UPDATE: Twitch has announced their player list for tournament, featuring Polt, Violet, Huk and Minigun among others. Full list updated in the article.
Lionsgate and OddLot Entertainment are partnering with Twitch and MLG to be the first-ever movie studio sponsorship of an esports tournament.
The Ender’s Game on Blu-ray Tournament, a first for a motion picture studio, will feature $20,000 for the best StarCraft 2 players in the United States. The companies noted that Ender’s Game, a military science fiction book and film about an alien invasion on future Earth, was perfect fit for a StarCraft 2 competition.
MLG, in partnership with GameOn, will feature 16 players including 12 invited players, with fans having the opportunity to vote on the remaining four players. Voting will take place February 3rd to 5th at http://gameon.gg/. MLG has confirmed the following players through invites: Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn, Tyler 'NonY' Wasieleski, Juan Carlos 'MajOr' Tena Lopez, Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson, Sam 'Kane' Morrissette, Ryan 'State' Visbeck, Marc-Olivier 'desRow' Proulx, Henry 'hendralisk' Zheng, Danny 'ViBE' Scherlong, Maru 'MaSa' Kim, David 'avilo' Blowe, and Victor 'Hitman' Lin.
The event will be cast by Paulo 'CatZ' Vizcarra and Steven 'Destiny' Bonnell along with other guest hosts.
I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
pretty cool and unexpected. I still wish that there would be some open tournaments in North America though. Every single tournament now is 16 players or less invite only.
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
that's what I thought at first but the invites don't match up. Kane, Desrow, and State were voted in last time. avilo and Hitman weren't in the other one at all
I think this is awesome, and it's definitely what the NS scene needs. However, it bothers me a little to scene a line up that looks almost identical to the one we had in the recent online invitational.
In future tournaments, assuming there are any, perhaps let the top 4 from the previous qualify and the rest duke it out in a bracket stage. It will give some opportunity for new players to make a name for themselves, what NA needs more than anything is new blood.
that's what I thought at first but the invites don't match up. Kane, Desrow, and State were voted in last time. avilo and Hitman weren't in the other one at all
Not sure I understand, I was saying it's a new tournament, hence the invites and vote-ins are different. They guy asking probably found an old link to the previous tournament.
On February 04 2014 01:46 FXOTheoRy wrote: pretty cool and unexpected. I still wish that there would be some open tournaments in North America though. Every single tournament now is 16 players or less invite only.
I'm with you.
There's a lot more to the NA scene than the same 20 or so pros we see always invited to these things.
On February 04 2014 01:50 Squat wrote: I think this is awesome, and it's definitely what the NS scene needs. However, it bothers me a little to scene a line up that looks almost identical to the one we had in the recent online invitational.
In future tournaments, assuming there are any, perhaps let the top 4 from the previous qualify and the rest duke it out in a bracket stage. It will give some opportunity for new players to make a name for themselves, what NA needs more than anything is new blood.
that's what I thought at first but the invites don't match up. Kane, Desrow, and State were voted in last time. avilo and Hitman weren't in the other one at all
Not sure I understand, I was saying it's a new tournament, hence the invites and vote-ins are different. They guy asking probably found an old link to the previous tournament.
oh sorry I misread what you said. I thought you were saying that the OP was talking about the old tournament for some reason. My bad
this is really nice. I watched the movie and the battlescenes actually look a bit like sc2 (or a space rts or something) but as a sc2 player i clearly thougth about it when watching
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
This is really awesome, and big thanks to Lionsgate's for getting behind this.
However it is really disappointing that again the only NA tournament around gets ALL of it's players through invites and popular vote. As a NA player trying to climb the scene there is literally NOTHING to play for. It would have really been great for a lot of people if they opened even just one or two spots to be qualified for.
On February 04 2014 01:58 MasterOfPuppets wrote: Wherein we see if MajOr's TvZ is as good as the TvT he showed against Bbyong. Otherwise, easy money for Scarlett I'd assume. ^^;
On February 04 2014 01:57 ETisME wrote: probably won't be able to catch it but gogo scarlett and major
\m/
I only really see two alternatives to that. One is if the godly HITMAN manages to knock out Scarlett again, and another is if Vibe manages to ZvZ out Scarlett. Their last meeting was an extremely close 4-3 win for Scarlett at the Red Bull NA Qualifier final.
