This column has been written before the brackets were announced on the WCG website. I used the WCG 2007 bracket layout to get the playoffs overview, but the bracket example in this column is not the correct one.
Worry not: the points made are not invalid.
Worry not: the points made are not invalid.
Due to the number of teams and a very varying degree of skill, getting to the World Cyber Games final can sometimes be more a question of luck than a question of skill.
Certain groups at this year's final and the previous one, for that matter, were very difficult. Predicting the winner of a few other groups was difficult as well, but that was due to the obscurity of the teams in them. This means that it is possible both in theory and in practice to have a nightmare half of the bracket, the other half being a very weak one in comparison.
This is what happened this year. The upper half of the bracket has got the Extreme Masters LA winners SK Gaming, the World eSports Masters champions mTw and the Electronic Sports World Cup runners up eSTRO. The fourth team in the mix is not a team of pushovers either - it's CBTEAM from Norway with players like Ola 'elemeNt' Moum and Sondre 'REAL' Svanevik.
"The only joy of watching an underdog in a semi final is after they defeated a major favourite, not a neighbour from the land of obscurity."
The other half of the bracket will seem like a walk in the park in comparison. The winners of Groups E-H will find themselves there. The highest-rated team among the potential candidates is GamePlay. The Finns are always dangerous but they are closer to being collectors of fourth and fifth places than consistent finalists.The other top team in the bottom half of the bracket is Meet Your Makers, but it was only because they were in a group ranked number four (MIBR) and eight (eSTRO) in the world. If it wasn't for the extreme imbalance of Group C, GamePlay could have ended up being the only highly-rated team in the bottom half of the bracket.
Of course, this gives fans a chance to see unknown teams far in the tournament. But the only joy of watching an underdog in a semi final is after they defeated a major favourite, not a neighbour from the land of obscurity.
"The lack of a proper tournament structure also allows half of the WCG players and teams to choose which half of the bracket they will find themselves in."
The same situation applies in all other games. The lack of real seeding at the World Cyber Games often puts potential medalists overboard as early as group play and makes brackets either hell or paradise.The lack of a proper tournament structure also allows half of the WCG players and teams to choose which half of the bracket they will find themselves in. Possibly screwing innocent and honest contenders for a second place in the group out of their rightful spot in the playoffs in the process. Korean StarCraft players do this every year to avoid each other.
If the WCG cannot come up with solutions of their own, they could go and ask how it is done elsewhere, at the ESWC, for example. Not allowing players and teams to know what the bracket is going to look like before group play starts is a simple enough solution. Seeding has also been used for years. Is it really that difficult?
The World Cyber Games is trying to imitate the Olympics where (only in theory) amateurs compete. But that doesn't mean that the tournaments should be structured in an amateur way.
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photo: Daniel Jensen, ESNation
Anyway good luck to PUTb & DTS in the second day... crossing fingers for them :)
Spot on! Seedings would make it better but the tournament is still awesome
Why don't give all weaker teams the chance to go on? What about the weaker teams that are in the hellish half of the bracket? What about the "weaker" teams that were in the same group with MIBR, eSTRO and MYM? I am sure some of those teams would have advanced from another group.
Seeding is about protecting the weaker ones even more so than the strong teams.
apart of that i fully agree, if one considers wcg to be a top tournament for the best teams in the world
if its considered the esports olympics, then why should there be seeds
@YouCantWin .... ye for sure and it'll dissapear like CPL. So ESWC will be the only major competition =)
The system is so obviously flawed, but still leaves room for some good ol' draw-luck. And it creates tension from the very beginning of things; none of the days at WCG is boring - or without big eliminations.
If the purpose of the WCG is to entertain and create attention around eSport, they do a brilliant job.
If they want to select the best gamer/team in the world in a specific game, then they fail horribly. But if that was the case, they wouldn't have their qualifiers structured like they do, ignoring the fact that a nation might have multiple teams that are eligble for participating in the world's biggest tournament.
The mainstream could not care less about a grop of death and unfair seeding. They don't know who the good teams are so a group of death creates no buzz or excitement for them.
In a game in which main contenders are very close in term of skills, and outsiders always have an opportunity, seeding + double bracket really is a must.
and like said before, if u want to win the tournament u must be able to beat everyone...
and i think to say mym has a easy bracket thats not fair, i can say sk/mtw and so on had so easy groups thats not fair...ur right in some ways but also what should the wcg do?in every tournament some groups are easier and others not...
That kind of stuff just shouldn't happen. Saying "togh shit" has never solved a problem.
My point stands, except the "real life example" has gone down the toilet. :D
[edit] This bracket turned out much more balanced, by the way!
Not quite the truth there :D We are facin mYm in the quarter final, so either carmac doesnt like us, or he is getting that bracket system wrong :D