SC2SEA Writers: June 2011

Dear applicants,

Thank you for your interest in writing for SC2SEA. I have quite abit to say, some of which you may have already heard, so bear with me if I have told you this before.

(This is a long read so grab a drink/snack or something :P )

Personal satisfaction

I'm not going to kid you, article writing is NOT easy. That may not be the most encouraging thing to hear right from the start, but I think it's important that you have the right mindset before starting.

You are unpaid, you spend a lot of your time on it, and you may not even get much positive feedback, if you even get feedback at all.

If you are just doing this as a task, or a job, I guarantee you you'll quit within a week or two.

Some of you have asked me how long I take for my writeups. For my Road to Masters column you see in the Blogs section, each takes at least 3-4 hours, spread out over time (I don't write it at one shot, as I gather games over days). For the tournament recaps that you can see here or here , each takes at least 2-3 hours, not including the time that I'm spectating the game itself.

But because I absolutely love what I'm doing - from spectating to recapping to getting the screencaps to imagining the story that I'm painting unfold in the potential readers' minds - I have no problems with spending hours on them.

(Of course, if you can finish your writeups faster good for you :) )

That is why I have told many of you this - You need to enjoy what you're doing. If you enjoy what you're doing, it doesn't matter if you spend hours on it because it is something that you're doing as a hobby, for fun.

I emphasize this a lot because I am trying to build a long-lasting team that can continue to write for SC2SEA for a long time, and avoid burnout.

This is why I always start by asking 'What do you want to write?' instead of 'Can you write this...'. I hope that by assigning what you WANT to do to you, it will not just improve the quality of writeups, but also your personal enjoyment and satisfaction of completing it.

What we need - to be updated, let me know!

You CAN take on more than one, but I will try to schedule you to not be too laden by workload if you are. (e.g. rotating)

A - SC2 Scene News -
This is the priority at the moment, and is what we really need people to write up on.

A summary of global tournaments for the week, and if possible a preview of the next week's. For instance, GSL, ESL, GSTL, whateverLihaveneverheardof. Just need to visit different sites like gosugamers or something and some initial research about where to get info, and would be good if you already watch GSL on your own etc, streams, blabla.

Best if this can be done twice a week, and it's something that nirvAnA is really pushing for because we want SC2SEA to be bigger than just a forum based, tournament-centric site. We want people to come to our site to read about scene news, rather than have to go elsewhere.

Best if as many people as possible can do this, so we can sort out some sort of schedule. Very important!! Priority!!

Writers: Cute

Btw, just a sample of what this is:

Clash of the Houses – TSL
The latest installment of the CotH series went down last Monday. This time it was eight players from The SCV Lifes turn to duke it out in a bo1 round robin. The player list should be all too familiar to anyone keeping up with the GSL, with star names such as aLive, Revival, Trickster, Cliiiiiide, and Killer all competing. Strangely enough, GSL Open Season One winner, and fan favorite, Fruitdealer was nowhere to be seen.
Killer ended up taking home the 70,000 won first place prize after defeating the ever creative Trickster 2-1 in the final match. Look forward to him playing against representatives of the other houses for an elusive MLG Columbus ticket at an undecided date soon!
Final results:
1st Killer
2nd Trickster
3rd aLive

NEXT WEEK
NASL is kicking off its eighth week this Thursday. What shenanigans does TLO have in store for Fenix? Will Mr Manner Sheth be able to take down ViBe in an all American ZvZ? Can Grubby surmount all odds by defeating Morrow, and actually win a game against this season? Head over to http://www.justin.tv/naslseasonone to check out all the action.
And finally, the GSL Super Tournament will be continue this week. If you’re at all interested in competitive Starcraft 2 (and let’s face it, if you’re reading this, you probably are), you’ll definitely want to be tuning in on Wednesday the 1st of June to catch the first Ro32 matches of the GSL Super Tournament. MVP, MMA, Nestea and Bomber all on the same night? Oh my.

