I don't like the Worlds Format here is why and what I would change.

YannTheOtter·Nov 2, 2019·1 votes·1,364 views

So as we all know the current worlds format consists of a play-in phase and the main group stage followed by the knock out stage, there are 5 major regions: LCK, LEC, LCS, LPL and the LMS, and the wildcard regions of Japan, Commonwealth of indep. States, Turkey, Brazil, Latin America, Vietnam and Oceania. While The Wildcard regions have to go through the play in stage and can only send one team to worlds, Vietnam has 2 seeds thanks to the great perfomances in recent history, particularly from the Gigabyte marines, and the major regions have 3 seeds and only one (or in the case of the previous worlds winner no seed) has to start in play-ins

Now why don't I like the system, I am not really fond of the concept of play-ins. So I think to grow as a region and improve it is essential that players get to experience big international events in all their glory and get to play a lot of different high level teams and the experience and confidence they would get from that. Looking at who made it and who didn't, across the board, every 3rd pool team got last place, every 2nd pool got 2nd place and every 1st pool team advanced to the Main Event. The exact same thing at the 2018 Play in Stage, with the exception of Detonation Focus Me beating Kabum in a tiebraker to take 2nd seed. Now generally speaking this would point towards the system working as intended, and if we ignore the 2017 Fenerbahce upset against HKA, it shows that in the long run the wildcard regions just can't hold a candle to the major regions. With the exception of Vietnam, those regions are stagnating, or not improving as fast as the major regions, and the outcome of play ins is often not defined by a weaker team going to town on a strong team but wether or not strong teams are having a bad day, as shown by the 2017 Play-In stage where HKA underperfomed and allowed Fenerbahce to advance to the main Stage.

So the low amount of international experience, and experience against different playstyles and teams on an international stage is certainly a big factor. Yet one cannot underestimate how important morale and confidence are when playing a competitive game. So one issue is that be many the Play-in stage is not treated like a part of worlds. The sentence "You didn't make it to Worlds if you didn't make it out of Play-ins" should sound familiar to some in many different variations. While stuff like "The PENTA" etc help shine a light on the small stage it is still a long way away from getting the respect it deserves.

So in my honest opinion I would abandon the Idea of Play-Ins and have the main stage of Worlds contain a total of 8 Groups. Plus give every wildcard team 2 seeds and demote one region from status of Major Region (looking at you NA and LMS). This way teams can get the respect they need and be able to play with the big boys on the big stage. Now will some teams be Goomba Stomped by a Korean or European Team, probably, yet the experience they can gather by playing against the likes of SKT, G2, Fnatic, RNG or KT Rolster is truly invaluable, instead of being stuck playing against sometimes mediocre major region teams that come nowhere near the caliber of the powerhouses.

Feel free to bash on my opinion if you disagree. ;3

4 Comments

GeminiRuneNov 2, 20191 votes

TLDR: I don't like your proposal. Too many variables unaccounted for...plus it's quite region influenced

I wish people would stop treating the phrase "Major Region" like some kind of prestige that has to be earned by success. Essentially you're pinning an offer to punish regions for absence of talent over anything. You tug NA and LMS together but their situations are quite different beyond talent pool. I don't see NA falling apart at the seams in terms of infrastructure. Targeting to punish them is at yet another user perspective and I'm tired of that.

You say they have to earn their respect to "face the best." They already have to earn their way to the championship where the region's best are more or less represented as is.

As for the format, you're saying to have 8 groups with no outline, no production arrangement. Like...how would you draw out 8 groups?

If I'm getting this right, you want 3 KR, CN, EU, punish NA and/or LMS to 2 because of only failure (and not collapse for NA's case), then give every other region 2. That's 29 spots given you punish both. If you wanted an even divvy, you'd need 3 floating spots and seriously do not suggest giving them to EU, CN, and KR. From there, then what? 8 groups of 4? Unless we're doing single RRs, we'll be here forever on single broadcasts. And let's not get started on broadcast schedules...

If you want to give the up and coming regions better awareness, there needs to be sacrifices more than just what prominent regions are failing to perform. And even then, is it worth it?

YannTheOtterNov 2, 20191 votes

Well I would consider the Title of Major Region both a level of infrastructure and a level of quality of the players. But just from what I have seen over the last years is that EU, KR and CHN prioritize Local talent, while often NA Teams rely on imports, Froggen, POE, CoreJJ, Zven, Mithy, Crown. And The top 3 seeds this year, Clutch, TL and C9 have a combined 66% non North Americans in their starting Lineup. And in my opinion that isn't a healthy mindset. And while it is true that NA SoloQ is not on the same level as say EUW, I think there isn't the same desire of players to get picked up by a Team then in other Regions. So it is less punishing the Teams for losing but more for the way they approach the Sport in general.

(Plus generally I am not a fan of the franchising system, while it really improves the conditions for players it kinda prevents the league to be the best it could possibly be and the pressure of relegation is always a good incentive for teams and players alike to step up their game.)

As for them already earning their way. The Issue I have is that I think all Teams that make it to Worlds should get the same chances. For a Play-ins Team and that isn't only about the wildcard teams but also the teams from major regions. Plus the following, what did RNG do to avoid having to start in play-ins. Well China won worlds and that's it, so Damwon has to go through Play-ins because the LCK underperformed in 2018 (where they weren't even a part of yet as they got promoted in spring 2019). My issue with this is that some teams get a better treatment due to other's achievements, that's why with everyone starting on equal footing only your own achievements and results count.

Well I mean parallel broadcasting wouldn't be that big of a deal with the huge amount of caster to draw from (I mean essentially all 5 major regions send their english casters to worlds) and events like the Overwatch World Cup already have parallel broadcasting for their event during the group stage even though that is a much smaller event. And I am not an organizer, do I maybe underestimate the sure work that would have to be put into this, maybe, but there is always a way to make things work.

And Draw is a bit easier, and also the only place where teams can never start on equal footing, introduce a ranking list for all teams that are participating in the main phase of every region, and rank them according to their results and factor in the regionthey play in (all-in-all similar to the Fifa ranking), and draw teams into 4 pools according to the ranking, and distribute them into the groups, keeping the "No 2 teams from the same region in one group" rule.

And I am aware that this isn't a flawless Idea and maybe the areas in which I would see sacrifices needing to be made aren't optimal, but imho the current system is even less optimal.

SaezioNov 2, 20191 votes

Whatever proposal you make, it needs to be the same amount of worlds matches (non counting play-ins) as we have now.

2 groups of 8 instead of 4 groups of 4 is my suggestion. To have the best 8 teams make it to quarters more consistent. Then, instead of drawing, make teams CHOOSE an opponent from the opposite group starting from 1st places and then 2nd places.

Dr PoroNov 3, 20191 votes

While it would allow smaller regions to grow more, from a viewer's perspective, it makes the games and the groups less interesting. I personally don't like watching games where one team has over 95% predicted winrate. Worlds would probably have a much lower view count if it was saturated by lower skill teams or completely stomping games. Which games have the highest view count? Certainly group C with FNC, SKT and RNG facing eachother. I don't want more group B's in the group stage.

In the older system, major regions had 3 teams in group stage except for one and there were 2 slots for wild cards. The preselection wasn't part of worlds (hence people calling play-ins still not a part of worlds). At least the wild card regions have a chance to play against third seeds of major regions, so that's quite a step ahead. They already get stomped by the third seed, why have them play against even better opponents?

A better solution for giving them more international experience would be to have more smaller international tournaments like rift rivals. For example a north-south american tournament. Problem with these smaller tournies is that if the stakes aren't high enough top teams will troll pick.