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I'm seeing a lot of comments from people who are disappointed that we did not share the exact plans for WCS 2014. To clarify, we did not intend for this to be an announcement, or an announcement of an announcement for that matter  The reality is that we are still finalizing the details of WCS 2014 with our partners, however, we did not want to wait until everything was finalized before letting you know some of the things we were discussing. We want to give the community an opportunity to provide feedback before we locked down the specific details. We have outlined most of our plans and ideas in some of our answers, but haven't fully committed to any of the decisions because we want to hear from the community. Our goal is to confirm and announce the plans for WCS 2014 before BlizzCon. That gives you at least a week to give us your input on what we've shared! Thanks again for your support! -kimaphan |
Hi Kim! Thanks for this Q&A, I find it really informative and I am really looking forward to seeing what you guys decide to do in 2014
I for one would love to see a residential region lock for 2014 with an exemption made of course for those not in any of the three regions. I also support getting rid of the season finals as well as having only three seasons in total. Saying that, We are going to see a lot less of our favorite players in WCS, I don't know how to you could give more screen time to these players but that would be great ha ha. Bo5's instead maybe? idk.
My ultimate wish list item would be for you guys to create a whole new Asia(Oceania) region for all the players over there but I do realize the difficulties in doing so. The infrastructure may not be there as well as viewership number among other things so your money should probably be invested somewhere else... for now
Anyway, GL and may the force be with you!
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On October 16 2013 08:19 MarcusWC wrote:Hi Kim! Thanks for this Q&A, I find it really informative and I am really looking forward to seeing what you guys decide to do in 2014 I for one would love to see a residential region lock for 2014 with an exemption made of course for those not in any of the three regions. I also support getting rid of the season finals as well as having only three seasons in total. Saying that, We are going to see a lot less of our favorite players in WCS, I don't know how to you could give more screen time to these players but that would be great ha ha. Bo5's instead maybe? idk. My ultimate wish list item would be for you guys to create a whole new Asia(Oceania) region for all the players over there but I do realize the difficulties in doing so. The infrastructure may not be there as well as viewership number among other things so your money should probably be invested somewhere else... for now Anyway, GL and may the force be with you!
It doesn't have to have a $100,000 prizepool per season, nor the same amount of WCS points as the other regions - I think viewership won't be bad if there is a good Chinese cast and it is well-marketed.
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I'm really not coming from a dickish place when saying that WCS just does not help but crowds and consumes the existent scene. One more tournament or league is in no way a representation of all let alone what is ideal to be offered by Blizzard toward the end of growing our scene. WCS is a hair-brained contribution which has not surprisingly been muddled even in its own execution. Please make an effective/ideal effort to support our scene. Does it look like WCS season 1 really achieved your goals? Does the scene seem to be better off for this? Be honest with yourselves, because we're already well aware, but it's on you.
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this is amazing, but it does bother me that they say the cross region play has been exciting and cause cool match ups. Honestly they haven't made anything that wouldn't be equally enjoyable if it were region locked. It's like their view is "Well they made the best out of our mistake, so it can't be that bad right?" No hate, I love Blizzard completely. That part just didn't sit well with me.
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Regarding wanting to adhere to new(er) viewers of the game, I agree with what was discussed over at the latest episode (87) of Inside the Game, in that color-coding spells according to the player's team color would be beneficial to the viewer.
Having it in a slightly weaker tint will make it so that the audience will be able to make out who casts what, but they wouldn't find the colors too distracting or nauseating. Also, limiting this function to observers only will make it so that the players themselves won't be distracted by all the different colors.
Regarding having players stay in a region during the competitive period, I know it's an expensive idea, but I'd like to see something similar to the old GOM house, where visiting players are given a room to stay in and equipment to work with during their tenure (which would be around a few months at most, or up until they lose their challenger league matches after dropping out of premiere). This would work in conjunction with the idea to have them play on the region's server, thus making it so the players who fly in from different regions would contribute to the improvement of the overall skill in the player pool for that specific region's ladder.
