mix that our vods are significantly more popular than WCS, particularly when Husky posted some on his channel and you actually have a tournament that is punching way above its weight class and crushing in the numbers far more than it has any right to.”

Additionally, the pool from which SHOUTcraft can draw participants is much more dynamic than WCS will ever be, which in turn makes for a more colorful fusion of storylines. If you ask experienced content producers, which TotalBiscuit undoubtedly is, he will tell you that the more options to create something out of nothing there are, the better.

In conclusion, SHOUTcraft and every other tournament which abides by the same ideals  might need to give up on the idea that a tournament in the very basic sense of the word might help the American scene as it is today. Yes, there is a future for it but it needs to stand out conceptually and not just in terms of who plays in it. It needs to be forged into a widely recognized brand that is tangibly different from everything else.

This is an opinionated article and the opinions expressed in it do not reflect those of GosuGamers.net or any affiliates.

Thanks to Elroy "Noname" Pinto and Zifeng "Hellokitty" Wang for contributing to this article.