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NA LCS play-offs format. Potential backfire.

DELDE115·1/8/2020, 5:45:46 PM·1 votes·2,689 views

Okay, so I read the article as many times as needed to make sure I got everything. And what I concluded is that this format can negatively impact NA at MSI and more importantly Worlds.

The idea of a winners and losers bracket is fine, however, this can lead to potential miracle runs that can later on make NA look like a joke. Looking simply at the Summer playoff. 8 teams particpate. 1-6 are placed in the winners bracket and 7-8 are placed in the losers bracket.

seeds 1 and 2 are placed further in the winning bracket because they earned it, and it avoids possible fck ups like the 1st seed losing to a 5th seed and end up with the 8th seed in the losers bracket.

However, that's the problem that can happen with seeds 3-6 and seeds 1-2 later on. teams 3-6, whichever two teams win, will face either the 1st of 2nd seed. and the loser will face the 7th and 8th team. Already this can create chaos. On a small scale (aka nationally), its cool and awesome to see a 3rd seed face of with an 8th seed, because potential underdog/cinderalla stories, HOWEVER!!! Having a very high seed potentionally compete with the worst team creates two problems. The bracket fails to evaluate if the higher seed team won because of skill (aka, they didn't even try and won easily) OR the have the lowest seed win out of complete luck rather than by being good.

That process repeats itself. seeds 1 and 2 can potentionally not see each other (either because they got cocky or because the other seeds got lucky). And that can end up with the 1st seed competing against seeds 5-8. Obviously for this to happen could possibly be impossible. But it is probable.

Then to make things worse, in my opinion. You only need to fight to get in the finals. Because, like we've already seen, 1st seed in worlds means absolutely nothing for NA. last time a 1st seed from NA made it out of groups was in 2015.

This format in my eyes allows for teams to make it to worlds base on a lucky streak. I have no doubt that the first and second seed should appear in the finals, but the fact that that might not happen means that a 4th or lower seed team can get to the finals based on lucky.

I know "luck" can happen during the regular split because its all a best of one. And we've seen cases like C9 making it to semis at worlds and almost getting demoted from the LCS. But that has been one case.

Meanwhile, LEC has both the first and second seed face off potentionall 3 times, which assures who actually deserves to get the first seed. And the loser of the summer finals then has to face off against the winniner of the regional qualifier to fight for the second and third seed at worlds. Which again shows that making it to finals doesnt guarantee you 1st seed or 2nd seed. Splyce could have gotten the second seed at worlds by playing against Fnatic (who ended up 2nd place in the summer finals) in the regional qualifier. So non stop the worlds seeds are being contested, not given.

So like I said, this sounds exciting at a national level. The potential of an underdog last place team making it to the finals. But if that happens, worlds is over. If your best teams cant make it, then don't allow the opportunity of worse teams to make it to worlds, because it wont be pure skill or talent that gets them there, it's going to be a lucky streak.

Dont expect to find teams get the SKT special "worlds buff". The way they can always make it to the LCK summer finals, and then show up big time at worlds. That happens because the organization has experience. NA doesn't have experience, they have money. And you have already proven since 2016 that buying talent wont increase an orgs experience.

Then you have the LPL, with the most amount of teams out of any esports scene. They got like "quadruple round robins", which makes teams repeat match ups multiple times, again assuring that the best teams are the best based on regular perfomance rather than luck streaks.

And they get to play with LCK and other asian leagues non stop when they practice. EU has Turkey, which honestly it's just EU on less powerful steroids.

But what does NA have? LLAN and CBLoL as next door neighbours. Sure CBLoL and LLAN get great practice, but Na doesn't, and that creates laziness with your imports.

Sorry getting side-tracked. Anyway...

I could be 110% wrong about all of this. But the fact that there's a possibility for the worst team to make it to finals with no real competition, is concerning.

11 Comments

James IceVeins1/9/2020, 1:50:04 AM3 votes

Good ol Best of 1's. Can't wait for another year of NA disappointment.

III BAKURYU III 1/8/2020, 8:02:14 PM2 votes

"The bracket fails to evaluate if the higher seed team won because of skill (aka, they didn't even try and won easily) OR the have the lowest seed win out of complete luck rather than by being good." That process repeats itself. seeds 1 and 2 can potentionally not see each other (either because they got cocky or because the other seeds got lucky).

Ah......that's tournament 1.0.1 for you.....either the favorites win or the underdogs win....

This tournament gives those 1st and 2nd seeds multiple chances to prove it but at the same time it also gives those teams underdog teams that are potentially hunger but had a bit of trouble in the regular season more time to prove themselves too. Look at Clutch Gaming last split where they almost eliminated the soon to be " Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back NA LCS Champions". Now if they would have done so but had **this tournament bracket **they would have gained much confidence AND the favorites would have another chance.

The 1st Seed and 2nd Seed can potentially face off against each other multiple times if they really are 1st and 2nd seed from the regular season.

You need to embrace the "chaos" because the "chaos" is what made some people think what were average teams to become "Great teams"! Look at 2016 Spring split where TSM was 6th and they would end up eliminating the "3rd Seed C9"and the "1st Seed" Immortals before falling victim to the "2nd Seed" in what is known now today, as ' One of the Greatest NA Finals of All-Time'. That 2nd NA Seed would make NA proud at MSI later down the road.

In the past if the top seeded teams would lose 1 series that was it.....they were DONE.
However, now if the top level seeded teams would go on to lose twice, that's "Chaos"?

The NA LCS had to do something because of our constant failures at Worlds( honestly, because our TOP Seeded Teams underachieve for the most part(Whichever team D-Lift is on).
I personally like this bracket style, even if it is a bit tedious

GeminiRune1/9/2020, 12:46:12 AM2 votes

I say give the changes a chance to thrive. In general it opens more opportunity and somewhat rids a bit of the constant trending. Hell, it gave something that fans have desired for years; myself included. AND it made it unique; creating its own form of separation from the long time EU partnership fans have been forever familiar with.

Every form of competition has its underdog story or era of dominance. Shooting format changes in the foot out of a concern of say an 8th seed making a miracle run to compete on a stage poisoned with a negative reputation of the region? I'm sorry but I'd rather be psyched for the underdog kicking all kinds of ass even if their luck is bound to fall flat at the World Championship. Like...Clutch Gaming? Seriously, who was mad about them being eliminated? Their outcome felt more like team first rather than region first. And that's how I think the format can be pretty epic. Create the opportunity, get to the stage, see what happens.

On a critique aside, LPL plays one round robin with an 8 team ladder bracket and previously played 2-group hybrid round robins with the same ladder bracket. I don't even wanna know where you're getting quadruple round robins with repeat match ups. Further, there was not a lot of "the best proving to be" and rather quite a ton of chaos when it came to LPL regular seasons. Not to mention some of those teams were actually luck streaks; sorta JD, somewhat Bilibili, and actually Snake (now LNG) were great examples of fairy tale squads. But with more numbers building in LPL, it only gets more serious as the playoff numbers remain the same but more teams come in.

ChompyWulf1/9/2020, 7:12:33 AM1 votes

I was hoping to enjoy LCS with Immortals returning. They have a roster I have little faith in doing well soon. Format is still crappy single game trash. And now for Summer playoffs almost the entire goddamn league will be in it?

Message to the r%%%%%s in charge of LCS, especially since they want to compare to traditional sports... When you have a flooded playoff with trash teams, your playoffs are a joke for half the time they are played. Go see NHL and NBA, and they don't let in 80% of their teams!

Whoever had this idea needs to be tossed into the pile of trash they came from and left there.