[eSportsNZ]

The StarCraft II World Championship Series is coming to New Zealand!

eSport Tournaments NZ is proud to announce the news that we will be hosting the New Zealand Nationals in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment for the World Championship Series. With this collaboration we are hoping to bring forth a new level of competition in the New Zealand and open gateways for the New Zealand Starcraft 2 scene.

The tournament will consist of three parts two online qualifiers, and a single live event.

Click the links below for more info:

Main website event page

Stage 1 - Online qualifer round robin - May 11th - May 13th

Stage 2 - Online qualifer second round robin - May 18th - May 20th

Final event - Live Auckland lan - Round of 8 double elimination tournament. 2nd of June @ The Corporate Box

Total prize pool: $5000 USD
1st place = $2000 USD
2nd place = $1250 USD
3rd place= $600 USD
4th place= $350 USD
5th-8th place= $200 USD


Extra event details:
Final stage will be held live in Auckland on June 2nd
Live entertainment
Flights & Accommodation provided for finalists residing outside of Auckland*
Two winners move forward in competing in Blizzard’s World Championship Series

Casters:

Map Pool:

(2) Daybreak LE
(2) Ohana LE
(2) Cloud Kingdom LE
(4) Entombed Valley
(4) Antiga Shipyard: Cross spawns only version
(4) Tal’darim Altar LE
(4) Shakuras Plateau: No close by ground spawns

NOTE: The top 8 of the stage 2 round robin online qualifier will be required to prove your citizenship and age via scanned passport or other verifiable information to proceed to the live event as a participant.

Live event bracket

* = International flights will be reviewed on a case by case basis, and may result in only a part subsidy for airfares.

[MooZfY]

Go stalllllyyyyyy

Quick Comments

	xGKingdelete:	§
	syfCabracan:	No love for the other NZ crux peps?
	Stallion:
	Mayo:	I'm stally #1 fan

[ROOTPetraeus]

Ok....
Who are the players? 24 pools of 6 or less? We could possibly manage that if all SC2 players in New Zealand were invited.
Where do the invites from previous competitions fit in?
Overall some more explanation would be good.

[Dox]

Can you post more info here please? APL set a good example of how you can lay your post out.

Quick Comments

	Another:	The australian one looks very well organised, well done : )
	ausproleague:	You know what else is a good example? ACL threads :) <3

[VoxMSI.Rogue]

As much as I am a fan of those doing anything for the community and creating events for us to play, especially here in New Zealand I feel there are some major issues that need to be addressed with the organisation and hosting of this tournament.

As you may be aware I recently joined Team Iris (New Zealands first professional SC2 team) as part of their Media/Promotional side of things, but THE FOLLOWING VIEWS I EXPRESS ARE NOT THOSE OF IRIS AS AN ORGANISATION, NOR OF THEIR PLAYERS OR MANAGEMENT. They are my own views which I have agonized of hours to put into a diplomatic post.

All information was taken from the following sources:

http://esporttournamentsnz.com/event...nationals2012/


First I will take time to address the structure of the tournament itself:

Tournament Structure:

Stage One: (Online)
Players will be split up into 24 pools of 6 (or less), and will compete in a Round Robin tournament.
2 players from each pool will advance to the next stage.
Players will be seeded into each pool based on their Battle.net SEA/NA ranks, keeping the pools as even as possible.

Realistically this is completely unnecessary. Twenty four groups of six is a 144 person tournament. This is a highly questionable. There is no need for two separate online qualifiers. New Zealand Cup is a great example of this, with Spartaz desperate to fill the pools and during pool play there was plenty of no shows. One online qualifier should be sufficient, with sign ups open for two weeks, then pools determined from there. An online event is much easier to run than an offline tournament and splitting it over two stages is highly unnecessary.

Stage Two: (Online)
Players will be split up into 4 pools of 6, and will compete in a Round Robin tournament.
2 players from each pool will advance to the next stage.

Once again this is totally unnecessary, take the top two from each pool from the first stage and seed them directly into a bracket using challonge. This will provide the participants for your offline event. There are plenty of people in this community who can help you do the bracket properly so those who already played in the group stage will be on opposite sides of the bracket. From here you can play out the tournament.

Stage Three:
Finalists will face off in a double elimination style tournament at our live Auckland venue.

See above. there is no need for so many groups and so much confusion. Have one online round of pool play, determine your top however many players and those are the players for your offline event.New Zealand does not have enough high level participants to warrant the format you propose.

Also:

- Seeding from the ranking on NA/SEA rewards the players who play mainly on these servers and is not an accurate representation of the top level players. Most of the GM an M players spend the majority of their time laddering on Kr and many not on SEA at all because of lag issues.

- How will the seeding be done? Will it be based off ladder points for each server, or ladder rank obtained? Will it be based off SEA or NA and will Bonus Pool accrued be taken into consideration for seeding purposes? Players need to know what the seeding outlines are so they can get onto the relevant server and ladder now to have a better chance at obtaining a good seed for the event.

- No date has been given for any of this Online Qualification process. How much notice will the players be given of when they need to be available for this event?

- During pool play will the games be best of three?

- Considering the map pool, will their be vetos? If so how many? What will the starting maps be for each round? Why is the map pool so small? What exact versions of the maps will be used? Will Antiga Shipyard feature gold bases? If one MLG/GSL Map is used, will all the maps also be MLG/GSL as to keep consistancy? Or will Blizzard be providing updated tournament issue maps for the event?


