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Edit: This article discusses a possible fourth tier. There are already 3 Tiers according to the most recent liquipedia page for WCS.
Blizzard should consider creating a fourth tier event category to allow the OlimoLeague, Lycan League, desRow Weekly, and Go4SC2 to award a VERY small number of WCS points.
Before you call me crazy, hear me out.
Giving weekly tournaments a role in the distribution of WCS points will add an exciting dynamic to WCS.
1. We have seen several players qualify (or not qualify) for the WCS Global Finals by the skin of their teeth (Snute missed the Ro. 16 by 76 pts in 2014). The weekly cup scene would become an occasional blood bath as pros seek to edge out a small point advantage through the weeklies/monthly finals and the community would benefit.
2. Pros who cannot always attend events due to scheduling conflicts, travel restrictions, or lack of funds would have an easily accessible way to not completely fall behind in points.
How many points would these tournaments offer?
The goal is to make Tier 4 events capable of having a small impact on the WCS standings.
The super gosu spreadsheet below assumes the desRow Weekly, OlimoLeague, Lycan League and Go4SC2 all hold 40 weekly events and 12 monthly finals per year. The first figure is what I believe could be the minimum amount of points that would still make regular participation in these weekly cups worth while. The second figure is the total number of points that would be added to the WCS pool per year at the rate in figure one.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sFFi0BZ.png)
The point distribution above is is my half baked thought on the matter. Further analysis might allow more points to be allotted to Tier 4 events.
Possible Cons
Edit: Yes, a very common thought is going to be "What about hackers?". All open, online events are susceptible to this. The WCS qualifiers, challenger rounds, the recent IEM qualifiers (which granted something like 250 WCS points for those who qualified online), etc. We're not going to see a map hacker cause any more disruption to the WCS circuit than they already do if online cups have WCS points.
I can't think of too many possible cons. We're not going to see one player dominate every weekly every week and knock out another pro that spent their year traveling to DreamHack, IEM, Red Bull, and paying their dues each WCS circuit.
Lastly, there is the selfish reason I support this change: if these weekly cups could grant a few WCS points each week, it would draw many more players. There are almost always WCS caliber pros playing, so I don't think discouraging amateur players would be an issue. In fact, if I was a better player, I would be excited to participate for the chance of earning my own WCS points.
Please let me know your thoughts! This would be a great way to invigorate the online scene and add an exciting series of events on the road the Blizzcon.
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Well obviously that can't happen this year, you can't change circuit during the race. For the next year, why not, could be fun - the only con is that it makes the system even more convoluted and makes it more difficult to follow individual players' chances. But we have Die4ever for that and who doesn't know who that is probably doesn't care about the standings enough to be bothered 
Another question is whether this would fly with Blizz. At least Korean small tourneys have now a shadow of doubt cast upon them. Maybe this would help them, but I am not sure that Blizzard will willing to take then super seriously right now.
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On March 01 2015 06:47 opisska wrote:
Well obviously that can't happen this year, you can't change circuit during the race.
I dunno! I believe HomeStory Cup and Red Bull were both granted the ability to award WCS points in the middle of the year. I don't think it would have a negative impact if implemented in Season 2. That's for bigger people than myself to decide, though.
Another question is whether this would fly with Blizz. At least Korean small tourneys have now a shadow of doubt cast upon them. Maybe this would help them, but I am not sure that Blizzard will willing to take then super seriously right now.
I have thought about this possibly increasing the incentive to cheat (I don't think the gambling thing would have any impact on the decision to implement this change). The organizers of these tournaments are trust worthy, so I doubt we have to fret about them feeding players info or allowing shady dealers into the matches. Map hackers are always a concern, even in the actual WCS open qualifiers. We're not likely to see a pro at the top of the WCS standings compromise their career for a few online cups.
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I think the problem is that by giving WCS points to these weekly/smaller tournaments, they are attaching their name in a way. And Blizzard probably does not want to do that, because then they are stuck worrying about what kind of terrible things the tournament hosts do.
Edit: Hmm, after reading opisska's post, I have changed my mind. I am now a bit closer to neutral about it. I'm not sure if it'd be worth it in the end. It might be nice to see more competitive play and all, but I see how it could also be pretty silly. The only people it's going to make any difference for are the ones that are and will be actually close to the point cutoff. The points are too low to make it a serious incentive to do anything (like to play in it when you wouldn't have otherwise) and any higher and it would make the system sort of bad. Also, it would be sort of lame when the season was nearing an end, and players all just started playing in these miscellaneous cups/weeklies/online events just to get above the other people around the 15-20th WCS point place.
Cool idea, but not really viable, imo.
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I like the idea, the only problem i could see is that all of it is online and thus there may be hackers.
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On March 01 2015 06:59 Blargh wrote:
I think the problem is that by giving WCS points to these weekly/smaller tournaments, they are attaching their name in a way. And Blizzard probably does not want to do that, because then they are stuck worrying about what kind of terrible things the tournament hosts do.
Good feedback. I think that would be a big reason for vetting which tournaments can be a "Tier 4" event. I don't see desRow, Olimoley, Rifkin, ZG or myself as the type of people Blizz would have to worry about.
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I think it would be nice, but not viable, unless someone with enough manpower (like blizzard or ESL) does that
You would have to add extra care to prevent hackers, deal with stalemates, accusations of cheating, disconnects, resume from replay, etc...
One of basetradetv tournaments had a problem with a hacker once in a qualifier, and rifkin explained that he had not enough manpower to check things and deal with that bullshit in a timely manner, without screwing up the whole schedule, and replaying half the bracket. It caused a mini shitstorm.
In other words, if there's not a couple of dedicated admins to make things flow smoothly, I don't think it will work
Oh, and there's the betting bullshit, too, to worry about
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On March 01 2015 07:12 Ace Frehley wrote:
I think it would be nice, but not viable, unless someone with enough manpower (like blizzard or ESL) does that
You would have to add extra care to prevent hackers, deal with stalemates, accusations of cheating, disconnects, resume from replay, etc...
I absolutely agree with the latter part. I don't think it takes the manpower of an org like ESL or Blizzard, though. There are so many community members willing to help that it would take minimal time to round up a trust worth handful of individuals to help admin each week.
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EPT
