Blizzard Q&A on WCS 2014 - Page 25

On October 15 2013 16:45 kimaphan wrote:

Hi Fizzy!

I'm sorry you were disappointed. I was trying to say more than what you got out of it. I'll try to summarize what we're definitely doing next year:

• Three regions (AM, EU, and KR)
  
• Three seasons instead of four to allow us to spread the schedule out
  
• Doing the above will allow us to simplify the format so that it's easier to follow. We want a more linear approach, meaning the qualifiers would take place first, then challenger, then premier league.
  
• Improve the broadcast schedule so that it's more predictable. This would mean having a set schedule for the days each of the WCS regions would broadcast, allowing you to better plan your schedule for following WCS.
  
• Removing season finals in their current form. We want there the be more spotlight on the regional finals and give other tournaments the opportunity to host events very similar to the season finals
  

For the rest of the changes, we're still in finalizing the decisions with our partners and looking forward to hearing the community feedback.

On October 16 2013 00:26 juvenal wrote:

well this is just lie. You don't do things that cost lots of money to give people a champion, a hero, out of sheer curiosity. You do it for more money. I'm ok with all that but please be honest Blizzard and do not treat us dumb, thanks.

On October 16 2013 02:33 CreationSoul wrote:
What I want gone is the "I train in Korea, I come 3 days for the offline part, take the money and then go back to get better training again" part. EU and NA don't get anything out of this.

My honest oppinion:
- residency lock (people must live in that region)
- have 3-4 spots (out of 32) be up for grabs in a qualifier for people who are not residents of that region (it's obvious it will be 4 koreans)

On October 16 2013 02:58 TaishiCi wrote:
What blizzard really can do is
-all offline premiere
-strict schedules for premiere that is linear for different regions
-better content
things like "residency" requirement is going to be avoided if possible
"citizenship" 100% won't be done so just give up on that idea

I would really like to see WCS Korea AT LEAST double in prize pool compared to the rest of the regions.

On October 15 2013 23:02 iMAniaC wrote:
First of all, I'd like to explicitly state that I was really happy with the Q&A. For me, WCS2014 went from "Anything could happen" to "These are the decisions that have been made and these are not finalized". I now know what we don't know and what we do know. I really appreciate it. Also, a Blizz representative discussing with us in the thread, makes me all happy and giddy inside You ask for our feedback, so here's mine (I'm sorry for the length; I'm not too good at being concise)

I would like to take a slightly different point of view for the discussion. Looking back at the start of 2013, it seems that the purpose of WCS EU/AM was to create a GSL-style league in Europe and America. Also, the purpose of WCS was to have a truly global league with a world champion at the end. However, at some point, those two were mixed up more than they needed to be, I think.

WCS EU/AM was great for EU and AM because it did indeed introduce a GSL-like league to the two regions. I would consider that a huge success and I certainly want to see that grow. However, for Korea, it became kind of a weird move. Korea already had a GSL, so they didn't need a GSL-like system implemented once more with WCS and the result became this weird WCS/GSL/OSL entanglement that didn't really work out, in my opinion. I think the uniqueness of the regions got overridden by the desire to have a uniform system all across the globe, where the same uniform system was not the best solution for every region. Based on that, I would like to propose that the WCS system doesn't have to be exactly the same in all regions. Instead of a top-down solution where Blizzard enforces a set system on the tournament organizers, I think it would be better with a bottom-up solution where Blizzard encourages what is already there or adds to it, like with the GSL-style WCS EU/AM, which was a successful addition to a scene which used to have only week-end LANs. If it ain't broke...

For Korea, I'd like to see less obvious involvement of Blizz in the GSL and OSL themselves. Instead of having the weird WCS/GSL/OSL entanglement, I think the leagues could exist on their own and then feed into WCS in a way that does not override the GSL and OSL brands, as it were. So the storyline is not "Player X became the WCS champion through GSL or OSL" but instead "Now, the champions from GSL and OSL will meet and compete for the title of WCS Champion". This meeting of GSL and OSL finals could be either a regional KR final or maybe they wouldn't actually meet until the World Finals.

(Also, I say "less obvious involvement" because it's pretty obvious that GOM and OGN are at their throats and that we, the public, can never know how much influence Blizzard has had over that, nor can we know how much influence Blizz will need to continue to exert. But just make it look like they're friends and let them do their thing, tournament-wise, and we'll all be happy even though we don't appreciate how muddy the relations might be. But I digress)

For Europe and America, Blizzard could continue or even perhaps step up their WCS production with ESL and NASL. Increasing production value, making it easier for players to visit/live by the studios etc. I don't know the details of how that actually works today, so I'm not going to make any detailed suggestions, but building up WCS EU/AM as the "GSL's of Europe and America" is the way to go, I think.