Regarding the amount of WCS tournaments, I agree with iNcontroL in that it would be more beneficial to have less tournaments. Blizzard's idea of taking out the regional finals is a good idea in my opinion, as logistics-wise this would allow less expenditure from both the players and the production crew themselves. Taking down the regional finals however means that there will be a lot less money to be won, so I suggest pooling the money you'd have in a regional finals into the regular WCS regional tournaments themselves. Adding money to the regular WCS seasons will make it so that you can increase the overall prize pool and thus allow more distribution on money to be earned by winning, thus making it so that players will have more motivation to stay and fight in Challenger league. Giving monetary prizes to people winning Challenger league qualification tournaments would also entice more players to want to improve their skill level so that they have a better shot at winning.
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First off, I actually do like WCS and am really appreciative of all that Blizzard has invested into the SCII e-sports scene. I also think it's awesome that Kim Phan is interacting with TL like this and have absolutely no clue why there's so much complaining about the interview.
When we launched WCS 2013, our main goal was to create a global system that was capable of identifying the undisputed, best StarCraft II player on the planet, and we did this by creating a unified structure for major StarCraft II competition happening in the world.
This is the one thing with WCS I don't quite get or agree with, for two reasons:
1)It seems like strange goal in that I don't particularly see the importance of it, and, given the competitiveness of players at the highest level, I don't think a single tournament can exactly determine that anyways. (Will the winner of Blizzcon be the undisputed best player in the world? Probably not)
2)More importantly, this was the function that GSL Code S has fulfilled in the past. The winner of Code S has been universally recognized as winning not only the most difficult tournament, but winning a tournament that is as close as reasonably possible to the hardest tournament possible at a given time. Perhaps it would be different for someone who comes into the scene with WCS as the main entity, but as someone who is used to a world where Code S is the premier tournament, it is a bit saddening to see GSL lose a bit of its prestige. (less prize pool, top players leaving for AM/EU, rebranding as a qualifier).
For changes, I agree with most of what NovemberstOrm says here:
On October 15 2013 18:57 NovemberstOrm wrote:I think WCS 2014 needs to put more emphasis on the korean scene by: - Letting OSL/GSL run their tournaments - More local development/support for smaller tournaments in korea General thoughts - Increase prize pools, more spread out prize distribution - Region locking whether that's just through residency or locking players out of a region based their nationality i think the former would be the correct decision IMO. -More content so we can get to know the lesser known talent so storylines can be created early around such players( stuff like what TL is doing is amazing: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=430726 ) - Better scheduling
Blizzard doing player spotlight type things that they can show before WCS broadcasts or during breaks would be amazing. Sharing player's storylines, their struggles and motivations and dreams, with the audience makes the whole scene much more meaningful to watch (Storylines are created primarily through the players, not the tournaments). If you can get people to root for a specific player, then they'll want to follow the player, thus creating more interest in the scene. For me personally, I don't even care about quality/entertainment of gameplay; I just want to see the players that I favour do well.
Also, if region locking does go through, I think it would be cool for Blizzard to support some sort of 'Code B Cup' to give all the players in Korea who are quite skilled, but couldn't make it into Code A, a chance to establish themselves.
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Its sad that this thread is kinda dead after a day, despite the fact that Blizzard pointed out reading this and even responded a couple of times and the "What's The Problem" thread is bumped ever 5 minutes since September.
Looks like bitching is more fun than thinking about solutions about one of the "problems".
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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.
I think this is a good start.
Four seasons was too much and could have killed other important tournaments or bury them. Giving more importance to other tournaments like IEM, DH or ASUS would be really nice too.
The linear approach is nice, if challenger league takes place before premier I think makes people lose interest in challenger. Challenger also should reward a bit more points and money, I think this would be good for players and viewers.
Clarifying schedules also benefits viewers a lot, the WCS homepage is good, but It can improve their information to make more viewers tune in.
