On June 22 2014 15:34 eonDE wrote: Just like in traditional sporting tournaments, the host country gets to place wildcards into the main draw by virtue of them organizing the event. In this case there are more spots for NA players into pool play. Simple.
I'm not disputing their right to do so, just pointing out the consequences. The pools were extremely one sided until the open bracket players arrived. Many mid-tier/weaker players placed highly after winning one or two series against other mid tier players, and insanely good players plowed through the open bracket only to get unceremoniously thrown out in the same place as the aforementioned mid tiers
Its a tournament focused on the american scene, stuff like this exist. Its only natural. If they want to participate in MLG after 2 days of endless open bracket its their own decision. Redbull was also unfair, but if you know the rules and still sign in, there is no reason to complain (witch nobody did). But i do fell bad that great plays like Nestea, Jaedong and Bomber have such a long tournament for nothing. I think they COULD reduce the amount of games if they are not going to cast them. Or at least let them play from home.
None of you even come close. It's fucking laughable. Shellshock did the best job. I'd have watched the games but I have to go to a questioning at the police tmrw and my circadian Rythm has been fucked.
As a format to promote the NA players is fine. The problem comes when your tournament hands WCS points and is not really accessible. Meh i am too mad for bomber to think straight right now. Even worse because i got to see zero games of him.
I was in the audience for the final matches of Day 2.
The SC2 audience was tepid all day, far out-screamed by the Smash Bros audience to our left. So when we were all tired from 12+ hours of watching, and a few people started cheering at silly things, the whole audience got really into it, in part just to stay awake, and in part just because it was fun.
It was funny at first, and did kind of build a sense of audience comraderie, but I also felt it got a little distracting for the casters. It's hard to resist encouraging an audience so ready to scream, but at the same time it probably threw off their rhythym and diluted the moments of legitimate hype.
All together, I think it was better with the semi-fake hype than without, because we had a great time, and those games felt more awesome.
I felt a bit bad for Bomber though because it was a tough loss for him, and the audience and casters were goofing off having fun.
As for the pool vs open bracket format, even at the venue, it was tough to watch the open bracket games because there was no SC2 side stage, only a CoD side stage. We could crowd around and watch open bracket games along the edge of the pit, though we could only see one player's perspective at a time. I do think they should've had more tertiary casters casting open bracket matches...
That said, I think it's a bit pointless to argue that the pool players have an advantage because that's the point. This was intentionally designed as a tournament that favors foreigners (and North Americans in particular) while still featuring enough Koreans to make it feel legit.
Of course, the whole favoring North Americans vs worldwide equality (meaning mostly Koreans) debate is really complex and heated. I won't get into it, and you can feel free to argue about that, but MLG Anaheim 2014 was expressly designed to be unfair to Koreans, in favor of North Americans, so if we don't get to see our favorite Koreans casted, oh well, that wasn't the goal of this tournament. :\
P.S. At least there's no more stupid extended series rule! :D
I felt a bit bad for Bomber though because it was a tough loss for him, and the audience and casters were goofing off having fun.
That said, I think it's a bit pointless to argue that the pool players have an advantage because that's the point. This was intentionally designed as a tournament that favors foreigners (and North Americans in particular) while still featuring enough Koreans to make it feel legit.
Totally agree with you on this. I usually just watch and never really care to find out how a tournament system works, but I felt odd about a few names on the pool play and decided to find out. It's crystal clear now
Knowing that (MLG is designed for US players), it's still really odd to watch the titans butchering each other in open bracket while some players (who IMO far below these titans caliber) just sit conveniently in championship bracket's loser rounds regardless of their results. I mean, when it came down to top 18 of 200+ players, some of those names don't deserve to be there.
Then again, their country, their money, their rules
EPT
