I hope MLG gets removed from the plans of WCS next year so they can return to their previous standard and let NASL show us how to run a league.
This is basically what Intel is doing to AMD because the competition is skewed in MLG's favor. No competition, no need to max the efforts to be the best.
Edit: oh, and saying that we want an open bracket doesn't mean you need to completely ditch the invites... The previous champion and the finalist he bested should be reappearing. That is a basic story line that EVERYONE likes.
I see no problem with only having one stream or a smaller price-pool, I'm sure that we'll see enough entertaining games. But they better not show skyline/audience-pictures or other filler-content while there are games going on, like they did at some of their past events.
On June 01 2013 02:00 TeslasPigeon wrote: The event seems decent enough, I wonder who they will invite to the tournament? I think it should be the top 4 from each region using WCS standings.
They won't invite anyone. You'll see Joe Schmoes duking it out against mid-tier Koreans on foreign teams.
Someone isn't happy unless they invite all of the top Kespa players and seed the into the groups stage. Then we can watch them beat mid-teir Koreans and Joe Schmoes won't even bother showing up because its a waste of their time.
Do you actually want to watch Joe Schmoes play against Joe Schmoes or something? Because aside from your random assertion that the only alternative to ZERO INVITES is to invite EVERY KESPA player, you seem to just be arguing in favour of what will undoubtedly bring lower quality games.
I just hate invites for players to come over and make easy money. Its not really my thing. All those players play each other every day in Korea and I can watch all of that stuff with amazing production, mostly for free. I can just cue up the latest Proleague match and there they are. Why would I need them to fly over to here just to watch them crush all the NA players and then win this event? Its more interesting for me to have no idea who is going to win, rather than know its going to be one of the 4-6 players MLG invited.
On June 01 2013 00:09 PixelNite wrote: Prizepool and number of broadcasted matches seems really low. Cool to see the event having WCS points on the line
That was a given though for all majors.
On June 01 2013 01:44 sitromit wrote:
On June 01 2013 01:41 Plansix wrote: [quote] Yeah. It's almost like its fair and doesn't give anyone special treatment.
We'll see when the stream numbers roll in, what people really want to watch. Wanna bet if it'll reach the last final's numbers?
I see nothing wrong with pampering legit pro gamers. If anything it should make them want to attend your events more. Players deserve to be treated well.
I don't know if any of the top Korean players would be interested in slogging through the MLG open bracket. I don't know what MLG would need to go to get Innovation, Life and Flash to attend without offering to drop them directly into the group stage.
WCS points. With Asus back, MLG back, IEM season starting in August, HSC and so on, european players, EGTL players and a few others will start gaining a lot of WCS points until the year ends. Life for example dropped out early in GSL in the first season, if he wants to reach the top 16 at the end of the year, he should attend a few international events.
Only foreign teams send their players to foreign events on their own dime, Korean teams can't afford it. Another way for players on foreign teams to pad their WCS points with easier competitions, I guess.
Also, Proleague exists and a bunch of the high level Korean players may not be willing to give up so much practice time for proleague. Getting people to fly across the world to compete in an event is hard when those players have their own shit going on.
Maybe ProLeague should give out some WCS points, too.
How would you give out WCS points to a team tournament? If you base it on teams winning, random B-teamers will get underserved points, if you give it out on performance, players have to rely on good draws/coach desicions.
Also Proleague is invite-only, that alone make it impossible to give WCS points out on that.
There are ways to make it work, i.e. you could assign a certain amount of points to the winning team/playoff teams and have the team(s) decide how to distribute the points within it (so the team could have their ace get all the points, distribute it within their A-team, w/e; I'm sure the teams would use this to optimize their players' chances and not waste it on B-teamers).
Of course PL is not an open tournament, but did Blizz really say that they'll only hand points to open tournaments? That would mean the smaller Dreamhacks (Valencia, Katovice etc) or other inivte based tournaments wouldn't get any either. I'm not saying this is definitely what should be done, but it could be used to help Kespa players who lack the time due to PL get into the finals. Just throwing the idea out there
Blizzard says that 25% of the event must allow players to qualify through an open bracket(posted by MLGAdam on reddit). And I think the Proleague players are doing just fine on their own. I don't think they need WCS points just because they have a league that players SC2. If they really want them, there is always GSL.
On June 01 2013 02:00 TeslasPigeon wrote: The event seems decent enough, I wonder who they will invite to the tournament? I think it should be the top 4 from each region using WCS standings.
