ESWC is always holds a special place in the eSports world. Champions have been crowned and dynasties were broken during this week in Paris.

The looming question in 2008, however, is will Masters have the same sense of urgency and high stakes that the previous championships had … or will the atmosphere be similar to that of a glorified qualifier?

The wayward sons

The returning champions MYM have no choice but to fight their way back to claim what is rightfully theirs. Through a quirk in the ESWC rules the team that was part of one of the greatest finals in CS history has to re-qualify for a spot in the ESWC Grand Finals.

In addition to this, they were unable to qualify for ESWC via the Polish national qualifier due to a scheduling conflict with the KODE5 finals. Any other year this would be a team that would miss the ESWC finals. Now, with the Masters event, they have one last chance to make the trip to San Jose.

Due to the team’s decision to jump from the PGS brand to that of the Danish MYM they now find themselves without a spot in the big show and PGS with a berth for a team they no longer have. Aspersions aside it does ESWC and the guys that won the event a great disservice that through a combination of rules lawyering and unfortunate scheduling the former champs might have to sit out from San Jose. Watch their matches like a hawk … these guys play their best when they are fired up.

If they by chance fail to qualify for the event, I think ESWC needs to find a way to get these guys to the Finals event. In this case the only people they are penalizing are themselves. MYM in the finals event has to happen, period.



Playing for the Cash and not the Spot

ESWC is making this event a high profile event without the same high stakes. I think this is a good idea for the event, but not for the competition itself. The question is will they play as hard as they would at the finals? In short I believe they will. However, one of the beauties of tournaments is that all teams have the same stake in the event. With some teams fighting for their life and others for a simple paycheck it makes the event, at least in my eyes, lopsided and simply for show.

An ESWC event without these teams would be a lot less entertaining … but can these teams match the passion of the teams for which this event is do or die for? On top of that is it even fair that these teams have the ability, whether intentional or not, to determine the fates of these teams?

Probably why I have such a bad taste in my mouth for such events is the ill fated WSVG Louisville event … that doubled as an ESWC USA qualifier in 2007. While I understand the financial motives for that event and ESWC Masters, the nature of this event with at least five prequalified teams and two more from the French qualifier means that approximately one third of the teams in ESWC Masters have already made it to the finals.

While this means little in the big picture if one side of the single elimination bracket is weaker OR all seven prequalified teams make it out of group play ESWC will have a mess on their hands. (The top three teams that haven’t qualified receive a berth to the ESWC Finals.)

Scheduled Out

While not rising to the difficulties that Meet Your Makers has endured, EG’s US squad looks to be on the same route as the Polish powerhouse. With their scheduled ESWC USA qualifier match taking place while EG was busy upsetting both Virtus and Fnatic in Russia at the KODE5 finals, the EG squad missed, like MYM, their chance to qualify through their national qualifier.

For the number one team in North America, not to have a chance at attending the ESWC Finals taking place in North America due to a scheduling issue is unfortunate. The question is can EG improve on their performance at KODE5 and push their ranking in the world higher than number 10.

No Danish or Finnish Qualifier

There is no Danish qualifier and the current number two team in the world is Danish ... how is that a good situation? Therefore we have a team which should have had spot without any problem now has to run the gauntlet in one of the toughest qualifiers ever held for a Finals event.

What this also means is a team like SoA could find themselves picking up the Danish spot that mTw vacates by qualifying here or they could get screwed out of one if mTw flops and they don't qualify here. Either way they don't get a fair shake at the Danish spot. They do not deserve one by fiat, but definitely deserve a shot at it.

Same goes for the Finns and Roccat. Excello deserves a chance, but they're in a similar boat with SoA. It would be better for the tournament if these spots were handed out prior to Masters rather than after the fact.

This puts teams like Excello and SoA in must win situations, as their more celebrated teammates can always attempt to petition the ESWC organization for a spot in the Finals.