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Hello everyone !
FunKa here, bringing you some infos about our upcoming tournament with ComeBackTV, Maestros of The Game
![[image loading]](https://liquipedia.net/commons/images/2/2a/Maestro_of_the_Game_fulltext_darkmode.png)
Maestros of the Game (MOG for short) is a crowdfunded tournament hosted by ComeBackTV, the spiritual successor of O'Gaming SC2.
We've raised money starting the week of EWC and the CF ended three days ago with 41K € raised.
We're absolutely thrilled by how fast the community ended up funding the event aswell as selling out the tickets for the live venue with 250 seats sold in 4 hours !
The event will be played online at first and culminating into a live finals in Paris.
We're also incredibly happy that 100% of our invites received a resounding yes from the players.
This leaves us with an incredibly stacked tournament and we can't wait for it to start !
Here is the Liquipedia Page :
 Maestros of the Game
Format Rundown
Preliminary Stage:
8 Best-of-5 (Bo5) matches; winners earn their spot in the Group Stage.
Group Stage (GSL Format):
Opening matches are Best-of-3 (Bo3)
Winners, Losers, and Decider matches are Bo5
Top 2 in each group advance to Playoffs
Plus: two qualified players will be switched into different groups by community vote—thanks to our crowdfunding supporters!
Playoffs (Double-elimination bracket):
Upper Bracket Quarterfinals & Semifinals – Bo5
All other matches – Bo7
Grand Final – Bo7, with a potential Bo3 ReseT
Final four matches will be offline, live at the Güru in Paris.
Prize Pool
1st place: $6,600
2nd: $3,000
3rd: $2,400
4th: $1,600
5th–6th: $1,400 each
7th–8th: $800 each
9th–12th: $300 each
13th–16th: $200 each
Who’s Playing?
24 participants in all, split between those invited directly to the Group Stage and those kicking off in the Preliminary Stage.
Invited to Preliminary Stage :
Astrea
Bunny
Cham
Creator
GuMiho
Lambo
MaNa
Rogue
Ryung
SHIN
SKillous
ShoWTimE
trigger
Zoun
Spirit
HeRoMaRinE
Invited directly to Group Stage
Classic
ByuN
Reynor
herO
Clem
Serral
Maru
Solar
Upcoming Matches (Preliminary Stage)
Starting on August 30th and August 31st
ShoWTimE vs. Cham – Saturday, Aug 30 4:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
GuMiho vs. Ryung – Saturday, Aug 30 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Zoun vs. Spirit – Saturday, Aug 30 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Rogue vs. MaNa – Saturday, Aug 30 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
SHIN vs. Creator – Sunday, Aug 31 4:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Astrea vs. Lambo – Sunday, Aug 31 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Bunny vs. SKillous – Sunday, Aug 31 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
HeRoMaRinE vs. trigger – Sunday, Aug 31 7:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Where to watch it ?
The tournament will be casted in french on ComeBackTV's twitch channel and will be open to all languages, we're expecting numerous english streams aswell as german, polish and many more !
We'll be addinng the twitch channels when every community cast will be known !
Hope you are as excited as we are and see you on the 30th of August !
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Looking really interessting :D
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Northern Ireland25520 Posts
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’
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On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’
Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D
There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were :
We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule
We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions.
We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that.
I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play.
While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3
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Northern Ireland25520 Posts
On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3
That makes a lot of sense, many thanks for the clarification!
As my post count may imply, I’m aware of your prior work, I’ve been around for a while, and the French scene and various orgs there did a lot of good shit, and continue to do so by the looks of it!
Nation Wars was sick, especially as someone from a place that’s not a traditional SC2 powerhouse. The local scene really kicked into gear to try and earn the honour to represent, even if we were obviously fucked in terms of actual chances.
Alas my calendar has not aligned with Stara Zagora or this event, but I would have loved to go, but hey, maybe next time
<3
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Lovely event and definitely a nice prize pool overall!
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NICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thx for the good work ! :D
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I'll be at the venue with Poca, see you there.
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So how many cannon rushes are we thinking Mana does against Rogue?
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On August 22 2025 12:35 coloursheep wrote:
So how many cannon rushes are we thinking Mana does against Rogue?
Surely at least one? His Cannon rushing has gotten really good.
I've always said that professional players would benefit from learning how to properly Cannon rush, so that they can mix it into a series, and MaNa has shown that to be true. PartinG has also previously profited from putting a little effort into learning how to do it properly.
EDIT:
MaNa is still some way off reaching peak Cannon rushing though. GrimReaper got to ~6200 Cannon rushing on a barcode account.
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can i apply as a Observer?
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TotalBiscuilt's erect penis just won't die.
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Isn't a maestro a music thing or is that French for master?
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Well done man, awesome to see
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On August 23 2025 04:18 CicadaSC wrote:
Isn't a maestro a music thing or is that French for master?
Maestro does mean a conductor in music but we felt like it resonnates with a player controlling / conducting an army.
Also for general purpose you can say that somebody being extra good at something is a Maestro of his craft which is the case with the line up we have <3
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Cool stuff, will tune in!