They won't invite anyone. You'll see Joe Schmoes duking it out against mid-tier Koreans on foreign teams.
Someone isn't happy unless they invite all of the top Kespa players and seed the into the groups stage. Then we can watch them beat mid-teir Koreans and Joe Schmoes won't even bother showing up because its a waste of their time.
Do you actually want to watch Joe Schmoes play against Joe Schmoes or something? Because aside from your random assertion that the only alternative to ZERO INVITES is to invite EVERY KESPA player, you seem to just be arguing in favour of what will undoubtedly bring lower quality games.
I just hate invites for players to come over and make easy money. Its not really my thing. All those players play each other every day in Korea and I can watch all of that stuff with amazing production, mostly for free. I can just cue up the latest Proleague match and there they are. Why would I need them to fly over to here just to watch them crush all the NA players and then win this event? Its more interesting for me to have no idea who is going to win, rather than know its going to be one of the 4-6 players MLG invited.
Because Proleague is best of 1, that's why. MLG provides a no-preparation environment for players to duke it out in a BoX format. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to see Flash versus Parting in such a format.
Nony likes the open bracket, hmmm. I wonder who will show up. Basicly, until the players and casters are set in stone, this MLG could be just as awesome as it could be fail. One Stream is the only thing that is totally ruining it all, if enough good people show up.
On June 01 2013 02:00 TeslasPigeon wrote: The event seems decent enough, I wonder who they will invite to the tournament? I think it should be the top 4 from each region using WCS standings.
They won't invite anyone. You'll see Joe Schmoes duking it out against mid-tier Koreans on foreign teams.
Someone isn't happy unless they invite all of the top Kespa players and seed the into the groups stage. Then we can watch them beat mid-teir Koreans and Joe Schmoes won't even bother showing up because its a waste of their time.
Do you actually want to watch Joe Schmoes play against Joe Schmoes or something? Because aside from your random assertion that the only alternative to ZERO INVITES is to invite EVERY KESPA player, you seem to just be arguing in favour of what will undoubtedly bring lower quality games.
I just hate invites for players to come over and make easy money. Its not really my thing. All those players play each other every day in Korea and I can watch all of that stuff with amazing production, mostly for free. I can just cue up the latest Proleague match and there they are. Why would I need them to fly over to here just to watch them crush all the NA players and then win this event? Its more interesting for me to have no idea who is going to win, rather than know its going to be one of the 4-6 players MLG invited.
Because Proleague is best of 1, that's why. MLG provides a no-preparation environment for players to duke it out in a BoX format. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to see Flash versus Parting in such a format.
People get bored of watching good games and want to watch bad ones for a change apparently. :/
Maybe thorzain is right and wcs will be the death of sc 2. I hate what the scene's become now. The WCS tourneys are underwhelming themselves as I barely watched any WCS NA and only watched the MVP games from ro8 on in WCS EU. I much prefer the scene pre wcs and how it was last year. Blizzard should have just kept the same WCS format they had last year instead of trying to unify the scene with their short sighted and rushed plans.
MLG was always getting better with each event and they along with IPL (r.i.p IPL..) were my two favourite foreign tourneys to watch. Now with this announcement, I'm very underwhelmed and am less inclined to tune in now. It's a real shame how this has turned out.
Certain feedback makes you question why you even bother.
nothing more to add i guess. looking forward to the tournament ;-)
The complaints aren't without merit though. I used to be a huge MLG fan pre wcs and before all their mistakes. Used to defend them against all the euros who would shit on MLG and scream Dreamhack, best thing ever as I always preferred MLG to euro tourneys. Now, I can't really defend or root for MLG anymore with all their WCS mistakes and now the format of anaheim released.
MLG Adam needs to realize, all the negative feedback didn't come out of thin air as a lot of people loved MLG pre wcs. He's basically using negative internet feedback as a cop out excuse for the mistakes and step back they've taken from last year. Instead of addressing the feedback and improving, he goes into emo mode.
On June 01 2013 02:00 TeslasPigeon wrote: The event seems decent enough, I wonder who they will invite to the tournament? I think it should be the top 4 from each region using WCS standings.
They won't invite anyone. You'll see Joe Schmoes duking it out against mid-tier Koreans on foreign teams.
Someone isn't happy unless they invite all of the top Kespa players and seed the into the groups stage. Then we can watch them beat mid-teir Koreans and Joe Schmoes won't even bother showing up because its a waste of their time.
