MLG Gears of War Player’s Coalition

Posted by K.L. on March 22, 2011 in Competitive Gaming, Gaming, Guides 19 comments

Rally Together For the Cause!

Within the last 24 hours I have been contacted by a slew of people from all directions within the MLG/GB Gears of War community that really want to be involved with the process of getting Gears of War back on the Pro Circuit. Do not get me wrong when I say this, I am all for getting the game back on the circuit, however I would like to ask those players to sort of shift the focus from “getting Gears of War 3 back on the MLG Pro Circuit” to “getting involved with the Epic Games / Gears of War community as a whole.”

This idea goes far beyond the ONE thread that we plan to utilize as the “MLG Discussion” thread (more on that in a bit). What I am asking is to hone the energy and focus that I have seen for years on the Gamebattles forums, and divert some attention directly towards the Epic community. GET INVOLVED; it is as easy as bookmarking the Epic Forums and making an effort to post once a day or week. II am no different from most of the Pro Players that hardly posted on the Epic forums, but I have made a conscious effort to be involved (I’ve bookmarked the Epic Forums). Regardless of whether or not you have played Gamebattles, went to every MLG event or were a Pro Player on the Circuit everyone has one common factor that brings them together — Gears of War.

When open feedback for the Beta begins, I would hope that each and every player that reads this blog provides their feedback to Epic; not about what “needs” to be added to make the game better for MLG, rather and simply, to improve the overall experience of the game. I am going to spend my time looking over some of the other suggestions and feedback that non-MLG (casual) Gears of War players are submitting as things they would like to see implemented into the game. Whether I agree or disagree, I plan on providing my input on as many aspects of the game as I possibly can before the game releases. If I disagree, you better believe I will handle myself with the utmost respect towards that opinion which leads me to my next point.

MLG Discussion on Epic Forums

NOTE: Please read over this section multiple times if needed! Remember MLG gamers are the minority, not the other way around.

Everyone needs to have an open mind about the opinions of casual gamers with regards to Major League Gaming. The negative stigma surrounding MLG Pro players is quite daunting and I know it can be difficult to ignore some of the negative feedback we constantly hear. I am asking you all to rise above the negativity and do either of the two things Skyllus has done in the MLG-Epic Thread:

1. Do Not Respond, instead REPORT THE USER (The moderators are watching the thread like hawks)

2. If you respond, do so in a respectful manner (See Moderator reasoning)

Example:

i think mlg ruins games, halo would be a great game if it didnt have the whole MLG FOR LIFE BRO! mentality behind it. Mlg took gow2 of their list and it needs to stay that way, gow is a game that the fans enjoy playing nonstop over long weekends dont ruin it by bringing back the players who when your matched up with yell out: “you’s aint even good man we’re mlg man your bout to get wrecked.” then their actuallyy the ones to get scrapped.

ItsPR Responded:

I would like to say im sorry if you have been matched up with those players. I would also like to say that in games just like in life you are going to have those people who just want to ruin everyone’s fun. I get trash talked in ranked for pulling host. The game chooses who pulls host i don’t ask for it.

I hope that soon stops so we can have a respectful Gears community as whole.

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“ Man, you guys are polarized about MLG. Half "heck yes" responses and half "MLG are snobby douches." ” By therealcliffyb on 22-3-2011 03:43:56

There is literally nothing that can be done for someone that will not change their mind about their views towards MLG or people that are specifically “trolling” for negativity. I want to emphasize that the greater majority of the Gears community has two distinct views, one absurdly negative and one that is semi-supportive. Focus on making the MLG-Epic thread the most informative bit of information possible for people wondering about the true nature of MLG players. Share some information about your experiences on Gamebattles, how difficult it can be to find a team, and the successes you have all experienced. I wrote something like this:

Great post, I don’t mind letting you know a bit about myself. As far as MLG goes, I was voted by the Gears Pro Players to represent them as sort of a spokesperson during my tenure as a Pro Player. At that time, Tsquared represented Halo and I represented Gears of War. The last few years I have been a pretty strong advocate, stressing to the Pro Players, to envelop the same mindset shared by a select few, including the individuals on my team and with organizations like vVv. My competitive mindset and outlook on gaming spawned from this very community (Epic) and has since blossomed into what we’re sharing with the Epic community now (Gears of War Lessons Series).

As far as general background on competitive gaming goes, I’ve been involved with that aspect of gaming for the greater part of the last decade. I actually got into competitive gaming playing Unreal Tournament 99 (PC) and Unreal on the Dreamcast, so I am a long-time Epic Games supporter as I previously mentioned. I play quite a few competitive shooters and have participated in more tournaments (across multiple games) than most of the Pro Gears of War players.

Additionally, I’ve set up my website to serve as a cultural “change in perception” on many of the stereotypes often associated with gamers as a whole. I’ve worked with quite a few major gaming companies within the industry to help move along my ambitions with that goal — most recently (and notable) is with the gaming peripheral company Razer. I decided to include a video I made last summer to explain my “vision.”

Personal stuff — Used to play college football for the University of Cincinnati, studied Digital business, currently working at Edge of Reality Game Studio. I love Family Guy, macaroni and cheese, and long walks on the beach.

