UKTerrorist

Segregated By Seedings

Posted by Myers at 17:50 24/8/2004.

Evermore frequently now teams are lining up alongside eachother at LAN competitions worldwide. Weeks of intense practice and preparation for single games on single maps place far more importance on both the teams' seed and format of the competition than before.

However, are a large number of teams not being given the opportunity to prove themselves that they deserve? I've written up an article Segregated By Seedings taking a look at how some teams find themselves eliminated earlier than they would hope, and if there is an alternative method to running professional gaming competitions.

Beneath this glossy exterior of the CPL final, where winners are catapulted into online celebdom and poor performances result in ceaseless player changes, there is a very critical error in format of the event. The format did not originate, and not does it permeate via the CPL alone, it is a critical error that exists in a vast number of gaming competitions, the CPL, perhaps unfortunately, just happens to be the easiest example of what it is applicable to the majority.

The purpose of gaming events is not to determine the best player/team in the world, but to give the most accurate and reliable account of the present standing amongst the world’s greatest players. Due to the use of a double elimination format and event seeding the majority of teams are inhibited from demonstrating their true potential. We are all well aware that online success attributes little to the typical consensus of a team’s abilities, unless they can equal their success in LAN competitions such teams quickly become known as ‘online heroes’ (which in itself is a euphemism for configgers).

Why a LAN competition? Well the answer is simple, a LAN competition is fair, and everyone uses the same system, has the same ping, players the same game and has tournament configurations. So why when event organisers go to so much effort to ensure that the competition is fair for all, do they then make the astounding error of giving the better sides a huge advantage over everyone else? How can a tournament be fair if the teams that organisers believe will win receive easier routes to do so?

If the article appears to be of any interest to you, then move the rodent over to here and click.