EPT![[image loading]](http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2259/proposedupanddownstruct.jpg)
Just something I cooked up with MS Paint because I couldn't find a bracket making site that would make the brackets like how I wanted. Losers Round 2 is done this way to avoid any possible repeat matches.
Pretty much a Best of 3 Double Elimination structure. Top 4 of the Winner's Bracket and the top 2 of the Loser's Bracket get into Code S. Now just doing this straight-up led to the need for seeds, so I thought up a way to reward people with these seeds.
Now, the tournament begins with 15 people, who are competing for 6 Code S spots. With 15 people, that leaves 1 man out if we want to go 1v1 Best of 3. So it was my opinion that it was pretty easy to know who the most deserving person of the season would be to give an automatic bye into the Winner's Round 2: the Code A Runner Up.
This is the guy who played just as many games as the winner of Code A, who gets an automatic spot into Code S. One win short in the season of getting into Code S. I thought that it was only fair to give the Runner Up the next best thing and make it so that he is still only 1 more win away from getting into Code S. If he loses that, he's still only 2 wins away just like everyone else who lost in WR2. Heck, give him the ability to choose 1 of 6 Winners R1 Groups to be Group 7, of which he'll face the winner (not including the 3rd/4th placement to avoid a possible Code A semifinal repeat match). If he thinks one of the groups is much weaker than the other one, or if, say it's TvT and he's confident against Terran and doesn't mind facing either one, let him pick that as Group 7.
Then came the problem with needing a seed for the Loser's Round 1. So I thought, hey, if you wind up in the Loser's Bracket Round 1, you need to win 3 matches in a row to get into Code S. Unless you're seeded, in which case you only need to win 2 matches in row. I thought, hey, you got into the Round of 4 in Code A, a step above the Round of 8 required to get into the Up and Down matches. How about the two who lost to the Finalists duke it out for 3rd place. The winner gets to go on for a chance to get into Code S. The loser, however, still gets rewarded for having made it into the Semifinals of Code A and bypasses Loser's Round 1 and gets into Loser's Round 2.
If you get 3rd place, and lose your match in Winner's Round 2, you still get placed into Loser's Round 2 like everyone else who loses in Winner's Round 2. But there's never any incentive to throw the 3rd/4th place match because you obviously want as many chances to get into Code S as you can get. Essentially, it rewards you for getting into the Semifinals by making sure that you at least make it into Loser's Round 2. Think of winning in the Code A Round of 8 as counting for their win in Losers Round 1.
I decided to give more favor to people who place high in Code A rather than were in Code S and got dropped down. Although I generally favor new blood, all the Code S people did that season to get into the Up and Down matches was lose 2 games in a row. The Semifinalists and Runner Up got more wins in that season than the people who made it into the Round of 8: 2 to get into the Round of 8, 3 for the Semifinalists, 4 for the Runner Up, 5 for the Code A Champion. More if they had to go through the hellish Code A qualifiers, which is commonly agreed to be one of the most difficult tournaments in the world. I think their effort and wins in Code A should be rewarded with seeds in the Up and Down matches.
So with that, that brings us to 7 Matches in WR1, 4 Matches, in WR2, 3 Matches in LR1, 4 Matches in LR2, and 2 Matches in the LR Finals, that brings our total to 20 matches. The old structure of GSL played 16 best of 3s over the course of 4 nights, 4 matches a night. I think an extra night can be afforded for the Up and Down Matches if they went with this structure.
So yeah, this is the plan. Two losses and you're knocked back into Code A. This holds true for everyone at all points in the tournament. 2 Wins no losses gets you into Code S. 2 Wins 1 loss gets you in if the loss came from Winners Round 2. 3 Wins 1 Loss gets you in if the loss comes from Winners Round 1. Unless you're seeded, which lowers those requirements.
I think this is a pretty good indication of who deserves the 6 code S spots. Anyone think this would be a good structure for the GSL? Should I suggest this to them and put this on the GOMTV forums?
