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http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8569308646
I couldn't find a thread for this. Here are the new FAQ questions that were answered
Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?
For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered.
When does a player have to decide which region he will compete in?
When a player competes in a Season 2 qualifier for a World Championship Series event, he or she will be locked to that region for the remainder of 2013.
Do the players need to live in the region to be in World Championship Series of the same region?
For season 1 no, but note that all players are required to travel to compete in the offline portions of their league. Also note that all World Championship Series Korea matches are already offline—players must be able to play in those matches in Korea if they choose to compete in WCS Korea.
If a player competes in the World Championship Series Korea Code B (Qualifier Division) this week, does it disqualify him or her from playing in the WCS America or WCS Europe for 2013?
Technically this would be the case as such a player would be committing to the seeding process for KR's Season 2 Premier League (Code S). However, we are interested in ensuring players are not locked into a region due to confusion or lack of information.
If a current Code S (Premier) player decides they want to compete in another region for Season 2, what exactly needs to happen?
Season 1 Code S players who would like to play in a different region for Season 2 will need to simultaneously participate in the Season 1 Qualifier Division of the region they are targeting, alongside their play in Season 1 Code S (Premier). Doing so will forfeit their Code S (Premier) position for Season 2, as well as lock them into the new region for the remainder of 2013.
If a player wants to stay in Korea to train but chooses to compete in the World Championship Series America or the WCS Europe, how would that work?
A player can live and train in Korea but must travel to all offline events to compete in the other regions.
Are flights to WCS events paid by Blizzard or by teams?
The leagues will be responsible for player travel to offline events, but flights will only be booked from a region within a region. So, players competing in World Championship Series Europe will have their flights to the offline events booked from a city in Europe. Players residing outside of the region they are competing in must travel on their own to that region, and the league will cover the rest of the flight to the city that the offline event is taking place in. This only applies to the events leading up to the WCS Season Finals. For the Season Finals and BlizzCon, all travel will be covered, including international flights.
Are any players being invited into World Championship Series America and WCS Europe for Season 1?
Yes. For Season 1, 24 players in each region have been extended invitations to compete in WCS America and WCS Europe based on their performance in past StarCraft II tournaments. We will be announcing what commitments players will be making by the end of this week.
When will World Championship Series America and WCS Europe start?
The qualifiers for Season 1 World Championship Series Europe start on April 14 (Pacific Time, so April 15 in Europe), and the qualifiers for WCS America start on April 20. Further details will be announced soon.
How long do the players need to be available for the offline events?
For Season 1, players in the WCS America and WCS Europe regions will need to be available for approximately 3–4 days for offline events. All WCS Korea matches are played offline. In the future, we will be looking to extend the offline portions of both WCS America and WCS Europe, so please be aware that this will change in coming seasons. Players will be expected to participate in all offline portions of the league they are committing to.
Will established players outside of the three regions be given invites to participate in any of the World Championship Series events?
Yes. Invitations have been sent to certain players outside of the three main regions. We will be announcing the player commitments by the end of this week.
Is the prize pool the same across all regions or do partners put in additional prize money on top of the Blizzard prize money?
All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution. The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool.
The prize pool breakdown for the remaining part of 2013 is as follows:
Each Regional WCS League Season - $100,000
Each Global Season Finals - $150,000
WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon - $250,000
A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
Can players compete in events outside of their chosen World Championship Series region?
Yes! Players are able to compete in non-World Championship Series events outside of their region. There is no restriction placed on player participation in any outside tournament, and some non-WCS events will grant WCS points. Further points-related details will be published soon.
And in the spoiler here are the already existing faq questions:
+ Show Spoiler +
Questions answered on 4/08/2013 via Reddit
Is it possible to see a calendar for the entire year? When do Seasons 1, 2, 3 start in every region?
We are working hard on compiling a complete calendar for the entire year, in the meantime we plan to announce the start dates for Season 1 of the NA and EU leagues tomorrow night. We understand that players and teams need to schedule their time for the rest of the year, and we will do our best to post the dates for Seasons 2 and 3 shortly after.
What are the key differences between the KR, EU, and NA leagues?
Our goal has been to make the leagues as identical as possible in terms of structure, based on the GSL model. As a result of working with different league partners, there will be minor format differences that arise based on the legacy of a particular league.
How does a brand new player who wants to compete in WCS get involved?
In general, we are working to adopt a similar process in each region based off of GSL's three-division "Code" structure. Each regional league will have three divisions (Qualifier, Challenger, and Premier) that will feed into each other. In regards to Season 1 of this year, GSL is operating per usual and will continue moving into future seasons. For North America and EU, we will be announcing the plans surrounding Season 1 this week but it will likely include some invitations as well as an open qualification.
Thanks for your patience. We know everyone is anxious to get this information, and we're working hard to get it to you as quickly as we can.
Are the prize pools the same between the leagues?
Yes. All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution.
The prize pool breakdown for the remaining part of 2013 is as follows:
Each Regional WCS League Season - $100,000
Each Global Season Finals - $150,000
WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon - $250,000
In regards to NA and EU, how does a player qualify for Season 1 "Premier League"?
As we mentioned in the question above, we are working hard to get the exact details out to you as soon as we can. In short, Season 1 will be an exception and will likely include some invitations that we will send to top players in each region as well as open qualifiers, but all future seasons will adopt a three-division system (Qualifier, Challenger, and Premiere) that will appropriately qualify players into the top division for future seasons.
Have you considered a residency requirement for the Leagues? Wouldn't it make sense to require players who are playing in your region's tournament to live in your country?
We have discussed implementing a residency requirement but feel that this would add additional complexity, especially for players outside of the three main regions, and particularly for 2013. This is the kind of thing we'd really like to avoid if at all possible.
Many people feel that the abrupt global change, combined with locking players to the region they play in for the entire year, is remarkably unfair to KR players, especially those currently competing in GSL?
We too agree that Korean players currently playing in GSL were put in a difficult situation regarding making a year-long commitment to a WCS league as GSL started right on the heels of our announcement. With this being the case, we will be making a one-time exception at the end of Season 1 to allow players to make a change in their regional commitments for the rest of 2013. If a player currently playing in GSL would like to make a change at that time then they will be able to do so. We will have more information on exactly how this process will work well in advance of the conclusion of Season 1.
What is the point system?
We are working hard to finalize all the details surrounding the WCS points system. At the moment, we are mostly ironing out exactly how points earned outside the WCS leagues will integrate into the system. We should be able to announce the initial system next week, although some some adjustments will probably need to happen as we move forward.
How lucrative (in terms of points) is it to compete in a tournament like NASL, DreamHack, or Iron Squid?
Players who qualify for the World Championship at BlizzCon will have to compete in the WCS. That said, points earned from outside the WCS Leagues should be meaningful in terms of qualification and seeding at that tournament, especially for those who might be on the edge of qualifying.
How much of the tournaments for each season will be played online?
The intention is that most of the Premiere league (all in the case of WCS KR) for each region will be played offline in a studio, but we are working with MLG and ESL on the details. We might need to have additional online matches in 2013 based on logistical challenges that may arise.
What steps is Blizzard taking to ensure that cheating/hacking is not going to take place for matches played online?
Our goal is to minimize the number of online matches and eventually to eliminate the need for them, for as long as online matches will take place we will be taking great precaution to monitor and ensure fair play. We will be working with our tournament partners to ensure best practices and the integrity of each league.
We are aware that there are certainly questions that remain. As another step in process, Blizzard is intending to host a Reddit AMA regarding WCS, so please stay tuned for the exact details in the coming days!
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My personal thoughts: if ESL and MLG manage to get a longer offline event in Season 2, it will oblige Koreans to move to these regions semi-permanently. That is much better than them getting out of the plane and back in it with all our money 
Also the fact that travel is not reimbursed, only inside the region, makes it a lot less attractive to keep travelling, especially, if these offline events during the season become longer.
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All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution. The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool.
God damn it, Blizzard.
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United States4126 Posts
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft.
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Just need to put everything offline in NA and EU and the system will be improved drastically.
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i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals
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On April 11 2013 00:31 Serimek wrote:
Just need to put everything offline in NA and EU and the system will be improved drastically.