But most likely it will be Major and Scarlett, with a possibility that State will manage to beat them out.
On February 04 2014 02:03 Valikyr wrote: NA scene needs help? Let's just make NA only tournaments and leave all other progamers to starve!
Let's just make incredible asinine statements as well while we're at it, as if this one tournament catering to NA players is going to lead to anything like you're inferring.
cant take this seriously, why dont make on open qualifier? Always the same players is pretty boring. I would rather want Incontrol as a caster than as a player, so and unkown player can take that spot.
That's a really great idea, and a good fit for promo. Sweet. (I didn't see the movie yet, but hereby pledge to rent it/buy it as soon as it releases on BluRay)
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
There is another round where the rest of the prizes will be payed out it looks like
The first round will be broadcast on Twitch from February 5th to 9th and the second round will run from February 11th to 16th on MLG.tv. The winners from each event will advance to the Ender’s Game on Blu-ray Tournament: Championship Round taking place February 22nd and airing on Twitch. The champion will walk away with a grand prize of $10,000.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
I just hope they frame Avilo into playing TvP after TvP after TvP and watch him rage.
On February 04 2014 01:58 MasterOfPuppets wrote: Wherein we see if MajOr's TvZ is as good as the TvT he showed against Bbyong. Otherwise, easy money for Scarlett I'd assume. ^^;
On February 04 2014 01:57 ETisME wrote: probably won't be able to catch it but gogo scarlett and major
\m/
I only really see two alternatives to that. One is if the godly HITMAN manages to knock out Scarlett again, and another is if Vibe manages to ZvZ out Scarlett. Their last meeting was an extremely close 4-3 win for Scarlett at the Red Bull NA Qualifier final.
But most likely it will be Major and Scarlett, with a possibility that State will manage to beat them out.
State really did not look very good in the online thingy. Given that she pretty much just roflstomped Major in the finals and took out Minigun pretty convincingly, who was looking unstoppable up until then, I'd have Scarlett as a reasonably clear favorite. I'm more worried about Hitman tbh, even though I think the significance of that loss has been ridiculously overstated.
Who knows though, she was one game away from a highly embarrassing group stage elimination twice last time. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was rust and lack of practice, but I don't think the gap is as big as it was back when she made the entire NA scene look like clowns in 2012.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
I just hope they frame Avilo into playing TvP after TvP after TvP and watch him rage.
There would be no rage after the first series, because Avilo would be knocked out. Protoss IMAB and its 100% impossible for terran to beat them after all.
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
Its titled the Ender's Game on blue-ray tourny. Dates are for Feb 11th-Feb16th.
So 5000$ or 20000$ ?....
It's 5,000$ in the MLG round (NA only), 5,000$ in the Twitch round (Plyers to tba, EU/KR?) and then 10,000$ in the Championship Round (Winners of the Twitch and MLG Round).
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
Its titled the Ender's Game on blue-ray tourny. Dates are for Feb 11th-Feb16th.
Probably a mistake then. Or Catz stole the other 15k to buy new hats for his Dota heroes.
Clear your cache it should be updated now. We're updating the brackets/voting/etc.
Do you acknowledge the issue of holding multiple NA only tournaments with 100% of allowed players pulled from invites and popular vote? Is there a reason you've chosen not to allow anyone to qualify(for even one or two spots)?
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This seems like a re-do of the NA-only tournament that just happened. I'd prefer to see 8 invited and 8 qualify. Why players like Nony, who bombed out of the MLG tournament in spectacular fashion, and Incontrol keep getting these invites is beyond me.
On February 04 2014 02:28 turdburgler wrote: if we keep inviting 75% of the players this will help the NA scene... :/
100% invite, but 25% are invited by different people. We're a democracy after all. Why turn it into a competitive sport when you can vote. Can I see the poll on who we want to win? I vote for minigun to win. Should play the tournament out through votes, too.