One liners aren’t acceptable and they really aren’t acceptable if you do not plan on posting again!

We only need a few integral things to make Gears of War “friendlier” for competitive gameplay; both of which I mentioned in this article. We received information from MLG stating that even the Spectator mode isn’t that necessary, instead less random elements to gameplay and point number one of the linked article, “Private Match Options.”

Interaction Builds Interest

Building Interest Helps!

Some of the players that looked at the numbers I pointed out for the Halo and Call of Duty Pro Players threw them for a loop. To say that Call of Duty is a more popular game than Gears of War is a very fair assessment (it’s on multiple consoles), but to say that Gears of War MLG Players should not have more interest from their respective community is a little out of the question. I do not know how Halo or Call of Duty players interact with their communities (they probably have limited interaction), however I think by getting involved in the community we’ll see more beneficial results. There were quite a few ideas thrown around and I am all ears as to the best approach we should collectively take, but I really believe that the only way to get people on board is to show them who you are! Stop trolling, hating that people don’t like MLG, and just be a member of the Gears community! We’ve managed to do so for seven consecutive weeks with our Gears of War Lessons and Epic’s Community has really returned the love.

The ideas floating around amongst some of the MLG/Competitive players will do wonders if we can maintain an interaction with the people that play the game. It will build an interest should those ideas manifest into something bigger! Get in touch with @Guy_Blaze who is leading that movement. I have been asked to submit a course of action to kind of get the ball rolling and will begin that sometime this week — I hope people provide their ideas as well.

Realize the Final Decision IS NOT OURS

Regardless of what happens with Gears of War on the Pro Circuit, everyone needs to realize that we are not the ones that will ultimately make the decision to include features, playlists, and all the other hoopla we’ve asked to receive. Epic ultimately decides what features are implemented into the game and we have to play with their decisions regardless. We can help them by submitting bugs and suggesting tweaks after and during the Gears of War 3 Beta.

Additionally, let @MLG_Sundance and others from the MLG staff handle the Pro Circuit side of things. I have made it no secret with my skeptism of whether or not the game can actually make it as a main title on the circuit, but I am hopeful that competitive players can rally together and collectively improve our standing among Epic’s Gears of War community. I feel like the benefit of improving that relationship far outweighs whether or not the game is added to the circuit. Our main focus should be improving aspects of the game and providing Epic’s staff with as much feedback as possible.

Lastly, I want to state that I have a deeply vested interest in many of the games produced by Epic. As you might have read, my competitive gaming roots started with UT99 so I have been involved with competitive shooters for a very long time. I have watched multiple competitive/casual communities rise and fall with the popularity of each upcoming title, each and every year. The biggest factor that keep games alive aren’t how “new” they are, instead the sole factor usually rests on the communities that play the games and the developers support for those games. There is no reason that we should be bickering with other Gears of War players (casual, recreational, competitive, or w/e) about MLG — they are the people that keep the game alive.

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Contact K.L. at kendall@reflectzyn.com

http://twitter.com/ch4pp A. S.

Someone needs to give this same talk to *some* of the people on the Epic forums.

Also, live streams and other videos are a great way to get your names out there on the forums.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

I posted over there on the Epic Forums. I just hope more of the GB/MLG players read this and take action.

http://twitter.com/eNERGY_Mercs Hypa

Ill be sure to re post it,,, once again you just open peoples eyes again

Arctic bro we should chill sometime man… im always in Austin, i go over there to see my gf.. it takes me a hour to get their.. just hit me up,, my girl is gogo dancer soo we can hit the clubs and chill

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

Thanks man! Everyone’s support counts, we’ll definitely have to get a lot more people on board, but it’s possible.

We’ll have to hook up and party sometime

http://twitter.com/EpicNiki Nicholle Young

I deeply agree with what you said about getting engaged with the Epic Gaming commmunity and not just the MLG Community. When I was doing some playtesting for Ubisoft Red Storm for one of their Ghost Recon games, I was talking about how cool it would be to play in a competitive gaming arena such as MLG. Now one of the devs actually was interested in learning about how to make it fair for that sort of thing. So let that, and what CliffyB has said on his interest in competitive gaming be a lesson that they are willing to start a discussion about it but you have to meet them halfway i.e. around the areas they are most likely to talk such as the Epic Games community forum.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

We’ve made quite a bit of progress thus far, so thanks for the encouragement!

http://twitter.com/LordJerith Jerry Prochazka

I think tonight’s Loser’s Bracket will help you better understand the right course of action. There are better ways to handle this, and even though all this is a great effort, it might best to listen to the podcast and then decide on a more focused course of action. An “MLG player coalition” is just not the way to do it. vVv Gaming is here to help, so we will do our best to help Gears players better understand what they need to do. More will follow.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

So after Sundance’s information are you suggesting that the community should not engage in activity on Epic’s forum? There’s a better way to get involved with the general community?

http://twitter.com/LordJerith Jerry Prochazka

I meant exactly what I said. Of course you should engage in epic’s forums, but the “MLG player coalition” is just not the way to do it. I’ll write something up in more detail this afternoon.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

I can’t help but think you have some type of agenda to disprove or disagree with just about anything on our site.

