I'm usually pretty hesitant to ever post anything in PR, but after a nod of agreement from Eo I feel confident enough to share my ideas here. I don't want to regret not expressing my ideas and letting the moment pass. Before I begin I want to mention that I will not be point blank referencing any of the posts in the thread, as what I'm proposing takes things in a different direction entirely. Throughout this post, you will not see me once argue about old gens or lower tiers being more competitive or "better", as I think it's a fruitless, largely self-serving shit flinging contest. My stomach has turned at some of the posts deriding lower tiers here, and the same can be said of what I've seen over time in RU discord alone, meaning blindly bashing old gens. I love all of the competitive formats currently represented on an official level, whether as a spectator at large or player in RU. My system will intend to keep all parties happy, or at the very least represented & involved in a meaningful way. If you're familiar with my posts (ru people) then you'll know I tend to write a lot of words, but if there's a post I could ask you not simply skim over it'd be this one, given the nature and gravity of the topic, which ultimately will affect a large group of peoples' enjoyment here. Anyway, here we go.
I propose that we restructure the entire teamtour cycle. We keep 3 teamtours, but we essentially rebrand all 3 of them. World Cup and Snake would cease to exist. The tournaments would go as follows:
1) SPL Classic - SPL format with CGOU+oldgens. CGOU x 3 (for now, i'll cover this) and then 7 tiers of the old gens. - takes place in current SPL timeslot
2) SPL Modern - SPL format with CGOU+lowers. CGOU x 4 + UU/RU/NU/PU/LC/DOU. - takes place in current snake timeslot.
3) SPL (something, TBD) - SPL as we know it currently with oldgens and lowers mixed in. This would be 14 slots, vs the other 2 being 10 slots. this goes in the WCOP timeslot.
Let's start with SPL Modern, since it's the easiest to address. It's pretty much a carbon copy of snake, now complete with team identity, retains, and the improved auction format. I ultimately can't imagine this is too controversial beyond people who hate naming everything the same, but we'll get there. Next would be SPL Classic, which again would go in the upcoming SPL timeslot. It'd currently exist as shown above, with potential changes as generations progress. As gen9 rolls around, there would be a couple ways to move forward. One (my idea) would be extending the slots in the tournament to 12, and doing 8 oldgens+4 CGOU. In gen10 this can be 9oldgens+3CGOU. Needless to say this would suffice for many years to come, particularly more so than what the past has presented.
The bombshell change will get its own paragraphs, since I feel that only makes sense. Replacing WCOP with this unified SPL sounds very daunting, but there's good reasons to in my opinion. WCOP simply isn't a competitively sound format, regardless of the nostalgia goggles some may view it through. To start, WCOP features a billion players, a chunk of whom wouldn't make the cut in a normal draft system. It really isn't a degradation in game quality whatsoever comparatively in this new format. 14 starting slots over 10 teams replacing a format where there's 16 (more in qualifying) teams with 8-10 starting slots. The game quality argument also can be made for the fact that this new tour would obviously have the best in every format, even if it's more formats than teamtours have ever seen. This certainly isn't achieved with region-locked teams. Some teams are supercharged beasts and others have an extremely minimal chance of ever winning, let alone making playoffs. A lot of people here chirp about creating the most competitive tournament cycle possible, so it should be completely acceptable to acknowledge that WCOP by definition creates an environment that isn't competitively sound. You are arbitrarily born where you are born, and for many that is where you exist for your entirety of your days in WCOP. This is laughably nonconcrete competitively compared to a draft, even snake, format. I shouldn't even have to point out the obvious levels of disparity here, whether you're born into East or exist as blunder/fooly on Team Canada, to name two easy examples. It might be in ones natural instinct to say "but look at how many different teams qualify for playoffs, surely it is still competitively fine." I would disagree and point to the dynastic nature of multiple WCOP franchises, purely on the circumstances of their birth, in comparison to SPL/Snake which has seen nothing of the sort save for the anomalous sharks in a 3-4 year stretch. Another draft tour is infinitely more competitive than this overlooked mess, but that's not my only issues with WCOP, which I'll cover more of lightly later.
So, a big question you may be asking yourself at this time is how would this tournament exactly work. After all, generations continue to pop up, right? In gen8 it would be 2CGOU, UU/RU/NU/LC/DOU & all old gens. PU gets chopped off, but now they have an SPL, so, rad. They weren't getting into this SPL anyway even if lower tiers "won" in the previously discussed means, so I can't imagine they're too mad. In gen9, and here's the rub, I would have RBY removed and 8 oldgens exist alongside everything else as planned. I plan to make this up to RBY later, but they at least would have more years with at least 2 forms of official representation. My main goal here is to make it so pretty much every format has two forms of representation available to them (again, we'll talk later about rby) AND we make it so people who value tournaments including all parties are happy. I value this too, as otherwise we truly are two separate communities with negligent interaction. This isn't a driving selling point I'm trying to throw at you, but if you value this then just consider the prospect of your means of meeting 'the other half' you wouldn't otherwise being eternally strained. With this it's solved, and everyone gets two forms of representation, and the tournament cycle is overall more competitive.