(written by Cute)

B - Battle reports - A brief summary of the event if possible, then probably just a full write-up of the finals BoX . Example here: http://www.sc2sea.com/blogs/showentry.php?e=44

You can even do from Semifinals if you want, but I suggest just Finals, unless you have some incredible efficiency rate.

Writers: crAzerk, Paroxysm, Zanderax, Ridiculisk

C - Interviews - Interview with certain top players, perhaps players who came out from nowhere and won a CO, jumped into GM high ranks, etc. Not something regular, just once in awhile when possible.
Writers: Deathsfang, Paroxysm, Ridiculisk

D - Columns - A regular, weekly column that can be about anything at all - SC2-related would be better of course. An example would be my Road to Masters column that you can see here

This can really be about anything - you can cover something different every week (or fortnight) or something.

The idea is to have someone to alternate with my column - this way we can keep it sustained and going for longer than before, not to mention add variety to it.

Writers: Paroxysm, crAzerk

Note - While Paroxysm has expressed interest here, I don't know if what he writes will be a good option to alternate with mine - because we're both Zergs! Not to mention his idea is extremely similar to mine, so same race same idea = repetitive. If he does kick his column off, it can just be a separate running one, but still looking for one to alternate with mine.

E - Guides - How to beat this, how to approach that, etc. An example would be my Zerg Scouting Miniguide.

I know that there are people who want to write such guides, but I generally discourage them from doing these for 2 simple reasons.

- Insufficient knowledge - While you may think your understanding of the game is decent or sufficient enough to write a guide - it may not be. There is also a matter of credibility, especially in a game like SC2 with a clear caste system of leagues. There have already been long debates over lower league players offering coaching, etc. (This is why I got PiG to put his stamp of approval on and help me vet the abovementioned guide -> GM player + SC2SEA Zerg coach = credibility, and also to correct anything I've wrote wrongly/left out.)

- GM manual - We (as in SC2SEA.com) are hoping to get more subscribers to this simply because this helps to keep the site running. Server maintenance / hosting takes money, and this is one way to keep it going. If we are going to pop up 12037 guides, who is going to subscribe to the GM manual? As part of the sc2sea team, we should support this brilliant project by nirvana and gang.

Personally, why I even wrote that guide is because it's just something I really really really love doing. I've been writing guides for just about everything I've done - back when I played DoTA I was writing guides for the community site Dotaportal (I was a moderator there too), if you google 'alanrulez dota' you may still find some remnants of them around haha.

F - Others - Any other form of written article that is not mentioned - basically something which you think people will want to read. Can be a humorous article, etc. Do suggest if you have anything.

How this will work

After you have decided what kind of articles you want to write - start by actually writing something! Do let me know what you're planning to write, so that there are no overlaps (e.g. 2 ppl wanting to cover the same event)

I'll let you know where to post your writeup, please do try to use the BBCode formatting to make it look presentable. Just click the quote button on any post in SC2SEA.com to see what code they used for what.

I will look through your articles with nirvana and see if it's 'post-able' material. Generally, it should be, and it should be posted in the Articles section of the website, and maybe plugged in on front page news of the event (e.g. xx provided a writeup of the event, so if you missed the CO, do check out his writeup here!)

After you have done your first sample piece and we think that it is acceptable, you are accepted as a trial writer - I hope that you can be proactive, meaning you approach me and tell me what you want to cover/write, and do so. I will help you guys to get published (i.e. more viewers), and along the way provide guidance and tips to improve your articles too.

After some time, if the quality of your work is good and you haven't ragequitted because it's so tiring and time consuming, you become part of the official SC2SEA writing team and probably get a colored tag/title on the site!!

Style of writing?

I have some of you asking me how you should be writing your write-ups.

The simple answer is, I have no restriction on you at all. Go free, and write what you enjoy doing best. Whether it is formalised or casual, humorous or report-like, as long as it is not some flaming-style (crazerk suxxxorrxzz and he failz and all the shzdzoidzndq 141!%!2 12$ )

SC2SEA Writers

Friday, June 24, 2011

Schedule for Weekly

Sunday, June 5, 2011

SC2 Scene weekly

Wednesday, June 1, 2011