So basically thids will happen with a long offline event in season 2
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On April 11 2013 00:32 Ketch wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:31 Serimek wrote:
Just need to put everything offline in NA and EU and the system will be improved drastically. So basically thids will happen with a long offline event in season 2
Not as sure as you, unfortunately, but maybe you do have more info than me... I believe it will be much more longer until we see a full offline event.
edit : You quoted me below just when I was editing :p I just believe that "in the future" is far away, not with Season 2. Will see...
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On April 11 2013 00:35 Serimek wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:32 Ketch wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 Serimek wrote:
Just need to put everything offline in NA and EU and the system will be improved drastically. So basically thids will happen with a long offline event in season 2 Not as sure as you, unfortunately, but maybe you do have more info than me...
I read it in this answer:
How long do the players need to be available for the offline events?
For Season 1, players in the WCS America and WCS Europe regions will need to be available for approximately 3–4 days for offline events. All WCS Korea matches are played offline. In the future, we will be looking to extend the offline portions of both WCS America and WCS Europe, so please be aware that this will change in coming seasons. Players will be expected to participate in all offline portions of the league they are committing to.
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I don't know why offline would fix much in regards to the korean thing... by the time Season 2 rolls around these dudes should have enough that if everyone pitches in 2-3 hundred, they can rent a house and buy a months supply of instant ramen.
They should be used to living in cramped situations by now.
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On April 11 2013 00:37 Ketch wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:35 Serimek wrote:On April 11 2013 00:32 Ketch wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 Serimek wrote:
Just need to put everything offline in NA and EU and the system will be improved drastically. So basically thids will happen with a long offline event in season 2 Not as sure as you, unfortunately, but maybe you do have more info than me... I read it in this answer: Show nested quote +How long do the players need to be available for the offline events?
For Season 1, players in the WCS America and WCS Europe regions will need to be available for approximately 3–4 days for offline events. All WCS Korea matches are played offline. In the future, we will be looking to extend the offline portions of both WCS America and WCS Europe, so please be aware that this will change in coming seasons. Players will be expected to participate in all offline portions of the league they are committing to.
They are going to move the main event offline as quickly as possible. Qualifiers may be online due to the size of NA, but the event will be offline.
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On April 11 2013 00:24 StarVe wrote:Show nested quote +All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution. The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool. God damn it, Blizzard.
So much this.
Blizzard you messin up, at this moment in time their needs to be more incentive for Koreans to play in the Korean WCS
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On April 11 2013 00:40 tribulator wrote:
I don't know why offline would fix much in regards to the korean thing... by the time Season 2 rolls around these dudes should have enough that if everyone pitches in 2-3 hundred, they can rent a house and buy a months supply of instant ramen.
They should be used to living in cramped situations by now.
Except they need a work visa to stay for long periods of time. Also, if this is the Bay Area, where Blizzard has opened its studio, they are going to need a bit more that 2-3 a month.
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I really enjoyed watching the WCS events in 2012.
I'm unsure about 2013. We'll see how it goes I guess.
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On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals
IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR..
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On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR..
haha thanks for pointing that out johnclark(and it's good to see you're alive). you never know if a foreigner may rise to the top and beat all the koreans like stephano did to live the american dream :D
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On April 11 2013 00:22 Ketch wrote:http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8569308646Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered.
Can anybody explain this to me? So confusing... @.@
two question:
1) how should a player be expected to play the season 1 qualifiers in KOR, when there were no to begin with?
2) why bother playing in the season 1 qualifiers, if you start with season 2 anyways? It's not as if you can play season 1!
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On April 11 2013 00:59 hellokittySC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR.. haha thanks for pointing that out johnclark(and it's good to see you're alive). you never know if a foreigner may rise to the top and beat all the koreans like stephano did to live the american dream :D
There is a least the hope that preparing for a specific Korean player in a GSL like format is better than going through the open bracket at MLG. Its not 16 code S Koreans over a weekend, but one or two a week, once a week. That seems way more possible and viable.
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On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft.
And hopefully everything goes smoothly and according to plan..
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blizzard literally screwed up Korea financially lol
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The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool. OMG WTF T_T  , poor GSL players 
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On April 11 2013 01:00 JustPassingBy wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:22 Ketch wrote:http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8569308646Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered. So basically Koreans can fail season 1 in KOR and then switch to season 1 on NA or EU? That doesn't sound very fair...
The more unprepared or badly prepare you are, the more unfair you will be. Simple as that.
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On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR..
Pretty sure there will be Europeans in the top5 of WCS EU and not just one.
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On April 11 2013 01:00 JustPassingBy wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:22 Ketch wrote:http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8569308646Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered. Can anybody explain this to me? So confusing... @.@
Since I don't know the new league names, I'll use the "old" gsl ones: Code B (and code A, maybe) will be played at the same time as code S, if the schedules conflict to change region, they must request permission from Blizzard.
Or that's how I read it.
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On April 11 2013 01:05 Spektor wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:00 JustPassingBy wrote:On April 11 2013 00:22 Ketch wrote:http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/8569308646Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered. Can anybody explain this to me? So confusing... @.@ Since I don't know the new league names, I'll use the "old" gsl ones: Code B will be played at the same time as code S, if the schedules conflict to change region, they must request permission from Blizzard. Or that's how I read it.
Thanks for the answer, but the two things boggling me were:
1) how should a player be expected to play the season 1 qualifiers in KOR, when there were no to begin with?
2) why bother playing in the season 1 qualifiers, if you start with season 2 anyways? It's not as if you can play in season 1!
What if you qualify for season 1?
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I wouldn't be surprised if more currently not successful Korean players followed Happy's lead.
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Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit.
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On April 11 2013 01:10 ch33psh33p wrote:
Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit.
2013 GSL Season 1 Code S prize pool was about 124000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 prize pool will be 100000 $
2013 GSL Season 1 Code A prize pool was about 38000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 Contender prize pool will be... none.
That's a huge difference.
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On April 11 2013 01:09 StarVe wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if more currently not successful Korean players followed Happy's lead.
I wouldn't be surprised If the successful ones did. Blizzard is trying to pretend that a MLG or ESL is the equivalent of a GSL and is weakening the talent pool of the GSL to try and make it so.
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Wait, so now Code A has no monetary reward? It's just a qualifier tournament? Also, last year there were a huge number of WCS tournaments, are those not happening this year? Is everything effectively merged and also lowering the prize pools?
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It took this long to produce this? Talk about being late to the party and complete lack of information for when teams actually had to make decisions
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On April 11 2013 01:17 Serimek wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:10 ch33psh33p wrote:
Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit. 2013 GSL Season 1 Code S prize pool was about 124000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 prize pool will be 100000 $ 2013 GSL Season 1 Code A prize pool was about 38000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 Contender prize pool will be... none. That's a huge difference.
Yes, that's not fair. The best tourney should has best price pool.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
Come on Blizz, don't be hatin' on GSL/OSL. They deserve way more prize money than EU/NA
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On April 11 2013 01:17 Serimek wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:10 ch33psh33p wrote:
Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit. 2013 GSL Season 1 Code S prize pool was about 124000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 prize pool will be 100000 $ 2013 GSL Season 1 Code A prize pool was about 38000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 Contender prize pool will be... none. That's a huge difference.
add to the fact they're will be less GSL and you'll understand why some people were happy that blizz wasn't involving itself to much in esport.
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On April 11 2013 01:21 dustinth wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:17 Serimek wrote:On April 11 2013 01:10 ch33psh33p wrote:
Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit. 2013 GSL Season 1 Code S prize pool was about 124000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 prize pool will be 100000 $ 2013 GSL Season 1 Code A prize pool was about 38000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 Contender prize pool will be... none. That's a huge difference. Yes, that's not fair. The best tourney should has best price pool.
I understand why the code S prize pool didn't need to be as high (with the global season finals adding in another 150k its not nessecary) but getting rid of the Code A prize pool is just a disaster.
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I guess we now know from where GOM was getting the $160,000 prizemoney for each GSL. I'm guessing it was funded entirely by Blizzard, and now Blizzard could just change it. Also, if you keep in mind the Season Finals, it is not really less money than before.