On February 04 2014 01:38 Munk200 wrote: I must be missing something. The title, and the OP says that its a $20,000 tourney. When i click the link http://gameon.gg/ It takes me to the tourney, and says $5,000 prize pool.
Can someone please help me out here?
That was the MLG online invitational that was played a few weeks ago, won by Scarlett. This is another tournament entirely.
This is what i see when i click on the link Gameon.gg
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
Its a tournament promoting a movie. By inviting popular people and letting us vote for the other 4 it brings popular people together that we want to watch. Maybe not everyone but many of these players have viewer bases and they bring them along to the tournament. Remember, the tourney is promoting a movie, so it only makes sense that they want as many eyes as possible.
Yeah it's ok news, but not really. People wonder why NA scene has a hard time....it's the lack of open brackets and companies only want already famous and established players so they invite the same 16 that already have success with out giving all the fresh new blood we been seeing in WCS America a chance.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
Its a tournament promoting a movie. By inviting popular people and letting us vote for the other 4 it brings popular people together that we want to watch. Maybe not everyone but many of these players have viewer bases and they bring them along to the tournament. Remember, the tourney is promoting a movie, so it only makes sense that they want as many eyes as possible.
You could argue every tournament is promoting something and want as many eyes on it as possible. That doesn't make it right to invite personalities over the best players.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
Its a tournament promoting a movie. By inviting popular people and letting us vote for the other 4 it brings popular people together that we want to watch. Maybe not everyone but many of these players have viewer bases and they bring them along to the tournament. Remember, the tourney is promoting a movie, so it only makes sense that they want as many eyes as possible.
They would not receive any less viewers if they opened up just one or two spots to be qualified for. In fact, most in this thread are asking for exactly that.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
Its a tournament promoting a movie. By inviting popular people and letting us vote for the other 4 it brings popular people together that we want to watch. Maybe not everyone but many of these players have viewer bases and they bring them along to the tournament. Remember, the tourney is promoting a movie, so it only makes sense that they want as many eyes as possible.
Every tournament wants as many eyes as possible but if you don't take the growth of the scene you're trying to advertise in consideration, you are basicly just milking it to then get out when you're done. I'm sure companies don't care, I don't expect them to, but I do expect people like CatZ (among others) to, considering previous statements.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
The obvious solution is to make it a 2 man fan vote and add 2 NA players from an open qualifer. That eliminates plenty of criticism, has plenty of names, and gives strong players the chance to climb to fame over all the old nerds just like how MLG used to be.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
So how about the top 4 from the previous tournament go direct seeds, top 5-8 go into the the final stages of the open bracket, the rest coming from a standard open bracket qualifier? Fuck it, we can go with the top 8 from the previous one right into the play-offs, just leave some window for the up and coming players who are trying to break out.
I think it's great to see Geoff, Minigun, Major and Scarlett play, but they are not exactly hurting for exposure.
You know what someone should do, is organize a tournament for this specifically. Imagine just organically creating an atmosphere where all the TL votes go to this tournament winner.
Maybe a bit far fetched but I would certainly be down for putting my vote for something like that. It'd be hard to guarantee though.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
The obvious solution is to make it a 2 man fan vote and add 2 NA players from an open qualifer. That eliminates plenty of criticism, has plenty of names, and gives strong players the chance to climb to fame over all the old nerds just like how MLG used to be.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
Since some people got a big name through the novel way, by being good, some would qualify if there were qualifiers. Honestly, this is just laziness and coddling at its finest.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
Its a tournament promoting a movie. By inviting popular people and letting us vote for the other 4 it brings popular people together that we want to watch. Maybe not everyone but many of these players have viewer bases and they bring them along to the tournament. Remember, the tourney is promoting a movie, so it only makes sense that they want as many eyes as possible.
They would not receive any less viewers if they opened up just one or two spots to be qualified for. In fact, most in this thread are asking for exactly that.
Exactly. Instead of so many invites, make half of them attainable through qualifyers. Then you have your quota of top players (that mb without an invite would never play in the qualifyers), of up and coming players (through qualifyers) and 'popular' players (through voting, or voting/invites if you want).
