I'm taking a journalism class about video games, and my topic for my final paper is on E-Sports in NHL 19. I would like to obtain your feedback and opinions about NHL 19 E-Sports to use as resources in my paper, so I would greatly appreciate thorough and detailed responses, but any type of response would do. Here's some things that could be addressed: Do you think the NHL 19 GWC is/was run well this year or was it run poorly? What could be improved? Looking for opinions on anything about the event, so if you dislike it being in HUT, dislike the qualifier system, like the structure, etc., please share. Do you think the individual team E-Sports events (Capitals, Lightning, Jets, Wild, etc) were run well or poorly? What modifications would you make to them for future implementations? This sort of goes along with the NHL 19 GWC event, but what are your opinions on the "scrub hunting" that was initiated by some of the top players in the first few qualifiers? Could future NHL E-Sport events eventually move towards 3v3 or 6v6 EASHL, or do you think it's limited to only 1v1? Feel free to share any pros and cons to using each game mode. These are just some of the things I want to talk about in my paper; if you have more to add beyond these questions, I would be glad to hear it! Thanks for your time.
Since no one else wants to go first, i'll take the liberty and share my thoughts. Do you think the NHL 19 GWC is/was run well this year or was it run poorly? What could be improved? Looking for opinions on anything about the event, so if you dislike it being in HUT, dislike the qualifier system, like the structure, etc., please share. I would like to think this year is well run. As someone who qualified in the 2nd available week, the qualifying process was very straight forward and the notifications and explanations of the upcoming process to advance has been thoroughly communicated. Only dislike was the relatively late in the year notification that this year would be HUT based. If I had known from the beginning of the year I would certainly have put more effort into my team earlier in the year. Do you think the individual team E-Sports events (Capitals, Lightning, Jets, Wild, etc) were run well or poorly? What modifications would you make to them for future implementations? I have no idea how these were run as I didn't participate. This sort of goes along with the NHL 19 GWC event, but what are your opinions on the "scrub hunting" that was initiated by some of the top players in the first few qualifiers? Scumbags will be in every competition, the fact that there was the "elites" in a discord was pretty obnoxious to start, but I'm indifferent on not playing others that you know/are friends with. If I match a pal in say HUT Champs, it hurts one of us no matter what. That's not fun when avoiding the game with said friend is an easy alternative so you can both go try and beat random people instead. Could future NHL E-Sport events eventually move towards 3v3 or 6v6 EASHL, or do you think it's limited to only 1v1? Feel free to share any pros and cons to using each game mode. You would like to think there would be potential for E-Sport to grow into larger player modes but it looks unlikely. NHL just doesn't have the same backing as other major team E-Sports, such as COD, LoL, etc. One main issue I see for NHL teams sponsoring events is the travel costs of offering 1 person vs a team of 4 or 6. Obviously the expense of that is much greater on the organization putting the event on. Until an investment can be properly rewarded for a team I can't see any of them really getting into anything bigger.