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On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3
"Wanting the playing field to be as strong as possible" yet choosing to do invites is pretty contradictory. You wanting it to be "hype" is great and all, but unfortunately invite only is about as anti hype as you can get for people that enjoy the most competitive field and who would also rather see tournaments attempt to foster growth and not gatekeep, especially given sc2's current state.
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On August 24 2025 19:58 Agh wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3 "Wanting the playing field to be as strong as possible" yet choosing to do invites is pretty contradictory. You wanting it to be "hype" is great and all, but unfortunately invite only is about as anti hype as you can get for people that enjoy the most competitive field and who would also rather see tournaments attempt to foster growth and not gatekeep, especially given sc2's current state.
Thanks for killing the fun by harshly criticizing the few people who try to keep the game alive bro, you're the GOAT <3
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On August 24 2025 19:58 Agh wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3 "Wanting the playing field to be as strong as possible" yet choosing to do invites is pretty contradictory. You wanting it to be "hype" is great and all, but unfortunately invite only is about as anti hype as you can get for people that enjoy the most competitive field and who would also rather see tournaments attempt to foster growth and not gatekeep, especially given sc2's current state.
You're allowed to that opinion but we dont see it this way, and as stated they were more factors going into that direction.
Besides, were doing a 24 player tournament in which you only need one victory to be "in the money".
Invites where based on recent performances and aligulac rankings.
Implying were not trying to foster growth when we try to build up a strong rendez vous for top level StarCraft in 2025 and future years is hard to hear but I guess we can't please everyone
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On August 24 2025 20:45 honkyboinks wrote:
Thanks for killing the fun by harshly criticizing the few people who try to keep the game alive bro, you're the GOAT <3
Yeah pointing out the obvious is harsh, especially when it's already been done in the thread. I'm just calling a spade a spade.
Keeping the game alive? Rather than explain it I'll just let you ponder how that is counter intuitive.
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On August 25 2025 06:13 Agh wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2025 20:45 honkyboinks wrote:
Thanks for killing the fun by harshly criticizing the few people who try to keep the game alive bro, you're the GOAT <3
Yeah pointing out the obvious is harsh, especially when it's already been done in the thread. I'm just calling a spade a spade. Keeping the game alive? Rather than explain it I'll just let you ponder how that is counter intuitive.
It's already been done in the thread with much more tact and nuance, yes. And Funka already responded explaining their approach. Besides, he also answered you, you should take a look at it because he's done a really good job in answering you politely, since you're being the Karen of this thread. And yes, organizing a tournament with one of the biggest cashprizes of the year, when ESL/Katowice/Dreamhack/Blizzard are not there anymore and the game is in his 15th year, is keeping the game alive.
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Northern Ireland25520 Posts
On August 25 2025 07:54 honkyboinks wrote:Show nested quote +On August 25 2025 06:13 Agh wrote:On August 24 2025 20:45 honkyboinks wrote:
Thanks for killing the fun by harshly criticizing the few people who try to keep the game alive bro, you're the GOAT <3
Yeah pointing out the obvious is harsh, especially when it's already been done in the thread. I'm just calling a spade a spade. Keeping the game alive? Rather than explain it I'll just let you ponder how that is counter intuitive. It's already been done in the thread with much more tact and nuance, yes. And Funka already responded explaining their approach. Besides, he also answered you, you should take a look at it because he's done a really good job in answering you politely, since you're being the Karen of this thread. And yes, organizing a tournament with one of the biggest cashprizes of the year, when ESL is not there anymore and the game is in his 25th year, is keeping the game alive.
It’s still an important conversation to have more generally, if we are moving more generally into the ‘crowdfunded era’.
We should be able to have such discussions without it being completely critical, or completely uncritical (see also, RSL thread), or people being ‘Karen’s’ or whatever
As I raised this initially, and appreciated Funka’s response, I’ll elaborate further on my own personal thoughts.
This is a relatively new thing, at least in the sense that crowdfunded tournaments may constitute a big chunk of an SC2 player’s or viewers’s experience.
Early events working, is way more important than later events working to show it’s a viable path, and to that effect, inviting the field to be rather stacked, increases those chances. I’m fine with it
On the flipside, and where I imagine Agh is coming from, you can’t do this too often, you can’t have a scene where many tournaments are invite-heavy be vibrant. If nobody can actually step up and get into tournaments that are invite-heavy, the scene will stagnate.
It’ll just be a scene that’s still dying, but you get to watch a bit more Clem, Maru or Serral or whatever for a bit.