I don't think the pool of players would be so different, but we would have a couple of players who practice their *** off to have this kind of opportunity.
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I agree with everything said here.
The problem is you need to grow the scene but you also need people to watch the scene you have while doing it. Having young blood is all well and good but no one is going to watch a bunch of names they don't know so you bring in some well known names to join with qualified fresh blood and you get to see some good games that people watch and hopefully give new blood some exposure and fan base in process.
Since some people got a big name through the novel way, by being good, some would qualify if there were qualifiers. Honestly, this is just laziness and coddling at its finest.
It's worth bearing in mind, if there were no open brackets and smaller online cups, we would never have known who Stephano or Scarlett or Naniwa were. Everyone has to start somewhere. If MLG can be a part of creating the next NA wunderkind, then that would be amazing PR.
On February 04 2014 02:51 echO [W] wrote: So, what I'm wondering is, the money is obviously great, but will Lionsgate supply any know-how? Production expertise, etc etc?
That's what I would love to see, people who do production at the highest levels showing eSports how to do it.
I would assume Lionsgate is just offering the prize and leaving the other stuff to MLG
No qualifiers is really annoying. I hope this new trend of gimmicky tournaments (hi Kennigit) doesn't become the norm, just because it might attract more viewers. It's hardly ethical for one.
I love the lineup, but probably I won't watch it. Last time tried but I simply can't stand CatZ plus Destiny. For me it was most boring and unprofessional cast I have ever seen. Last MLG was the first time when I was interested in watching games, but I simply just couldn't because of the casters
On February 04 2014 03:02 Asturas wrote: I love the lineup, but probably I won't watch it. Last time tried but I simply can't stand CatZ plus Destiny. For me it was most boring and unprofessional cast I have ever seen. Last MLG was the first time when I was interested in watching games, but I simply just couldn't because of the casters
So do what I do whenever I watch PL or most community streams, mute and play some chill tunes. This game is not really that complicated, and you actually learn to pay attention to more stuff without casters.
Meh, NA only and 100% invites. No doubt that I will pass on this tournament, but I guess I'm not in their target group anyways so that doesn't really matter.
On February 04 2014 03:02 Asturas wrote: I love the lineup, but probably I won't watch it. Last time tried but I simply can't stand CatZ plus Destiny. For me it was most boring and unprofessional cast I have ever seen. Last MLG was the first time when I was interested in watching games, but I simply just couldn't because of the casters
So do what I do whenever I watch PL or most community streams, mute and play some chill tunes. This game is not really that complicated, and you actually learn to pay attention to more stuff without casters.
The companies noted that Ender’s Game, a military science fiction book and film about an alien invasion on future Earth, was perfect fit for a StarCraft 2 competition.
Science fiction and aliens? Perfect fit for a SC2 tournament..
Ok, so apparently there will be 16 players in the twitch tournament playing this week, and the winner of that will play a showmatch against the winner of the MLG gameon tournament. So I guess it's the winner of this vs Scarlett? Or did I miss something?
Edit: Ok so I'm guessing it's two separate new tournaments, with the winners playing a showmatch? The information is a little vague right now, it would be very helpful with some kind of unified bracket.
On February 04 2014 01:27 Slasher wrote: [...] UPDATE: Twitch has announced their player list for tournament, featuring Polt, viOLet, HuK and Minigun among others. Full list updated in the article. [...] MLG has confirmed the following players through invites: Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn, Tyler 'NonY' Wasieleski, Juan Carlos 'MajOr' Tena Lopez, Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson, Sam 'Kane' Morrissette, Ryan 'State' Visbeck, Marc-Olivier 'desRow' Proulx, Henry 'Hendralisk' Zheng, Danny 'ViBE' Scherlong, Maru 'MaSa' Kim, David 'avilo' Blowe, and Victor 'hitmaN' Lin.
The event will be cast by Paulo 'CatZ' Vizcarra and Steven 'Destiny' Bonnell along with other guest hosts. [...]
