[Paroxysm]

While this is a good idea, I personally think that the concept of a 15-19 week tournament is rather strenuous. In honesty, the weekly CO gives the community a brilliant way to interact and play off against people from SEA across an extremely broad skill level and is a fun environment to learn and improve.

Realistically, the current Community Open layout is perfect to provide an activity which players from all skill levels can participate in and enjoy. Changing the Community Open, realistically, is not a viable option, however the introduction of a new tournament is.

The concept of a (or slightly longer) Group Stage -> Playoff style tournament which is run over the length of 2 - 3 months could be widely received within the SEA community if it is played right. Of course, it would be necessary to find an appropriate sponsor or set of sponsors for gear/money to attract a large target audience for streaming/casting and more importantly for people who are entering the tournament. If more is at stake you will definitely find that more people will join/watch the tournament.

I recommend that the introduction of such a tournament which goes through several stages of play be introduced on a more regular basis in the sc2sea community as it would introduce a larger audience to the SEA player and fan base and will also provide a possible gateway for SEA players to enter the pro scene (if mOOngLaDe doesnt beat everyone . On the note of the introduction of such a tournament, I would be happy to help host/organise/improve it on top of my current CO duties and I'm sure a plethora of other community members would do the same.

Ultimately, the hardest part would be maintaining the donations required to run a tournament however i think the pros of such a tournament SEVERELY outweigh the cons. It would be extremely beneficial to SEA and SC2SEA if a tournament such as this was introduced. The question is, what will the name be?

If anyone wanted to discuss the concept of such a tournament in further detail and also take part in developing it, PM me or add me on skype (nickmcguffin) as I would be very interested in such an event.

Lets get organising!

Paroxysm