As for the the World Finals, I think it might be beneficial with several different routes to it; one route is by becoming a champion of a long-going tournament and another is to have gained enough points. The intuitions are there and in 2013 they were ensured by the spread of points. Having a massive amount of points for the finalists ensured that they were going to Blizzcon. However, it comes down to a very delicate act of balancing: Are we absolutely sure that the points are spread among all the different tournaments in order to ensure that the champions of those tournaments go to Blizzcon while a player who wins or places high in those and those tournaments also get a chance etc. It does work to a certain degree, but why not ensure it directly? One road to the WCS Finals is becoming a Champion, another is getting enough points. I think it could work.

Speaking of different roads to the Finals, I was surprised to see that Copa América was not included in the WCS ecosystem. I was so sure that you were trying to prepare it for inclusion for 2014. However, what about having a "back entrance" into the Finals for those regions that do not have a dedicated WCS region, or perhaps even for prestigious tournaments that are clearly outside the existing WCS ecosystem? So one or two of the slots for the Finals are dedicated to "up-and-coming" regions. Perhaps there could be a special tournament for the champions of Copa América, Vengeance Cup, TeSL, Chinese Leagues etc, from which the winner(s) go on to the WCS Finals. It would serve two goals: 1) Those cups, regions and scenes would not feel left out and the WCS would feel truly global again, and 2) it would encourage grassroots movements to keep up the quality of their tournaments or even encourage new tournaments to start up, knowing that if they become prestigious, they might become a part of WCS in a small way. I think it's great that Blizzard supports grassroots movements the way they do and hope that they will continue to do it.

Then to address the point you've surely been thinking about while reading this post: Streamlining. This doesn't seem very streamlined at all, while, on the other hand, one set of simple WCS points seems much more streamlined. However, I'd like to argue that my proposed system can indeed seem more streamlined than the points system of today. The system I propose has many roads to the Finals while the system of WCS2013 has (to continue the metaphor) one huge road with lots of lanes. You can't simply watch your specific player battling it out in his lane, you have to keep an eye on all the lanes. Does Player X go to Blizzcon? Well, that depends on what Player Y does in tournament I, player Z does in tournament J and player P does in tournament K. There is no way to follow simply a small part of the scene. It's all or nothing. With the system I propose, it's much easier to know for sure what's going on. Did player X win GSL? Yes, then he's going to Blizzcon. It's streamlined. Moreover, since another path to the Finals is through points, we will still get the "NaNiwa effect of IEM". Perhaps NaNiwa didn't win WCS EU 2014. Perhaps his only hope is to take another road to the Finals, and that road is winning IEM in 2014. It's still the same excitement and opportunities. The only change is that there are more roads to the Finals and there's a greater freedom in deciding who will get to go there because the points are not the end-all be-all of who gets to go. With that freedom, Blizz can ensure that the WCS Finals 2014 won't be another almost All-Korean tournament.

So there are 5 roads to the WCS Finals:
1) WCS Korea: Winning GSL or OSL
2) WCS Europe: Winning the tournament called WCS Europe
3) WCS America: Winning the tournament called WCS America
4) Gaining enough WCS points through competing in LANs like DreamHack, IEM etc. (or possibly also gaining WCS points within GSL/OSL/WCS EU/AM)
5) Competing in established prestigious region-specific tournaments; the "back entrance"

These are the competitors at the WCS Finals:
1) GSL Champion
2) Other top placing GSL player (perhaps season 2 winner or 2nd place?)
3) OSL Champion
4) Other top placing OSL player (perhaps season 2 winner or 2nd place?)
5) WCS EU Champion
6) Champion of prestigious region-locked European tournament? (Guaranteed non-Korean)
7) WCS AM Champion
8) Champion of prestigious region-locked American tournament? (Guaranteed non-Korean)
9) #1 ranked WCS Points
10) #2 ranked WCS Points
11) #3 ranked WCS Points
12) #4 ranked WCS Points
13) #5 ranked WCS Points
14) #6 ranked WCS Points
15) TeSL Champion (Guaranteed non-Korean)
16) Champion of the tournament between the winners of Copa América, Vengeance Cup, other regional cups etc. (Guaranteed non-Korean)

It's not perfect (like what to do to make the first season og GSL important in respect to the Finals), but a lot of problems could be solved through adjustment of player numbers for the Finals or adjustments for which slots go to what or possibly by giving WCS points within GSL/OSL/WCS EU/WCS AM as well. Perhaps it's possible for a guy who's placed 3rd in all three (or more) seasons of GSL to have enough points to go to the Finals. I don't have all the details thought out, but those are my thoughts at least. Also, by leaving the options open, one could, for instance, include prestigious tournaments that shape up during the next year. Like for instance if a US/Canada nationals-only cup starts up in February and becomes super-awesome by July, one could grant its winner a slot for the finals because there's a way around the WCS points.

Those are my two cents. Hope they contribute in some way (And sorry, again, for the length)

On October 16 2013 03:23 Incognoto wrote:
Highly dislike this though:



Really everything was fine when every tournament was a non-WCS tournament. It's like they're trying to force themselves on even MORE tournaments, I just find this distasteful (can't use "tasteless" as that would be a compliment).

We have no interest in outshining or overshadowing the various groups that have helped StarCraft grow over the many years,