EPT
There are a couple differences from before. Note that Koreans are now seeded into Pool Play, as described in this thread. Also, note that this fact "bumps out" four qualification spots from the open bracket. At Dallas, the four players who lost in the final round of the Winners' Open Bracket, as well as the eight players who made it to the top eight in the Losers' Open Bracket, advanced to the championship bracket. At Columbus, the top eight in the Loser's Open Bracket will play each other, leaving only four players to advance.
The final, obvious change is that the Championship Bracket changes slightly to accommodate the 6th place player in the pools.
If these changes were confusing, simply compare the two diagrams. Here is the Dallas diagram and here is the Columbus diagram.
OLD POST:
MLG's new format is very different from tournament formats the SC2 community has seen so far. It seems as if every other post in the official MLG format thread is expressing annoyance at the format or confusion over how it works. This is because Slasher's post appears to be written with brevity in mind as opposed to clarity, and written with Pool Play as the focus, when in fact the Championship Losers' Bracket should be the focus.
So in the spirit of saving tournament organizers from themselves, let's walk through the new MLG format, see how it works, and see why it's a good format for spectators (if not so much for players). With pictures!
We start the discussion by explaining the three main elements of the format.
The Open Bracket is a 256 (max) person bracket. Anyone can purchase a player pass and enter this bracket. It is double elimination, which means there is a Winners' Bracket and a Losers' Bracket. After a player loses a match in the Winners' Bracket, he is moved to the Losers' Bracket, and after a player loses a match in the Losers' Bracket, he is eliminated. After four players remain in the Winners' Bracket, competition ends and all four players move into Pool Play. Meanwhile, in the Losers' Bracket, after there are 12 players remaining, competition ends and all twelve move into the Championship Bracket.
The Championship Bracket is a 32 man bracket, and as its name implies, whoever comes out on top of the bracket is the winner of the entire MLG event. This bracket is also double elimination. However, it works very differently from, say, the bracket we saw in MLG Dallas. It has a Winners' Bracket and a Losers' Bracket, but the Winners' Bracket only has four players (determined from Pool Play) and the Losers' Bracket has 28 players seeded in from various parts of Pool Play and the Open Bracket. Understanding who exactly goes where in the Losers' Bracket of the Championship Bracket really requires a diagram, which I'll produce in due time.
Pool Play is a set of four groups, with five people in each group, for a total of 20 players. The groups are made up like so: sixteen players with good results in previous MLGs (based on a points system that you can read about here) are seeded directly into Pool Play. Four players from the Open Bracket also make it into Pool Play, as discussed above. Everyone in pool play plays each other to determine group standings. The #1 player in each group advances to the Championship Bracket Winners' Bracket, for a total of four. The #2, #3, #4, and #5 players in each group are seeded into the Championship Bracket Losers' Bracket.
So we can basically sum up the above by saying that the final destination of the tournament is the Championship Bracket, whether you get to the Championship Bracket from the Loser's Bracket of the Open Bracket, or whether you get there from Pool Play.
Let's break out the pictures now, to make sure everyone is on the same page. To start off: the tournament has a maximum of 272 players, 16 of which are seeded into pool play and 256 of which enter the open bracket.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/zBR3U.png)
Pool Play is explained pretty well by the following diagram.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/s0OEx.png)
Now, remember that the Loser's Bracket of the Championship Bracket gets players from a variety of different places, and understanding where exactly each player goes can be confusing. So here's a diagram that might help with that. If it's still confusing, read down further until you get to the big diagram that ties everything together.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fmsUe.png)
click the image for a clearer version
And here's a diagram that shows the rest of the Championship Bracket:
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/IZAkg.png)
And here's the image that ties it all together!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/elIjP.png)
click the image for a larger version
I want to list some things about the tournament that the above diagrams don't make clear.
First of all, the entire tournament is Bo3, unless an extended series occurs. If the Championship Match isn't an extended series, then the person coming from the Winners' Bracket has to win one Bo3 to win the tournament, while the person coming from the Losers' Bracket has to win two.
After players are eliminated, they will play a few consolation matches to determine their exact 1st-32nd place ranking. This is for the purpose of awarding prize money and Player Points.
Tiebreaking procedures in Pool Play:
Ties will be broken using the following Tiebreakers in this order: Head to Head, Games Won Percentage, and Seed. If there is a tie involving more than two Players and one of the Tiebreakers resolves the tie for a Player(s), but leaves at least two Players tied, resolution of the tie(s) that still exists will start over with Tiebreaker #1.
So, basically, tiebreaking games will never be played.Starcraft 2 Player Passes will be sold online for $70, and sold at Check-In for $80 if there is an open spot in the Bracket.
Now let's talk about why this format is awesome for spectators and not so awesome for players.
The idea behind this format is that MLG can broadcast exciting games between good players at all times. Pool play starts immediately on Day 1, and when pool play winds down, games will be going on in the Championship Bracket, so spectators will be able to be able to see awesome games like Liquid`Tyler vs EGIdra throughout the match, instead of having to suffer through Liquid`Tyler vs LocalKidWithMoneyToBurn for a few hours.
Additionally, this format does a better job of allowing the best players to rise to the top.
Unfortunately, this format has one major downside: it's extraordinarily taxing on non-seeds. A player seeded into Pool Play, if he were to win all of his Bo3s and win the tournament, would play seven Bo3s. However, a player coming up from the Open Bracket might play as many as twenty-one Bo3s. There's obviously a big difference here. I think we're going to see that seeded players are going to have a significant physical advantage over the non-seeded players when the final matches of the event roll around.
Anyway, I hope this post was informative to you.
