Blizzard’s strange tournament specifications
Next week, two major Overwatch event will be taking place with MLG Las Vegas and IEM Gyeonggi. Both these events are featuring a $100,000 cash prize, which means they must have acquired a license from Blizzard.
MLG Las Vegas
A few days ago, the MLG Las Vegas portal made public its Overwatch tournament specifics. That's when we discovered that the matches will be played on predetermined maps. That system is commonly used for qualifiers or small competitions, but has never been a popular standard for major FPS tournaments.
In the case of the MLG Las Vegas, some of the most unpopular maps in the pro circuit were even over-represented. For example Ilios, the map featuring a massive well in the middle of its control point, was to be played potentially 9 times. Also Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries and Hanamura, maps featuring the esport-unpopular Assault mode, were given a major part in the competition.
After all teams attending sent and signed a letter to Blizzard and MLG petitioning for removal of predetermined maps and an inclusion of a map draft, the result came half good: It seems Blizzard allowed MLG to alter the predetermined maps but declined teams' request for a map draft.
IEM Gyeonggi
The next day after this news, it was the turn of ESL's IEM Gyeonggi to announce that the "rulebook incorrectly stipulated an Overwatch map-pool and map selection process that wasn’t in compliance with Blizzard’s tournament specifications". The Korean tournament was set with a special map-pool which excluded 3 maps (Volskaya, Eichenwalde and Numbani) and featured a map drafting before each match.
Now the maps are predetermined for the 5 matches of the competition.
Overwatch Winter Premiere
The extend of Blizzard’s tournament specifications doesn't stop here as the coming Overwatch Winter Premiere qualifiers, another Blizzard licensed event with $100,000 prize money, will also enforce a specific map-pool:
It's becoming reasonable to question the choices made by Blizzard in terms of tournament specifications. When Overwatch was released, the standard for competitions was "No hero limit" and "Stopwatch" rule set.
This standard was quickly abandoned after the community made a case for the "1 hero limit" and an alternative rule-set for payload maps. Today, the community was not heard and the communication about these choices is non existent, which makes it hard to even start a debate.
Patches timing
On another topic, the next Tuesday patch will feature all the new changes made from the PTR. Which means the teams have no choice but to be in USA to practice the changed gameplay of the coming patch on PTR with a decent latency (PTR servers are located in USA).
Remember that this is not the first time Blizzard is enforcing a patch with major changes before a competition: In the middle of the APEX playoff, Blizzard released the patch with a new hero (Sombra).
MLG Las Vegas
A few days ago, the MLG Las Vegas portal made public its Overwatch tournament specifics. That's when we discovered that the matches will be played on predetermined maps. That system is commonly used for qualifiers or small competitions, but has never been a popular standard for major FPS tournaments.
In the case of the MLG Las Vegas, some of the most unpopular maps in the pro circuit were even over-represented. For example Ilios, the map featuring a massive well in the middle of its control point, was to be played potentially 9 times. Also Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries and Hanamura, maps featuring the esport-unpopular Assault mode, were given a major part in the competition.
After all teams attending sent and signed a letter to Blizzard and MLG petitioning for removal of predetermined maps and an inclusion of a map draft, the result came half good: It seems Blizzard allowed MLG to alter the predetermined maps but declined teams' request for a map draft.
IEM Gyeonggi
The next day after this news, it was the turn of ESL's IEM Gyeonggi to announce that the "rulebook incorrectly stipulated an Overwatch map-pool and map selection process that wasn’t in compliance with Blizzard’s tournament specifications". The Korean tournament was set with a special map-pool which excluded 3 maps (Volskaya, Eichenwalde and Numbani) and featured a map drafting before each match.
Now the maps are predetermined for the 5 matches of the competition.
Overwatch Winter Premiere
The extend of Blizzard’s tournament specifications doesn't stop here as the coming Overwatch Winter Premiere qualifiers, another Blizzard licensed event with $100,000 prize money, will also enforce a specific map-pool:
Hollywood
King’s Row
Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Nepal
Ilios
Volskaya
Hollywood
King’s Row
Route 66
Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Ilios
Anubis
Hollywood
Route 66
Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Nepal
Anubis
Volskaya
King’s Row
Route 66
Nepal
Ilios
Anubis
Volskaya
It's becoming reasonable to question the choices made by Blizzard in terms of tournament specifications. When Overwatch was released, the standard for competitions was "No hero limit" and "Stopwatch" rule set.
This standard was quickly abandoned after the community made a case for the "1 hero limit" and an alternative rule-set for payload maps. Today, the community was not heard and the communication about these choices is non existent, which makes it hard to even start a debate.
Patches timing
On another topic, the next Tuesday patch will feature all the new changes made from the PTR. Which means the teams have no choice but to be in USA to practice the changed gameplay of the coming patch on PTR with a decent latency (PTR servers are located in USA).
Remember that this is not the first time Blizzard is enforcing a patch with major changes before a competition: In the middle of the APEX playoff, Blizzard released the patch with a new hero (Sombra).
They basically seem to want complete control over the ESPORTS scene for their games, I hope it doesn't work out in Overwatch either.