Gwent Challenger 3: Please give your feedback!

[ThorSerpent]

Gwent Challenger 3: Please give your feedback!

Greetings!

Gwent Challenger #3 is over, so it's high time to start collecting your feedback and use for improvement of the next one in August. Many thanks for all of you who watched, and for those who didn't - I have the links to the VODs on Twitch (matches will be uploaded to YouTube later this week):
Day 1 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/255395163
Day 2 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/255781015

Following the format of the similar thread for December Challenger, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the last one:

-Is there anything that was out of place or annoying?
-What should we avoid doing going forward?
-On the other hand - what we should implement in the future?
-What do you think about casters/analyst/host synergy?
-Do you think immersion was good?
-What are the best and worst things about this Challenger? ... and anything else you want to share!

As always - constructive criticism is very welcomed. We're aware of the most obvious issues, but it's always good to compare our impression with yours and make next GWENT Masters event better.

Thanks in advance,
Vladimir Tortsov, Esports Manager at CD Projekt RED

 

[Jesting-Jack]

Greetings Ser Manager, I hope this day is treating you well.

I'd be most appreciative if they didn't randomly flip the players' points of view during matches. It's giving me whiplash, so it does. Oh, and bring more elven lasses next time. After all, they can only improve your viewing numbers, eh? :look:

 

[LevokosM]

Well; staging, music and storyline're beautiful. Create, not fixed mulligan, Brouver combos still awful. Hope you'll bring fix in first days of May (not after the tournament).

 

[uyenthu2405]

Overall I think you've really outdone yourself this time in terms of production. There's not much to complain about in that regard.

One slight issue I think could be improved on is casting impartiality. Sometimes the casters appeared biased towards certain players, i.e. cheering for them a little bit too enthusiastically over their opponents. (Look at that last game between Freddy vs Adzikov. It's obvious to anyone watching who the casters were rooting for).

 

[Cthulhulak]

I just repost my reddit opinion

"Are first days of tournaments more exciting?

On day 1 players and audience doesnt know decks so everything is more unpredictable and fun to watch (from my perspective).

On day 2 we know all decks so players can play around certain things and surprise factor isnt a thing anymore. Thats why we see almost same decks on every tournament. Unusual decks can only surprise once and players are scared to bring that kind of decks.

Why dont allow players to change decks between days or allow them to bring 2 sets of decks for tournament so they can swap decks for day 2.

Yes this challenger was trully amazing, but i think that change might spice things up to another level.

What is your opinion guys?"

 

[Rawls]

Why dont allow players to change decks between days or allow them to bring 2 sets of decks for tournament so they can swap decks for day 2.

^ Agree with this.

I'd be most appreciative if they didn't randomly flip the players' points of view during matches.

Agree with this as well. Just pick a side for the match and stick with it ... maybe whomever goes first or something like that.

Everything else seemed really good to me.

 

[KenLBlack]

Thank you for asking us, ThorSerpent ! The fact that this question is even posed is indicative of CDPR's interest in what their fans think. It was a great two days--and yes, I watched every minute of both (I need all the help with tactics I can get!)--and I think the only hiccup was the beginning technical difficulties and delay in the start. Frankly, I could do without the host altogether since he did not seem to know much about Gwent, to begin with. But everyone else was fine....even Swim. (I'm generally not a huge, huge fan of his.) I agree with Cthulhulak , above. The first day is more exciting, but it's too late to change that now this far into the tournaments.

Finally, though the production value was clearly spectacular, I felt we had one or two songs too many. It made the viewing hours much longer than they probably needed to be. But that's a minor complaint. You folks did a great job, overall.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Greetings, Vladimir! Commendations to you and the team for the production quality of the Challengers!

As always - constructive criticism is very welcomed. We're aware of the most obvious issues, but it's always to compare our impression with yours and make next GWENT Masters event better.

Speaking primarily as a viewer -- and not merely as one of the Twitch chat moderators -- here are a few of my casual opinions regarding Day 2:

- Although the energetic background antics of the cosplayers were entertaining, and helped break up the monotony of the long matches, they occasionally felt improvised, or separate from the the tournament itself. Often the casters seemed surprised by the sketches, or uncertain how to react to them. Perhaps these scenes could be more closely choreographed to fit within the overall production and commentary?

