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On July 04 2017 01:55 mizenhauer wrote:Show nested quote +On July 03 2017 23:57 Xamo wrote:
The SSL lineup is ridiculously good, even better this season than the last one.
The format is clearly successful, at least for selecting the best players of the moment for Premier. I disagree completely with the assertion that the format is successful. The players who made Premier in the first season are heavily advantaged compared to those who made Premier. soO and Rogue are examples of players who are playing extremely well as of late but were locked out of Premier because they didn't make either division in Season 1. On top of that players who make Challenge for this season (like soO and Rogue) have no guarantee of ever seeing Premier as there has been no announced regarding SSL's future beyond the season. Add to that the fact that Blizzard gave a token amount of WCS Points to only the top four players and you see a format that has a lot of potential failing in many respects. Sure, the matches are great, the roster is chock full of elite players and Spo and Jin Air are doing a wonderful thing (and hyunkyung is back!!!!) but it's a league that was formed with the short term in mind and little concern for players beyond those who qualified for Premier the first time around.
Well the format is somewhat close to european football/sports leagues. If you see a team in league one/two there is a good chance that team will be there the next season as well, unless it did really badly.
You can argue that this isn't the best format for a 1vs1 sport and i would probably agree, as i said before there is a legit chance that the best players aren't in premier simply because there was no chance to qualify for it at that very moment.
Though i think it works out decently tbh, looking at the season 2 roster we can be happy with it.
Ofc we don't know if there will be SSL next year, but right now you kinda have to speculate that SPOTV will do a lot to make it happen, simply because they chose this format. It kinda screams: "we wanna do this a long time" Hopefully it works out.
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United States1903 Posts
On July 04 2017 02:51 The_Red_Viper wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2017 01:55 mizenhauer wrote:On July 03 2017 23:57 Xamo wrote:
The SSL lineup is ridiculously good, even better this season than the last one.
The format is clearly successful, at least for selecting the best players of the moment for Premier. I disagree completely with the assertion that the format is successful. The players who made Premier in the first season are heavily advantaged compared to those who made Premier. soO and Rogue are examples of players who are playing extremely well as of late but were locked out of Premier because they didn't make either division in Season 1. On top of that players who make Challenge for this season (like soO and Rogue) have no guarantee of ever seeing Premier as there has been no announced regarding SSL's future beyond the season. Add to that the fact that Blizzard gave a token amount of WCS Points to only the top four players and you see a format that has a lot of potential failing in many respects. Sure, the matches are great, the roster is chock full of elite players and Spo and Jin Air are doing a wonderful thing (and hyunkyung is back!!!!) but it's a league that was formed with the short term in mind and little concern for players beyond those who qualified for Premier the first time around. Well the format is somewhat close to european football/sports leagues. If you see a team in league one/two there is a good chance that team will be there the next season as well, unless it did really badly.
That's fine and the model works very well in sports where players have salaries, but you have to remember that the majority of the prize money is centered in Premier as well as all the WCS Points (in the top four no less). Despite that fact, the players in both divisions are required to show up on a weekly basis for a lengthy period of time. On top of that, Challenge has a start time of 10 pm, so if you're playing in the last match, you're starting well after midnight. (More on this in my interview with Leimmia coming out soon) which is a major inconvenience considering you're participating in something that has very little upside besides qualifying for Premier.
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On July 04 2017 02:59 mizenhauer wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2017 02:51 The_Red_Viper wrote:On July 04 2017 01:55 mizenhauer wrote:On July 03 2017 23:57 Xamo wrote:
The SSL lineup is ridiculously good, even better this season than the last one.