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On April 11 2013 01:17 Serimek wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:10 ch33psh33p wrote:
Blizzard has literally killed the KR scene with this.
Less GSL, Less OSL, Less Korean Players in KR, and Less Money in KR, BY ALOT.
Holy shit. 2013 GSL Season 1 Code S prize pool was about 124000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 prize pool will be 100000 $ 2013 GSL Season 1 Code A prize pool was about 38000 $, WCS Korea Season 1 Contender prize pool will be... none. That's a huge difference.
I guess now we know how they afforded their new studio :-P
Feeling a little upset about the whole GSL thing, how can they reduce the price even further, they already reduced it in 2012, and now even less "Code S " seasons, as i dont see any difference towards korean wcs and code S.
(really seems that they aren't doing too well themself either :-( )
Really want to be positive and patient for good things to come, but argh >_<
European WCS looks amazing so far tho, should be a fun event.
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On April 11 2013 01:09 StarVe wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if more currently not successful Korean players followed Happy's lead.
But that is pretty much the same as before WCS, I think. Kespa moving to SC2 is massive for the second tier Koreans. Imagine suddenly having 50-60-70 new players of great talent (player-pool build up over years by taking the best-of-the-best young talent of a country where SC had a popularity usually reserved for traditional sport) competing with you. With WCS, at least a group of players have been moved out of the GSL system and to EU/US.
Are you referring to the lack of money for the new code A? That is a worry, I agree. But that really isn't any different than what semi-pros experience in NA/EU. Right now there is an overabundance of Korean pro SC2 gamers, more than their home market can afford.
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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
On April 11 2013 01:24 mikkmagro wrote:
I guess we now know from where GOM was getting the $160,000 prizemoney for each GSL. I'm guessing it was funded entirely by Blizzard, and now Blizzard could just change it. Also, if you keep in mind the Season Finals, it is not really less money than before.
Top heavy prize pools are recipes for disaster for all sports
That's why a lot of professional leagues have profit sharing schemes for TV rights and other profits, and not just give everything to the best teams.
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On April 11 2013 01:24 mikkmagro wrote:
I guess we now know from where GOM was getting the $160,000 prizemoney for each GSL. I'm guessing it was funded entirely by Blizzard, and now Blizzard could just change it. Also, if you keep in mind the Season Finals, it is not really less money than before.
But only 5 best korea players (which are the 5 best players in the world) can benefit from this.
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Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one?
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On April 11 2013 01:24 mikkmagro wrote:
I guess we now know from where GOM was getting the $160,000 prizemoney for each GSL. I'm guessing it was funded entirely by Blizzard, and now Blizzard could just change it. Also, if you keep in mind the Season Finals, it is not really less money than before.
For Code A players, that's a huge difference. I'm worried for YuGiOh :D
On a more serious note, Code A without prize pool + KeSPA players might push a lot of mid-tiers eSF players to quit IMO
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On April 11 2013 01:29 Ben... wrote:
Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one?
Look down the road not at your feet. It appears to weaken things some now but the goal is a stronger competition around the world. 2 - 3 year down the road EU or NA could be the powerhouse. That is the end goal, develop the markets.
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On April 11 2013 01:32 Marconos wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:29 Ben... wrote:
Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one? Look down the road not at your feet. It appears to weaken things some now but the goal is a stronger competition around the world. 2 - 3 year down the road EU or NA could be the powerhouse. That is the end goal, develop the markets.
What?
You don't build infrastructure around EU and NA by gutting the KR scene completely.
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Search didn't help: is OSL alive after all or is it now merged with GSL/WCS? I want my OSL
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On April 11 2013 01:34 rj rl wrote:Search didn't help: is OSL alive after all or is it now merged with GSL/WCS? I want my OSL
iirc it's merged. 1per year. Cool isn't it ?
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On April 11 2013 01:32 Marconos wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:29 Ben... wrote:
Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one? Look down the road not at your feet. It appears to weaken things some now but the goal is a stronger competition around the world. 2 - 3 year down the road EU or NA could be the powerhouse. That is the end goal, develop the markets.
It's kind of cute that you actually believe this.
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On April 11 2013 01:35 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:34 rj rl wrote:Search didn't help: is OSL alive after all or is it now merged with GSL/WCS? I want my OSL iirc it's merged. 1per year. Cool isn't it ?
Well next year itll be 2 its just there is no first season this year because we are 4 months in so they cut out first OSL.
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It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution.
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On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution.
what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model.
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On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution.
Well there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people to make happy. It was never going to be a smooth start.
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On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model.
Well Riot didn't need to make deals with existing leagues, since they just ignored them all together. It is easier when you just do everything yourself and don't have to deal with one of the largest broadcasters in Korea.
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On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model.
I agree, last year was pretty awesome with all the flags and countries. I loved WCS EU finals, and the global finals were pretty good aswell (even though the production was kinda bad). This plan seems a lot less interesting. It was so cool to have a champion of each country.
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On April 11 2013 01:33 ch33psh33p wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:32 Marconos wrote:On April 11 2013 01:29 Ben... wrote:
Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one? Look down the road not at your feet. It appears to weaken things some now but the goal is a stronger competition around the world. 2 - 3 year down the road EU or NA could be the powerhouse. That is the end goal, develop the markets. What? You don't build infrastructure around EU and NA by gutting the KR scene completely.
At the moment, big amounts of money are funneled from outside of Korea to SK in salarys, transportion costs and prizes. Right now, sponsor money that could be used to the benefit of players outside of SK is instead spent on players in SK. There is a pretty massive subsidization going on. The SC2 scene in SK needs to grow its own scene in order to support the current amount of SC2 pro gamers in Korea.
I don't mean to say that that is "unfair". But it is probably not a healthy system either. Most likely there will be a culling of heads of Korean SC2 progamers. I don't see anything wrong with that. At the moment there are many more Korean progamers than in EU/US put together.
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On April 11 2013 01:43 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model. Well Riot didn't need to make deals with existing leagues, since they just ignored them all together. It is easier when you just do everything yourself and don't have to deal with one of the largest broadcasters in Korea.
and the gap between the scene is way smaller imo, which is the main problem with sc2 where korean are miles ahead both in quality and quantity. The problem is that it really looks like they just copy/paste riot's model which isn't really suited for the sc2 scene, despite being excellent for LoL.
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On April 11 2013 01:44 Hylirion wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model. I agree, last year was pretty awesome with all the flags and countries. I loved WCS EU finals, and the global finals were pretty good aswell (even though the production was kinda bad). This plan seems a lot less interesting. It was so cool to have a champion of each country.
national WCS were huge for the local scenes too, it was really cool.
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On April 11 2013 01:46 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:44 Hylirion wrote:On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model. I agree, last year was pretty awesome with all the flags and countries. I loved WCS EU finals, and the global finals were pretty good aswell (even though the production was kinda bad). This plan seems a lot less interesting. It was so cool to have a champion of each country. national WCS were huge for the local scenes too, it was really cool.
Incontrol said on Inside the Game that there were a bunch of legal issues for true region locking, which is why Blizzard avoided it. Once the round of 32 is moved offline, I think we will see the Korean's thin out a lot.
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"Are flights to WCS events paid by Blizzard or by teams?
The leagues will be responsible for player travel to offline events, but flights will only be booked from a region within a region. So, players competing in World Championship Series Europe will have their flights to the offline events booked from a city in Europe. Players residing outside of the region they are competing in must travel on their own to that region, and the league will cover the rest of the flight to the city that the offline event is taking place in. This only applies to the events leading up to the WCS Season Finals. For the Season Finals and BlizzCon, all travel will be covered, including international flights."
Does this mean if you are outside one of the three regions, you still get no travel support? Because they say later on that they invited players from outside of the three major regions.
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On April 11 2013 01:35 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:34 rj rl wrote:Search didn't help: is OSL alive after all or is it now merged with GSL/WCS? I want my OSL iirc it's merged. 1per year. Cool isn't it ?
i just can't think of a better format yeah. Will it be a separate tournament at least? Anyway i don't even know if keeping the OSL brand was a good idea, for me it kinda ended with dark templars and fantasy gg timing.
