The format of competition that makes utopian stories: TI8 and ELEAGUE Boston

Many consider that stories are a key element in esports tournaments. That fans and community want to experience the best stories. If that is true, then it is the responsibility of the tournament organizer to prepare the best tournament possible to tell this story.

We can trust that good format makes for great stories. However, there are still many people who compare the attractiveness between the knockout format and the winning bracket format. So to compare these two formats in the most realistic way, we have selected two tournaments with the two best stories of 2018: The International 8 and ELEAGUE Boston.

Before we begin we must realize that leagues cannot manipulate teams, players, or their performance on match day. And sometimes you can have bad luck in the quality of the game (like last FACEIT). However, they can control the format of the tournament. While there is controversy between these formats, when it comes to the biggest tournaments of the year, we believe The International’s format is the ultimate in terms of storytelling. Take a look at OG’s story as they lifted Aegis at TI8 and Cloud9 won the championship at ELeague Boston and see how the format of the competition made OG’s victory more depth than Cloud9’s because of the existence of the format. winning branch losing branch.

To start, let’s go back to the beginning of the tournament with both teams. OG recently went through a roster change as their captain and offlane player left the team to form a super team in EG. They were in disarray and fortunately managed to recruit two players at the last minute. They then have to fight for their place at TI through the EU Regional qualifiers.

Cloud9 has been the strongest team in North America since Tarik “tarik” Celik and Will “RUSH” Wierzba joined the roster. They were a dark horse with the potential to go deep into the Major’s inner rounds, but had terrible results when facing the all-star FaZe team during the Major.

Both teams got off to a bad start. Cloud9 lost 0-2 in the Legend round, but were able to reverse it 3-2. OG started the group stage with a 1-5 result. They also bounced back and took fourth place in their group. Both cloud9 and OG made it through the group stage and made it to the playoffs. Since then, the two stories are quite similar. Cloud9 beat G2 in the quarterfinals and SK in the semifinals to make it to the finals. G2 had a great show in the group stage and SK featured the legendary Brazilian players who dominated CS:GO a few years ago. On the OG side, they defeated VGJ.Storm, the team topping their group, and then defeated EG in a vengeful match. OG then went to the upper bracket to meet PSG.LGD.

In the Major finals, Cloud9 worked wonders. Although they lost to FaZe at Mirage with a close score of 16-14. However, Cloud9 revived and destroyed the opponent in Overpass. The boys then had an incredible Inferno match as they won the championship in extra time. For Cloud9, that’s how their story ends. They beat the all-star team that had destroyed them all the time before a miraculous victory.

The story of OG is quite similar to Cloud9. PSG.LGD is considered the strongest team in the tournament and is a candidate for the championship. In the win bracket of the tournament, we saw some epic matches as OG faced PSG.LGD and like Cloud9, OG turned around to take the win.

However, when Cloud9’s story ended, OG’s story continued. OG reached the final of the tournament and once again met PSG.LGD. PSG.LGD was able to win the loser finals and now they meet OG again after a bo3 match in the playoffs. They know exactly how OG plays and the final is a bo5. If OG wants to win, they have to do the magic a second time. And that’s exactly what happened. PSG.LGD had a 2-1 advantage in the match, but in the fourth and fifth games, OG turned the game around and took home the Aegis trophy.

Cloud9 had an amazing win over FaZe in a bo3. OG had to do it in a bo3 and a bo5 match. Mathematically it should be double the magic base. The Bracket Win-Loss Formula gives us yet another chapter in the story along with a more epic closing match. Imagine how incredible Cloud9’s journey would be if they not only defeated FaZe in a bo3 match, but repeated it in a bo5 match.

What makes this format even more special is that, no matter who wins under what circumstances, this format is born to create better stories. For example, PGS.LGD wins, they will protect the sanctity of China, and legendary players like Xu “fy” Linsen and Lu “Maybe” Yao finally lift the Aegis trophy. In the event that FaZe won the other universe in a bot5 draw in the winner’s bracket, we finally get to see Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs and Finn “karrigan” Andersen finally claim the title. biggest CS:GO after so many years of playing. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, the better story comes from the winner-takes-all format because it gives us a more emotional finale and another chapter to witness the rivalry. between the two teams in the final.

In other words, all competitions have a kind of story to tell. It’s the progression of a certain team or player to greatness. A chase for perfection and greatness. And that’s the story told in the knockouts, although the group stage can be buggy and limited. In the win-lose format, that story is refined. At the same time, you can also witness the fall of the big boys as well as the rise from this format.

But we do understand that financial problems or limited time are reasons that the win-lose format cannot be applied all the time. In fact, we think it makes sense to use different formats in tournaments throughout the year to challenge teams, players, and viewers with different experiences. However for the major tournaments of the year, for those that want to tell the best stories possible, in this case the best choice is The International’s format because it always gives us We experience great stories. As we’ve emphasized above, even a story as magical as Cloud9’s in Boston, it still lacks the impression compared to OG’s story. OG’s story has an extra chapter, an epic finale, more difficulty and more to lose, and from there leads to a deeper story.

According to VPEsports