Removing season finals is good because now sometimes they feel anticlimatic and they are taking protagonism on regionals.
In my opinion, there is some kind of region lock needed. All regions need their heroes, this benefits better viewerships. If people is watching that every season a korean comes a week to another region and takes the whole tournament, they'll lose interest. Citizenship would be too harsh, but residency should be a must. It's cool having ForGG or MC living in Europe, learning english and participating in WCS EU. But if too much players change regions, specially koreans (they are a step over the rest of the world, obviously), this only hurts WCS EU and WCS America. This means less money for foreign players, foreign teams and also hurts the foreign scene and viewership building, making more difficult to go pro in those regions.
Finally, I think that these changes also need more people playing the game, players are the biggest portion of tournament viewers. Things needed have been written in TL countless times:
·Let players create automated tournaments. This would be even better if you get achievements/rewards if you win X tournaments.
·Let players create games/custom games, letting they name them, ala Brood war.
·Make game entrance regional chat default (can get changed in options).
·Make easier to find chat channels, clans or groups in game.
·Improve 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 modes and maps.
Happy to know you are trying to improve WCS, I hope you keep giving feedback to players and viewers, it's the best way to let us know you care and listen to the community.
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On October 16 2013 17:04 USvBleakill wrote:
Its sad that this thread is kinda dead after a day, despite the fact that Blizzard pointed out reading this and even responded a couple of times and the "What's The Problem" thread is bumped ever 5 minutes since September.
Looks like bitching is more fun than thinking about solutions about one of the "problems".
It is not really dead, and if you read the whole thread, people were bitching at the start, but they started to make constructive posts when they realized that Kim is in this thread.
And come on, there are a ton of suggestions here, Kim had probably read them all already, we have to wait and see if they will listen and what will be changed.
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On October 15 2013 18:13 kimaphan wrote:
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
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We'd love to get your input on where else we should refocus resources in 2014. We can't address everything at once, but what do you think are the top priorities? Growing the overall WCS prize pool? Growing the BlizzCon prize pool? Support player travel to tournament events? League/player housing? Expanding to new regions? Supporting amateur and grassroots level play? Regional tournaments/leagues?
These are just some ideas on where we could focus our resources and are not listed in any particular order. Let us know what you think should be the top priorities!
Kimaphan this will be a long post but I would like to share my opinion on your points I have quoted above. As you will see I love Starcraft and WCS 2013 was a good first step to creating a continuing legacy for this game. However it's become evident we need some changes and I am thankful Blizzard is open to community suggestions - great to see!
1. Scrap the Season finals
It never made sense to me to give more money and WCS points to the players that had just won them. I think it's a good step removing these. This gives more importance to regional finals and frees up a bit of time for events outside of WCS. There will also be more of a build up to one big yearly event (Global finals) similar to how The International operates in Dota 2. Global finals should be the flagship event to point to when talking to people who are new to SC2.
2. Scrap Challenger League (in it's current format)
I've been following Starcraft intimately for ~ 6 years and even I find the format very clunky and a little confusing. Which matches are worth watching? Some seem almost irrelevant when the loser just gets another chance in groups. If we want to build excitement and tension (the way we have with people feverishly calculating players chances at getting into Blizzcon this year) then make every broadcast of matches important. We want the audience to know exactly what the stakes are and why. If we have a Challenger system where you're either in or you're out this allows every match to be important. And for the players too they know exactly when to reach their peak performance and not have to do so as frequently with all these different Challenger matches being played. Therefore I propose having Challenger as a group stage only, a la GSL Up/Down. Then just have straight qualifers which will serve as your bracket stage.
Such a system could look like this (excuse my horrendous paint skills):
![[image loading]](http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/638/ne1x.jpg)
This image may look confusing but that's just my terrible formatting. It's actually very simple compared to the current system.
