A Fan Feedback Letter to the HCS Team by Vin FTW

Contents

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.

Prologue Statement of purpose, intent

Where do we stand in the world of eSports?
Social media presence
Pro player support
Community support
Twitch presence and official streams
League structures and future plans
Epilogue- Where do we go from here?

IX.

Prologue Statement of purpose, intent

Dear HCS team and whomever else it may concern,

My name is Vin, or more informally known by my internet moniker, Vin FTW, and
Im writing to you as a passionate HCS fan. Regardless of who I am, please refer to me
as a fan, first and foremost, when reading this letter. The purpose of me writing this
massive, time consuming letter is in hopes of reaching you guys, on some level,
regarding the current state of the Halo Championship Series. My intent is to kickstart
some passion amongst yourselves, the community, and whoever else may be interested
in joining our love for competitive Halo. My purpose is not to insinuate any sort of blame
or point fingers at anyone for our current state in the eSports scene. You will not feel
depressed or bitter after reading this, I promise you. My hope is that you will understand
just how passionate some of us can be, and as a result excite you, invigorate you, or
motivate you to expand and improve in any way possible or feasible.
Aside from any spiritual intent in this letter, my underlying, technical intent is to
provide you with basic statistics for where we are, where we can be, and where we can
go. Ill provide you with the ins and outs of where a passionate fan can wander within
the competitive Halo scene from day-to-day as well as where we wish we could go.
Now, as I said before, I wont be insinuating any blame upon the team. I know this is
your job and I know you know a hell-of-a-lot about the competitive Halo scene. So to be
talked to as if you dont know anything is not my intention, and I really hope you dont
get that impression here. Rather, I just want to give you all a different perspective and
offer some possible solutions or just simply provide feedback.
At the end of the day, we are all here for the same reason: Our love for Halo. It
should be a thrilling feeling to know that on my day off I am willing to write a freshmansized research paper on Halo in my free time. Your job is to provide an avenue for Halo
to thrill and excite viewers and fans. You should never take any criticism too personally
here, and just enjoy the ride so to speak. I hope you enjoy the read and at the very
least gain a new perspective on where passionate Halo fans stand today.

Cheers,
Vin FTW

I.

Where do we stand in the world of eSports?

Since the start of the HCS in season 1 of H2:A, weve seen so many new and old
eSports either die off or rise and grow. Call of Duty has seen a massive insurgence
since the widely disappointing Ghosts entry, CS:GO has blown up into a mammothsized eSport, LoL has continued its incredible, record-breaking viewership numbers,
Gears of War eSports has begun its push into the scene, and many, many others as
well, almost too many to list. So where does that leave Halo? Well, I wont go into a
detailed history, since Im certain you know all of it already, but needless to say, its not
the greatest. Heres why I think we have a rough mountain to climb.
The Xbox One, on its own, has this colossal stench around it since launch (you
know the reasons, I wont go into it). The negative stigma associated with anything other
than Playstation or PC is a tough swing to pull, especially with competitive eSports
viewers. So, already right there is enough to put our backs against a wall, which they
are. Add onto the fact that there is an undeniable and equally strong (or worse) stench
around Halo, and we have a recipe for sweaty jock-strap levels of locker-room stench
amongst us. So, how does this translate into numbers? Well, not good. In basic terms, a
$2 million tournaments qualifiers should be pulling a lot more than we are now (around
10k). Dont worry, I wont act like a games competitive tournament viewership should
exceed the actual player base, but it should definitely exceed where were at right now.
To sum it up, were simply not reaching our full potential and its a shame, because this
game can be every bit as exciting and deep as other eSports on the scene. As I said
before though, I will keep realistic expectations. I will be comparing our situation and
setup to other more popular eSports but never use it as an indication as the reason for
failure. Its simply unrealistic to expect numbers similar to CS:GO or CoD right now or in
the near feature for a lot of practical reasons.
In the end, Halo 5 is exciting to watch (even aside from its flaws, which is a tale
for a different time) and has plenty of pro streamers to watch and root for. There are
stories, rivalries, teams, and high stakes. So why do we have such low viewership
numbers? This question will be a recurring one throughout this piece and I want you to
keep it in the back of your mind as you read through this. Lets start addressing some of
the problems and how we can go about fixing and improving them.

X.