- Related to the above: The location, music, and characters helped to enliven the event for those of us who are not especially absorbed by the cards. These theatrical episodes made for a pleasant diversion. Perhaps weaving them into the fabric of the tournament, rather than as sideshows, might increase overall quality?

- Regarding the length of Challengers in general: They tend to run long, and, depending on how the contestants play their cards, the time can be unpredictable. Perhaps you might consider methods of abbreviating the length or number of matches?

- As to the casters/analysts/hosts: Overall, they were enthusiastic, despite occasional stumbles, and seemed to play well off one another. With no offence intended, their choice of apparel did raise some questions, though, as it did not match the atmosphere of the venue, and created a marked discrepancy between them and characters such as Pavko. This last point could be grouped under 'immersion' (however, that is a highly subjective term). Maybe one or two cosplayers as casters/hosts might be an idea? (I've seen more than a few requests for Ash Cosplay in the chat.)

- Technical: A recap of who won/lost, and who is playing currently might be helpful. I've noticed several viewers arrive late, and ask if a specific contestant has already played. More frequent overviews of the tournament's progress could help to keep viewers informed.

- As for annoyances: Personally, I do not believe the Twitch chat serves much useful purpose during these tournaments. Although the RED Community Team made a noteworthy effort to answer questions, and interact with viewers in the chat, I have more than once felt this could be effort spent elsewhere, considering the volume and pace of the chat (to say nothing of what we must moderate).

 

[Riven-Twain]

One slight issue I think could be improved on is casting impartiality. Sometimes the casters appeared biased towards certain players, i.e. cheering for them a little bit too enthusiastically over their opponents. (Look at that last game between Freddy vs Adzikov. It's obvious to anyone watching who the casters were rooting for).

I noticed some of this as well, and thought it rather problematic.

 

[SoSaHer]

I had a fun time watching!

Only drawback was the lack of rng...oh scrap that. haha.

Good tournemant, great setup. Now improve the game by disabling create in ranked

Why dont allow players to change decks between days or allow them to bring 2 sets of decks for tournament so they can swap decks for day 2.
"

This is a very good suggestion and rewards the competetiors in the true gwent skill; deckbuilding and adapting

 

[STR4W]

-Nothing out of place or annoying, just that the interviews were a bit awkward for the players and Jaggerous. They sat in an awkward position and there seemed to be no pre-written questions.
-The red/blue indication seemed to confuse the actual players.
-A proper spectate mode.
-Really good talent line up.
-Yes, but reading the community tweets in a "professional" way I think is better.
-Overall really good. Good job

 

[dragoonzen]

This is just a suggestion for the youtube video, can we have markers for the start of the matches, interviews, players introductions?

 

[ArcturusOmega]

Fantastic production job overall as always, guys! Gorgeous setting, fab cosplayers (especially Mr Pavko

 

[Khreygond]

Addressing the red/blue player issue of the client is of importance. Many viewers pointed out that what happened to SuperJJ was not a bug, but an understandable missplay (due to being the red player, the colors were flipped, so the cards that were viewed by Assire and had a red background were actually in his graveyard while the cards with the blue background were actually in his opponent's). While I do not know how true this theory is (after all, it's your game and your client, you ought to know ), addressing little things like that (or even better, Assire's options and the way they appear, an issue that has been noticed by multiple users in the forums anyway. While you can tell which card is in which graveyard normally, it would be just plain better to have a better window, and the graveyards separated, maybe with a "your graveyard" "opponent's graveyard" header in between), will lead to a more streamlined viewing and participating experience so 2 birds in 1 stone.

Similarly, the other major issue is the flipping of screens often to show you things from the red player's perspective which is very annoying and has been pointed out before. Please address that.

Other than that, I couldn't help but notice mr. Cox's genuine attempts to host the tournament, but with a lack of Gwent experience, he ended up seeming a bit out of place. Compare how he did to Marisha Ray in the previous challenger, who also handled interviews with players and asked things about how they played, and the difference is a bit obvious. He said things like "man that was INTENSE" or variations of that over and over again, even in the last match when TailBot had almost achieved a double score over Freddy and it became obvious Freddy cannot possibly catch up as soon as 5 - 6 cards before they played their entire hand.