1. The title of the article a “Coalition” is by the very nature of the definition, asking all of the that were once in disagreement to work together in one effort. Saying that a “Coalition” is not the way to do it, is counter-productive by definition. I am very plainly and very clearly, asking for GB and MLG players to focus their attention on engaging with Epic’s forums while simultaneously clearing up some misconceptions about “MLG Players.” The article itself has nothing to do with the business side of MLG — I clearly point out who should be handling those efforts in the article. The points listed:

- Work on Improving GoW3 Game
- Work on improving Epic Community’s Perception of “MLG Players”
- Interact with the community to improve interest
- Do NOT continually spam MLG threads on the Epic Forums
- Do NOT troll, flame, or cause mayhem on the Epic Forums
- Let MLG handle ALL business aspects

2. There is clearly a much more “focused” effort that a select few individuals are working on, and by all means vVv should have an interest in molding that focus. Again, that is clearly indicated throughout the article and you should be chomping at the bit to get THAT organized.

3. As I pointed out, I am all for any and all suggestions, but your continual effort to thwart my message is ridiculous. I am neither slandering MLG, Epic Forums, or vVv (as you seem to have previously insinuated). Your subliminal, “I am always right,” mentality is borderline sickening and it’s one of the reasons I have steered clear of some of what you do.

I in no way see this as a wasted effort, as each and every Gears of War player or Epic supporter should be trying to build a relationship with the developer.

Again I look forward to hearing the Podcast and what Sundance is asking to do, but if either of you are saying that the players that represent the MLG community “shouldn’t” be involved in this effort, I would respectfully have to disagree.

http://twitter.com/LordJerith Jerry Prochazka

Nope. I think you should be involved! I finally found time to write it down as succinctly as I can. If you truly want to succeed, here is some unsolicited advice: http://www.vvv-gaming.com/forum/topic/49035-to-the-mlg-gears-of-war-community/
http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

“Be Faceless. Be Heard but not Seen.”

There was a previous attempt like that already when Ballin asked the MLG players to post anonymously about different aspects of the game. There is very little difference in what you are asking besides saying, “do not represent or show that you are an MLG player.”

Even your point about the “spectating mode option,” I’ve already covered in Paragraph 3, First Sentence…

“I would hope that each and every player that reads this blog provides their feedback to Epic; not about what “needs” to be added to make the game better for MLG, rather and simply, to improve the overall experience of the game.”

Okay and this point about proclaiming you were a former MLG Pro:

“. . because no one cares. The average gamer doesn’t give a shit about what you are “pro” in anything. Get it out of your signature lines. No cares about your accomplishments. Leave your egos at home. The casual player hates to see you flaunt your accomplishments, and they have, and will continue to shoot you down and not support what we need as a community. The quality of your ideas are not better because you placed well at a LAN event!”

Actually, companies seem to care when they create products. I know SteelSeries cares that you promote their products and your community of competitive players. I would hope that the casual players that might purchase those products would care that Professionals use them. I know Razer cared when I promoted the Onza and helped build on its success. It adds validity and sustenance to the people and players of a community.

Furthermore, developers have been placing achievement points, perks and accomplishments in their games — casual gamer’s seem to love that. They have plenty of pride about a 100,000+ gamerscore, we can’t have pride about being competitive, MLG players?

That doesn’t change my stance. You seem to be trying to 1up a point that doesn’t seem valid with this article. I’m asking MLG/GB/Competitive (however you want to word it) and work to improve Gears of War 3 — not because of MLG but too improve the overall experience of the game.
Backdraft(Pibb)

You seriously Made your point very clear on what needs to be done. I’m not talking down or anything but Jared seems bitter towards something. You clearly made it clear not to hide that you’re a competitive gamer but also to improve the games overall performance not for mlg but the GAME.

Good debate but this would have to go to Smith. Since his points are backed with proof in his own paragraphs
http://reflectzyn.com K.L. Smith

Unfortunately that gentleman thinks everything is a wasted effort. While he’s stuck on that we’re still making things happen.
PiBB

Well hopefully he opens his eyes and realizes what you are actually doing. I have to say I can’t wait for the full game of gow3 to come out. Best game by far and what the community is doing is even better.

http://twitter.com/ch4pp A. S.

What Arctyc has suggested is a great course of action. He isn’t insisting that MLG players/supporters spam the Epic forums, he’s asking for people to contribute to the community and reconcile with the general Gears community of the Epic forums.

MrEternity1

I feel exactly the same way you do right now and agree with becoming more active
in the Gears of War community. This game is really why I started to become a part
of the competitive scene and it was a shame to see it go the way it did. I hope by all
means that Epic does what is right for casual and competitive gamers so we will see
a return to the Pro Circuit. But at the end of the day no matter what decision is made
it is what it is.

http://twitter.com/arCtyC K.L. Smith

Yeah regardless of what actually happens on the games release, players will have to deal with it. I just hope everyone maintains a continued effort to be a part of the community.

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