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Invites vs Qualifiers - A “Conflict”
Blog/Article by mouz|Kaelaris
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own and do not neccessarily reflect that of Mousesports (mouz) in any way, shape or form.
A subject that has been on the mind’s of the community but I feel never really been explored or outlined to it’s fullest extent. As MLG’s schedule and the soon to occur ASUS ROG: Assembly Winter both draw near there are deviations arising despite the two tournaments shaping up to what will be fantastic events for the foreign community. For the sake of the initial sections of this article and the specific references we’re making, we’ll assume that the two tournaments do NOT conflict date-wise as that in itself brings rise to amazingly complex issues when considering the Invite-vs-Qualifier scenario. Thankfully SETT have taken the decision to delay their last 8 invites until after the MLG qualifiers so as to give them ample breathing room in secure the best players possible.
Invites can have their ups and downs to be perfectly honest. One fantastic aspect is the ability to dictate a certain degree of racial balance, depending of course on the pool of players you’re given to pick from. A good portion of the community are far more interested in matches that aren’t mirrors so by doing this you’re diminishing a little of this, but in practice not by a huge amount due to random draw for brackets etc. Invites also allow organisers the ability to pick what they favour for their tournament. Do they want to have the best of the best? or do they want to take fan favourites for that potential boost in viewer numbers from respective fan-bases?
Unfortunately though it’s not all peaches and roses on the Invite side of the fence. I can’t help but feel that Invite systems leave very little room for fantastic story-lines, unless picking up where a story left off elsewhere. For the most part, the catalyst and spark for unpredictability just isn’t there. While I understand that from a logistics and time-spend point of view it’s the easier option, the way in which Blizzard is set to organize their qualifiers for 2012 to me not only seems like the correct solution. By outsourcing to grass-route organizations, it gives the community and E-Sports in general the ability to grow and gives more opportunities to make this a real industry as well. If you’re a member of the E-Sports movement right now, but not in the upper tier, you’ll know just how difficult it can be to commit heavily without taking a financial hit. Blizzard taking these actions allows smaller, aspiring companies to not only achieve great publicity (because the qualifiers mean a lot and thus will attract high viewer counts), but also off the back of that attract sponsors.
So what is all this Qualifier mumbo-jumbo i’ve been talking about good for? First and foremost with any qualifier always comes an atmosphere of uncertainty, anyone may participate under given stipulations by the governing body in charge of course. With the uncertainty though, comes not only anxiety, but also what some would consider amazing stories. While usually rare, under-dog stories arise from time to time resulting in potentially the best tournaments of all time. Almost everyone remembers the story of young mouz.ThorZaIN, considered a one in a million shot at winning the TSL3, crushing his way through FruitDealer, MC, Kas and finally Naniwa. Very few pegged FXO.Leenock to ultimately take down MLG Providence despite displaying absolute formidable excellence throughout. Finally who would forget viOLet’s and Sound’s trials through HomeStory Cup 4? Memorable tournaments and performances such as these could have only happened via the Qualification process. At the time of these examples, there’s a very slim chance any of these players would have been invited due to their lack of exposure before-hand.
Qualifiers not only allow for riveting story-lines to emerge more easily, they also produce more content for the viewer as well as give everyone an equal chance. The story-line building itself is enough to tantalize any StarCraft fan. I can imagine a very realistic world where Qualifiers are the only method that exist when it comes to premier level events, unless we reach a point in time where the racial balance is so skewed that there isn’t a relatively even distribution, which is unlikely.
+ Show Spoiler +To point if you didn't get it already - More qualifiers! Less invites!
It’s probably worth pointing out that in reality i’m someone who is slightly biast toward ASUS ROG since i’m actually going to event, know the organizers etc. Of course though this is an issue that transcends these mere tournaments in comparison.
_____________________________________________________________________________ ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jeTee.png)
I’m sure there are more pros and cons but It’s late and i’m tired, maybe i’ll edit it tomorrow. As always you can check out more of what I do in my signature here on TL.
 
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I'm all for qualifiers to be honest. There are so many invite tournaments.
Qualifiers are giving promising players a way to shine. Another reason why i'm eager to see the GSTL right now, because there we'll get to see "new" korean players possibly doing well.
Qualifiers are also the reason why i really like the Teamliquid Starleague, although even here some players got their invite and i'm perfectly fine with that, as long as there is a good number of qualification spots.
edit: A good blog and relevant topic.
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On January 28 2012 08:49 HolydaKing wrote:
I'm all for qualifiers to be honest. There are so many invite tournaments.
Qualifiers are giving promising players a way to shine. Another reason why i'm eager to see the GSTL right now, because there we'll get to see "new" korean players possibly doing well.
Qualifiers are also the reason why i really like the Teamliquid Starleague, although even here some players got their invite and i'm perfectly fine with that, as long as there is a good number of qualification spots.
I've actually just realise I deleted a WHOLE paragraph about "more content"... -__- god dammit.
You bring up a good point about GSTL.. without that very few would have known the hype of many great players... Taeja, DRG?, Sage, MMA even.. I could go on.
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Yeah, from what i remember even DRG was pretty much only known for streaming on TL (not direclty i think? there was some guy streaming for him or something, don't remember exactly :D) and then did so damn well in the GSTL and that's how he started his way to Code S and other good results.
+ Show Spoiler +Today Crank did pretty well, i don't think i've even heard that guy before. o_O
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Excellent read, should be spotlighted.
