Well the simple solution to having a ranked live spectate mode is to have it not be live. League Of Legends has it down right with a 3-minute delayed stream. For PA you might need to increase the time but the essentials still apply. But that's off-topic. UBER PA Playtest from Jan 24 2014.
Delayed spectate is already a topic in the office and has been for a while. Great minds think alike. And even ours!
If you are going to make spectating delayed, please make it optional in lobby options. Dota 2 did it all wrong with enforcing a delayed spectating mode which is great for tournaments and league games but awful when you just want to watch your friends playing and comment on their play. Delayed spectating completely takes the fun out of watching your friends play up to the point where me and my friends don't even bother doing it anymore. I propose two options: - Delayed spectating (2-3+ minutes, full vision of everything - good for 'serious' matches like tournaments and clanwars) - Spectating friends (can only spectate a single player, only share his vision, the player has to agree to be spectated) This way you can watch your friends play, discuss with them live and in realtime while having no unfair advantage over the other team.
If at all possible, I'd vote for a delayed spectating option with a fully adjustable slider of say 1 to 10 or even 15 minutes.
It is to prevent cheating. If you were live spectating you would be able to tell someone what their opponent is doing via skype/TS/Vent etc
Duo with Zaphod over the weekend: The full duo is on twitch, I didn't export the whole session: http://www.twitch.tv/metabolical/b/498173528 Twitch is also failing to export yesterday's playtest: http://www.twitch.tv/metabolical/b/498753459