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I originally felt very optimistic about the WCS series that blizzard announced, but the more information I read about it, the more I question how much they really planned this out, and whose interests they had in mind(in particular for korea). I imagine it could be quite upsetting for korean players, when there are so many who are so good but aren't in code s. It feels like this complicated system just shuts the door for events on them, or forces them to make a decision between regions with the whole "region lock" thing.
To me it seems like blizzard basically purchased gsl (unsure about how much funding they had put toward it before this point) and wants to somehow make a single, exclusive league of 32 for korea(which seems far too small especially with the kespa players now fully involved) with their own rules. The problem is that it feels like its taking away opportunity for both new korean players and those that aren't currently at the code s level of success. The retroactive qualifier, distribution of prize money, and the points system all seem pretty questionable. Osl and gsl especially are probably the best examples of how sc2 leagues should be run and I can't say I'm pleased so far at how blizzard is having its way with them.
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On April 11 2013 01:42 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:40 Fishriot wrote:
It's amazing how a great idea can really be fucked by terrible execution. what's even more amazing it that they tried to copy Riot's model (even in the names lol) while last year was a success imo. except for the shitty race ratios but it wasn't due to the model.
I'm also surprised that while copying Riot's model they decided to leave a region lock out of it, or at least force the players to physically be where they're competing. Part of why LCS is so successful imo is the way it copied the old WCS and has NA teams playing NA teams and EU teams playing EU teams. Even if the NA teams can't hold a candle to the Chinese or Korean teams, it's fun to watch and get to know the players who we see every week in studio/media. It lets you root for your region and hope that if they work hard enough they can compete with other regions. I love watching Oz, Jaedong, Ryung, MC, Mvp - but I don't want to see them stomping hapless NA/EU players, I want to see them playing opponents that can actually stand up to them. Similarly I want to see the NA/EU players grow by playing one another and having interesting games and learning.
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Nice to know that Blizzard is taking time to answer everyone's concerns. It appears they are very willing to adapt over time. Also, it seems that many of the fears expressed by pro players and others will be alleviated in the coming seasons.
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seems like anyone who goes to NA/EU will get money MUCH more easily than the ones who stay in KR.
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Fenrax
United States5018 Posts
This whole thing is a retarded mess. It manages to be unfair to Korean players AND at the same time not help foreign players at all. The major profiteurs at this point are the non-code S Koreans on foreign teams who are not good enough to get their ticket from Code S but can travel to EU/US get their free WCS.
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All this would be solved if they simply made a residency requirement. Seriously its not fucking hard. Just one new rule would fix most of the problems.
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Maybe the international teams will establish a real teamhouse scene outside from Korea now and so foreigners and Koreans can improve all over the world together. I like this very much even though this year the WCS finals may be very Korean heavy. But thats just a mirror of the situation, where most of the best players come from Korea.
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Blizzard definitely needs to increase the prize pool for WCS KR .. It just doesn't make any sense anymore for players to stay in GSL/StarLeague -_____________________-
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Last year WCS, besides WCS EU Finals was horrible. Unless you were watching your countries championship (preferably live) and actually enjoyed it, it was horrible tournmanet viewer-wise. Finals in china, where sc2 isn't even played that much? It's not dota. A lot of unknown players and only last day (or even last, if any, match) of every weekend really worth watching? Such spread out prize pool? Not to mention that this year this isn't really WCS anymore, it's just merging GSL with OSL, MLG and IEM. It is far superior system for viewers - watching MLG or IEM with actually measurable player progression in overall tournament system, rather than every tournament creating their own set of rules, formats (double elimination with extended series anyone?). Not to mention that players who actually move to EU/NA will be able to participate in other tournaments, such as NASL or Dreamhack much easier. Regional lock, in my opinion, is there so every player would have even playing field as far as qualification for blizzcon finals goes, not to promote local talent. I feel like tournaments like playhem has the responsibility of that, not the premiere league.
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On April 11 2013 01:51 Swords wrote:
I love watching Oz, Jaedong, Ryung, MC, Mvp - but I don't want to see them stomping hapless NA/EU players, I want to see them playing opponents that can actually stand up to them.
You will in the season finals and grand final, MLG's, IEM's, DH's, NASL and what not
On April 11 2013 01:51 Swords wrote:
Similarly I want to see the NA/EU players grow by playing one another and having interesting games and learning.
Well you can as well, its called the Challenger and Qualifier for NA and for Europe a couple or Koreans doesn't matter.
I really dont see what all the fuzz is about.
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On April 11 2013 01:55 mrRoflpwn wrote:
All this would be solved if they simply made a residency requirement. Seriously its not fucking hard. Just one new rule would fix most of the problems.
From the looks of thinks participation in GSTL/Proleague + NA/EU offline is already a soft-residency requirement.
All 8 proleague teams + FXO, Startale, Axiom-Acer, Azubu have matched scheduled during, or very shortly after WCS NA Ro16 lan.
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GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-(
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On April 11 2013 01:59 TheSir wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:51 Swords wrote:
I love watching Oz, Jaedong, Ryung, MC, Mvp - but I don't want to see them stomping hapless NA/EU players, I want to see them playing opponents that can actually stand up to them. You will in the season finals and grand final, MLG's, IEM's, DH's, NASL and what not Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:51 Swords wrote:
Similarly I want to see the NA/EU players grow by playing one another and having interesting games and learning. Well you can as well, its called the Challenger and Qualifier for NA and for Europe a couple or Koreans doesn't matter.
I really dont see what all the fuzz is about.
There's also tournaments outside of the WCS that won't contain that many Korean's, or at all. Blizzard not providing enough information for teams and players to make a decision sucks but I feel the whole "OMG, EU AND NA SCENE WILL BE DESTROYED"-posts all over extremely hyperbolic.
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On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-(
But they can arrange tournaments outside the WCS with whatever pricepool they want. This is a good opportunity for more arena's, champion tournaments and whatnot.
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On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-(
Maybe because the SK interest in SC2 does not support the previous amount of tournaments?
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On April 11 2013 02:06 nihlon wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-( But they can arrange tournaments outside the WCS with whatever pricepool they want. This is a good opportunity for more arena's, champion tournaments and whatnot.
yeah money that'll go to code A players... oh wait
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On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-(
Nothing is stopping them from running other tournaments. Well, besides possibly their own finances...
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Oh wow, Blizzard just made one of the dumbest moves possible. There is absolutely no motivation for any Korean to compete in GSL who isn't already code A/S.
I was excited about WCS 2013 when I first head about it. Now it's just more and more like a nightmare tailspin that will probably do more damage than good when all things are said and done/
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A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
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good to know hopefully wont be as top heavy as rumors say
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On April 11 2013 02:07 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:06 nihlon wrote:On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-( But they can arrange tournaments outside the WCS with whatever pricepool they want. This is a good opportunity for more arena's, champion tournaments and whatnot. yeah money that'll go to code A players... oh wait
Just dump it into GSTL. Problem solved, money for everyone!
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The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool.
Flash dammit so I guess no one would ever want to play in Korea again, good or bad.
Now we can maybe get a good scene in EU and NA without SC2 Pros that can only have the world Pro because they stream.
But..
This distribution
Each Regional WCS League Season - $100,000
Each Global Season Finals - $150,000
WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon - $250,000
I don't get how the 32player prize pool could be 50k LESS than the 16player pool.
You have to finish top 5 in your region, so you already have made money from the Region and then you get a piece of an even BIGGER pool...
Hopefully Blizzard will fix this because this is a serious problem.
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On April 11 2013 02:14 Killmouse wrote:
A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
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good to know hopefully wont be as top heavy as rumors say
Didn't 2gd already show the prize money distribution? It was like $35,000 for 1st and a whopping $300 for Ro32. What a joke :___:
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On April 11 2013 02:18 Megiddosc wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:14 Killmouse wrote:
A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
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good to know hopefully wont be as top heavy as rumors say Didn't 2gd already show the prize money distribution? It was like $35,000 for 1st and a whopping $300 for Ro32. What a joke :___:
Yes ESFI had it but Incontrol said that it wasn't right but then again he also said that GSL would have a bigger prize pool so... yeah.