Next I will address the announcement:

FREE ENTRY
Final stage will be held live in Auckland on June 2nd
Live bands and entertainment
Prize pool TBA
Flights & Accommodation provided for finalists residing outside of Auckland
Two winners move forward in competing in Blizzard’s World Championship Series
And more!


1 - When will venue be announced will it be an R18 venue or will it be an PC cafe many underage participants are likely such as IrisPetraeus who is 15 years old and cannot be in an R18 venue, yet you plan to host live entertainment, which will not fit into a PC Cafe.

2 - Why has the prizepool not been determined, its my understanding that you have been talking to Blizzard about this for some time now and I am sure they have outlined to you what the prizepool they will be offering is.

3 - When will all this information be announced? The sign up opens in four days time and currently those entering know basically no information about the tournament except that the 1st and 2nd place winners will qualify for the SEA Blizzard event.

4 - Players outside of Auckland will be supplied with both travel and accommodation. Will players in the Auckland region be supplied with transportation to and from the venue or reimbursed for their costs? It seems unfair for those who live in the host city to bear the costs of their travel while those from outside the region to have all their costs paid for.

5 - When will all the times/dates be announced for ALL parts of this event, many participants will need to take time off work or have University exams they are preparing for during this time and need to have decent notice to apply for time off or to reorganize their schedules to accommodate for the qualifiers.


At this time I am asking you for full disclosure to the community of the details of this event. You have announced that the offline event will be held on June 2nd 2012, and sign ups for the online section are in four days. The participants are still missing vital information for this event and NEED to be informed.

I am sure you have my contact details and can contact me with any concerns about this post, I would prefer if however you responded here so that those participating can have these questions answered.

Thank you.

Quick Comments

	Another:
	Maynarde:	Good points in first part of the post, looking forward to answers for the 2nd half
	IcedTea:
	ToRSpartaz:
	ROOTPetraeus:	Alicia = baller.
	Flamga:	Well written :)
	FaDeMuss:	Petraeus might have to bring his parents, just to be allowed to play
	nirvAnA:
	TCPLemminks:	Dox with boobs
	asdfSchnitzel:

[eSportsNZ]

Thankyou for your concern.
More information will be revealed closer to registrations.
Hopefully all questions will be answered.

Also a small error was made, 12 pools of 6 or less.This has been updated on our website, thanks.

Quick Comments

	Another:	the questions rogue asked need to be answered NOW.
	Snx.FigJig:	^ does not deserve a down rep
	ROOTPetraeus:	leave jamie alone
	Dox:	"Hopefully" ??
	Stallion:	hi mike

[neKo]

Jazbaz to take all the nz dollars
while smiling of course.

Quick Comments

	ROOTPetraeus:	na bro
	Snx.FigJig:
	NvJazBas:	Pet will never beat me again! Even when I play protoss
	TAEdgE:	ye bro
	ToRSpookToR:	ye bro

[Fresco]

Is the date of the tournament flexible at all ? . June 2nd is very close to exams for universities throughout New Zealand

[ToRSpartaz]

Keep us updated leading up to the actual event.

Looking forward to see this event unfold, major development for NZ eSports!

Quick Comments

	ROOTPetraeus:	irrelevant and unnecessary.
	IcedTea:
	Stallion:	i agree
	Trusty:	Expressing opinion is always relevant
	ToRSpookToR:	da fuq pet
	xxGunslingerxx:	counteracting petraeus' douchiness :)

[eSportsNZ]

An update has been made to the same URL adding more information in red, be sure to check it out.
And don't forget that registrations will open from tomorrow!

[NvJazBas]

How to register?

[Another]

i still dont understand why you are taking 3 days to play 5 bo3s?

[Trusty]

Originally Posted by IrisAnother

i still dont understand why you are taking 3 days to play 5 bo3s?

I think it's good, potentially have to do 15 games of SC2 on one day, starting @ 7pm would be too much.

Quick Comments

Stallion:

i agree

[Another]

Originally Posted by Trusty

I think it's good, potentially have to do 15 games of SC2 on one day, starting @ 7pm would be too much.

it works for some people, but for 2 fri/sat/sunday nights in a row you have to be at your computer, that is unbelievbly annoying for a lot of us. I work nights quite often and will have to take 3-4 days of work off just to play in 1 tournament TT. Also they managed to clash with xgTL ((which was announced frist) ) which means all Iris players will have to reschedule on fridays

Quick Comments

Stallion:

an excellent point

[eSportsNZ]

Registrations NOW OPEN!
http://esporttournamentsnz.com/event...nationals2012/

[ROOTPetraeus]

Awesome, look forward to the tournament ^_^

[Stallion]

sweet im in come at me bros?

Quick Comments

ROOTPetraeus:

WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE

[Navi]

All Iris members will need a reschedule on Friday.

Thanks.

[ROOTPetraeus]

Originally Posted by Spartaz

Keep us updated leading up to the actual event.

Looking forward to see this event unfold, major development for NZ eSports!

btw Nick edited, for anyone who thinks my comment is harsh..

Quick Comments

VoxMSI.Rogue:

opinion. DONT HAVE ONE

[Stallion]

could we have an update on when this is please mike? im having lots of assignments chucked at me so am hoping i can actually play on the night