- 4 Open Qualifers with seeding based on 2014 WCS points (For Season 1 qualifers we could either seed in 2013 Season 3 Challenger leaguers at various levels or seed in based on total 2013 WCS points). This rewards previous good finishes in qualifiers or WCS main events. And means players that have talent and can gain WCS points at non-WCS events have a better shot of getting through the next qualifiers.
- Each Open Qualifer grants 4 spots to Challenger Up Down meaning 16 new players are cycled in each Season (only 8 at present).
- Players can sign up for as many qualifers as they wish. This helps reduce variance of open bracket format.
- Challenger Up Down is composed of 8 groups of 5 players: 2 from Premier Ro32, 1 from Premier Ro16 and 2 from Open Qualifers.
- 3 players advance from each group to Premier. 2 players must requalify next season (16 out).
- With 40 players in Challenger Up Down plus 8 returning Premier League players the ecosystem supports 48 players per region each season (same as current).
Another benefit is that every season starts with qualifers then Up Down then Premier league and finshes at a proper spot with the Premier League final. It makes no sence to finish a season with challenger league as they do at present. There will be a much clearer delineation between seasons.
Now, we are supporting the same number of players per season but with money saved from removing the Season finals and Challenger league we can support each player a hell of a lot more. Taking current premier prizepool of $100,000 plus Season finals money of $75,000 (it's $150,000 but split it between Europe and America) + Season finals travel costs of players + it's production costs (plus Challenger league prizepool of $4,800) we might have between $250,000-$300,000 per region per Season. An example Distribution could look like this:
![[image loading]](http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2318/8psl.jpg)
[RightClick -> View Image to see full image] *mistake - should have 9-16th under qualifer not 16-32nd
Couple of things to note..
- Premier league Ro16 losers shouldn't need an 'extra' chance like they get in the current Challenger league. Their reward for finishing higher is more cash + more WCS points.
- The reason 1st/2nd/3rd still have money + WCS points is so the players have an incentive to win every match in Up Down. There will be no meaningless matches like sometimes occurs for one player in GSL Up Down, so less chance of rigging a loss to your friend/teammate etc.
3. Scheduling
With a more streamlined WCS system and fewer WCS matches then it will be a lot easier to have regular scheduling. This is obviously beneficial for hosting non-WCS tournaments but I believe it will also be beneficial for the viewer to have a regular WCS schedule. People will know exactly when to tune in without searching calendars etc...
I've made a quick example mock up schedule:
![[image loading]](http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/6775/dbd5.jpg)
This example schedule has a full season at 14 weeks including season break, or if you combined the finals into a single week as WCS Europe does currently then you could fit a season into 10 weeks.
But, at the same time this schedule leaves Mon/Tues free for e.g. Team Leagues to be scheduled on.
Also there are week long breaks between stages which gives ample opportunity for scheduling other tournies.
4. Region Locking
Others have covered this in a lot of depth already. Basically I feel the regions should have a residential region lock (but allowing players who don't have their own WCS region). Players should commit to live in the region they are competing in for at least the duration of the season. I don't think you should have to commit for the whole year. E.g. a Korean can move to US mid-year and compete in all four of the next season's open qualifiers to try and make Challenger.
5. Korea
You'll notice I haven't mentioned Korea in any of my previous points. Others have covered the situation pretty well but basically Korea is suffering the most under the current WCS system. And with region locking they will suffer more. What I would like to see for Korea is
- Autonomy to run their own leagues, GSL and OSL. They can decide between them which players to send to the Global finals at the end of the year.
- More iterations of GSL/OSL. 3 each per year sounds about right. Assuming a system similar to current GSL, across both leagues they should be able to financially support close to 100 players per season (of course there will be overlap with some players playing both leagues). Think of it like the old MSL/OSL individual leagues running concurrently.
- More money to support this model. With a doubling of leagues in Korea from 3 to 6 we would roughly need to double the support.
