Reign of Gaming

And i thought a competition is about money. You need teams from europe and america do get popular worldwide. On top of that: 3 spots for korea doesn't seem to be that bad, does it?

I agree with this article.

In international soccer, each region does NOT get equal qualifying spots.  Nobody wants to see Jamaica play Spain.  Sorry.  The more powerful regions get more qualifying spots, and that's how it should be, for better viewing.

Watching summer split should be a good indicator of that.  Watching Cloud 9 stomp everybody, while funny, isn't actually fun to watch.  I don't want to watch worlds to see poor play by other regions.  I want to see the best.

The 2 current issues that  I see is how to determine the qualifying spots each year, because obviously each year the regions are in flux.  The other is that access to viewing OGN and other regions games is limited and usually the native language of the region.  I like watching the best, but it's hard to relate to the teams when I don't really know much about them, or their playing style.

I don't have the time currently to read all the comments, so I apologize if this has already been said:

The easiest way to fix the issue about Korea (or whatever the dominant region is for that given year) is to hold a wild card tournament the week prior to Worlds. Take the top 2 teams from each region that didn't qualify, and have them prove their worth. That way, maybe we'll get to see the Singapore Sentinels at Season 4 Worlds, instead of them choking in their Regional Finals just like the past 2 seasons,  lulz

A lot of pro sports (NHL, MLB, NCAA football, to name a few big ones here in the U.S.) Have pretty uneven leagues or divisions.  This is not on accident; there are a few advantages on both sides:

-more exciting and competetive season play: fans like to see teams play who are "playing the same game," as well as regional rivalries of the type that don't develop between teams that are wildly geographically disparate.

-exciting and meaningful playoff/pre-playoff play: for the underdog divisions, this is their chance to break away and prove themselves without feeling like the championship will be a completely lost cause.  For the upper divisions, it's a time to test themselves against the big dogs in their region to see who deserves to be the favorite going in.

-Diverse regional interest in the championships, with a lot of unknowns: Having the divisions (mostly) separate during the season makes for exiting championship games; even heavily favored teams seem like they have a chance to be toppled if the teams have never faced before; and they might!  This system intentionally give underdogs and edge and encourages upsets: not only does it make for more exciting play, it also forces the best teams to prove that they have what it takes to adapt.

TL;DR: giving unevenly skilled regional divisions the same shot in a league-wide championship is a proven formula for exciting play and fostering a diverse fanbase.

If the LCS followed the NCAA FBS style of deciding champions, C9 would be told "Sorry, you're not established enough, here's a 5th place trophy", and only dig, clg, tsm, and crs would have the chance to go to worlds every season.

I'm glad you mention (briefly) Blizzard's version of the LCS, because that is a perfect example of how to damage your competitive scene then grow it. WCS America is essential Korea's B region with a few standout players from the Americas (for example, Scarlett). The moment the last "foreigner" is out of the tournament, viewership of that tournament dropped significantly. 

I feel in the case where one region greatly out represents others in Worlds would significantly hurt the growth of the scene as viewers of other regions would stop caring once their region's team(s) is out. 

I do feel though we need more off season international tournaments when regional tournaments aren't in progress.

I'm not sure Koreans participating in other regions is even suggested or mentioned in the article, so I don't know why did you kick up all this fuss...?

Even so, your point with Korean in other regions is nothing new in Olympics. A lot of countries cherry pick talents from other nations. What's the difference if a Korean or foreigner win it anyway? It's not like the Koreans cheated. They still had to play the game and win! They win cuz of how they play not because they are Korean!

I'm a little disappointed that Tuck didn't even acknowledge how difficult it would be to have these region matches. If the matches are played online, then either one side or the other will suffer from game-crippling lag for trying to play cross-region. If these region matches are played over LAN, then there will be a lot of flying involved - which would negatively impact one or both teams. 

With that said, I would still like to see something like what Tuck is suggesting. It would certainly change the monotony we get from seeing teams from the same region butt heads over and over again.

What you are trying to achieve by sending more Korean teams to world's would ruin the reason they even host them. You're talking like it would be better to just give the prizes to Korea. Each region should get equal oppurtunities.

I am really looking forward to the finals. For S4, i hope every region will use the same system because the ciruit point system is always so strange^^.

No, what we can conclude is that Alternate didn't do particularly well in Bo1 matches over the full course of the season.

I followed LCS during its first 2 or 3 months, but it became a bit stale watching the same 8 or 9 teams playing against each other week after week during 6 months. I caught up again recently with the introduction of C9, roster changes on CRS, TSM, CLG and GG and I'm glad that the S3 finals are close, as the scene is starting to get repetitive again. 

The limited pool of competitively viable champs doesn't help at all on this issue. Even though there are always some odd champs showing up like ziggs, zilean, urgot or yorick, most of the time there is a pool of 25-30 champs that is used over and over and over during 3 or 4 patches.

edit: grammar

Another problem is that the LCS best of 1 or 3 draft formats are considerably weaker in determining the stronger team. Adjustments and pick mind games are more visible in the OGN format of 4 draft and 5th game blind pick.

I admit I didn't follow competitve scene during season 2 until Worlds. Back then, I thought teams (always the same famous teams) were qualified because of magic (some "random" tournament I didn't know about). I liked the LCS because it offered a weekly competition to me and I was able to follow teams' evolution. Right now, I know almost nothing about Korean scene yet.

LCS spring split... I feel it was only for the purpose of the split's playoffs. First of all, new teams might get in. Second, spring playoffs are different. 30 (approx) weeks might be boring at the end (or maybe not). Besides that, where money prizes given?

Actually, one thing that annoyed me in S2 Worlds and summer split is the playoffs system. Byes and losers' brackets... dammit, is it so hard making regular groups with 2^n teams qualfying fro the playoffs? I think they improved it this time. And summer split... 6 teams out 8 in the playsoffs? 

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On the main topic, you don't have to be the very best like no one ever was, you only have to be better than your opponent when you play. Should you qualify to worlds when you are not the best in your region? Should you be punished for not doing that great lately?

Let me give an exemple: a football team (hi from Europe!) has a 20 points lead 6 matches before the league ends. It doesn't matter if they lose these 6 matches, they already are the national champions and will be in the next Champions' League. If you only take a 6-week span, it may be unfair, but you have to look the whole 30-something weeks. So, same problems appear in other sports. A different point system is the one used in ATP/WTA, not sure if it could be adopted.

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6 out of 8 teams in the playoffs is a high percent, but given 3 teams from each region in World's it makes sense to have the extra round. Basically, when you have a playoff in an 8 team league, you have to choose between qualifying being too easy and the stakes not being high enough.