[Please note: this transcript is accurate as of 07 June 2015. Might be worth keeping tabs on the official webpage and TL thread after this date]
Gone are the days where we refer to players as an "NA Ladder Hero" as a derogatory term referencing their struggle toward a goal of little meaning or value! Competition breeds ingenuity, hard work and skill! And NA Ladder Heroes is here to increase the competition!
This event has received an enormous amount of feedback and interest from over 50 GM players including QXC, Kane, puCK, Kelazhur, and more. Thank you to everyone who provided feedback and I look forward to seeing you all participate!
Be sure to keep up to date with the amazing website run by Troy Pavlek(still being developed but will have amazing tools for tracking how everyone is doing!
NA Ladder Heroes is a system to incentivize players to give more meaning to their ladder practice. The system is split up into two parts that tie into each other.
1) Weekly Ladder competition
Every Saturday at 9pm PST/12:00am EST, the top 16 registered players on the North American Grandmaster list will be awarded points for finishing at the top of the ladder. Higher placement will result in more points earned. Exact point values per placement to be determined.
The top 2 registered players will also win $25 and $10 respectively for that week of the ladder competition.
2) Monthly Finals From Ladder Qualifications
Every month, the top 8 point holders from the weekly ladder competition will be invited to a monthly tournament with a $260 total prizepool. The event will take place during a single day.
The tournament will be a single elimination with the Ro8 being Bo3, the Semi-Finals being Bo5, & the Finals being Bo7. A 3rd/4th place match will also be played before the finals.
The tournament will pay out $156 to 1st, $78 to 2nd, and $26 to third.
Please note this event is a very new and somewhat ambitious idea. Because of this everything here is subject to change.
How To Register
Players will submit registration to participate in the event. Approved players will be added to a registered players list and will be subject to banned permanently from the event if they break any of the rules. No Barcodes/Shared Accounts - Registered players agree to use an account that displays their real username(no barcodes) and agree that no other player or person will use the account for a ranked ladder match at any point. You also may not use name changes during the competition unless approved by me. Publicly Listed Players - The list of registered players will be publicly displayed in this thread, as well as players who have been banned from participating due to rule breaks. Don't Be a BIG Jerk - I reserve the right to ban players from the event that show excessive levels of bm during ladder games(I will be very reasonable about this. I'm not going to ban you for dropping manner mules or offensive gg'ing. Just don't be dumb and start doing things like using racial slurs, extremely personal attacks, etc.) Don't Be An idiot - Players of course agree not to hack/mod/stream cheat/etc.
To register, send an email to feardragon64 [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com with the the subject line "NA LADDER HEROES APPLICATION" and the following information in the body:
Your most well known username A link to the battle.net account you will use for the event The paypal account you would like to be paid at A replay of at least 15 minutes in length for identity verification/hotkey analysis if accused The best way to reach you(skype username, e-mail address, etc.)
The Prize Money/Patreon
Currently, the prize money for NA Ladder Heroes has a lot of seemingly random values. The idea is the event will have a funding of $100 a week (and thus $400 a month). After about 50 GM players on their preferences, here's how the prize pools listed above came about:
A 65%/35% split on the monthly finals versus the weekly incentives.
A 75%/25% split for the weekly incentive.
A 60%/30%/10% split for the monthly finals.
I have a patreon open for events I'm running. With the additional funds I'm using there, I may increase the total prizepool for a particular month based on the percentage values listed above. Of course, as with everything, these percentages are also subject to change. If you do decide to contribute to the Patreon, the replays for the monthly finals will be available to those contributing at least $10. I will also likely cover the most recent week in my weekly Patreon vlog, as well as where the Patreon funds are going. A link to the Patreon can be found here:
1) What About Europe/Korea/South America/SEA/Etc? The Bad News - This event will ONLY be on North America for now. The Good News - ALL players from ANY region are allowed and encouraged to participate. The OK News - If the funding on my Patreon reaches $400 a month, I'll be able to fund a EU Ladder Heroes that will take place on the European Ladder.
2) Won't maphackers/win traders/etc. just win?
Keep in mind every player participating *has* to register for this. A strict list will be maintained and anyone caught maphacking, win trading, cheating, etc. will be perma banned from the list and listed in the "banned" section of this thread. This is to ensure the participants able to earn any money will not be map hackers.
==========================================
Seriously awesome initiative by Ravi 'Feardragon' and you should check it out.
Even the smallest donations help keep sc2sea running! All donations go towards helping our site run including our monthly server hosting fees and sc2sea sponsored community tournaments we host. Find out more here.