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First Glimpse: 2012 Battle.Net World Championship
January 26th, 2012 14:17 | StarCraft 2
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Text by TeamLiquid ESPORTS
Graphics by Meko |
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Overall StructureOverall Structure
Four Tier system with World Championships at the top
Tier 3: Five continental championships
Tier 2: 15-16 national championships
Tier 1: Grassroots national qualifiers
Each tier feeds directly into the one above it
World ChampionshipWorld Championship
32 players, doubled from last year
Held in Asia at the end of the year
Crowns official StarCraft II World Champion for 2012
Want to increase content, way more matches - heard feedback loud and clear from BlizzCon 2011
Continental ChampionshipsContinental Championships
Five regions: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, "rest of the world"
Each has its own live event, in front of a live audience
Aiming for the same kind of atmosphere and vibe as the EU invitational in Warsaw last year
Each championship will be casted in English, possible options for local languages, too
National ChampionshipsNational Championships
Crowns national champion for each country involved
Want to create local heroes for national communities
Trying to grow local markets, especially ones seen as underrepresented
15 or 16 countries currently being looked at, based off StarCraft-playing population. Aim to increase for 2013
Qualifiers for NationalsQualifiers for Nationals
Not run directly by Blizzard, rather in cooperation with existing eSports organizations
Will talk with interested parties to assign invite spots from existing events
Hoping some organizations will create new programs specifically to qualify people for the national championships
MiscellaneaMiscellanea
Same ballpark of prizes from last year's continental championships, not a step back in that area.
Will be held exclusively on Wings of Liberty regardless of possible Heart of the Swarm release
Want to expand the sport, making as many people interested. Trying to be inclusive and aspirational, with transparency.
Open to working with existing eSports organizations
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/blizzcon/battlenet2012worldchampionsq.jpg)
First, a question that will be on a lot of peoples' minds. What kind of prize money are you committing to your 2012 plan? Ilja RotelliRight now we are still debating the final figures. We need to clarify that we do not believe this program revolves around the prize pool. We believe this is an exercise in delivering high quality events that are up to Blizzard standards, and in having great competition that involves countries that are not typically involved in the general industry of eSports.
We feel that the eSports industry is taking care of the prize money side of the equation to some extent, and that our job is to focus on developing a true 'World Cup,' if you will, for StarCraft II.So the main incentive isn't the prize money, instead it would be the prestige of the Blizzard name and of competing in a tournament on such a large scale? Ilja RotelliYes.There was a very respectable prize purse at the Battle.net continental invitationals in 2011. Will the prize pools for that tier of competition be comparable at least? Ilja RotelliWe are surely going to be in that ballpark; we're not taking steps back. We just didn't want to create an impression that because we're investing way more in eSports in 2012 that the prize pool would be dramatically increased.When will the first events in this qualification process begin? Ilja RotelliRight now we are engaging in conversations with our eSports partners to finalize the details. We're hoping to be able to disclose those details soon, but right now we don't have precise dates. I can say that I would be surprised if the program wasn't underway by 2nd quarter this year.Blizzard received a lot of complaints last year during the BlizzCon 2011 StarCraft II Invitationals regarding the number of games that were being streamed, and the selection of the games that did happen to be streamed. Have you taken steps to ensure a better viewing experience for the 2012 season? Ilja RotelliAbsolutely, we heard the feedback loud and clear, and it's one of the first priorities we took up with our event team regarding the way we will be proceeding this year. I'm certain that you guys will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of content we'll be able to provide.You've decided to hold the finals in Asia this year. Any particular reason for picking that region? Ilja RotelliHonestly we think this program is going to be extremely global in nature. The five continental championships will play a major role, not to speak of the individual national championships. In terms of looking holistically at the plan, this is a true global program without a focus on a specific region. But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year. This doesn't mean we'll be holding the finals in Asia every year, as we said the program is global in philosophy and scope.At the national qualifier level, do you hope to hold some tournaments that are completely open to anyone who wants to compete? Ilja RotelliThat is precisely one of the design philosophies we originally adopted. The idea is that we want to make a more aspirational and participatory eSports environment for StarCraft. The idea that there are superstars that seem so far away, that one can't hope to become; this makes eSports very restrictive.
Blizzard has a slightly different goal from eSports companies. If you think very frankly about the business goal for Blizzard as a company, we gain when more people play the game, and a strategy that makes sense to achieve that goal is to go grassroots. We don't have plans in place yet, but in my dreams, this is the beginning, where we go as grassroots as we can for the first year. Then, in 2013, we would love to add an additional layer to the bottom of the structure, to be even more grassroots than now. This is just a philosophy, not a practical plan that we have in place, but certainly that is one of the design principles we have been using so far.In terms of delivering content – be it through streams or holding live events – have you been looking into partnerships with streaming platforms, large tournaments, or other existing eSports organizations? Ilja RotelliWe are open to conversation in both those directions right now. I can only tell you about the design principles so far. Clearly we want maximize the amount of viewership we can generate out of this program, so the general philosophy is not going to be to protect and contain the content, but rather multiply the number of platforms it gets distributed through. But in terms of tangible plans, we don't have details right now.A large number of eSports organizations popped up in 2011 and the market has become somewhat congested. With Blizzard adding a further layer of complexity to the market, do you plan to act as a regulator or take on some other similar role? Ilja RotelliNot at this time. We love what eSports organizations have been doing so far. As a matter of fact, we want to work with all these eSports organizations to execute our plan. We don't imagine we will implement all these programs and events directly, and we will be working with organizations to create these plans. We certainly hope that eSports organizations will want to focus a lot of effort on these programs we are bringing to the table, because they will have a mutually beneficial impact.