Again, not a criticism of this tournament which is IMO a cool as fuck initiative but we should as a community be able to look at pros and cons in a less polarised way as well
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On August 25 2025 01:44 FunKa wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2025 19:58 Agh wrote:On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3 "Wanting the playing field to be as strong as possible" yet choosing to do invites is pretty contradictory. You wanting it to be "hype" is great and all, but unfortunately invite only is about as anti hype as you can get for people that enjoy the most competitive field and who would also rather see tournaments attempt to foster growth and not gatekeep, especially given sc2's current state. You're allowed to that opinion but we dont see it this way, and as stated they were more factors going into that direction. Besides, were doing a 24 player tournament in which you only need one victory to be "in the money". Invites where based on recent performances and aligulac rankings. Implying were not trying to foster growth when we try to build up a strong rendez vous for top level StarCraft in 2025 and future years is hard to hear but I guess we can't please everyone
One of the harshest (yet most accurate) truisms in life is that you can't please everyone, no matter how pure your intentions. Just know that the vast majority of us appreciate what you're doing here and the content you're providing. Hopefully, events like this continue to be a roadmap for the future of the scene.
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On August 24 2025 19:58 Agh wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2025 08:18 FunKa wrote:On August 21 2025 07:26 WombaT wrote:
Sick stuff, great job getting this off the ground!
Is there a reason it’s a pure invite tournament? Being slightly critical. I don’t really have an issue if a traditional big hitter like a Serral or Maru gets an invite, but the entire field?
Emphasis on the ‘slightly’ in ‘slightly critical’ Hey WombaT, appreciate the nice words, and also the "challenge" on the invite only :D There's a lot of factors that came into deciding to go for the all invite route as you probably anticipate. Off the top of my head the stronger arguments for it were : We wanted to be able to broadcast every single game of the entire thing, while remaining on a nice tight schedule We wanted to be sure that every player that agreed to play knew from the ground up they would be expected to play in Paris for the live finals. While this is fairly easy to do on a solid invite list with proper communication it's kinda impossible to do in qualifiers hapening in all the regions. We wanted the playing field to be as strong as possible and for the 1st stage to be hype and easy to read. I feel like the ro24 aka stage 1 direct elimination allows us to do that. I could list even more "practical" details that made it like this but mostly, we like it this way for this edition and we're also happy the amazing players that we got to talk to were excited at the idea to play. While we were involved in tournaments like Iron Squid and Nation Wars in the past, it's our first event as ComeBackTV and I think we're also finding our footing and completely fine with revisiting ideas for next editions if we're able to make this a regular thing <3 "Wanting the playing field to be as strong as possible" yet choosing to do invites is pretty contradictory. You wanting it to be "hype" is great and all, but unfortunately invite only is about as anti hype as you can get for people that enjoy the most competitive field and who would also rather see tournaments attempt to foster growth and not gatekeep, especially given sc2's current state.
Right on. Trash them for attempting to put on an offline tournament in a scene desperate for positivity and events. I take it you're putting in the time and effort to do an event that's a better alternative, right?
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United States33418 Posts
On August 25 2025 08:14 WombaT wrote:Show nested quote +On August 25 2025 07:54 honkyboinks wrote:On August 25 2025 06:13 Agh wrote:On August 24 2025 20:45 honkyboinks wrote:
Thanks for killing the fun by harshly criticizing the few people who try to keep the game alive bro, you're the GOAT <3
Yeah pointing out the obvious is harsh, especially when it's already been done in the thread. I'm just calling a spade a spade. Keeping the game alive? Rather than explain it I'll just let you ponder how that is counter intuitive. It's already been done in the thread with much more tact and nuance, yes. And Funka already responded explaining their approach. Besides, he also answered you, you should take a look at it because he's done a really good job in answering you politely, since you're being the Karen of this thread. And yes, organizing a tournament with one of the biggest cashprizes of the year, when ESL is not there anymore and the game is in his 25th year, is keeping the game alive. It’s still an important conversation to have more generally, if we are moving more generally into the ‘crowdfunded era’. We should be able to have such discussions without it being completely critical, or completely uncritical (see also, RSL thread), or people being ‘Karen’s’ or whatever As I raised this initially, and appreciated Funka’s response, I’ll elaborate further on my own personal thoughts. This is a relatively new thing, at least in the sense that crowdfunded tournaments may constitute a big chunk of an SC2 player’s or viewers’s experience. Early events working, is way more important than later events working to show it’s a viable path, and to that effect, inviting the field to be rather stacked, increases those chances. I’m fine with it On the flipside, and where I imagine Agh is coming from, you can’t do this too often, you can’t have a scene where many tournaments are invite-heavy be vibrant. If nobody can actually step up and get into tournaments that are invite-heavy, the scene will stagnate. It’ll just be a scene that’s still dying, but you get to watch a bit more Clem, Maru or Serral or whatever for a bit. Again, not a criticism of this tournament which is IMO a cool as fuck initiative but we should as a community be able to look at pros and cons in a less polarised way as well
Ehhh, I think obsessing over professionalism and 'competitive integrity' peaked in like 2012 (for instance, literally no one cares about the supposedly fatal competitive issue of soundproofing—which was never solved—anymore). The remaining SC2 fans are more pragmatic/laissez-faire, and esports fans in GENERAL understand it's an entertainment industry first and foremost.
There's definitely some baseline level of competitive pretence you have to keep up to have a 'serious' league, but I think quibbling over invites for this particular event is a very minority POV.
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EPT
