EPTEveryone playing on the NA server should be able to qualify for WCS. StarCraft has a very high skill threshold. Talent is very importan but sometimes strategy can make up for lack of talent. A massive, free, single elimination tournament for anyone below Masters League is the answer. The winner(s) receive a seed into the qualifier tournament.
Entry fees are perfectly fine and a completely understandable way of weening out casual players but steps need to be taken to work with players that don't have the resources. One thing to bare in mind, is that eSports is still in its infancy. Meaning, unless you are on a team there is nothing for you. A player may have the talent to participate in WCS but maybe not the time to raise the money or stream and start a fundraiser. These things also take up computing power, streaming can be a very expensive amenity and who has the time when they are not on a team?
If a player wants to change their sleeping patterns for a year and play with tons of lag, then more power to them. Their efforts will not be in vain, if they succeed it is highly likely that they will be picked up by a prestigious team. This will encourage players to join an American team and possibly attract more sponsors into eSports.
In a perfect world, we would have a way to only include NA residents into WCS America. I think the only fair way to include non-residents would be with a tournament in opposite time zones for seeds into the WCS America qualifiers. Not only is it fair to the many talented Korean players but also to NA residents.
Every official StarCraft match for WCS should be officiated by an official referee. There is no two ways about it. Maphacking, false player participation, stream sniping training is in order. All referees should be the final authority in match results. Also another possible method to prevent maphacking is the required use of webcams.
There is no reason why an official match should not be played on a stream or live, for that matter. One alternative could be to produce an eSport block of programming one hour in advance. This will at the very least redirect people to social media eSport outlets for those early bracket results.
Sometimes, the way to simplify something is by breaking it down. Maintaining the scale of what your original bracket is but giving the different components different dynamics to agree with a better flow for the tournament. A simple bracket can flow steadily and different channels inputted in the correct manner will not cause interruption. It requires more thought and more effort but is this not the correct time to do that?