On February 04 2014 02:13 nkr wrote: more charity for the old boys club and fan favorites, not helping the na scene as much as a real tournament would
still going to watch though, some interesting names :>
hope it's successful
To be fair it does include MOST of the best players in NA. Major, State, Vibe, Scarlett, Desrow (just made premier), Masa (just made premier) so it's not like they only grabbed popular players.
Point is to grow the scene you need to give the opportunity to everyone, not just the ones who are famous. Sure, the tournament needs to make sure it's successful and gets viewers. However it makes me sad to see CatZ spearheading this thing when he has been one of the more vocal people about creating opportunities for NA players, in order to grow the scene. All this does is create opportunity for the ones who were already well off in comparison to everyone else in NA.
This. Seriously wtf? It's better for the competition if there is a qualifier anyways, that way the people who are there deserve to be there, and not just get an invite off name value alone. NA is probably the worst at doing this, as almost every tournament is invite, and "fan vote" is probably the most retarded way to invite players to a tournament.
I think that fan-votes are better than organizer invites though. I mean they want good competition and players that attracts viewers, so it would be a good idea to switch the invites to qualifier and keep the fan-picks. Methinks.
On February 04 2014 03:20 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: Okay, I thought Scarlett had this in the bag, but now that Polt and Violet have been announced, I definetly think Polt is the favorite to win this.
They are not playing in the same tournament. Polt and Violet are playing in the twitch tournament, Scarlett is playing in the MLG tourney.
Also, I just watched Violet lose to Minato. It's online and cross-server so it doesn't say much, but he's been looking rusty as hell lately.
On February 04 2014 03:20 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: Okay, I thought Scarlett had this in the bag, but now that Polt and Violet have been announced, I definetly think Polt is the favorite to win this.
They are not playing in the same tournament. Polt and Violet are playing in the twitch tournament, Scarlett is playing in the MLG tourney.
Also, I just watched Violet lose to Minato. It's online and cross-server so it doesn't say much, but he's been looking rusty as hell lately.
Indeed viOlet's not the same as that of old, he got 3-1'd by French terran MarineLord a week ago in a Zotac cup. :/
From a marketing standpoint this is quite strange, and I mean it in a good way.
Lionsgate, a highly successfull movie studio, somehow made the connection that sponsoring a game tournament will give them promotional value. I wonder what the connection is. Maybe they believe more gamers will go watch their movies? Does it have some kind of connection with their recent movies?
I just want to know what their reasoning is and hope more companies does it.
Polt: the true American hero. Pretty sick tournament a little confused why Lionsgate is doing this but extremely happy nonetheless. Maybe I'll go out of my way to watch one of their movies haha
On February 04 2014 04:07 Jolo wrote: Had me sold until I saw destiny is casting. Guess I'll pass on this one...
Did you watch the MLG gameon invitational? I thought his cast with Catz was quite enjoyable, and this is coming form someone who doesn't really enjoy his stream that much
On February 04 2014 01:35 Wombat_NI wrote: 12 invites + 4 fan votes?
Ffs, and people wonder why it takes new blood so long to break through in the NA region?
I don't think anybody doesn't know why.
See the reason tournaments like this don't do that is because would-be breakout players just wouldn't bring in as many eyeballs, not until they've already broken out. MLG Open Bracket, early group stages of something like DreamHack and IEM's new Dual Tournaments that they put on leading into group stages, these phases never get the same amount of attention and you always see posts like "oh i'm just gonna wait until day 2" or whatever.
I think some people still fail to realize this; yes, open brackets and qualifiers (whether online or offline) are great and we should all strive for that, but the reason they're not as prevalent as they could (and should perhaps) be is because a lot of the more casual viewers simply aren't interested in players they don't know. They're fantastic for new players, not bad for established players (especially if the tournament uses both open bracket/qualifiers *and* invites), but they turn some viewers off, and by extension aren't that great for the tournament as a business and for the company involved in running it.
And this sort of promotional event more than any other was conceived as an invitational with the purpose of attracting as much attention as possible.
I understand a lot of people's concern with "invite only" NA tournaments but I think they are missing a point, these players were probably selected to bring in more viewers. The SC2 scene has been dwindling and though I like the introduction of new players that open bracket brings in, let's be serious there are not many new NA players. Especially new players that will instinctively become a star.