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On April 11 2013 02:09 syllogism wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-( Nothing is stopping them from running other tournaments. Well, besides possibly their own finances...
But Blizzard made cut on regular GSL for having 5-6 a year to 3 a year now. Not to mention that there are no additional individual league beside GSL in Korea at moment. KeSPA players are fine with their regular salaries, but for eSF players, not many of them have steady income besides prize money from GSL.
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On April 11 2013 02:18 Megiddosc wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:14 Killmouse wrote:
A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
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good to know hopefully wont be as top heavy as rumors say Didn't 2gd already show the prize money distribution? It was like $35,000 for 1st and a whopping $300 for Ro32. What a joke :___:
That was a nonfinal "suggestion fom players" and already confirmed false from by Incontrol, who claims to have a pal in blizzard.
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On April 11 2013 02:20 Tanatos wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:09 syllogism wrote:On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-( Nothing is stopping them from running other tournaments. Well, besides possibly their own finances... But Blizzard made cut on regular GSL for having 5-6 a year to 3 a year now. Not to mention that there are no additional individual league beside GSL in Korea at moment. KeSPA players are fine with their regular salaries, but for eSF players, not many of them have steady income besides prize money from GSL.
Well there is OSL and I'm sure we will either see a bigger push for the prize pool in GSTL or some small event.
I also bet they will try to do some Arena stuff like the have done in the past but having a time slot for that might be very hard.
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So basically no more MVP, nesstea, Mc, MMA, Hero, Taeja, etc in code s ?
Ooookay...... This is going to help the scene how?
It forces certain high caliber players into MLG, GSL/OSL, etc?
Well damn. I'm glad dreamhack isn't part of the circuit then. Those non WCS tourneys will have a better player pool.
This seems like a very, very dumb idea...
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On April 11 2013 02:15 Tobblish wrote:Flash dammit so I guess no one would ever want to play in Korea again, good or bad. Now we can maybe get a good scene in EU and NA without SC2 Pros that can only have the world Pro because they stream. But.. This distribution Show nested quote +Each Regional WCS League Season - $100,000
Each Global Season Finals - $150,000
WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon - $250,000 I don't get how the 32player prize pool could be 50k LESS than the 16player pool. You have to finish top 5 in your region, so you already have made money from the Region and then you get a piece of an even BIGGER pool... Hopefully Blizzard will fix this because this is a serious problem.
This isn't a problem. If the prize distribution for Code S is the exact same as it was before for players placing 32nd-6th, then nothing has changed in terms of prestige. The top 6 will get to go to a finals event and take in even more guaranteed prize money.
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It seems something wrong in this FQA:
GSL S1 CodeA players will have chance to partipant in other region's Season1 Premier League (depends if he is invited or pass special qualifier match);
But for GSL S1 CodeS players, according to FQA, they can only participant Season 2 Qualifier which means can only participant S3 Premier League. I don't think that's the case.
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I have a question.
However, we are interested in ensuring players are not locked into a region due to confusion or lack of information.
Does this means that if Scarlett failes to qurify for WCS Korea challenger league tomorrow,she can play WCS NA season1 Premier League?
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On April 11 2013 02:26 Branman wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:15 Tobblish wrote:The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool. Flash dammit so I guess no one would ever want to play in Korea again, good or bad. Now we can maybe get a good scene in EU and NA without SC2 Pros that can only have the world Pro because they stream. But.. This distribution Each Regional WCS League Season - $100,000
Each Global Season Finals - $150,000
WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon - $250,000 I don't get how the 32player prize pool could be 50k LESS than the 16player pool. You have to finish top 5 in your region, so you already have made money from the Region and then you get a piece of an even BIGGER pool... Hopefully Blizzard will fix this because this is a serious problem. This isn't a problem. If the prize distribution for Code S is the exact same as it was before for players placing 32nd-6th, then nothing has changed in terms of prestige. The top 6 will get to go to a finals event and take in even more guaranteed prize money.
Ye thats a big if however and I would really like to see a little cut to the ones in Code A or contender division...(fuck these Riot names)
You could even argue why the top 6/5 should receive anything from the regional pool else than a seed to the bigger pool.
Edit hell even they wont.
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I went directly to Battlenet's thread and I found this,
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1c1slt/my_views_on_wcsregional_based_leagues_region/
which are some opinions from Catz about the subject.
I won't say if I agree or disagree with his points, but they deserve to be read in my opinion: coming from a guy who believes foreigner players to be generally quite lazy and arrogant (there are a lot of exception, though... like in everything) Catz's post made me reflect.
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Can players change their World Championship Series region at any point during the year?
For the 2013 World Championship Series only, there will be an optional, one-time region change between Season 1 and Season 2. Players who would like to compete in another region in Season 2 will need to play in the Season 1 Qualifier and Challenger Division of the region they are looking to switch to. This will essentially mean that there will be players finishing their Season 1 commitments in their current region, while establishing their position in a new region.Any requests for exceptions must be submitted to Blizzard and will be considered.
This is so confusing.
So, basically.. for Season 1, a player can participate in the KR Code A qualifiers and participate in the "Code A" qualifiers (still Season 1) of a different region, assuming he decides to switch in Season 2? Huh. I bet a lot of people would've been happy to know that yesterday..
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The big problem with WCS is the complete lack of clarity and accessible information. We have seen this over and over again. The tournament was announced when? April 3rd? It has been a week since these and the confusing is beyond belief. Axiom is doing a 180 as a cause of the confusion and Western Wolves has also stated lack of information. Why you would announce something on this scale and force teams to make tremendous decisions with the span of ~2 weeks while information is lacking and confusing; is beyond my belief.
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GOMtv represents ESF and therefore the players. So why are they allowing Blizzard to fuck the players in the ass? They better do something more with the GSTL or side events otherwise I could see a lot of ESF players retire.
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The big issue I have with the system is that it's the same for a country and two continents. You can't just have a Code A-esque qualifier in, say, Germany and expect everyone from the EU to show up. I feel like they need to split it up more.
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On April 11 2013 02:34 Ljas wrote:
The big issue I have with the system is that it's the same for a country and two continents. You can't just have a Code A-esque qualifier in, say, Germany and expect everyone from the EU to show up. I feel like they need to split it up more.
Ofc they can, it's a bit of travel yes in Europe for a lot of people but if you want to try out for the big league it shouldn't come on a silver platter.
But I in all honestly doubt it will ever be a offline qualifier for NA/EU region, it will be online the after that it will be offline.
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It also will be some issues for current WCS GSL S1. for players droped from S32 like MC (or Taeja Hyun possible), it's really no meaning to continue their Code A, it will open a door for throwing away matches. How GSL will handle this situation?
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On April 11 2013 02:37 Tobblish wrote:
Ofc they can, it's a bit of travel yes in Europe for a lot of people but if you want to try out for the big league it shouldn't come on a silver platter.
But I in all honestly doubt it will ever be a offline qualifier for NA/EU region, it will be online the after that it will be offline.
Of course it shouldn't, but it's not a two hour drive from almost everywhere in the region like it is in Korea.
And they did say the ultimate goal is to move it entirely offline.
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On April 11 2013 02:39 Ljas wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:37 Tobblish wrote:
Ofc they can, it's a bit of travel yes in Europe for a lot of people but if you want to try out for the big league it shouldn't come on a silver platter.
But I in all honestly doubt it will ever be a offline qualifier for NA/EU region, it will be online the after that it will be offline. Of course it shouldn't, but it's not a two hour drive from almost everywhere in the region like it is in Korea. And they did say the ultimate goal is to move it entirely offline.
And they did say this is a 10year long commitment thing 
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On April 11 2013 02:32 MavivaM wrote:I went directly to Battlenet's thread and I found this, http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1c1slt/my_views_on_wcsregional_based_leagues_region/which are some opinions from Catz about the subject. I won't say if I agree or disagree with his points, but they deserve to be read in my opinion: coming from a guy who believes foreigner players to be generally quite lazy and arrogant (there are a lot of exception, though... like in everything) Catz's post made me reflect.