- A combined proleague. The GSTL is almost farcical with how few teams there are, and Kespa league is dimished also. I would like to see all remaining teams combined into one Korean Teamleague. Matches can alternate between studios.
6. Miscellaneous Points
- Blizzard should support more regional events, e.g SEA, China, considering that they have denied the possibility of additional WCS regions.
- Blizzard should host a few fun tournaments with a prizepool. E.g. 2v2 or popular custom maps.
- To go back to the original points: ... what do you think are the top priorities?
Growing the overall WCS prize pool? Yes
Growing the BlizzCon prize pool? No
Support player travel to tournament events? No
League/player housing? Not yet but start looking into it.
Expanding to new regions? Not yet but start looking into it.
Supporting amateur and grassroots level play? Yes
Regional tournaments/leagues? Yes
7. Other possibilites for 2015 and beyond
- A European teamleague (e.g. Acer Teamstory Cup), an American teamleague (e.g. SC2L) and a Korean Teamleague, but.... region locked
tldr In conclusion:
- I believe by scrapping the Season finals and Challenger leagues Blizzard can invest a roughly similar amount as they did into America and Europe in 2013 but with this same money greatly increase support of American and European players.
- To 'save' the Korean scene Blizzard will need to invest roughly double what they did into Korea this year, especially assuming some kind of region locking.
Thanks for reading
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We need events like MLG and Ironsquid to go back in the scene. Those were awesome events my two favourite!
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Just as my opinion i think we need to Rip Sean Plott from his current job and make him your consultant as to what will be a good course of action. The guy has been around forever he has no true Bias except that he loves starcraft and he would love nothing more than to see it succeed There is my opinion
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On October 16 2013 02:11 orvinreyes wrote:
"we're looking to"
"we're planning to"
"we're still evaluating"
"we will put more thought into"
...just, ugh.
I see what you say, but is it not a good quality to carefully examine before acting and setting text in stone?
This is what they can say for now. It is good to deeply analyse before acting.
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My personal opinion:
Just lock it, keep it clean. Not another hybrid model that does harm both ways.
Foreign teams with Korean players may need to find other tournaments or medium to expose their brand.
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In order to get the message out about SC2 in mainstream media and at the same time really show the global outreach of SC2 I think I national team tournament would be a really nice addition. It could be held once a year for example and it could broadly follow the match system that Davis Cup in tennis is using with two 1v1 and one 2v2 (all Bo3). A team can consist of 2-4 players, allowing for a specialized 2v2 team. First two 1v1 are played, followed by the 2v2 and then the second round of 1v1 are played, swapping opponents. First to 3 victories wins.
World group (premier league): Contains the world's best 16 national teams. The current champion and runner up receive top seed and the other teams' ranking is based on previous performance. Direct elimination and the loser teams in the first round has to play a play off against teams from Group 1 (challenger league).
Group 1 is divided in the different regional zones: America, Europe+Africa and Asia+Oceania. This group contain 24 national teams and they play a direct elimination as well, but only within its region. The national teams from America that lost the first round in the World group would qualify against the teams from Group1 America, EU vs EU and AA vs AA.
If Group 1 gets filled, Group 2 (qualification) is established with 32 national teams and so on.
The format would allow for online competition, except for the World group finals.
Would there be enough teams? For sure! In premier league 2013 we have seen the following 26 countries represented already (in alphabetical order unless I screwed it up):
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
China
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Mexico
The Netherlands
Norway
Peru
Poland
Russia
Serbia
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan
U.K.
Ukraine
USA
Challenger league and qualifications have show a number of additional potential country representatives. Let the players put on the national team sweater and represent their country at least once a year! 
EDIT: oh, and throw in a few WCS points for the participants to promote the event as well 
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Bracket only challanger league would be so unfair!