If there were an open spot, I suggest a NA-only winner take all style for that spot.
On February 04 2014 04:07 Jolo wrote: Had me sold until I saw destiny is casting. Guess I'll pass on this one...
Did you watch the MLG gameon invitational? I thought his cast with Catz was quite enjoyable, and this is coming form someone who doesn't really enjoy his stream that much
I saw bits and pieces but not too much of it. Maybe I'll give it another try
On February 04 2014 04:07 Jolo wrote: Had me sold until I saw destiny is casting. Guess I'll pass on this one...
Did you watch the MLG gameon invitational? I thought his cast with Catz was quite enjoyable, and this is coming form someone who doesn't really enjoy his stream that much
Yeah it was not so bad but the "Hwat a.." thing got old real fast. I guess I just don't get it.
On February 04 2014 04:09 KlinKz wrote: I understand a lot of people's concern with "invite only" NA tournaments but I think they are missing a point, these players were probably selected to bring in more viewers. The SC2 scene has been dwindling and though I like the introduction of new players that open bracket brings in, let's be serious there are not many new NA players. Especially new players that will instinctively become a star.
If there were an open spot, I suggest a NA-only winner take all style for that spot.
I don't necessarily agree with the idea that there are not many new NA players, and you certainly cannot be sure who will become a star. I mean iit still took players like TaeJa, Life, Creator, Squirtle, Leenock quite a while of struggling in the lower tiers of GSL, if they managed to qualify at all, before establishing themselves as top dogs and accomplishing anything. And conversely many players made their entrance with a bang only to fade away completely within half a year if not less.
But you're right on your first point, the reason this is an invitational and the invites are who they are is that Lionsgate wants exposure for their movie.
On February 04 2014 04:07 Jolo wrote: Had me sold until I saw destiny is casting. Guess I'll pass on this one...
Did you watch the MLG gameon invitational? I thought his cast with Catz was quite enjoyable, and this is coming form someone who doesn't really enjoy his stream that much
Yeah it was not so bad but the "Hwat a.." thing got old real fast. I guess I just don't get it.
I think that's the stuff they resort to when they have to censor themselves a bit.
man I am super exited for this I really enjoyed the previous mlg tournament catz and destiny make a great casting team while I wouldn't want them in every tourney I think they make for a fun change in pace. happy for scarlett to win another tourney
Another reason to like Lionsgate. Besides Repo! The Genetic Opera, Saw, and other films of theirs which generally tend to be good. (I'm certain someone could name movies that were... sub par. But I generally have a positive outlook when I see the Lionsgate opening animation.)
Tournament: There is two qualifying rounds of 16 players. One round will be broadcasted on Twitch, Feb 5-9. One round will be broadcasted on MLG, Feb 11-16.
The winners will advance to the Ender's Game on Blu-Ray Tournament: Championship Round on Feb 22nd, broadcasted by Twitch.
Sixteen players currently residing in the United States have been invited to play out a galactic battle to promote the release of Ender’s Game on Blu-ray and DVD. On top of a $7000 prize pool, the winning player will be invited to a showmatch against the victor of MLG’s GameOn Tournament to compete for a larger prize pool of $10,000, to be broadcasted on Twitch.
Format Players are placed into 4 groups of 4 to be played out GSL style. The top 2 from each group will advance to the single elimination brackets Round of 8.
Group play will be commentated by Nathanias from February 5th-7th. The combination of RotterdaM and MrBitter will commentate from February 8th-9th and during the Grande Finale on February 22nd.
The press release says "The winners from each event, in addition to winning cash prizes, will advance to the Ender’s Game on Blu-ray Tournament: Championship Round taking place February 22nd and airing on Twitch. The StarCraft II player who wins the championship round will win a grand prize of $10,000."
MLG's news article says "MLG invited 12 players and fans will vote on the remaining four players to compete for $5,000 in prizes.....The winner will advance to the Ender’s Game on Blu-ray Tournament: Championship Round on February 22 to compete for a grand prize of $7,000 and a runner-up prize package of $3,000. For more information on the Ender’s Game on Blu-Ray Tournament, check out the complete press release here."