Social media presence

To say the social media presence has been lacking would be an understatement.
Now, again, please dont take it personally, I know its obviously directed at you guys but
consider this constructive criticism, not personal attacks. Anyways, I digress, lets carry
on.
Twitter is undoubtedly the best place to advertise an upcoming tournament, league,
event, rivalry, story, and whatever else HCS related you can possibly imagine. The Halo
twitter has a massive reach of nearly 700k followers. Thats great and all, but up until
recently, there were little to no HCS tweets. While, I agree, its not the best place to
bombard casual Halo fans and followers with eSport news, more needs to be done with
that handle. The HCS twitter is only at a measly (in comparison) 17k followers. Now, I
rarely, if at all (since it was started) see the official Halo twitter tweet out the official HCS
twitter handle. Post it daily, automatically (by robots, duh), as well as in the Halo
dashboard in-game (ex. Follow @HCS for official HCS news and more!). Expand its
purpose as well. Talk more about eSport drama, tweet more about stories, rivalries,
players, news, #intel, etc. If you follow eSports, theres a 90% chance you love the
drama associated with it. Stories are what make rivalries, rivalries are what make
eSports even more exciting than just watching really good people play video games.
Advertise tournaments weeks in advance (not days, not a week), use the Halo twitter as
well as the HCS twitter and tweet these events out in as many places as you can and as
often as you can. Get people hyped! On a side note, I think the HCS twitter is doing a
great job retweeting news, team formations, and other good stuff, but dont be afraid to
deep dive into the dark depths of the competitive forums to get that really good gossip
and statistics (seriously, we have so many incredible and passionate statisticians in the
community that its a borderline tragedy none of it is being used in official means). I also
want to specify that pro player streams should be tweeted out far, far more often. Use
the Halo twitter to tweet out more established pros, like Roy or Snipedown (and other
more notable, popular streamers), but utilize the HCS twitter to tweet out any and all
HCS pro streams. Its just good business to advertise the best players in the game and
have people watch them stream.
In my honest opinion, It should be someones job, alone, to just sit on Twitter,
forums, and Twitch and take note of player developments, stories, rivalries, tweet out
streams, etc. Hell, Id do that stuff for free because I love it so much. Take advantage of
the dirt, gossip, and other fun eSport associated shenanigans. Tweet that stuff out! We
love that stuff. Really, we do, and I mean it.

Basically, I just think more needs to be done in nearly every way imaginable on
social media. There are so many opportunities to get people, casual and competitive
alike, involved in the Halo eSports scene. There are genuine goldmines of content just
hanging out there for people to ingest. Dont be afraid to get out there and find it, enjoy
it, and abuse it, even if you have to hire someone to just sit on social media and handle
it themselves (yes, not very realistic, but its just how important I feel it is to eSports
scenes).

XI.

Pro player support

Pro players are what make eSports every bit as exciting as real sports for fans of
this type of competition. Its the names, stories involved with those names, and triumphs
of players that get people truly passionate and inspired. Formal, Nadeshot, KennyS,
Olofmeister, Ogre 2, and many, many more players, are what people stick around for.
For whatever reason they come to eSports scenes, they will mostly always stick around
for popular players. Whether to ridicule or root for, it doesnt matter. Getting these
names out there is vital for eSport survival and growth.
As I mentioned earlier, tweet out streams for pro players nightly, hell, even hourly.
There are always, always pro players streaming, and dont be mistaken, just because
the name isnt instantly recognizable, doesnt mean it isnt worth noting. Up and comers
make everything more exciting. Seeing Overdrive beat Team Liquid was perhaps the
most exciting thing to happen in the HCS since Halo 5 came out. It would have been
even more exciting had you guys spent time paying attention to content from dedicated
players eating up their time to play the hell out of Halo 5. Vetoed, for example, most
champions in the world, was streaming almost daily, grinding FFA, BtB, and more. He
was making great content, and should have been tweeted out several times by the HCS
twitter. More people would have known about him, making the upset even more
personal. Of course, this is just one example, and its applicable to mostly every other
situation. There are a lot of new pros that need to be known of in the scene now. There
time is now and you guys need to pay more attention to them, help them, and promote
their growth. There are far too many amazing players AND streamers (Spartan, for one
example) playing and streaming daily with criminally low numbers (not everybody is fit
to stream, but even then, there are still plenty of examples of low numbers for great
streamers).
I have sort of a crazy idea to throw out here, but I think its at least worth entertaining
on your part. Given the amount of pros streaming and the almost embarrassingly low
twitch viewership for the game, I think its in your interest to create a program of some
sorts for pro players and twitch streamers. Provide a contract for pro players interested
in streaming Halo 5 that would enable them to stream at more acceptable levels and
quality. How it would work, in a sense, would be that a player (professional level) could
sign up for your streaming program, which would provide them with high-quality, best of
the best (or close to) equipment to stream with. Excellent quality mic, web cam, capture
card, etc, while contractually obligating them to streaming for a certain amount of
reasonable hours a week. Now, youre thinking, what business is it of ours if a pro