I did mention I'd return to issues I have with WCOP, so here we go. This first one is less of something I want taken as an official point compared to everything else above, but it's something I want to talk about and get a feeler for. I think it's abundantly easier to cheat in WCOP than the other two teamtours. I say this because, imo, it's easier to feel safe enough to cheat since these are your country-people who are less likely to rat you out. They're your friends that you most likely know well, your native comrades. If it wasn't for social fallouts and voodoo hacking, we never would have learned about relatively to recent examples such as team germany & team west. It doesn't end there, as casually browsing recent WCOP admin threads would show you what I mean. It's largely people requesting their players get ghosted, which again probably feels safer to do with the people you know best. It also ties into the point above that a chunk of these cheaters would not make it into draftable formats. See bdlc requesting his player cheat in this WCOP. See Aquafinity of India. Frankly see India in general, as it's been multiple times now that antics have surfaced. See faking an IP address for eligibility. The list goes on. It's not proven in anyway but the fact that the arguably two most talented oldgens franchises of current (US Northeast, US West) swear on their mothers' grave that the other cheats every year is such an abysmal look. Cheating goes on in other tournaments surely, and even in similar environments to those listed above,
as we've seen once before. Though, per above, I'd argue it's a problem that's exacerbated by feeling safe among your countryfolk and the less than typical competition members.
Earlier I mentioned how RBY would at least be gracefully acknowledged. I also recognize that some may be emotional at the thought of not playing with their fellow countrypeople when they've grown so accustomed to doing so. I intend to kill two birds with one stone here, and I have to thank
Eo Ut Mortus for the idea. Instead of completely abolishing WCOP, Eo had the idea of making WCOP occur once every four years, timed with the real life world cup. I think this is a wonderful idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly I want to mention that the format, in my mind, would be STRICTLY CGOU+oldgens. It'd exist essentially the same as SPL classic would now. 10 slots with 3 OU when suitable, 12 slots with 4 OU when needed. This entire project not only allows all tiers (including RBY, minus PU) to maintain 2 forms of official representation as of now, but also in the inevitably RBY needs to be pushed out of the unified SPL, they still have years with two forms of official representation. This also allows people who adore WCOP to still have the hype of playing with their fellow countryfolk instead of never doing so. I'd argue it occurring once every 4 years makes it way more hype & important, in a sense. That's a winning country's bragging right for 4 years, just like irl. Do I expect every RBY player to love this idea? No. But it's a compromise that allows everyone to be as represented to the maximum I think is possible while being suitable. It respects everyone.
Lower Tier, LC, and DOU players shouldn't fret this, since you're looking at a theoretical 7 official representations in 4 years. I'm not sure if anyone noticed but the tour-replacing order was not random. This system allows for lower tiers to always have time to grow and mature in new gens, so there's no more swapping lower tiers out of SPL due to new gen December woes.
I think I am going to call it here and edit more if something comes to mind. I've been writing for an hour flat, so I'm a little razzled on everything I truly wanted to include. Some various points I foresee as potentially relevant before I click post, and I suppose some things I want to recap:
-growth & spotlight of new players indeed does lose a form of representation, though I'd argue there's still a plethora of this in the form of the many open-to-join tournaments.
-yes there would be retains for all of these tournaments.
-2x representation at least semi-consistently for every relevant party, including a tournament where you indeed team with the other half of the community.
-an uptick in overall competitiveness
-you never have to edit the formats for lower tiers to develop
-decisions on behalf of the oldgen side of these tournaments can be made without lower tiers always being at stake.
-uniformity in tournament formats, something I think should be well-received. It's the most competitive system at that.
Thank you if you read the whole thing. There's no need to exclude an important part of our community.
*addition number one: i forget to mention but i'm open to anything on how alumning trophies would work. snake->modern is easy enough, and im fine allowing previous 'spl wins' to now change to the unified spl win. wcop trophy will still exist, so spl classic would need a new color.
*addition number two: it's probably too late for most people to truly see and digest but WCOP can easily just replace SPL Classic in this guide, i really don't mind. If anything this post was just to show 14 slots over 8-10 teams being competitively viable in comparison to WCOP, as competitive viability and depth of 14 slots was the main criticism of it. you can keep wcop and make this work w/ the same representation. i am grateful to the swath of people who recognize WCOPs flaws and would be fine putting it biyearly.