EPTOn March 30 2011 18:17 KaveX wrote:
I don't think it's about being fair to the players, but about some sort of sportive competition environment. More appropriate than WWE: "series of showmatches". For long-term success, the NASL has to make sure that the league is more than just hundreds of showmatches with a high prize-money pool. This is something many SC2 events have been lacking.
Just take the World Cyber Games or the ESL Pro Series: One is clearly set up to be like the olympics, with nationality playing an important role, having qualifiers in lots of countries and having a somewhat equal distribution where no country can get more than three slots. The other is a national league with a big substructure and its winner can definitely call himself the national champion, noone would disagree.
Can the winner of a tournament with 50 of the world's best players invited without any formalized selection process call himself world champion? Contrary to the winner of WCG and IEM, I doubt it. In future seasons, this will probably look different and I'm sure that the NASL people will work towards that direction. However, having "rigged" groups is something they definitely have to get rid of during this process. It's totally fine for an event that serves no other purpose than to provide a good entertainment value for the viewers, but if you're trying to create a huge brand like the NASL does, there are more things to take into consideration. For now, I can live with it, but just don't get used to it. After all, making everything formal and transparent serves the purpose to make the competition more legitimate.
I don't think it's about being fair to the players, but about some sort of sportive competition environment. More appropriate than WWE: "series of showmatches". For long-term success, the NASL has to make sure that the league is more than just hundreds of showmatches with a high prize-money pool. This is something many SC2 events have been lacking.
Just take the World Cyber Games or the ESL Pro Series: One is clearly set up to be like the olympics, with nationality playing an important role, having qualifiers in lots of countries and having a somewhat equal distribution where no country can get more than three slots. The other is a national league with a big substructure and its winner can definitely call himself the national champion, noone would disagree.
Can the winner of a tournament with 50 of the world's best players invited without any formalized selection process call himself world champion? Contrary to the winner of WCG and IEM, I doubt it. In future seasons, this will probably look different and I'm sure that the NASL people will work towards that direction. However, having "rigged" groups is something they definitely have to get rid of during this process. It's totally fine for an event that serves no other purpose than to provide a good entertainment value for the viewers, but if you're trying to create a huge brand like the NASL does, there are more things to take into consideration. For now, I can live with it, but just don't get used to it. After all, making everything formal and transparent serves the purpose to make the competition more legitimate.
I don't disagree at all. Several good points and it's just a matter of time until we see what role NASL fills in our SC2 enjoyment.
( Cliiiiide 