player streams or has good equipment?. Well, its not directly your business, but the
benefits are pretty clear. More streamers streaming at a professional (in quality) level,
the more people will view. Now, it wont come instantly or right away, but it would be a
gradual increase in quality for new viewers to come in and to stay in. Its a bit farfetched, but I see it no differently than sponsors throwing thousands of dollars in
headphones, consumables, and other electronics at their sponsored teams just to
promote the product. In a sense, they would be promoting your game, as well as the
HCS. Of course, its a small scale program, not meant to provide every nobody with
expensive equipment, but only the dedicated and inspired pros (hence the requirement
to apply to the program).
Lastly, I want to touch upon one more stream related subject, and Ill make it
quick. I think there should be a dedicated home for Halo streamers, both pro and
casual. I dont care what youd call it, but make it something like HCS.gg/streams or
something, and have a page filled with stream links, going from top to bottom by
viewers. Add another tab if you so desire for casual, dedicated Halo streamers. The
main point is to provide a hub for Halo pro streamers with one automatically playing at
the top (similar to Twitch homepage). Have a featured section and feature a popular pro
one day at a time or just plaster the most popular ones for all I care. The point is, a hub
for pro streams is a brilliant way to get people watching. Its easy to understand and
incredibly easy to discover new pros and watch streams. Also, this might blow you
away, but if you open up Waypoint, the home page has no mention of the HWC or HCS.
There should be its own tab up top with teams, streams, news, events, brackets and
more.

I.

Community support

Now, Im forewarning you guys, this section will be a touchy subject. I am in no

way biased, but I just want to convey the importance of your communities,
specifically competitive communities. This is all in hopes that you guys can find it in
yourselves to promote the incredibly passionate competitive communities out there
that are starving for your attention. Now that Ive warned you, lets get to it.
Team Beyond. Yes, that place. Guys, we are dying for a bigger part in the scene.
Team Beyond is growing, pretty rapidly, especially since Halo 5s launch and it can
only benefit you guys if used right. Every community has passionate players, fans,
and toxicity is a part of that. Yes, we are passionate, yes we have people who dont
like Halo 5, but that is only one side of the coin. You shouldnt shut out an entire,
amazing group of passionate site-runners and forum-goers because of perceived
levels of toxicity. The HCS thread is the most entertaining, addicting, and emotional
forum experience Ive ever had. Pro players stop by every day, as well as coaches,
organization owners, former pros, and other notable people. Not promoting the
drama, stories, rivalries, trash talk, and information (statistics, results, leaderboards,
etc) should be condemned at this point. Put your differences aside and really utilize
this. Get more people talking! Its worth a shot grabbing people into the scene, and
keeping them, than never having them at all. Right? Not to mention, the tournaments
they run are rarely, if at all, promoted by official means. They are, in relation to our
size at the moment, moderately to big sized events with good production value. The
official Halo stream should host it, as well as tweeting it out in advance on both
handles. If youre worried about chat experiences because of perceived bias, then
dont fret, the chat is just as bad in the official Halo channel. Its an inherent evil in
the Twitch community. Dont be afraid to promote these events. Theyre a blast to
watch and the folks that run it should be rewarded for their incredible passion for
Halo. They dont get paid to do this (well, I dont really know, but thats not really the
point), they do it because they love the game and the community. Dont punish them
for whatever petty differences.
All I ask is for you to give each community the same amount of love. Were not
your red-headed step-child, use us! Its great to have multiple tournaments and
events a week (especially with the absence of a pro-league for a while). It keeps

people watching and invested, and we can help bring in and keep people interested.
Forum drama is the best drama, and until you have a taste, youll never know just
how good it can be.

XII. Twitch presence and official streams

I touched upon Twitch presence earlier, so Ill stick to the official Halo stream and
how its currently viewed by me and many others, specifically during events, and what
can be done to improve the viewing experience. I DO want to add that I think people like
Ninja, or any other popular, well experienced, well established streamers should be
utilized, or even paid, to help pro players become better streamers and more familiar
with the Twitch streaming business. Anyways, onto your stream.
First off, enough with getting casters who dont know the ins and outs of the game. I
wont call out anyone specifically, but you cant let politeness get in the way anymore.
There are far too many people casting this game, on big occasions, who dont know
carbine from pink, and instead call out stuff like top left, or upper building. Its
embarrassing. Even for me, one of the biggest HCS fans, will turn off streams after
hearing that stuff. If you want notable personalities casting or on a stream, get them to
do player interviews or similar roles. Do NOT have them play-by-play cast or do color
commentary. Walshy, Simms, and a few others are the best in the business. Get these
guys on your payroll, or whatever you have to do to get them to represent you guys at
every event you can. They are fantastic. Aside from these guys, I feel like there are a lot
of under-utilized and unnoticed Halo fans that would be great analysts for your streams.
You need to get analyst desks, as well (lets go the analysts). Keep a play-by-play
caster (Bravo and Simms for example) with an analyst (Strongside and Walshy for
example) to commentate matches, and get 2-3 other people to go to after matches to
tear apart every level of that match. We NEED a more professional appearance on
official streams. It comes off like a joke when we have people who have barely any idea
of the game trying to analyze matches and commentate them. Ultimately, I dont think
youre getting the wrong people, I just dont think theyre being used right.
Downtime. Sigh. Downtime is a major issue in nearly all eSports, but what makes it
especially bad is the videos and content being played in between matches. Now, this is
a specific case, but I think you can infer how to solve LAN stream downtime with this
feedback: Spectate more games! We have multiple matches going on at any given time
during an official qualifier. You wouldnt know that though because we watch a match
and then call it a break for 10-20 minutes, missing great matchups and good players
fighting for points. This comes with the not-knowing-enough issue, as I doubt the people
commentating or running the streams know about teams like Lets Get This Money or

