Newsletter: Featured Match of the Month

[Shrink]

Introducing: Featured Match of the Month!
With an attempt at furthering the Newsletter, we decided that rather than having top plays, there will be one match featured each month.

Throughout the month, players may nominate a match to be featured. I'm unaware if spectate still has its bugs. Regardless,
this match may be your own or another's, but you may only make one nomination. Within the last seven days of the month
I will put up a poll with the matches nominated. Matches must be from an official PvP match, may that be from tournaments,
events, or select competitions.

That being said, if you plan on nominating your own match, be wary to take screenshots and write up something of worth.
A boring match summary is boring. Keep that in mind.

When nominating a match the following rules apply:

• The players in the match must be notified of the nomination, just in case they do not see it in the thread.
• Include a link to the match and the players involved.
• Write a 50-200 word description that gives reason to why this nomination was made and why it deserves a vote.
• This will be included in the final draft of the Newsletter.
• You may include any other media, including media or pictures, that helps describe what kind of battle was going on in the match.
• Anything that truly animates that craziness/awesomeness of the nomination is welcome.

I strongly recommend nominating a match of another player, but do as you may.
I'm excited to see where this goes.

Spoiler for Inspiration:

You may see the most recent in the August 2013 Newsletter. Zso_Zso made a submission including his entire match, spurring on this idea.

Spoiler for Newsletter Top Plays:

Introducing: EtG Top Plays!

This is now outdated.

In upcoming editions of the Newsletter, there will be featured PvP top plays for the month.
Despite this late introduction of this new part of the article, I believe we can have a strong outcome for August.
Hopefully, this makes the Newsletter a bit more "interactive."

Spoiler for silly inspiration:

PM your entries to both Plastica and myself titled "Top Play Entry."

Entries may either be videos or screenshots w/ descriptions.

Rules for entry:
- It must be from a forum/formal PvP match, specifically: PvP Events, Leagues, Tournaments, etc.
- The PM must include a link to the duel/match.
- There must be approval from the opponent that this was an official duel and that is okay to enter clips/pictures with their decks.
- Only one "play" is allowed per player. Therefore, keep the videos short and to the point [unless it is a screenshot compilation].
- For ease, try your best to upload to YouTube for now.
- Commentary is welcome, but not necessary.

NOTE: If you have any problems with using screen recorders or video editing, don't worry. I will compile the videos sent in and post them to a separate channel.

Spoiler for directions to screen recorders:

CamStudio and fraps are some commonly used. Check'em out.

For now, the two of us will decide which best deserve a spot in the Newsletter.
A poll would take the fun out of seeing the clips/screenshots on the release of the article.
Have fun everyone, discover something epic, and get used to screencapping!

Spoiler for Disclaimer:

Many will enter, five(?) few will win.

[Marsu]

Considering the fact that there were only a few entries sent in for stuff that required way less work than a video already, I'd say that this is a bit risky - but that's just details.

I'm so glad that you are keeping the newsletter alive!

By the way, I feel like you should do a newsletter related AMA, or at least post in the NL suggestion & feedback once to remind people that it exists, because there's so much I (and probably quite some other people) would like to know.

Again, thanks for your work!

/e: Oh, one question related to this. Could we also send in Youtube links to longer videos, and you yourself do the cutting? :/ I know that's quite a lot to ask and if I was you, I'd probably say "no". Just asking because I suck at things like that.

[Shrink]

Considering the fact that there were only a few entries sent in for stuff that required way less work than a video already, I'd say that this is a bit risky - but that's just details.

People did pretty nice videos for Brawl, so we'll see.

I'm so glad that you are keeping the newsletter alive!

By the way, I feel like you should do a newsletter related AMA, or at least post in the NL suggestion & feedback once to remind people that it exists, because there's so much I (and probably quite some other people) would like to know.

Not a problem. May start a new one entirely, just to have a little more clarity all around.

Again, thanks for your work!

/e: Oh, one question related to this. Could we also send in Youtube links to longer videos, and you yourself do the cutting? :/ I know that's quite a lot to ask and if I was you, I'd probably say "no". Just asking because I suck at things like that.

Thanks for reminding me, I actually have no problem with editing clips. I work with Sony Vegas daily, so I was planning on compiling them regardless.

EDIT: OP updated.

[rob77dp]

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,50256.0.html

I made this little tutorial thing to help show how to record matches in Trials.  If it helps, feel free to point players to it if they want more help on using CamStudio to take videos of matches.


Also, I think this is a good idea and if players don't want to "clutter up" their PC storage with useless videos, if the match ends and nothing noteworthy for submission occurred simply "Cancel" out instead of saving in the later steps of the guide!

[Dm]

Considering the fact that there were only a few entries sent in for stuff that required way less work than a video already, I'd say that this is a bit risky - but that's just details.

People did pretty nice videos for Brawl, so we'll see.

Brawl is a competition. This is a community newsletter. Doing well in Brawl, which is a team event that will award an icon, is to be expected.

Yeah, that's all.

Nice to see this, but... Well... we'll see.

[Rutarete]

What if it was just a screenshot of an epic play rather than a video?

[RootRanger]

Screenshot + Story is both easier to make and more entertaining than video. Video won't work at all; people are not going to bother recording every match just in case there is an opportunity to make a nice play. Plus, there isn't much skill in gameplay anyways, and most of that is about consistently making the correct play rather than finding an astounding move. Gameplay in EtG is more like arithmetic problems, rather than chess moves. The best players get almost all of them right, and the average players still only miss a few.

[Shrink]

What if it was just a screenshot of an epic play rather than a video?

Screenshot + Story is both easier to make and more entertaining than video. Video won't work at all; people are not going to bother recording every match just in case there is an opportunity to make a nice play. Plus, there isn't much skill in gameplay anyways, and most of that is about consistently making the correct play rather than finding an astounding move. Gameplay in EtG is more like arithmetic problems, rather than chess moves. The best players get almost all of them right, and the average players still only miss a few.

To both, thanks for the feedback.
I think the plan was to introduce something the community would have that was a little more personally grabbing.

Maybe we could work in Top Matches of the Month instead, where the players vote on the best write-up of the gameplay, or something of the sort.

For now, I'm going to add the option of submitting a screenshot with a description of what had happened ^^

[BeefSupreme]

I would do this, except I recently recorded a match between me and someone unnamed using Cam Studio (the video was for lulz) and Cam Studio saves videos as an .avi file, which YouTube DOES NOT LIKE. At all. It said it'd take FOREVER up upload it (something like 500 minutes), so I was wondering if anyone knows how to convert .avis into more YouTube friendly files? (.flv preferred)

[Shrink]

I would do this, except I recently recorded a match between me and someone unnamed using Cam Studio (the video was for lulz) and Cam Studio saves videos as an .avi file, which YouTube DOES NOT LIKE. At all. It said it'd take FOREVER up upload it (something like 500 minutes), so I was wondering if anyone knows how to convert .avis into more YouTube friendly files? (.flv preferred)

So, there are AVI converters that you could look for online. My best bet for you would be to convert your file to an MP4 format.

Spoiler for link to converter download:

Here is one that does that.

[Shrink]

And a bump for a new OP. Everyone read it carefully.

And yay for no screen capping involved!