The format is clearly successful, at least for selecting the best players of the moment for Premier. I disagree completely with the assertion that the format is successful. The players who made Premier in the first season are heavily advantaged compared to those who made Premier. soO and Rogue are examples of players who are playing extremely well as of late but were locked out of Premier because they didn't make either division in Season 1. On top of that players who make Challenge for this season (like soO and Rogue) have no guarantee of ever seeing Premier as there has been no announced regarding SSL's future beyond the season. Add to that the fact that Blizzard gave a token amount of WCS Points to only the top four players and you see a format that has a lot of potential failing in many respects. Sure, the matches are great, the roster is chock full of elite players and Spo and Jin Air are doing a wonderful thing (and hyunkyung is back!!!!) but it's a league that was formed with the short term in mind and little concern for players beyond those who qualified for Premier the first time around. Well the format is somewhat close to european football/sports leagues. If you see a team in league one/two there is a good chance that team will be there the next season as well, unless it did really badly. That's fine and the model works very well in sports where players have salaries, but you have to remember that the majority of the prize money is centered in Premier as well as all the WCS Points (in the top four no less). Despite that fact, the players in both divisions are required to show up on a weekly basis for a lengthy period of time. On top of that, Challenge has a start time of 10 pm, so if you're playing in the last match, you're starting well after midnight. (More on this in my interview with Leimmia coming out soon) which is a major inconvenience considering you're participating in something that has very little upside besides qualifying for Premier.
Well i agree that the prize pool could be done better, same for wcs points. Schedule for challenge is also not optimal.
I was mostly talking about the actual tournament format though, the big round robin group(s) which make sure that players have to deliver in every matchup and against a lot of other top players. Also from the spectator pov a weekly competition is just really exciting, you always have your favorite players to watch.
But sure you bring up good points, hopefully spotv will do ssl next year and also try to imrpove it here and there.
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United States1903 Posts
On July 04 2017 06:33 The_Red_Viper wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2017 02:59 mizenhauer wrote:On July 04 2017 02:51 The_Red_Viper wrote:On July 04 2017 01:55 mizenhauer wrote:On July 03 2017 23:57 Xamo wrote:
The SSL lineup is ridiculously good, even better this season than the last one.
The format is clearly successful, at least for selecting the best players of the moment for Premier. I disagree completely with the assertion that the format is successful. The players who made Premier in the first season are heavily advantaged compared to those who made Premier. soO and Rogue are examples of players who are playing extremely well as of late but were locked out of Premier because they didn't make either division in Season 1. On top of that players who make Challenge for this season (like soO and Rogue) have no guarantee of ever seeing Premier as there has been no announced regarding SSL's future beyond the season. Add to that the fact that Blizzard gave a token amount of WCS Points to only the top four players and you see a format that has a lot of potential failing in many respects. Sure, the matches are great, the roster is chock full of elite players and Spo and Jin Air are doing a wonderful thing (and hyunkyung is back!!!!) but it's a league that was formed with the short term in mind and little concern for players beyond those who qualified for Premier the first time around. Well the format is somewhat close to european football/sports leagues. If you see a team in league one/two there is a good chance that team will be there the next season as well, unless it did really badly. That's fine and the model works very well in sports where players have salaries, but you have to remember that the majority of the prize money is centered in Premier as well as all the WCS Points (in the top four no less). Despite that fact, the players in both divisions are required to show up on a weekly basis for a lengthy period of time. On top of that, Challenge has a start time of 10 pm, so if you're playing in the last match, you're starting well after midnight. (More on this in my interview with Leimmia coming out soon) which is a major inconvenience considering you're participating in something that has very little upside besides qualifying for Premier. Well i agree that the prize pool could be done better, same for wcs points. Schedule for challenge is also not optimal. I was mostly talking about the actual tournament format though, the big round robin group(s) which make sure that players have to deliver in every matchup and against a lot of other top players. Also from the spectator pov a weekly competition is just really exciting, you always have your favorite players to watch. But sure you bring up good points, hopefully spotv will do ssl next year and also try to imrpove it here and there.
I'm probably coming off as harsh and it's really undeserved. What Spo did with SSL is nothing short of incredible and I really do appreciate their effort to revive Starcraft after a down 2016. I personally don't love round robin, but it leads to a high volume of quality games which is hard not to enjoy. To me, 2015 SSL was the most competitive and also best formatted tournament ever. I think that with the current shallow player pool it would be an optimal model too adopt going forward. I don't see it happening, though. Not with the way Spo has moved away from the traditional format since the launch of LotV. Still, one can wish, right?
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Elazer will wipe the floor with Gumiho if he goes mech.
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On July 05 2017 14:59 QuinnTheEskimo wrote:
Elazer will wipe the floor with Gumiho if he goes mech.
Apparently not.
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EPT