Overdrive (who may or not stream, but thats beside the point). The point is, there are
enough matches going on during qualifiers to never have to play Warzone montages. IF,
in the event, there is nothing, or a break is needed, dont play the same videos over and
over, and for the love of god, dont play out-of-place ads or cheesy videos (Josh, youre
awesome, but I dont want to watch the CE unboxing video during an HCS stream).
There are dozens and dozens of great HCS/Competitive videos to play during stream.
Dont let me watch Halo 5 ads Ive seen a dozen times before the game came out
during an official stream.
A good place to start for direction is the CoD World League and CSGO Majors. They
have a dedicated group of casters (2 pairs of 2 I believe) and an analyst desk to go to
afterwards. Its great viewing and honestly I feel like Im watching ESPN. I just feel there
is plenty of great competitive content, be it streams or montages, that can be played in
the downtime, if there is any (because there are plenty of missed matches). Hell, have
players sign up to be hosted in the downtime who have an acceptable stream to watch
in between chosen matches. A lot of potential stories are going unnoticed, rivalries
being lost, and pro players being ignored due to this. This all ties into viewer perception
and production value. In this day and age, there are far too many amazing eSport
scenes with incredible production value for people new to eSports (and Halo) to waste
their time watching Halo with this stuff going on. I know its harsh to say, but lets step
that up, eh? I do want to say the progress so far has been great, I just think were only
halfway there. Your efforts dont go unnoticed but were so close to being at the top of
the game here, dont get complacent, or assume its good enough. Were, like Tashi
and Che said, the underdogs. Were small business, we need to do every possible thing
we can to grow.

XIII. League structures and future plans

Ill keep this concise, since I know Ive been vocal about league structures and future
plans before, and have gotten responses from both Che and Tashi. I just want to
reiterate that I think leagues are the future of eSports. Seasons, with divisions, weekly
matches (and subsequent rivalries), with playoffs, wildcards, and championships are the
way to go. I know you guys have plans for afterwards, but I just hope you pay attention
to whats around you and see just how right some people are doing it now (already) and
do the HCS proud. I also think big, open events with ESL (think ESL ONE events) are a
integral part of growing the scene. ESL is the future of eSports for everyone not a part of
Activision-Blizzard, and Id definitely take advantage of their incredible talent in future
endeavors (no more small-time tourney runners with horrendous quality and stream
issues).
As far as what you can do now, Id start with weekly HCS streams with popular Halo
celebrities and pros. Have guest appearances by pros, talk about weekly stories,
results, standings, team changes, etc., even just for an hour! You just need 2 passionate
people, a camera, and the Halo channel to do this. Take the audio and upload it to
iTunes, make it a weekly podcast and call it HCS Weekly. Bam, growth. Told you itd
be short and sweet.

XIV. Epilogue- Where do we go from here?

Whether or not you heed any of my advice or even read this at all, I just want to
say you have all the power in the world to make the HCS scene as good as you
want it to be. Theres no promise of player interest growth or viewer increases, but
there can be. The prospect of can should be enough to motivate you to heaven
and back. Take advantage of the privilege you guys have to work on eSports, and
especially Halo eSports. Enjoy it, because it wont last forever, and for the time
being, explore and utilize every avenue you can to make us bigger than ever. From
community forums, community member statisticians, drama, stories, streamers,
podcasts, and anything else you can possible think of, you name it, you can have it.
All I ask is you give it your all, for us. Weve had it pretty rough as a community,
regardless of whos to blame, doesnt matter, the point is, we can recover from this
with your help. If you need to hire more people, do it. Obviously, I dont know
anything about the business of it, I know you know that as well. Im just speaking
from a community perspective. You have a lot of people out there you can get to
help you. They are knowledgeable, liked, and know what it takes to entertain the
Halo community. They are, as far as youre concern, invaluable to you and I.
Dream big, HCS team, you can be your very own Riot games (not in numbers,
but in concept) if you want to be. The HCS is what you do with it, so do it big.

Thanks for your time,

Vin FTW