As a smaller team manager, my hat goes off to any organization that runs qualifiers as opposed to invites. With invite tournaments, there's almost no way my players would be able to attend at their current level of notoriety, with qualifiers on the other hand my players have a much higher chance of succeeding if only because they're being allowed to play in the first place.
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Yup, rising players need avenues to prove themselves, be it in team leagues (IPL, GSL, NASTL, etc.) and tournaments. Rising stars can only play big matches against a great player through qualifier tournaments.
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With the sheer amount of people in the sc2 community, you should definitely leave it open-ended/Qualifier. Invite only serves to hinder the growth of the pro player base by limiting competition. Denying a place for the unknown rookie to rise to fame is not a good foundation to set sc2 on in the long run. Competition also allows washed up players to fall to the wayside, and not stick around due to the value of their name alone.
Unlike my beloved CS where such few top teams remain that it is a reasonable decision.
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IEM is the best, in my opinion, because it is almost 100% qualifiers. They only invite people from Korea because they can't figure out how to set up qualifiers there so as to not conflict with GSL.
Only problem with them is that when there is a South American qualifier (such as for Sao Paulo), you know that Killer is going to qualify.
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On January 28 2012 10:19 Dexington wrote:
IEM is the best, in my opinion, because it is almost 100% qualifiers. They only invite people from Korea because they can't figure out how to set up qualifiers there so as to not conflict with GSL.
Only problem with them is that when there is a South American qualifier (such as for Sao Paulo), you know that Killer is going to qualify.
I really wish IEM would reach out to the ESV Korean Weekly and hold the Korean Qualifier through them, it's such a great tournament.
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Precisely why I instituted a mini-qualifier before the beginning of each season for CEVO and their Counter-Strike professional division when I took over. Rather than listen to players, teams and fans whine over who should be where, you let the teams and their performance dictate who moves up and who moves down.
Now, even despite the positive attributes of utilizing a qualifying system, there is inherently a problem with applying such a system to Starcraft 2, because of its nature as a 1v1 game. Even among team games, providing a fair and balanced structure for qualifiers proves to be a lengthy and arduous process at the best of times. Given the breadth of the field across the globe in a 1v1 game, and the BoX scenarios that we must run through, an invite system does occasionally have its merits.
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I wanted to say more invites 'cause that's what draws the eyeballs and sponsors but....there's no way I can argue against the Thorzain argument. Watching him steamroll through the TSL3 has made me an eternal fanboy of Thorzain. I'd love to see another nerd make an enormous mark on the community.
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Open qualifiers should serve as a shining beacon of hope for players to get more deeply involved in competitive gaming. It is about accessibility, and letting people compete is the best way to grow the player base. It is feasible for one person to run a 128-player tournament in a single night. SC2 should be setting the example for the most accessible competitive play of any game.
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On January 28 2012 09:53 VirgilSC2 wrote:
Excellent read, should be spotlighted.
As a smaller team manager, my hat goes off to any organization that runs qualifiers as opposed to invites. With invite tournaments, there's almost no way my players would be able to attend at their current level of notoriety, with qualifiers on the other hand my players have a much higher chance of succeeding if only because they're being allowed to play in the first place.
I already got a spotlight this week, can't be too greedy hehe :D <3 but thank you all never-the-less, I sort of just threw this together whilst being bored last night and had it on my mind.
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I completely agree with the sentiment.
I would imagine the vast majority of aspiring players would agree, as well as many players in general who aren't in the top 50 or so who get all the invites.
However, if you look at the topic from a business perspective, I think you could say qualifiers are a long term, high risk, high return investment vs invites which would be a short term, safe and guaranteed return investment.
So depending on the event, one would be a better choice than the other.
A longer or larger tournament is able to risk more due to being able to afford a larger pool of player, increasing the probability of those great stories arising.
A smaller tournament, if for whatever reason doesn't have large qualifiers, risks not having an attractive or quality pool of players. Just look at player like Idra and Polt getting eliminated at some MLGs, Polt in particular receiving 0 air time and little recognition for his amazing run. In MLG however there were plenty other large names that made it to the top.
There are many other factors and elements to this balance, however the idea is pretty straight forward.
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On January 28 2012 10:21 MLG_Adam wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2012 10:18 marcesr wrote:
Sorry but I dont get this. Did you invite the players to the qualifier? This must be a joke.
Please look at how IEM does it, they have a very fair system. Everyone should be able to sign up for this qualifier.
There are constantly coming up so many good players since SC2 is such a new game and it is so popular, how do they get a chance if most tournaments are invite only?
Is a new up and coming player forced to win 10 online cups before he is popular enough to get a chance to qualify for MLG?
A qualification system based on popularity is really not what I expect from MLG. We agree. This is a trial/pressed for time situation, not the model for the rest of the year.
Looks like MLG agrees.
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i dont mind invites for those that actually accomplished something tangible, IE top 8 providence etc being invited into the MLG bracket, but when you start dropping off below the top tier foreigners its really anyones game and invites just become a who do we feel like inviting type deal. Unless of course for "fan favorites" as thats a bit different situation but, though im a bit biased here because tbh, ive beaten most celebrity players and would rather watch the best of the best fight it out, whether I have heard of them or not, as the quality of the games are just so much better.
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I would have loved for my ONOG tournament to be a qualifier, but for a first event the amount that can go wrong with unknowns is really terrifying. I think we will see a lot more qualifiers in the future, once the people that have invite based situations finally settle down into a groove of operations.
(I know at least ONOG will)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hCGNK.png)
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