Casters were a bit partial, I will agree too. They often don't notice some obvious plays and tactics players can follow, due to excitement or just focusing too much on what they are saying but that's understandable and not really a problem Though I have to say I am often annoyed by mr. Mogwai's screaming and often his interrupting of his casting partner mid-sentence.

The rest of the suggestions are mostly about improving the game, which ought to improve the Tournaments as well, like the removal of Create cards and such.

This is only the things that I personally think could use some improvement. There was still some fantastic job done in the production of this Tournament, just like the last Challenger The actors, the location, the "adventure" to retrieve the ring, all of that was over the top, and plain amazing I daresay CDPR's tournaments are the only ones I sit and watch, almost in their entirety for that exact reason. Don't let anyone take away the amazing work you've put into this

 

[TheonlyoneLarz]

Well Some matches where slow and super predictable. and i loved the background entertainment with the dice plays the melon chopping. and i loved the break entertainment. between matches.

and the camera was a bit odd sometimes. and make it a bit easier for viewers that joined to get in to the viewing experience easier.

 

[BILBO.BAGGINS]

One slight issue I think could be improved on is casting impartiality. Sometimes the casters appeared biased towards certain players, i.e. cheering for them a little bit too enthusiastically over their opponents. (Look at that last game between Freddy vs Adzikov. It's obvious to anyone watching who the casters were rooting for).

On the contrary, i think it's a big issue. It's supposed to be a professional tournament/setting, the clique/buddy mentality of the casters is uncalled for.
I remember back in one of the Gwent Slams, a particular caster indirectly dissing the winner, pretty much implying he won due to luck, it was appalling.

 

[Heavyrain211]

First of all, sorry for my english, it's not my native language.

-Is there anything that was out of place or annoying?

-Old Gwent cards. (Why? You can just print the better looking new ones)
-Caster's table. The decoration wasn't bad, but it could be, and it should be way better. Just put some more creative things there like this or a mini statue. (I liked the skeleton hand though)
-Pavko's personality is funny, but newcomers who doesn't know it's just a joke could think, that he is hostile.

-What should we avoid doing going forward?

-Frequent POV changes. The way it moved is irritating. Some other visual effect could be ok.
-The videos were akwardly long/drawn out. They could say the same story in half the screen time. Example 1 Example 2 Half of this is unnecessary or could be done a lot faster (and it would be still entertaining)

-On the other hand - what we should implement in the future?

-More easter eggs.
-Leeks.
-Darker themed mini videos.
-Modified/new decks on the second day.

-What do you think about casters/analyst/host synergy?

-Jesse Cox isn't the best man for this job.He looked like,he doesn't even know what's going on and his fake emotions were akward. Just look at the previous challenger. Matthew and Marisha made a way better job. I understand that now is the time to find the best host for the World Maters, but please don't hire Jesse Cox again.

-Do you think immersion was good?

Yes.

-What are the best and worst things about this Challenger? ... and anything else you want to share!

It's too long. And it's a pretty big problem. 3day is not the answer for this problem, and BO5 should stay too. However the 25min interview/analysis/player video/etc should be closer to 10min!

 

[DarkDragonAC]

-Is there anything that was out of place or annoying?
First match started awfully late, I thought players were ready to play, but we had to wait much longer. When one player started match with banned deck, when some kind of bug happened and match had to be restarted.
Jagg was probably stressed and she did good job overall, but her pause after. every. single. word. was. annoying. as. hell. I hope she will overcome this problem in the future.
Chinease translation was way off.

-What should we avoid doing going forward?
Hiring bad translators, technical difficulties...

-On the other hand - what we should implement in the future?
First day was so much better because deck were a suprise for the players, which in some cases we did see unique deck, something fresh. The day 2 was too much predictable, so I guess, like somebody else stated, it would be so much better if players were to bring 2 sets deck for 2 days.

-What do you think about casters/analyst/host synergy?
It was ok most of the time, but sometimes they were saying one thing and the other was on the screen.

