Changing Worlds Format?

Eîone·Oct 14, 2016·3 votes·794 views

Does anyone know if Riot considers, or thinks it would be a good idea for them to consider, changing the format of worlds? Riot already seemed to have reasons to change the Bo1 format in EU and NA to Bo2s/Bo3s. Why keep Bo1s in Worlds? You might get surprised in one game by a pocket pick, lose another game that was really close and could have gone in both directions and suddenly you are under the pressure of having to win pretty much every other game. I mean, players worked hard to get to worlds in spring and summer split and some even had to prove themselves in the gauntlet and then you are at worlds, lose 3 games and chances are you are out. I don't want to sound like a whiny TSM fan, they underperformed and it was pretty much their fault they didn't get out of groups, but still: C9 managed to get out of groups, with C9 being arguably a much weaker team than TSM (Just an example to show some of the problems I have with group stage). Also, every year there seems to be a "group of death" or some groups being "easier" than others. Sure, if you can't beat the teams in your group, you probably don't deserve to win worlds anyway, but this year, players actually get more price money regarding on how far they got, don't they? So yeah, it doesn't really seem fair to have this bit of "luck" deciding on how far you can go. Someone had actually mentioned a format like DOTA's (I think it was Markz, but don't really remember). Now, I don't watch or play DOTA, so I don't really know a lot about it, but I looked at their International tournament, and their format actually looked way more rounded and well thought-out (just like their pick/bans actually). So apparently they have every team play against every other team (120 games in total, which I know is a lot), two best teams get seated higher in the brackets, eight teams seated lower in the bracket and the rest of the teams get eliminated. I'm not saying that there has to be 120 games, but 120 to 36 games is a pretty big difference and I feel like the more games, the more meaningful and convincing are the results. Also, there are so little international tournaments in League in which teams and players get the opportunity to prove themselves against other teams in the world. Why not extend worlds and actually give the opportunity to really play against all the other teams? And not just play 6 games and go home again. Anyone think a format more similar to DOTA's could actually work or are there reasons it wouldn't work?

9 Comments

HemanthOct 14, 20164 votes

DOTA format is nice for second chances and a lot of games evens out the luck

Leon EtoileOct 14, 20162 votes

It's a best of 2 with tiebreakers. That basically makes it a best of 3. So, no reason to change it.

For example, Tsm wins 1 game and RNG wins 1 game. They have played 2 games and play a third to decide it.

The round robin format has worked for Soccer/football for years. They are the model for LoL if you haven't noticed. Tons of national leagues that meet up for Worlds championship.

archerno1Oct 14, 20161 votes

Its Bo2 on worlds. Each team plays 2 games with each yeam. Thats why TSM didnt go through. They lost 2/2 to rng

WhiperSnapersOct 14, 20162 votes

Its Bo2 on worlds. Each team plays 2 games with each team [in their group].

I think what the OP is saying is that it might be a more interesting tournament if we were able to see how each team faces up against all the other teams rather than how each team faces up against 3 other teams.

If you were a true fan you'd want to see how your favorite team stacks up against all the other teams at the tournament right? I personally wanted to see TSM face SKT, ROX, and SSG, but that combination of teams isnt possible in the group stage and would have been incredibly unlikely in the knockout stage.

The format that is used now is fine, but why bother bringing the "best teams in the world" together if you are only going to pit a few of them against eachother? I don't watch or play DOTA, but the format that they use for their tournament seems like it would give the fans the satisfaction of seeing their favorite team compete against all the other best teams in the world while simultaneously proving which one is the best of the best.

If ANX was allowed to face all the other teams, the results could affect how teams chose to prepare for the next year's tournament since ANX didnt do a bootcamp in korea. The implications of no bootcamp are interesting because it would mean that there would be no "pre-developed meta" going into the tournament which means that we would probably see more than the 40-50 champions that have been played this year.

It just seems like the idea of each team playing against every other team (before the knockout stage) has too many positives to ignore.

EîoneOct 18, 20161 votes

Thank you! That's pretty much exactly what I wanted so say :)

TBakesOct 14, 20161 votes

I like the set-up of Worlds actually. I think the first week of random match-ups is a fun introduction, the second week of one group per day gets more focused on team match-ups within the groups, then the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals are Bo5s just focusing on one match-up per day. I like that it starts out more chaotic and gets more focused and clear as the tournament continues.

RickettsOct 15, 20161 votes

That would make the group stage absurdly long and stretched out way too far. The idea of just a "Best of 3" against every other team in the field? That's jumping every team a leap of approximately 3 hours of gametime in groups to 19. And that is assuming 2.5 games against 15 teams and if a game only goes 30 minutes. It could stretch as far as 50 hours of playtime for a team if they have 3 games per match and if the games go deep into 60 or 70 minutes. That is absurd. To air all of that format streaming would literally take a whole month before going to knockout stage.

Just no.

EîoneOct 18, 20161 votes

Well, these were just a few ideas, not saying it has to be exactly the same as DOTA's. But since more games seems to work for DOTA, I don't see why it shouldn't work for league as well. I just watched some videos in the last few weeks of people saying they didn't find the format too good. Just today one of my league youtubers uploaded a video talking about worlds, saying that pretty much every worlds finals this far was pretty much a stomp, referring to the semi-finals match up this year between rox and skt that he thinks should have been the final and not semi-final. Maybe don't have Bo3 against all teams, but Bo1 against all teams and then put the teams with the most points on opposite sides of the brackets. I just felt like there are a lot of options to change the worlds format to make it a bit more interesting.

AdderTudeOct 18, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Well, these were just a few ideas, not saying it has to be exactly the same as DOTA's. But since more games seems to work for DOTA, I don't see why it shouldn't work for league as well. I just watched some videos in the last few weeks of people saying they didn't find the format too good. Just today one of my league youtubers uploaded a video talking about worlds, saying that pretty much every worlds finals this far was pretty much a stomp, referring to the semi-finals match up this year between rox and skt that he thinks should have been the final and not semi-final. Maybe don't have Bo3 against all teams, but Bo1 against all teams and then put the teams with the most points on opposite sides of the brackets. I just felt like there are a lot of options to change the worlds format to make it a bit more interesting.

Valve's format was more interesting. The most awesome game at TI6 this year was easily Game 1 between EG and EHOME. That was largely because both teams did well in the group stage, allowing them to advance to the Upper Bracket. I'd have to agree that shaking things up for Worlds in League would make it more interesting but my guess is Riot won't do it (Must...obey...Chinese...masters).