Do you actually want to watch Joe Schmoes play against Joe Schmoes or something? Because aside from your random assertion that the only alternative to ZERO INVITES is to invite EVERY KESPA player, you seem to just be arguing in favour of what will undoubtedly bring lower quality games.
I just hate invites for players to come over and make easy money. Its not really my thing. All those players play each other every day in Korea and I can watch all of that stuff with amazing production, mostly for free. I can just cue up the latest Proleague match and there they are. Why would I need them to fly over to here just to watch them crush all the NA players and then win this event? Its more interesting for me to have no idea who is going to win, rather than know its going to be one of the 4-6 players MLG invited.
Because Proleague is best of 1, that's why. MLG provides a no-preparation environment for players to duke it out in a BoX format. I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to see Flash versus Parting in such a format.
Because I have the GSL to watch too and that is good enough for me. I don't need Flash and Parting flown to every event to just to see them play in that specific format. I really enjoy Dreamhack and both Flash and Parting were not there. In fact, it was the exact same format and it was awesome. I see no reason to invite every top Korean to every MLG just to drop them into the group stage and win. That will make me not watch the event because I know how it is going to turn out. You might as well have them play each other and forget the whole open bracket at that point.
On June 01 2013 00:09 PixelNite wrote: Prizepool and number of broadcasted matches seems really low. Cool to see the event having WCS points on the line
That was a given though for all majors.
On June 01 2013 01:44 sitromit wrote: [quote] We'll see when the stream numbers roll in, what people really want to watch. Wanna bet if it'll reach the last final's numbers?
I see nothing wrong with pampering legit pro gamers. If anything it should make them want to attend your events more. Players deserve to be treated well.
I don't know if any of the top Korean players would be interested in slogging through the MLG open bracket. I don't know what MLG would need to go to get Innovation, Life and Flash to attend without offering to drop them directly into the group stage.
WCS points. With Asus back, MLG back, IEM season starting in August, HSC and so on, european players, EGTL players and a few others will start gaining a lot of WCS points until the year ends. Life for example dropped out early in GSL in the first season, if he wants to reach the top 16 at the end of the year, he should attend a few international events.
Only foreign teams send their players to foreign events on their own dime, Korean teams can't afford it. Another way for players on foreign teams to pad their WCS points with easier competitions, I guess.
Also, Proleague exists and a bunch of the high level Korean players may not be willing to give up so much practice time for proleague. Getting people to fly across the world to compete in an event is hard when those players have their own shit going on.
Maybe ProLeague should give out some WCS points, too.
How would you give out WCS points to a team tournament? If you base it on teams winning, random B-teamers will get underserved points, if you give it out on performance, players have to rely on good draws/coach desicions.
Also Proleague is invite-only, that alone make it impossible to give WCS points out on that.
There are ways to make it work, i.e. you could assign a certain amount of points to the winning team/playoff teams and have the team(s) decide how to distribute the points within it (so the team could have their ace get all the points, distribute it within their A-team, w/e; I'm sure the teams would use this to optimize their players' chances and not waste it on B-teamers).
Of course PL is not an open tournament, but did Blizz really say that they'll only hand points to open tournaments? That would mean the smaller Dreamhacks (Valencia, Katovice etc) or other inivte based tournaments wouldn't get any either. I'm not saying this is definitely what should be done, but it could be used to help Kespa players who lack the time due to PL get into the finals. Just throwing the idea out there
Blizzard says that 25% of the event must allow players to qualify through an open bracket(posted by MLGAdam on reddit). And I think the Proleague players are doing just fine on their own. I don't think they need WCS points just because they have a league that players SC2. If they really want them, there is always GSL.
Ah I see, didn't know there was such a requirement. Sure they have to use WCS to qualify, it would be meant to compensate the lack of additional points from Tier X events that non PL teams just have more time for. It could also potentially help to reduce the incentive for Kespa players to travel to those foreigner tournaments to try to grab the points, maybe reducing the competition for the local heroes.
But that requirement makes this idea invalid anyways, so I'll guess on the plus side we'll keep seeing PL players in the rest of the world
On June 01 2013 02:00 TeslasPigeon wrote: The event seems decent enough, I wonder who they will invite to the tournament? I think it should be the top 4 from each region using WCS standings.
They won't invite anyone. You'll see Joe Schmoes duking it out against mid-tier Koreans on foreign teams.