PRIZES: 1st place – $3,000 and advances to compete in the “Championship Round”; 2nd place – $1,000; 3rd and 4th place – $500/each
FORMAT: The players will begin in WCS-style Group Play (Ro16) with the top two players in each Group advancing to a 2nd Round of Group Play (Ro8). Finally, the top two players in each Ro8 Group will compete in a 4-player single elimination bracket.
Players:
MLG, partnering with GameOn will have 12 invited players and 4 voted players. Voting takes place Feb 3-5 at gameon.gg.
“The skills used to develop battle leaders in Ender’s Game are drawn from real-world gaming, especially the types of skills used by premier tournament level players,” Lionsgate executive vice president of marketing Anne Parducci said. “We are excited to partner with Major League Gaming and Twitch, both leaders in the e-sports world, to present this unprecedented movie tie-in aimed directly at those who take gaming seriously.”
This is the biggest thing to look at. $20k is not a large amount for marketing a big movie. But MLG and Twitch are able to show their engagement numbers and are starting to get noticed.
Lionsgate also barely broke even at the Box Office and are probably willing to experiment to get more out of their movie. If they get good ROI from this hopefully other companies will take notice.
Oh, and in case people are confused as to how Ender's Game might fit a SC2 tournament...
The thing is, young people (kids, really, although some are teenagers) in Ender's Game generally go to a school where they are tested and monitored. If they do really well, they get sent to an orbital Battle School, where they learn tactics, unit management, and teamwork. These are all framed as games of skill, similar to RTS games iirc. For more, read the book, or if you don't care (or dislike giving Orson Scott Card money)... + Show Spoiler +
Eventually, the best of the best is promoted up to engage in tactical simulations, controlling a fleet of units against the enemy aliens. Ender, being the most promising, is the one controlling the battles, while the others take his orders and translate them into action for the units. (Kind of like having a single army move out, or fall back, while the underlings are taking care of pathing.) + Show Spoiler +
The penultimate scene is when Ender undergoes his "final exam" - and destroys the enemy race using novel tactics with glorious disregard for the lives of his units. At a fairly high cost, he wins the simulation - only to discover it was not a simulation, he was commanding live forces, and he has just committed genocide against an entire species.
This is awesome! Gonna be great to see all the invited players! and a new type of sponsorship is quite an amazing thing for the community, let's hope we break their expectations :D
On February 04 2014 05:30 Canucklehead wrote: Nice sponsor. As someone who has never read the book, I thought the movie was great as a stand alone! Wonder why all the book readers hated it.
That's just how it is. You always get so much more from a book and the movie can't measure up to what you had imagine it to be. Such is life.
[QUOTE]On February 04 2014 05:30 Canucklehead wrote: Nice sponsor. As someone who has never read the book, I thought the movie was great as a stand alone! Wonder why all the book readers hated it.[/QUOTE
Actually as a book reader I thought it was really well done, with the exception of the character development which was severely lacking, due to the movie's short film time.
On February 04 2014 05:30 Canucklehead wrote: Nice sponsor. As someone who has never read the book, I thought the movie was great as a stand alone! Wonder why all the book readers hated it.
That's just how it is. You always get so much more from a book and the movie can't measure up to what you had imagine it to be. Such is life.
Absolutely, in no way did the Twilight movies measure up to the books.
Extremely happy Lionsgate is sponsoring a tournament, its great news for eSports, disappointed they are relying so heavily on invitations, but still, at this point you've got to take what you get.
wow avilo got invite he better not fuck this up probably last chance a being pro and not just a popular stream gl to him and everyone else but will be very funny with destiny and catz but i hope they will be pros and just cast the games but probably not glglgl to everyone love na stuff
Hell yeah.. As Tychus would say - it's a bout damn time
Good SC2 tourney incoming, and THAT is due to the best reason possible.. --> thanks to a new promo/player in the business.. eSports has a new Mesiah, even if not a "season ticket" - it's still a damn good news..