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On October 16 2013 08:55 Lumi wrote:
I'm really not coming from a dickish place when saying that WCS just does not help but crowds and consumes the existent scene. One more tournament or league is in no way a representation of all let alone what is ideal to be offered by Blizzard toward the end of growing our scene. WCS is a hair-brained contribution which has not surprisingly been muddled even in its own execution. Please make an effective/ideal effort to support our scene. Does it look like WCS season 1 really achieved your goals? Does the scene seem to be better off for this? Be honest with yourselves, because we're already well aware, but it's on you.
Did you even read the article?
One of the most important notes was:
* Increase global viewership and reach to make SCII more popular and help grow the SCII community
* Create a unified storyline for professional competition
* Identify the top SCII players in the world by establishing a clear global ranking system
* Simplify the system by making it easier for pros and viewers to participate and follow professional StarCraft wherever they are in the world.
How much more could you possibly miss the point here? Creating a unified storyline for professional competition is the best direction the community could take. I didn't watch BW. I came into the scene when I happened to see SC2 on at MLG DC (right after launch). The Starcraft scene is remarkably daunting to get into, from the outside. "Oh there's a tournament. Surely these are the best players in the world." "Oh, there's like 100 other tournaments. I guess GSL is supposed to be the best... but then the GSL champion loses in a lesser tournament, is he still the best player? Where are the rankings for this BS?".
I know a lot of you old crotchety BW fans want to keep everything the neat little clique you had going, but that's not going to grow the scene. Having a GSL-only scene and "fuck foreigners, they suck" does nothing. There needs to be a unified ranking system, a stable, easily followable story (Current WCS really helps, but with better communication of current brackets and schedule), and probably more team support. It is FAR easier to track a team than any one of two hundred top players.
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On October 16 2013 22:03 BaneRiders wrote:In order to get the message out about SC2 in mainstream media and at the same time really show the global outreach of SC2 I think I national team tournament would be a really nice addition. It could be held once a year for example and it could broadly follow the match system that Davis Cup in tennis is using with two 1v1 and one 2v2 (all Bo3). A team can consist of 2-4 players, allowing for a specialized 2v2 team. First two 1v1 are played, followed by the 2v2 and then the second round of 1v1 are played, swapping opponents. First to 3 victories wins. World group (premier league): Contains the world's best 16 national teams. The current champion and runner up receive top seed and the other teams' ranking is based on previous performance. Direct elimination and the loser teams in the first round has to play a play off against teams from Group 1 (challenger league). Group 1 is divided in the different regional zones: America, Europe+Africa and Asia+Oceania. This group contain 24 national teams and they play a direct elimination as well, but only within its region. The national teams from America that lost the first round in the World group would qualify against the teams from Group1 America, EU vs EU and AA vs AA. If Group 1 gets filled, Group 2 (qualification) is established with 32 national teams and so on. The format would allow for online competition, except for the World group finals. Would there be enough teams? For sure! In premier league 2013 we have seen the following 26 countries represented already (in alphabetical order unless I screwed it up): Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Canada Chile China Denmark Finland France Germany Mexico The Netherlands Norway Peru Poland Russia Serbia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Taiwan U.K. Ukraine USA Challenger league and qualifications have show a number of additional potential country representatives. Let the players put on the national team sweater and represent their country at least once a year! EDIT: oh, and throw in a few WCS points for the participants to promote the event as well
Yeah agree with you. I want so much to see how Finland beats Sweden >:D
But to the point. Yes I would watch nation vs nation.
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Make it a league format with 8 players in each group. Top 2 goes into round of 8. Players have to reside in region for two weeks while their group is played. Everything offline gogo!
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@ThunderGod
I didnt read all but your "2014 Year Planner" is pretty bad for players. Too many fridays and saturdays games, this means that too many players must have forfeit/decline weekends tournaments like DH, IEM, etc. And too long, one season should takes 4 months? I prefer 3 months-> one month break (in this time DH, IEM, etc) -> next season for another 3 months....
Only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and sometimes Mondays like they are doing this wcs.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/208/ne1x.jpg/)
![[image loading]](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/dbd5.jpg/)
