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In addition to the MLG 2011 Full Schedule Release, the format for the National Championship tournament was also released (MLG Website).
No Groups! A full 256 Open Bracket is still going to be run. However, the Top 16 players based on points from the regular season are going to be directly seeded into the "Championship Bracket Winners Bracket". If I understand MLG's description correctly, then a Top 4 player only needs to win 4 series to get $50k!
If so, then MLG is putting a HUGE premium on gaining points from the regular season circuit events!
Below is my attempt to formulate the Championship Bracket Winners Bracket (sorry if I've misinterpreted!):
+ Show Spoiler + The Top 16 players and the 4 undefeated players from the Open Bracket are seeded in the Winners Bracket.
Round 1:
Game 1a: #13 v. #20
Game 1b: #16 v. #17
Game 1c: #15 v. #18
Game 1d: #14 v. #19
Round 2:
Game 2a: Winner 1a v. #12
Game 2b: Winner 1b v. #9
Game 2c: Winner 1c v. #10
Game 2d: Winner 1c v. #11
Round 3:
Game 3a: Winner 2a v. #5
Game 3b: Winner 2b v. #8
Game 3c: Winner 2c v. #7
Game 3d: Winner 2d v. #6
Round 4:
Game 4a: Winner 3a v. #4
Game 4b: Winner 3b v. #1
Game 4c: Winner 3c v. #2
Game 4d: Winner 3d v. #3
Round 5 (Winners Semis):
Game 5a: Winner 4a v. Winner 4b
Game 5b: Winner 4c v. Winner 4d
Round 6 (Winners Finals):
Game 6a: Winner 5a v. Winner 5b
Grand Finals:
Winner 6a v. Loser's Bracket Champion
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I get what they're trying to do with the way the championship bracket was laid out, but I feels like it takes it way too far. I know it's a national championship but you should have to win more than 4 matches to win a tournament of this size.
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United States2095 Posts
Wow. Players seeded 1-4 will start in Championship Bracket Winners Bracket Round 4. Thats going to be a very sought after position for sure. Top 4 already in the top 16 for sure. Not sure what Winners bracket round 4 will look like, but that is a great advantage for players with previous tour points!
Edit : I imagine Winners bracket round 4 in the final tournament is at least top 16, I could be wrong, but I think its even higher then that.
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Going from round of 32 to final in a SL takes ro32 ro16 ro8 ro4 and then finals, which is only one more.
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I do not feel that the format is quite fair to most players. Arguably, there are more than 16 players that have the potential to win MLG. Especially since only 4 players from the open bracket advance, I feel there is so much potential that is lost. While I understand MLG wants every event to matter regardless of prize purse, the bracket size makes the national championship somewhat of a joke in a sense.
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On May 01 2011 06:08 Amui wrote:
I do not feel that the format is quite fair to most players. Arguably, there are more than 16 players that have the potential to win MLG. Especially since only 4 players from the open bracket advance, I feel there is so much potential that is lost. While I understand MLG wants every event to matter regardless of prize purse, the bracket size makes the national championship somewhat of a joke in a sense.
Actually, 16 players from Open Bracket advance. The 4 undefeated players get seeded in the Championship Bracket Winner Bracket (spots 17-20) and the 12 Open Bracket players with 1 lost get seeded in the Championship Bracket Losers Bracket (spots 21-32).
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Some sort of seeding is obviously necessary, but as the posters above said, I find this way too extreme. If getting points was "fair", it would be somewhat reasonable. But the top16 are seeded from last year, and the seeding for each event is already extreme. Just look at incontrol for example, he went 4-3 in Dallas and got 4th place and a billion points, which pretty much guarantee high point scoring in the next events as well.
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Yeah I feel that maybe they should have top 28 or so and 4 from open bracket, and then just do a regular Ro32 bracket. Still, that might be hard to transition from a system where top16 is in pool play to one where top 32 are in championships.
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This is actually very big from MLG as they used to have NO open tournament for their national championships and only the top seeded teams would play.
Back then, it was only 8 teams for the main event (Halo) so the weekend would be All-Star Friday, W/LBR1 and 2 Saturday, then WBF/LBF/Championship Sunday.
This national championship is "playoffs" format. If anything, having an open bracket qualification is generous.
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On May 01 2011 06:06 Sheth wrote:
Thats going to be a very sought after position for sure.
I agree with this. I think what MLG is doing is trying to encourage people to attend more of their events so they can build a stronger SC2 scene. While I disagree with the format itself, I think it's a smart move on MLG's part.
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I'm okay with the top16 being seeded, but not seeded further into the bracket depending on their seeding. The tournament should be the same for all of them, a win should mean the same no matter what. I mean, you can't have a different tournament format for different players otherwise you de-legitimize a win.
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i dont really like that format, gives the people that have high seeds a ridic advantage.
Seems to me as if they are just trying really hard to get an american to win the championship, due to most europeans not being able to attend all events to get that 1-4 seed.
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On May 01 2011 06:54 hugman wrote:
I'm okay with the top16 being seeded, but not seeded further into the bracket depending on their seeding. The tournament should be the same for all of them, a win should mean the same no matter what. I mean, you can't have a different tournament format for different players otherwise you de-legitimize a win.
I don't think that de-legitimizes a win so much as it puts unusual importance on wins during the regular season. The whole set-up of MLG is that it's supposed to be a series of continuing events leading up to the national championships. How do they make sure that great players attend their smaller tournaments? They give strong incentive to win them. It seems 100% fine by me. If a player is very confident or sure of himself, then he can effectively try to ignore the regular season events and only go after the big fish--it's just more work. Naniwa showed last MLG that seeding and bracket advantages aren't necessary to win.
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don't really like the format, but the people that gets the top seed spots in the winner's bracket will probably have earned it
I hope the long grind needed to make it into MLG pool play and becoming seeded into the NC winner's bracket won't deter too many good players from participating in MLG.
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I think a lot of players are going to hate this and I think MLG is going to do itself more harm than good, as it creates stagnation in the player pool, leading to boring games and newer players avoiding their tournament and thus making it less interesting.
And we all know people want to watch interesting games, otherwise there is no point.
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EPT
