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WWI streaming reliability disappoints
It's not like we've been awake since the wee hours waiting for a big announcement or anything. And it's certainly not like there was a huge dev panel with Tom Chilton, whose every word we hung on about class changes. But as your intrepid WoW Insider staff huddles around the news room viewers to get you the latest information from the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, we're encountering the same problem as everyone else. The streaming live feed offered by Octoshape and Blizzard is kind of letting us down.I suppose some of the technical difficulties are unavoidable. I have to assume the technology is pretty complicated. But the problems range from audio and video randomly cutting out, to Octoshape's viewing slots being filled by too many users. This is a little surprising, since Octoshape had good performance for Blizzcon and even GotFrag. Just as frustrating, the Octoshape web site doesn't have any information about what was going wrong.On the other hand, since Tom Chilton stepped off stage, the stream has been a lot more reliable. They've either fixed the problems, or the number of viewers has stepped down since the WoW discussion has ended. Here's hoping the better performance lasts.
Live streams of the Worldwide Invitational available
If you're unable to attend the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, don't worry! In addition to WoW Insider's own coverage of the panels and various announcements, Blizzard has arranged a live feed for their opening ceremony, closing ceremony, and all of the tournaments and concerts in between. It looks like they'll be running two feeds at once, one at their Main Stage and one at their Tourney Stage, so there might be more going on than you can follow! In addition to having two feeds, each of them has a low quality and a high quality feed available. Have an awesome connection? Stream both stages at High! Personally, I'll have the Main Stage going at High Quality nonstop, but maybe not the Tournament Stage so much.I (and Blizzard) recommend taking a look at the live feed page before the convention begins, so you can prepare any software or plugins you may not have yet. If you tuned in for the 3v3 tournament on GotFrag awhile ago, you should be all set already. If you haven't, you'll need to pick up Octoshape and install it. Instructions and requirements can be found on the Octoshape website.
Watch MLG action on GotFrag
The best of the best will be going head to head next weekend, June 14 and 15 in Major League Gaming's $22,500 tournament. Members of the winning team will each receive a Blackbird gaming PC in addition to a $4,000 cash prize. The arena action will be live in San Diego, but for those of us who can't be in "'s Finest City," the events will be broadcast on GotFrag TV. Broadcast coverage begins at 9AM (Pacific) each day and will be hosted by Rob "voice" Simpson and Jared "vhell" Coulston. This event, inaugurating MLG's PC Circuit, promises to be action packed. Registered participants include: fnatic Frag Dominant Frag Dominant (Duelists going for Glad) MoB TurtleForce MoB TurtlePowerPandemic SK Gaming If you've never viewed any of GotFrags web-based programs, you will need to prepare your computer. Viewing the tournament will require installing GotFrag's Octoshape Plug-in which operates in the Java runtime on a PC. You can also use an external Octoshape player. Mac and Linux users are not excluded from the broadcast. It'll be almost as much fun as watching the Wings win the Stanley Cup.