Right now, we don't have immediate plans to provide any form of regulation of the sport across different organizations. Different regional realities are delicate to "mess with" if you will, and we don't want to break something that is working well in Korea, North America, or Europe with their different organizations. Certainly we would love to facilitate conversations between the organizations, and we hope that by providing a model of how we do things, we might provide some level of standardization in the formats, quality of competition, streaming and so forth. We want to be leading by example, instead of telling people what to do.The Battle.net ladder has become relatively stagnant as a form of competition between top players. Are there plans to make it play a deeper role at the regional qualifier level? Ilja RotelliWe never stopped considering the ladder as we built this program, and certainly we brought that conversation up. But for the time being, I don't have anything to offer immediately about how we are going to be able to use the ladder for competition purposes.Your competitors, Riot and Valve, took an approach to eSports that involved injecting a considerable amount of prize money. How do you think your philosophies differ? Ilja RotelliWell, what I would like to say is that there is one approach to eSports that relies a lot on what I would call "stunts," in what you are trying to achieve is a lot of media attention while asserting yourself in the industry. And then, we are treating eSports as a sport. We have the notion of building an organic, creative plan that really is global in nature and creates an aspirational infrastructure for all the countries we are operating in. That probably is the bulk of the difference between what we're trying to do here and what other competitors might be interested in doing.
We feel that for example we might have a lot of grassroots level competition that maybe differentiates us from other opportunities out there. We are still working from the top down and putting together an infrastructure that starts with the World Championships, so it's not like we don't understand the value of making a statement. But for us, this is an 'excuse,' if you will, to go all the way down to the grassroots level, because it's just easier to build this kind of pyramid from the top down than it is from the ground up.How would the release of Heart of the Swarm in the middle of the year affect the competition? Ilja RotelliWe had that conversation and we had to decide. Obviously we don't have a release date announced yet for Heart of the Swarm, and we had to decide how eSports would behave in 2012 for StarCraft II. We felt that any form of switch whenever the date would be, from Wings of Liberty to Heart of the Swarm, would betray the nature of the sport. I can't tell a bunch of professional players because of marketing that "You know, you need to promote Heart of the Swarm, could you show up next month and switch the game you're playing?" So the entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty, regardless of when we launch Heart of the Swarm.Will the process for qualifying for the World Championships be completely void of invitations? Will everyone have to go through the same process? Ilja RotelliEverybody goes through the same process. Basically, we're trying to move away from the notion of invitationals that we used in 2011, and move into a transparent infrastructure that allows people from the outside to look in and say "Okay, if I want to go to World Championships, there's a path in front of me that allows me to qualify." It won't be Blizzard just picking people who are good for marketing purposes; it's really a sport.You are in a peculiar situation where a lot of eSports organizations are competing to be the 'best' in the world, and now you have entered the picture as well. Are you trying to compete with these organizations and become the so-called best as well? Ilja RotelliAs far as I'm concerned, I want everybody to be the best, I want every organization to be able to deliver amazing eSports experiences to our audience. Blizzard wins if everybody wins, and we're certainly not competing with eSports organizations. If anything, we're trying to find new and engaging ways to support them and make them financially viable, and make sure they have long term financial stability. This program is actually done in cooperation with all these eSports organizations. We're definitely not competing face to face.
We need this program because there are aspects of eSports that the current business model of eSports cannot naturally take care of. For example, if I were an eSports organizer my goal would be to create the best possible content, so that I can monetize it through sponsorships and advertisements. So I would just need the best players in the world regardless of where they were and I wouldn't have specific market growth needs.
Blizzard has a very different mission, so we felt that this program was needed to let eSports emerge in markets that might not be so attractive for the regular industries in eSports, but are important for the overall health of the system.