I read some of that (it was too long, even though well written and on point) before skipping to the bottom. Those few lines should probably be in the OP, because, ultimately that's the crux of this. You have some tournaments afraid of losing their sponsorships, and they're willing to risk losing the scene over it. While tournaments are worrying about viewers and how many thousands they will make, players are left wondering if they will simply make anything. Given this direction, players would be better off starting their own tournaments than playing.
Edit: thought this was a different thread.
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About when NA and EU will be all offline : I came to the conclusion that it will not be this year, but in 2014.
I assume that EG-TL wants to keep competing in ProLeague* and that Axiom-Acer wants the same for GSTL, hence, if they have chosen to put their players in WCS Europe or WCS America, it's because they are certain that there will be no conflict between those different commitment. Am I right ?
(The other solution would be that EG, TL, Axiom and Acer made a choice without being aware exactly of what will happen because of Blizzard silliness — ans that shit will hit the fan when WCS EU or WCS AM will be all offline events...)
* Actually, I'm quite sure about it.
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On April 11 2013 02:33 Xacez wrote:
The big problem with WCS is the complete lack of clarity and accessible information. We have seen this over and over again. The tournament was announced when? April 3rd? It has been a week since these and the confusing is beyond belief. Axiom is doing a 180 as a cause of the confusion and Western Wolves has also stated lack of information. Why you would announce something on this scale and force teams to make tremendous decisions with the span of ~2 weeks while information is lacking and confusing; is beyond my belief.
I think the rules simply weren't ready. Blizzard wanted to take advantage of the energy and attention around launch. Waiting for the next season of GSL would push the tournament 3 months backwards. It has led to everything being rushed and a lack of clarity. Hopefully the kinks will be worked out over time.
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On April 11 2013 02:51 m0ck wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:33 Xacez wrote:
The big problem with WCS is the complete lack of clarity and accessible information. We have seen this over and over again. The tournament was announced when? April 3rd? It has been a week since these and the confusing is beyond belief. Axiom is doing a 180 as a cause of the confusion and Western Wolves has also stated lack of information. Why you would announce something on this scale and force teams to make tremendous decisions with the span of ~2 weeks while information is lacking and confusing; is beyond my belief. I think the rules simply weren't ready. Blizzard wanted to take advantage of the energy and attention around launch. Waiting for the next season of GSL would push the tournament 3 months backwards. It has led to everything being rushed and a lack of clarity. Hopefully the kinks will be worked out over time.
I doubt they'd push it backwards. Which is exactly why it might have been announced in a bit of a rush, so teams and players know as early as possible and get the chance to react. But whatever, of course mistakes will be made.
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If only THESE questions were answered with the initial announcement. I hate blizzard!!!
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On April 11 2013 02:47 Serimek wrote:About when NA and EU will be all offline : I came to the conclusion that it will not be this year, but in 2014. I assume that EG-TL wants to keep competing in ProLeague* and that Axiom-Acer wants the same for GSTL, hence, if they have chosen to put their players in WCS Europe or WCS America, it's because they are certain that there will be no conflict between those different commitment. Am I right ? (The other solution would be that EG, TL, Axiom and Acer made a choice without being aware exactly of what will happen because of Blizzard silliness — ans that shit will hit the fan when WCS EU or WCS AM will be all offline events...) * Actually, I'm quite sure about it.
I suspect they have not made a final choice yet, and that whole news report is based on preliminary information.... or shit will hit the fan, and Blizzard has to do something.
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On April 11 2013 02:18 Megiddosc wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:14 Killmouse wrote:
A detailed explanation of how the prize pool breaks down by placement will be published later this week. Please note: Blizzard has not announced this information to date.
"
good to know hopefully wont be as top heavy as rumors say Didn't 2gd already show the prize money distribution? It was like $35,000 for 1st and a whopping $300 for Ro32. What a joke :___:
Those reports are wrong.
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haha im gonna wait until we have full information on this matter before im reaching for the pitchfork :D
so much confusion!!
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On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft.
I love it when TL writers post overly neutral and elliptical one-liners like this one.
Here's mine:
"Tomorrow will be another day for Starcraft."
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On April 11 2013 03:26 ZenithM wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft. I love it when TL writers post overly neutral and elliptical one-liners like this one. Here's mine: "Tomorrow will be another day for Starcraft."
''No one knows what the future holds for Starcraft''
In other news. I've decided that I'm positive to the changes, albeit conservatively so.
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Vancouver14381 Posts
On April 11 2013 02:09 syllogism wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 02:01 Sithril wrote:
GSL loosing a big chunk (38%) of its prize pool??? And not being able to add to it their OWN finances?! Is Blizzard trying to undermine Korea or what?
How did Gom and OGN agree to this?!! It would be awesome if someone interviewed them :-( Nothing is stopping them from running other tournaments. Well, besides possibly their own finances...
Didn't Blizzard say specifically that you can't run an event parallel to WCS? So when Gom does S1, OGN can't run a SC2 event that broadcasts on the same day as Gom. And when OGN does OSL for S2, Gom can't do anything.
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On April 11 2013 03:26 ZenithM wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft. I love it when TL writers post overly neutral and elliptical one-liners like this one. Here's mine: "Tomorrow will be another day for Starcraft."
With enemies you know where they stand but with neutrals, who knows!?
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Note that the faq says eu qualifiers will begin on april 14th pacific time (so april 15th in europe). That's not true according to esl's qualifier event as it will start 2 pm CET on april 14th, just wanted to put that out...
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I feel that when they want NA and EU to be offline they should UNNERF gsl and osl.
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I cant be the only one thiking that the old WCS 2012 Structure was way better for a regional promotion of players BY FAR.
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On April 11 2013 02:44 playa wrote:I read some of that (it was too long, even though well written and on point) before skipping to the bottom. Those few lines should probably be in the OP, because, ultimately that's the crux of this. You have some tournaments afraid of losing their sponsorships, and they're willing to risk losing the scene over it. While tournaments are worrying about viewers and how many thousands they will make, players are left wondering if they will simply make anything. Given this direction, players would be better off starting their own tournaments than playing. Edit: thought this was a different thread.
Thats a good point. Seems like the tournaments, sponsors etc are rubbing one on eachother to make sure they make most money possible. Granted, that tournaments are the thing that keeps the scene going, but it seems to me that the are forgetting that PLAYERS too, are what makes the scene grow. As an upcoming european or american player you might as well forget about WCS altogether, with these brackets. This is basicly a tournament about which koreans that will qualify. (It usually is, but they didn't make it easier for the EU/NA guys)
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Have they answered at all what's going to be used to determine fifth place for each regional? A bracket or what?
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On April 11 2013 01:03 duoform wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft. And hopefully everything goes smoothly and according to plan..
I wish they waited a year before doing something as drastic as this in HOTS's first year. Hopefully it works out!
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i am very confused unfortunately about GSL Code A/B/S and WCS. is it the same thing now?
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No borders. Open your mind.
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Is the prize pool the same across all regions or do partners put in additional prize money on top of the Blizzard prize money?
All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution. The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool.
Yay, GSL is officially ruined!
Sigh. Thanks Blizz.
I mean it was already kinda the case with a big chunk of "important" Koreans abandoning it for WCS NA/EU, but now it is just fact that there is no advantage to playing in KR at all (aside from not having to travel), the prestige is lost and no doubt more players will switch over the coming months or going into next year. The greatest leagues in SC2 (because it affects OSL as well) are no longer the sickest gathering of elite players, just a sect of players who were stubborn enough not to switch (or forced not to).
Why would GOM/OGN go along with this when it's only going to hurt them?? I mean, it's great for MLG/IEM, but...?
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So has it been cleared by now why the switching players must play in the first season qualifier of the region they are switching to? Doesn't that mean that players who failed in the GSL like MC get two chances are participating in the first season of WCS (in Korea and in Europe)?
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On April 11 2013 04:56 MCXD wrote:Show nested quote +Is the prize pool the same across all regions or do partners put in additional prize money on top of the Blizzard prize money?