GL HF and Gratz to all those in.. Hopefully will see a lot of GGs there
wicked. The winner can get a decent chunk of change to pay the bills for a lean year. Still might be a bit top-heavy prizes though. Looking forward to it if I find the time to tune in
I really think SC2 would benefit from utilizing things like this more often. By that I mean, we should be looking for ways to create incentive for all kinds of people/groups/corporations (i.e. movie studios) to invest what to them, in the long run, is a relatively small amount of money. Certainly opportunities like this exist to the extent that they can be taken advantage of more readily, thus benefiting SC2 and esports?
On February 04 2014 03:32 Holdenintherye wrote: Awwwwwww yeah! Wow excited to see how avilo will do. But my bets on scarlett to win the thing
I am not, its sad it is a invite only tournament in a qualifier alot of unknown amateur players on the NA ladder would probably have more chance of getting in then him.
On February 04 2014 16:40 ChosenBrad1322 wrote: I remember hearing the lead actor really liked Starcraft, I wonder if that played a part in this. Either way, very cool to see this.
I enjoy how Inc accepted this invite after lambasting Abomb's attendance at Sao Paolo.
He really hasn't shown good games at that level in a long time, but he is a good caster and a fantastic host. I'm curious as to why he wasn't brought in in that capacity
On February 04 2014 23:05 Wombat_NI wrote: I enjoy how Inc accepted this invite after lambasting Abomb's attendance at Sao Paolo.
He really hasn't shown good games at that level in a long time, but he is a good caster and a fantastic host. I'm curious as to why he wasn't brought in in that capacity
Well to be fair, you can't really compare the line-up for this event to the likes of Bomber, Jjakji, herO, MC...
And let's be honest, iNcontroL will get shit on regardless of how well he does. Would be nice if he showed some good games though.
On February 04 2014 23:05 Wombat_NI wrote: I enjoy how Inc accepted this invite after lambasting Abomb's attendance at Sao Paolo.
He really hasn't shown good games at that level in a long time, but he is a good caster and a fantastic host. I'm curious as to why he wasn't brought in in that capacity
Well to be fair, you can't really compare the line-up for this event to the likes of Bomber, Jjakji, herO, MC...
And let's be honest, iNcontroL will get shit on regardless of how well he does. Would be nice if he showed some good games though.
It's fine for him to continually get such invites, if it wasn't for him using his media profile to hammer other organisations and teams for doing the exact same thing. As to why Abomb got invited, I'd imagine it was thus: Jjakji was there already and I read on a lot of other places that other teams weren't willing to send players for price reasons so I image the organisers asked mYI if they had other people to send and Abomb was next in the list considering Stardust was going to ASUS Rog.
I just don't like invites, it was only through Abomb taking out Bbyong that made me favourable for it, after-the-fact. Geoff was actually correct with his sentiment imo, it's the hypocrisy that annoyed me.
On February 04 2014 16:51 TAMinator wrote: Polt will probably win it for America
Yeah, putting Polt in there is like putting a Lion in a henhouse...
I would like to point out that MajOr beat Polt 3-1 quite recently, and of course since then he's also shown strong TvT vs CJ's Bbyong. If he can get to Polt (that is, not be eliminated by Scarlett or some random Protoss) I don't see why he couldn't give Polt a run for his money considering. And let's not forget Polt also got stomped by Jjakji at IEM. ^^;
No clue why so many people are complaining about this tournament being mostly invite-based. It would make literally no sense for this tournament to go on without being mostly invite based. Having an extended qualifier? Showing mostly bad games? (Either spending more money to broadcast those poor games or not broadcasting the qualifiers)? Allowing a few cheesers to enter the main tournament instead of having all established characters?
I'm 100% for giving smaller people a shot, and I 100% want more open qualifier tournaments, but as per this tournament? It would make literally no sense.... More people should understand this as common sense.
I really lol'd when that Swedish guy complain about how this was an NA only tournament haha. I mean... What? It would make sense if they made this tournament a global invitation, but having to make those flights would be really expensive, and being NA only is probably more beneficial to their particular target demographic.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/P30rZdC.png)