Thanks to Kennigit and Blizzard's Bob Colayco for making this feature possible. |
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| Eruaphadion Canada. January 26 2012 14:21. Posts 78 | Profile # |
| This is pretty cool news! I think this is the next step in seeing SC2 become a cultural icon across the world. |
| | "STEP ON THE GAS" |  |
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 devPLEASE Kenya. January 26 2012 14:21. Posts 604 | Profile # |
| Amazing. Hopefully a new player will emerge and wreck the scene. And I'm glad Blozzard isn't in charge of this tourney as in Blozzcon, thu did horrible in terms of map pool. With experienced leagues like GSL, Dreamhack, and IEM, the regional tournies will be great. |
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| Xayvier United States. January 26 2012 14:21. Posts 387 | Profile # |
| This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual. |
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| ffadicted Canada. January 26 2012 14:25. Posts 2628 | Profile # |
| Starcraft II World Cup.... mother of god this wll be good |
| | SooYoung-Noona! |  |
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| TimJongiL United States. January 26 2012 14:26. Posts 13 | Profile # |
I'm so bummed Blizzcon isn't going to be in Anaheim this year  The first one Blizzcon I was looking forward to attending too! Oh well, til next time! |
| | What do you do when your ahead? Get more ahead! |
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| Jisira January 26 2012 14:26. Posts 40 | Profile Blog # |
| Would be cool to see some upsets in the National Championships, really sweet idea overall as well. |
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| ChuCky.Ca Canada. January 26 2012 14:26. Posts 2473 | Profile # |
| THIS LOOKS FUCKING AMAZING |
| | Most Skilled Current esport Games Scbw>Sc2>Cs1.6>Dota2>Hon>Loopin Louie The Drinking Game>LoL |  |
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Kennigit  Canada. January 26 2012 14:27. Posts 19164 | Profile Blog # |
On January 26 2012 14:21 mrKamiya wrote:
This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual.
All i did was reply to an email. Waxangel is the true interview hero. |
| | Please don't PM me if i closed your thread. | |
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| dnld12 United States. January 26 2012 14:28. Posts 294 | Profile Blog # |
Coollllllzz.
though i am a bit worried on national champion.
Our national champiion in america: Idra (or huk depending on how u look at it)
Is in korea.
And sweden's: naniwa or sase. is in korea too?
How do those work? |
| | When life gives you Stalkers, Get blink. |  |
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| Skwid1g United States. January 26 2012 14:31. Posts 916 | Profile # |
Wait.... the entire thing is going to be played on WoL?
That seems like a terrible idea to be honest, unless they're alluding to the fact that HotS isn't coming out until late in the year or something. |
| | NaDa/Fantasy/Zero/Soulkey pls | |
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| Mairu United States. January 26 2012 14:31. Posts 217 | Profile # |
This sounds pretty cool but I'm really disappointed that the finals won't be in Blizzcon but they'll be in China. Chance of me being able to go there in person is pretty nonexistent
Hopefully the continental championship for NA will be held somewhere on the west coast |
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| nohbrows United States. January 26 2012 14:32. Posts 582 | Profile # |
While I am always quick to draw the criticism nuke and launch at Blizzard for anything they do, I gotta say that they seem to have the right mindset and direction to help grow e-sports. This looks freaking amazing and awesome.
And also, you guys (teamliquid staff) are freaking amazing and awesome for doing this interview! |
| | Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable~~ | |
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| ChuCky.Ca Canada. January 26 2012 14:34. Posts 2473 | Profile # |
On January 26 2012 14:31 Skwid1g wrote:
Wait.... the entire thing is going to be played on WoL?
That seems like a terrible idea to be honest, unless they're alluding to the fact that HotS isn't coming out until late in the year or something.
well it's pretty obvious that hots will be late in the year love that there deciding to use WOL |
| | Most Skilled Current esport Games Scbw>Sc2>Cs1.6>Dota2>Hon>Loopin Louie The Drinking Game>LoL | |
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| iliektocreep January 26 2012 14:35. Posts 5 | Profile # |
| I'm really glad that gives anybody with a dream of getting into the SC2 pro scene a fair shot! |
| | I like to creep on your base. |
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| OneWhoIsMany Canada. January 26 2012 14:38. Posts 291 | Profile # |
| Amazing, thank you BLizzard!!!! |
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| tsuxiit January 26 2012 14:38. Posts 1274 | Profile # |
| This actually looks really cool. Rest assured though that when HotS hits in like October and the finals is in Nov/December, everyone is going to hate Blizzard and the tournament will be considered a joke. |
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| looknohands119 United States. January 26 2012 14:39. Posts 527 | Profile # |
| Absolutely EPIC! The HOTS/WOL statement though scars me a bit... Will people practice just for this in WOL if the rest of the competitive world has already switched to HOTS? |
| | "The kingdom of the heavens is buried treasure. Would you sell yourself to buy the one you've found" - Jon Foreman ('Your Love Is Strong' - Spring EP) | |
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| GhandiEAGLE United States. January 26 2012 14:40. Posts 3942 | Profile Blog # |
Wow, this is so incredibly cool, I think all of the Blizzard haters just got served XD
Also ty to Waxangle (forever misspelled) for getting this interview done! Great work! |
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| mrRoflpwn United States. January 26 2012 14:40. Posts 2394 | Profile Blog # |
its sounds absolutely amazing in my head- i know it will be b/c they are working closely with local organization already in place. Blizzard championships are of the highest prestige!
EDIT: I really think even if they release HoTS this year- they wont sell tournament licenses this year just to keep everyone on the same page.Last edit: 2012-01-26 14:41:35 |
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