A Worlds Proposal
Worlds Proposal
Okay. So. We have seen the rise of Brazil. It's not just a singular instance, either. Over the course of the past two Worlds and even in the current one, we have seen Brazil's impact on Worlds grow.
Season 4: Kabum Esports beats Alliance, the #1 team from EU, and goes 1-5 in group, on top of keeping Alliance out of the top-of-the-table tie.
Season 5: paiN Gaming goes 1-1 with both CLG and YOE Flash Wolves, the 2 seeds from the NALCS and LMS respectively, tying with CLG for 3rd place in the group at 2-4.
Season 6 (SO FAR): INTZ defeats top team EDward Gaming, the #1 team from the LPL in a rather strong fashion.
Now, of course, we're going to need to see this develop further, especially if Brazil makes it out of Groups. Brazil as a region has been improving year after year. It's getting to the point where Brazil's #1 team may even be deserving of an automatic-qualifier bid. I was talking about this extensively with a friend of mine, and it has resulted in this idea. I'd love some feedback.
BASE: The major regions of the LCK, LPL, NALCS, EULCS, and LMS all have 2 automatically qualified (AQ) bids to Worlds. Brazil has 1 AQ bid to Worlds. This means that 11 base teams have AQ bids. The World Champion of the previous Worlds grants an additional seed to its region's AQ bids. The winner of the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) also grants an additional seed to its region's AQ bids to Worlds; however, if the previous World Champion and MSI Winner are from the same region, then the extra AQ bid goes to the 2nd place MSI team. IWQ: The International Wildcard Qualifiers (IWQ) for Worlds will be expanded slightly. The regions of LCL, LJL, LAN, LAS, OPL, GPL, and TCL will all send their appropriate representatives to the IWQ. The regions of LCK, LPL, NALCS, EULCS, and CBLOL who have not earned an additional AQ to Worlds through the two other above methods will qualify their bid to the IWQ. The top 3 teams from the IWQ will earn a Worlds bid.
TL;DR of the above block
Worlds:
2 AQ: LCK, LPL, NALCS, EULCS, LMS
1 AQ: CBLOL, Champion's Bid, MSI Bid
3 IWQ Teams
Example using this year...SKT won Season 5 Worlds and therefore earned a 3rd AQ bid to Season 6 Worlds. SKT won MSI but cannot submit a 4th AQ; CLG coming in 2nd will earn a 3rd AQ bid to Season 6 Worlds. RNG, CLG, FW, and SKT earn Pool 1 seeds for groups from MSI top 4, and SKT having won MSI will have their 3rd seed placed in Pool 2. [MSI would have consisted of 7 teams from the LCK, LPL, NALCS, EULCS, LMS, CBLOL, and IWC.] Thus, For Worlds 2016, it would've shaped up like this:
::Worlds:: Pool 1: ROX, TSM, FW, EDG Pool 2: SKT, SSG, CLG, AHQ, RNG, G2, H2K, INZ Pool 3: C9, IWQ, IWQ, IWQ
IWQ: SPY, IMA, CNB, ANX, RPG, CHF, DP, KLG, SAJ, LG REG: EULCS, LPL, CBL, LCL, LJL, OPL, TCL, LAS, GPL, LAN
Using this format, we can assure that the regions with the best teams continuously represent themselves with multiple seeds at Worlds, but we are not outright removing seeds from regions that don't win these events (rather making them prove themselves actively in the IWQ). The importance of this is to make sure that larger regions with larger representation are represented accordingly at Worlds but also securing the integrity of the competitiveness that we hope for Worlds to provide.
One more thing came to mind, and that was 'what would happen if the LMS were to win Worlds or MSI?'. This would result in 11 IWQ teams, or for consistencies sake, we could have the LMS have another representative at the IWQ, as well. As the relative strengths of regions are analyzed, we can increase the number of AQs and IWQ bids accordingly. This was just a suggestion based on how we can move forward with the increasing strength of "minor" regions, especially Brazil.
TL;DR I'm band-wagoning Brazil. Sue me. We can also adjust these numbers and appropriate representation. If we don't give Brazil an AQ to Worlds, then we can just have 4 IWQ teams with the #1 team from the IWQ being inserted into Pool 2 (or putting all 4 IWQ teams in Pool 3 and all extra AQ bids in Pool 2, etc).