Get out your clothespins, some duct tape, or maybe some little sticks; if you blink, you’re going to miss the CGS playoffs. I blinked, and the semi-finals were already gone like a hot girl that didn’t want to talk to me. For reasons known only to the people working at the CGS, it’s a single elimination, best-of-one format. Which means if you started the CGS playoffs the same day I started hosting Man vs. Wild, I’d still be plugging along when the whole thing was over.
(Granted, I might have a parasite for every inch of intestine, nausea, heartburn, upset stomach, indigestion, and diarrhea, all from one ill-fated attempt to drink water. And if I was Bear Grylls, I could probably fashion some Pepto-Bismol out of a flower, a rock, and a boa constrictor (or I could have the camera guy pick some up at the motel). I might be crippled, but I’d still be going, at least.)
You can’t say the same thing for the CGS playoffs. Two days, and they’re done. The first “round” happened after a one-day break from the end of the regular season. That, I don’t mind so much. I think they could have done a better job building it up if they gave it an extra day or two, but the pure brevity of the competition is a much bigger concern. Is there any major sport that voluntarily chooses having fewer games like eSports?
Don’t give me football. If football players were physically able to play more than once a week, they would do it. Anybody that thinks the sponsors wouldn’t push for it, and teams wouldn’t happily oblige having more games (and selling more tickets) is, in my opinion, just plain wrong. But the physical nature of the sport is too much to endure more than once a week. Especially at the top levels when a 6’5”, 300 pound guy that runs a 4.4 forty-yard dash is trying his best to turn your skeleton into a ten-thousand piece jigsaw, and will probably get a salary bonus and an ESPN interview if he does it.
No, if there’s been one constant, it’s that leagues add more games to the playoffs. Basketball added two games to the first round, which used to be a best-of-five series until 2002-2003. MLB has expanded their playoffs continually as their league grew, adding whole rounds and expanding the number of games played in each round. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an organized league cutting down their playoffs because they were too long.
The reason for this is pretty simple: the more games you play, the more the best team will rise to the top. If you had the Royals play the Red Sox in a best-of-one series for the MLB championship, we’d have to say, “and here they are, your World Series Champions, the Kansas City Royals” two out of every five years. It hurts just thinking about it. Does anybody not living in 1980 think the Royals are actually better than the Sox? I hope not, but when you’re just playing one game, funny things can happen. Luck becomes a much bigger factor in determining the outcome. One pitcher could get hot and throw a shutout for the Royals. A hitter could have a big game and drive in five or six runs. But over the course of time, the Sox would prove themselves to be the better team.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the recent NBA playoffs, and the criticism for them, it’s that you absolutely, positively, MUST have the best teams advancing. If you don’t, the level of play decreases instead of increases, fans get angry, and Bill Simmons has an aneurysm.
In the NBA, part of the problem is a convoluted playoff system that stems from the large number of teams in the league and the playoffs. The CGS doesn’t have that problem, and it’s easy to ensure that the better team is moving on: make it at least a best-of-three series. It’s the standard at every LANs, what is there to gain by changing the format? Hell, even CAL and CEVO use best-of-three, and there’s comparatively little on the line in those leagues.
But, instead of increasing the number of games and ensuring that the best team advances in one of the most ambitious undertakings in eSports history, we’re left with “who’s hot today” playing a major role in determining the champion because the CGS decided to buck tradition, and, I think, common sense.
There's one thing I want to stop short of saying, and it's that either team that moved on is undeserving, because I simply don’t know. If they played a best-of-999 series, the same teams might have won. In that case, I’d accept the winner as the better team. But one player hot player can change one game far too much for me to be anything but disappointed and, quite frankly, dumbfounded that the CGS only had a best-of-one semi-finals, with a best-of-one Finals on the schedule.
This doesn’t need to be changed next season. This needs to be changed yesterday, or at the very least, before the Finals. I have a feeling that it won’t, though, so whatever you do, don’t blink.
