If you missed the news, the CGS released the information for their World Finals. Most of the news fell into two categories: expected, and pleasantly surprising. I only had one small gripe.
The best thing has to be the schedule. Alright, that’s a lie; the best thing is the money and the caliber of the players. But those were thing things we knew about heading into the event.
The schedule is a nice departure from regular LANs, which try to pack four days worth of action, promotions, raffles, product demonstrations, and a concert into one weekend. Even though I understand the reasons, namely that most LANs aren’t important enough to take time off work or school, it doesn’t mean I find it any more enjoyable. The playing areas are noisy, chaotic, and a lot of times you’re forced to choose between watching the teams play or winning a new ViewSonic LCD (Note: you haven’t seen me write about my new ViewSonic LCD – aka, I chose poorly). Bad times all around.
Even if you don’t like the fact that the CGS uses Source, or think it’s the worst thing to happen to gaming since somebody decided that walls were optional, they’ve been good about small details. There are a lot of nagging issues in eSports, like delayed matches and cramped schedules, which are only fixed when competitive gaming is the first priority. Whenever the CGS has had the opportunity to use their stature, they’ve done so, and I’m certainly thankful for that. I’m looking forward to watching a match and then writing about it, instead of watching 3D, writing about the upset that just happened, and trying to stuff a pizza in my mouth while making sure I don’t turn my laptop into a Toshiba with Sausage.
Another small detail that’s logical when you think about it is the bracket. The teams from each region are on opposite sides of the bracket – meaning right now, there’s a chance for a USA-only Finals match between the Core and the CHImera (this obviously means the same thing for the EU, UK, and Latin America). I’m not saying that any of those matchups are probable, but it’s a small detail that might be taken for granted, but is worth noting.
There's only one thing I would have changed. I'm hesitant to call it a complaint, or even disappointment, though. But in a perfect world, I'd have larger prizes for first place in the individual competitions. That doesn’t jive with the CGS’s team-first approach, which I assume is the reason for the $5,000 (per player) first-place prize.
But from a fan’s standpoint, this is the competition. There isn’t a collection of gamers of this caliber in any other league or LAN. We want to see which organization is best, don't get me wrong, but people really want to see which teams are the best in their field, too. I'm not advocating we reverse the prize amounts, because that would be ridiculous. I just think that when something this big rolls around, we expect the prizes to be just as extravagant. It's not satisfying to crown somebody the Super Bowl Champions, and then not give them insanely expensive bling and a parade. Or, in this case, it seems weird to call somebody the "Best Source Team in the World" or "Best DoA 4 Player" and then reward them like they won the CPL. The winning team will still be crowned as the King; it just feels like we’re giving them something closer to a Burger-King Crown than a jewel-studded, gold-plated, plantinum-trimmed grave-robber’s dream.
Again, it's not a huge deal. The competition should still be just as fierce, and I can’t wait to experience the atmosphere and see how everything unfolds.