-Do you think immersion was good?
If you are asking about location it was best one yet, cosplays were sometimes great, sometimes okey...ish, sometimes actions of cosplayers on the screen were cringeworthy.

-What are the best and worst things about this Challenger? ... and anything else you want to share!
Best things: location being on point, that we were able to see both hands in real time (was something like implemented that last time?), rewards (why not premium silver like one of the commentators said? I have all of them in normal versions .) were distributed really fast and with info in game itself!, commentary was good.

Worst: technical difficulties

Extra: This whole bard story was... unnecessary in my opinion, I didn't really care about fate of the heroes and acting (ofc) was poor, those reasources could have been better spent.
This Jess guy was ok, but I prefered Burza as he seemd better suited for the job.
Suits casters/analyst/host were great (well, maybe Swim's shorts were wird).
This key art with Iorweth was so pretty, maybe consider making it into a card in the future .

 

[SrdjanB]

-Is there anything that was out of place or annoying?
-What should we avoid doing going forward?
-On the other hand - what we should implement in the future?
-What do you think about casters/analyst/host synergy?
-Do you think immersion was good?
-What are the best and worst things about this Challenger?

I will just offer some thoughts from top of my head

- Highly subjective thing to say would be constant recaps of the format and rules, but I understand it may be necessary for the new viewers.

- Avoid spending too much so something will be left for game development I am half serious but I trust you guys on this.

- You should most definitely invite the press, giving access to game journalist of different ranks and from different regions will do wonders for the game exposure.
*Perhaps even implement an audience, not saying public but curated audience of fans is nice gesture for everyone to feel involved.

- For one I think you should drop the host thing, at least avoid calling (and paying relatively large sums of money) geek celebrities that have no organic ties to Gwent community, people would much rather see faces from the community, several of which you already employ or cooperate with.
*Specifically related to this Challenger , Jaggerous could have been host, given the role she played as interviewer, possibly with someone else.
*As for the dedicated analyst position, the way it is done now is a bit off to me, while I have no concrete way to suggest improvement, Swim is of course one of the most knowledgeable players so he should remain in some commentary role. As casters are also great players there could be some overlap of positions to avoid forced two minute segments of dedicated analysis
*MegaMogwai / McBeard duo has far better synergy than ImpetiousPanda / Merchant, even though individually I wouldn't say they are better casters than the other two. Return to the format of mixing teams up, since it really added to the perspective, maybe transfer Swim in the casting team as well (he proved his skills in Wild Hunt Philly) for more versatility, so maybe casters off duty could provide analysis after the matches. In any case consider the idea that MM/McB host all finals until further notice, no offense to Panda or Merchant, I consider both of them great guys, players and casters.

- Yes it was really good, I find the setting and actors a nice addition even though it is not by any means necessary component.

- There is no worst thing that I can think off, but quality of play is certainly among the best, while of thing you can influence it is production value.

 

[OG.laloquaint]

-Is there anything that was out of place or annoying?
-What should we avoid doing going forward?
-On the other hand - what we should implement in the future?
-What do you think about casters/analyst/host synergy?
-Do you think immersion was good?
-What are the best and worst things about this Challenger? ... and anything else you want to share!

• Not really, I think thematically, you guys are doing a great job.
• Hiring inexperienced Gwent players, like the Jesse Cox guy. He just felt so out of place in my opinion. Also I think sticking to one player's perspective during a game would be better than jumping around a few times.
• Hmmm I don't know, I think everything was really great.
• I think the casters did a good job, some small awkward moments and errors but it's understandable. Jaggerous was a bit awkward but then again, anyone in her position would have probably acted the same. I do enjoy the chemistry with the casters though. Maybe that's just because I'm a fan of them.
• Oh yes, absolutely. I enjoyed the little clips that played throughout the event.
• The worst thing about the event? Well nothing, really. The event itself is great. It's a free show, I'm thankful that you guys provide this experience for us. The problems come with the game itself, if I'm being honest. I don't want to get into that. It was also fun seeing a few decks that I haven't seen before personally. Overall, I think the game is funner to watch at this tournament level. For now, at least.