Someone isn't happy unless they invite all of the top Kespa players and seed the into the groups stage. Then we can watch them beat mid-teir Koreans and Joe Schmoes won't even bother showing up because its a waste of their time.
Do you actually want to watch Joe Schmoes play against Joe Schmoes or something? Because aside from your random assertion that the only alternative to ZERO INVITES is to invite EVERY KESPA player, you seem to just be arguing in favour of what will undoubtedly bring lower quality games.
I just hate invites for players to come over and make easy money. Its not really my thing. All those players play each other every day in Korea and I can watch all of that stuff with amazing production, mostly for free. I can just cue up the latest Proleague match and there they are. Why would I need them to fly over to here just to watch them crush all the NA players and then win this event? Its more interesting for me to have no idea who is going to win, rather than know its going to be one of the 4-6 players MLG invited.
You grossly overestimate the availability of televised matches for Koreans. If you're on eSF, you have either Challenger/Code A or Premier/Code S. You only have regular matches to prepare for and (hopefully, for the player) play if you play on a KeSPA team, with Proleague existing. If you get knocked out in the first round of Code S (or A), you might have two or three team league matches to play over the course of 2-3 months before the Up&Downs commence. Showmatches with top-tier koreans are scarce, and there are no online tournaments to speak of.
So no, you cannot watch all those players duke it out every day in Korea. Not even close. Unless you are one of the select few skilled enough to reliably place top 8 in GSL, you have to go overseas to have a chance at a good payday and some time in the spotlight, because there is no way everyone who's good in Korea will; there are too many players.
Take a look at this list. These are all players who have the potential to go overseas and deal serious damage at foreign tournaments, and yet they can't get into Code A because there isn't enough room for all sufficiently skilled players
Dear Best Puzzle free Genius Zest Stats Cure jjakji NAKSEO Turn Bisu herO[jOin] Seed sC Coca TY Argo
With the situation being what it is, can you really blame Koreans for doing everything in their power to go overseas to participate in foreign tournaments?
So here's what happened. Before the new WCS, we had GSL and OSL in Korea, and weekend tournaments in Europe and America. Blizzard combined GSL and OSL into WCS Korea, and cloned GSL for WCS America and EU.
So now foreign players, and Koreans on foreign teams can gain WCS points from WCS AM or EU, and additional points from all the weekend foreign tournaments that still exist and award WCS points. Koreans on Korean teams on the other hand, can't go to these foreign weekend tournaments unless their expenses are covered, which means they don't have access to all these extra WCS points.
There are no tournaments in Korea that award WCS points other than GSL, so Koreans who aren't on foreign teams get the shaft.
As others said, the prizepool seems a bit low for me also, but i am not in charge at MLG as to know what's up and why they did it like that. I am sure if they had the means they would have made it even a million. A business is a business.
The number of streams is questionable to say the least. That shouldn't have been an issue in this day and age.
That aside, i am eager to see how it will turn up.
On June 01 2013 02:41 sitromit wrote: So here's what happened. Before the new WCS, we had GSL and OSL in Korea, and weekend tournaments in Europe and America. Blizzard combined GSL and OSL into WCS Korea, and cloned GSL for WCS America and EU.
So now foreign players, and Koreans on foreign teams can gain WCS points from WCS AM or EU, and additional points from all the weekend foreign tournaments that still exist and award WCS points. Koreans on Korean teams on the other hand, can't go to these foreign weekend tournaments unless their expenses are covered, which means they don't have access to all these extra WCS points.
There are no tournaments in Korea that award WCS points other than GSL, so Koreans who aren't on foreign teams get the shaft.
But hey, at least we can watch them duke it out every day in Korea!
On June 01 2013 02:41 sitromit wrote: So here's what happened. Before the new WCS, we had GSL and OSL in Korea, and weekend tournaments in Europe and America. Blizzard combined GSL and OSL into WCS Korea, and cloned GSL for WCS America and EU.
So now foreign players, and Koreans on foreign teams can gain WCS points from WCS AM or EU, and additional points from all the weekend foreign tournaments that still exist and award WCS points. Koreans on Korean teams on the other hand, can't go to these foreign weekend tournaments unless their expenses are covered, which means they don't have access to all these extra WCS points.
There are no tournaments in Korea that award WCS points other than GSL, so Koreans who aren't on foreign teams get the shaft.
I guess someone should put together a weekend event in Korea to let those Korean players earn up those WCS points. Or maybe they should get a sponsor to pay for their trip to MLG so they can earn up those WCS points.