All of the regional leagues will have identical prize pools and point distribution. The partners will not be adding additional prize money to the prize pool. Yay, GSL is officially ruined! Sigh. Thanks Blizz. I mean it was already kinda the case with a big chunk of "important" Koreans abandoning it for WCS NA/EU, but now it is just fact that there is no advantage to playing in KR at all (aside from not having to travel), the prestige is lost and no doubt more players will switch over the coming months or going into next year. The greatest league s in SC2 (because it affects OSL as well) are no longer the sickest gathering of elite players, just a sect of players who were stubborn enough not to switch (or forced not to). Why would GOM/OGN go along with this when it's only going to hurt them?? I mean, it's great for MLG/IEM, but...?
Possibly because there is no money in hosting SC2 tournaments in Korea?
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So the qualifier in the KR-region is GSL, in the NA region it's MLG? What about EU? IEM?
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I love the sc2 official league, even though GSL have global in the name, it's so few foreigners in it. Maybe the future will have 3 regions stacked with koreans, but as it looks right now atleast there will be some space in the european zone for foreigners.
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On April 11 2013 01:45 m0ck wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 01:33 ch33psh33p wrote:On April 11 2013 01:32 Marconos wrote:On April 11 2013 01:29 Ben... wrote:
Blizzard did not think this through at all.
GSL is about to lose a huge number of very popular players, the NA scene is now irrelevant, and they made it so there is no reason to compete in GSL anymore. Why play in the toughest tournament when you can make just as much money in an easier one? Look down the road not at your feet. It appears to weaken things some now but the goal is a stronger competition around the world. 2 - 3 year down the road EU or NA could be the powerhouse. That is the end goal, develop the markets. What? You don't build infrastructure around EU and NA by gutting the KR scene completely. At the moment, big amounts of money are funneled from outside of Korea to SK in salarys, transportion costs and prizes. Right now, sponsor money that could be used to the benefit of players outside of SK is instead spent on players in SK. There is a pretty massive subsidization going on. The SC2 scene in SK needs to grow its own scene in order to support the current amount of SC2 pro gamers in Korea. I don't mean to say that that is "unfair". But it is probably not a healthy system either. Most likely there will be a culling of heads of Korean SC2 progamers. I don't see anything wrong with that. At the moment there are many more Korean progamers than in EU/US put together.
This needs to be quoted, since it is true.
Yes, GSL is losing significance. But thats nothing bad, just something new. There is a lot of change going on atm and it scares people, as change always does. If the Korean scene is strong it will be able to carry itself.
Also, as soon as premier and challenger leagues are completely offline in EU and NA, there will be sort of a region lock.
I really hope this happens as soon as possible, because this will actually be a huge step forward for everyone, who wants the foreign scene to develop.
Every Korean who wants to move permanently will be welcome, of course. But just flying somewhere for a weekend and taking all the prize money away from "the locals" that could have been used to develop the "local" scene will not be possible anymore, at least as far as WCS-events are concerned.
Other than that, lets hope that the prize money distribution is as anti-top-heavy as possible.
I think Blizzard is moving into the right direction.
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just like anything else the more information that gets released the more questions that are raised...
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+ Show Spoiler +I am getting depressed. Blizzard is not riot. Blizzard cannot be Riot. Blizzard relied on the Korean scene and was happy to use broodwars success as a way to launch sc2, and now they're trying to put everything under their umbrella. WCS will never be more prestigious than GSL or Proleague. I am worried that they are going to fucking ruin our scene with thier ineptitude, and they're going to steam-roll ahead with their plan no matter how retarded it is.
-sky is falling- ber.
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How exactly is the Korean scene destroyed? The way I understand it, GOM can still make an event that is non code S/A/B related and players can play in that. Somthing like the Super Tournament.
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
I want to know why Gom/OGN/MLG/ESL aren't allowed (or why they will not) add prize money of their own. Code A meaning a semi-regular payday was a great thing, and it's very sad that it's gone.
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People think that the Koreans that come to NA to take our money will be able to maintain their skill level. I wonder if this will be the case. I think its the team houses, discipline and the competition on the Korean ladder that make good players, not simply being Korean. Koreans coming over here will be giving up a lot of what made them great to do that. I predict a slow steady decline of these players that switch.
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On April 11 2013 05:55 shockaslim wrote:
How exactly is the Korean scene destroyed? The way I understand it, GOM can still make an event that is non code S/A/B related and players can play in that. Somthing like the Super Tournament.
The question is not if they can but if they will.
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On April 11 2013 05:56 Zealously wrote:
I want to know why Gom/OGN/MLG/ESL aren't allowed (or why they will not) add prize money of their own. Code A meaning a semi-regular payday was a great thing, and it's very sad that it's gone.
I would presume that Blizzard was concerned that the different vendors would try and sweeten the pot to entice players to play in their region and thus undermine the principal behind the WCS. Unfortunately for Blizzard, the majority of the community seems to think that was already accomplished by region locking issues.
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My immediate thought was that Blizzard wants to have their cake and eat it to. They want to have both situations available for the WCS NA/EU Korean stomp-
A) NA/EU Players actually get better, and people actually watch (best case scenario). Since they didn't officially say that offline competition will be extended in Season 2, they can postpone it to allow teams to have more time to find accomodations.
B) NA/EU Players get stomped, and viewership/foreigner participation plummets (Most likely, logical scenario). They can automatically make Season 2's offline a week long or even more, and force the "soft" region lock they're trying to have now into a "hard" region lock due to a two week long offline portion.
They're playing chicken, hoping that they'll end up correct in the long run. Even though literally every ounce of logic and viewership numbers go against them, they hope that not only will NA players magically get better over the course of a WCS season, but that viewers will keep watching when they don't and all fall out of the competition.
But hey, at least they gave everyone the ability to run off to another WCS region at the end of Season 1. How 'bout that?
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Everything that we talk about the tournament are based on assumption. Let set aside all the suggestions and move on and let the tournament run for 2013, and see if there is any facts to support our suggestions.
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so confusing that I have no idea wtf is going on with this league tbh.
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The format is rubbish. The GSL (now WCS KR) is going to have a final 4 playing for a very small amount of money (compared to the past) and they'll already be locked into the regional final for the season. The ro4 and finals, which used to be the high points of the SC2 world, are now going to be an irrelevance almost. And where is the final spot going to come from?
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
On April 11 2013 00:30 Kinky wrote:
This is going to be an interesting year for Starcraft.
Can't wait.
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this is a fucking mess. Quite honestly everyone would benefit more from going back to 2012's formats and tournaments.
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Rasism is not the solution people. Love your heroes for how the play the game, not the color of their skin.
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Blizzard must have a vice like grip on the Korean scene for them to accept this.
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On April 11 2013 00:59 hellokittySC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR.. haha thanks for pointing that out johnclark(and it's good to see you're alive). you never know if a foreigner may rise to the top and beat all the koreans like stephano did to live the american dream :D
Is'nt KR vs KR vs KR what we want to see??? Not some phoney "I'm here because they gave me this spot even though I don't deserve to be here" match up. Who CARES if it ALL KR! If they are the best players then by all means, they should have all the placements. Nothing is so degrading as to be seeded in to a league higher than your own, only to be beaten silly your first match.
Get over the "all KR" thing. They are, or were, more entertaining anyhow. I also see non-Koreans closing the gap some day anyways. But the only way to be sure is to have honest competition. Not 3 different leagues that only meet at the final 16. Especially if all 16 players would have come from just one of the three leagues if the competition were an honest one.
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I wonder how this in region flight compensation works. Can koreans just get a ticket to hawaii and the rest free for NA? How about russia for europe? Its a very vague rule, they should have just put a maximum flight compensation
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On April 11 2013 07:01 Archerofaiur wrote:
Rasism is not the solution people. Love your heroes for how the play the game, not the color of their skin.
This. But with better spelling. (Yes. my sig is purposely misspelled.)
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So, iirc Nazgul said in the other thread that Taeja originally wanted to pick at the end of this season, then they got the info they have to pick now so he picked NA, but would compete in KR and not in NA this season ... now this faq update seems to indicate that in this case he has to play the qualifiers in NA in the first season ... this kind of sounds like they are really bad at communicating the conditions to the teams.
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Next time something like this comes up, the following should be done immediately:
A huge skype conference with blizzard officials (and those of the tournament organizers) and all team organizers, one from each team. One official will offer a live audiostream to the public, giving other team organisers, the players on the team, and people from the press the opportunity to listen to it. Should they have questions, they can always forward them to their respective representant. And the conference will not end until all questions are answered, some objections will definitely still be left, but it is important that there are no more questions.
