With today’s announcement of MLG’s and GOMtv’s League Exchange Program, it should come as no surprise that MLG will need to make some changes to the format of their tournaments.
For MLG Columbus, the Korean competitors will be seeded directly into the existing competition format:
- There will still be four Championship Pools. The Top 16 finishers from MLG Dallas will be seeded into the Pools based on their rank, just as in Dallas.
- One GSL pro player will be added to each Pool, based on their GSL rank, as follows:
The #1 GSL pro player will go to Pool D
The #2 GSL pro player will go to Pool C
The #3 GSL pro player will go to Pool B
The #4 GSL pro player will go to Pool A
- As before, one undefeated player from the Open Bracket will eventually join each pool, for a total of six players per Pool.
- Each member of the Pool will play a total of five Pool Play matches, rather than four, which significantly increases the amount of games you will see played by top players.”
For the other MLG events after Columbus, the format will be shifting slightly, to accommodate the Korean invites.
- The [player] Pools will always contain the Top 20 players (four invited GSL pro players, and 16 top-ranked MLG players) and four undefeated Open Bracket players, for a total of 24.
- The 20 players who start in Pool Play on Friday will be seeded according to their Pro Circuit Rank Points.
- No matter what their MLG seed is, the invited GSL pro players will be placed in Pools based on their GSL rank. The #1 ranked GSL pro player will always be placed into Pool D, etc.
- In the National Championship, where there are no Pools, the GSL pro players will be seeded based on their MLG Rank Points.”
MLG noted in their announcement, “Adding four players to the tournament has some ramifications for the format that go beyond Pool Play, so Regular Season competitions will work in the following way from MLG Columbus onward:
- A round (Open Losers Round 9) will be added to the Open Bracket
- 12 Players will advance from the Open Bracket into the Championship Bracket:
- The four undefeated players will move into the Pools
- The eight players with only one loss will be seeded into the Championship Losers Bracket
- At the end of the tournament, 52 players—rather than the usual 48—will receive Pro Circuit Rank Points.
For all the details visit MLGs official competition format page.