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On April 11 2013 07:25 Lesmoth wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 00:59 hellokittySC2 wrote:On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR.. haha thanks for pointing that out johnclark(and it's good to see you're alive). you never know if a foreigner may rise to the top and beat all the koreans like stephano did to live the american dream :D Is'nt KR vs KR vs KR what we want to see??? Not some phoney "I'm here because they gave me this spot even though I don't deserve to be here" match up. Who CARES if it ALL KR! If they are the best players then by all means, they should have all the placements. Nothing is so degrading as to be seeded in to a league higher than your own, only to be beaten silly your first match. Get over the "all KR" thing. They are, or were, more entertaining anyhow. I also see non-Koreans closing the gap some day anyways. But the only way to be sure is to have honest competition. Not 3 different leagues that only meet at the final 16. Especially if all 16 players would have come from just one of the three leagues if the competition were an honest one.
The biggest problem isn't KR vs KR vs KR, even though I think you can make the case that that isn't what's best for the scene.
But the bigger problem is that now we're getting all Koreans playing each other BUT they have to region lock themselves for the rest of the year. Another big problem is that in this current system, there is very little reason for any foreigner to even TRY and qualify for the GSL (WCS KR).
What I don't like about the new WCS system is that it's very restrictive and will mean I won't see a lot of my favorite players playing in the most prestigious Korean tournaments (including Huk and Naniwa) and they'll be blocked from either MLG or IEM as well, depending on what region they choose.
I think Blizzard needs to restate what their whole goal for the WCS is. I think they're now thinking, "we want to consolidate the leagues so that there's a coherent storyline during the year resulting in a 'world champion' every season." But that wasn't what we needed the most. What we needed more was some way to strengthen the regional scenes and develop the players there AND increase prize pool money for all players in ALL regions (including Korea).
And with this new system, we are undermining the NA and EU player scene AND reducing the GSL Code A and Code S prize disbursements. NA and EU prize money might go up now, but it looks like foreign Koreans are going to win most or all of that money.
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I hate blizzard for ruining the GSL. First the price pool is much smaller, second we wont have more than 2 GSLs a year... And most importantly we will never see the very best players playing against each other.
Basically they are stealing the spotlight from GSL and are putting it on the "Grand final" at Blizzcon... How convenient.
And wtf is that shit with the equal price pools ? Since when Europe=Korea=NA ?
Also that region locking looks like a complete bullshit to me. I mean, they are doing it wrong. Either they should make it based on citizenship, or they should make it open worldwide tour. The second option is the best if you ask me...
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I googled to see if TotalBiscuit had any thoughts on this trainwreck of a tournament since he always has well developed thoughts and opinions. I was trying to find a place to post this out of all the threads posted all over the place and this seems like the best place.
https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/my-thoughts-on-wcs
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On April 11 2013 07:50 Jacmert wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 07:25 Lesmoth wrote:On April 11 2013 00:59 hellokittySC2 wrote:On April 11 2013 00:58 ES_JohnClark wrote:On April 11 2013 00:31 hellokittySC2 wrote:
i hope blizzard is willing to change the format if they see korea represents korea, europe, and america for wcs finals IF??.... its already a done deal that you will see KR vs. KR vs. KR.. haha thanks for pointing that out johnclark(and it's good to see you're alive). you never know if a foreigner may rise to the top and beat all the koreans like stephano did to live the american dream :D Is'nt KR vs KR vs KR what we want to see??? Not some phoney "I'm here because they gave me this spot even though I don't deserve to be here" match up. Who CARES if it ALL KR! If they are the best players then by all means, they should have all the placements. Nothing is so degrading as to be seeded in to a league higher than your own, only to be beaten silly your first match. Get over the "all KR" thing. They are, or were, more entertaining anyhow. I also see non-Koreans closing the gap some day anyways. But the only way to be sure is to have honest competition. Not 3 different leagues that only meet at the final 16. Especially if all 16 players would have come from just one of the three leagues if the competition were an honest one. The biggest problem isn't KR vs KR vs KR, even though I think you can make the case that that isn't what's best for the scene. But the bigger problem is that now we're getting all Koreans playing each other BUT they have to region lock themselves for the rest of the year. Another big problem is that in this current system, there is very little reason for any foreigner to even TRY and qualify for the GSL (WCS KR). What I don't like about the new WCS system is that it's very restrictive and will mean I won't see a lot of my favorite players playing in the most prestigious Korean tournaments (including Huk and Naniwa) and they'll be blocked from either MLG or IEM as well, depending on what region they choose. I think Blizzard needs to restate what their whole goal for the WCS is. I think they're now thinking, "we want to consolidate the leagues so that there's a coherent storyline during the year resulting in a 'world champion' every season." But that wasn't what we needed the most. What we needed more was some way to strengthen the regional scenes and develop the players there AND increase prize pool money for all players in ALL regions (including Korea). And with this new system, we are undermining the NA and EU player scene AND reducing the GSL Code A and Code S prize disbursements. NA and EU prize money might go up now, but it looks like foreign Koreans are going to win most or all of that money.
There are a few failings with your argument:
1) While WCS KR might be the most prestigious, WCS NA with this amount of Korean presence isn't very far behind. Seeing Huk play 2 games in GSL every 3-4 months is hardly note worthy. It might be for you if you are a huge fan of Huk, but most peoples are just regular fans of Huk, who would love to see more of him playing rather than just practicing in some foreign country.
2) This might be restrictive by last few year's standards, but this is a MUST for continued growth in SC2. You're not supposed to see people play in different regions. If you're in Korea you play in Korea, if you're in NA you play in NA. Then at the end, you have a showdown for the best of each region. Having said that, they obviously couldn't do that this year because it would be an even worse catastrophe. It's clear by Blizzard's tone that they want to build LOCAL hubs in each region where teams and players will practice and play. Seoul for KR, San Fran for NA, and somewhere in Germany for EU. Let's not forget that in the HEIGHT of BW in Korea, there was only TWO tournaments (MSL and OSL) and ONE teamleague. And the only way to get access to these leagues is through obtaining a licsense by winning courage (which was EXTREMELY difficult, on par with qualifying for Code A, except only one spot for each tournament). That's not to say that this is the best we can strive for, but it says that you don't need 50 tournaments to have a successful business model for players.
3) In the short term, a few KR players may win the NA/EU prizes, but in the long term once residence is required (or at least most of the Ro32 is required to be played offline), that will even up. Not to mention that without opening the NA to some Koreans, it loses viewers, legitimacy, and it will end up being a showdown between Polt and Violet for the next 2-3 years. It will then eventually fail and crumble, and we all go back to waking up at 5am EST to watch some good Starcraft. Having a successful event with lots of viewers and building the brand here in NA is the most important thing. Growing players locally is great for sustained growth and maintaining presence. If you look at BW, the top 32 from 2000-2002 is different from 2002-2004 which was totally different from 2008-2010. You need constant emergence of new players. How? By building infrastructure that is based on a successful model. If you lock NA right NOW, you get 30 mediocre players, Polt, and Violet. You get shitty play, and maybe (or maybe not) in a year or 2, one or two might be good enough to challenge the rest of the Korean scene. You need to infuse just the right amount of top-end competition so that players aspire to be much better, while also having hope that they can win.
We already have a set of players, let's focus on them getting better, and let's focus on building a successful event with high viewership, so that next year we can say it makes sense to build a studio in San Fran and open up 12 team houses. Then Polt, Violet, and whoever want's to come to NA can and by having to live in NA, will help boost the skill level of the people around them. One thing people seem to forget about competition is that you'll only be as good as you need to.
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On April 11 2013 07:01 Archerofaiur wrote:
Rasism is not the solution people. Love your heroes for how the play the game, not the color of their skin.
Thats the main difference and biggest problem in sc2. in wc3 and scbw all heroes had different play style. In sc2 exactly nobody, all play the same.
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So, just to clarify something: with all this WCS stuff, does this mean there's just no more OSL at all, or what?
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I knew Blizzard would screw this up.
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EPT
