[B3.1][Stadium] Improved Cup Mode

[FrostBeule]

I want to propose to use a different system for the Cup Mode of this game.

In my opinion the current Cup Mode has always been something that can be improved a lot since I think the current Cup Mode is both predicting and unfair for competitive esports play:

- It is predicting because there are not many possibilities to how the matches end which is not very interesting.

- it is unfair because I think the player who becomes finalist first is not rewarded enough for it. And the other players can too easily co-operate with each-other and make too fast and easy comebacks.

I have a lot of experience of this mode myself as I have both been blessed by the mode, and completely screwed by it. However, when I've had help from it, I've always had a feeling of not deserving the victory. I think it is very important to feel that you deserved the victory after you've won something in competitions, which I don't think is always the case with this mode.

So instead I would like to propose implementing what has been known in the community as the ESL Cup Mode which I think is superior and which I think would boost the esports quality of this game.

Here's an explanation of it:

The ESL Cup Mode is the same as normal Cup Mode in that you reach a certain point and then you become a finalist. However, when you become a finalist you still continue getting points.
So say the pointlimit is 100 and Player A is at 96 points and win a round and thus get 10 points more; he is now at 106 points and he's a finalist. If he wins another race he wins the match, but if he doesn't and gets for example 2nd in the round, he still build up his points to 112 points and keeps his finalist status.
The others can still catch up to him though, and if Player B say in the next few rounds does that and ends up with 120 points while Player A have 119, Player B is the finalist now and can take home the victory. Also, if they end up on the same points they are BOTH finalists, and can take it home if they win a round. And of course it's even possible that 3 or all 4 players in a 1vs1vs1vs1 can be finalists at the same time, though it's more rare.

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I think this specific mode adds a lot more depth and a lot more possibilities to how a match can develop which makes it a whole lot more exciting and interesting for the players, the audience and also the casters who commentate the matches.
It would also make it more fair as the finalists are better rewarded and can control their outcome a bit more while still maintaining the possibility for the others to catch up and at the same time make more interesting and fair comebacks.

Now lately this mode was used for the recent ESL Major Series season. Here's a video from one of the semi-finals that I think shows in a good way how awesome this mode can be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bSVueKx1l0

If you don't feel like watching, here's a brief summary of it:

I become finalist first. However, I start off by getting 2nd three times in a row (each time a different player is ahead of me). This shows how unfair the normal cup mode would be if that had been used as the other players can too easily afford to play much riskier and help out each-other and make too quickly comebacks. I most likely would have been screwed at this point as mentally I would be very broken.
However, since this was with the ESL Cup Mode, I was still getting points. I was able to still control the outcome of the match because of that as It was possible for me to continue to grow my lead because of my stable play.
Now, this was a very close match and I was still just leading with a couple of points, but was still the only finalist. Eventually I managed to secure the victory, but as you can imagine, this created a lot of suspense for both the players and the audience.

But the match wasn't over as the 2nd place had to be decided too (top 2 qualified for the grand final). This turned out to be even more interesting:

Huby automatically becomes finalist after me since he was currently 2nd. However he's not able to get the 1st place in the next round as instead Beppo wins which means he passes Huby with 1 point and is now the one that is the only finalist.
But then in the next round, Huby wins again and once more is the only finalist as he passes Beppo with a few points.
But again, Huby is not able to win the next round as YoYo narrowly defeats him this time.
Huby is still finalist at this moment, but now the really intersting part comes: YoYo who has been in the shadow for a while being slightly behind the 2 acer players, also wins the next round. This means that now both Huby and YoYo have the same amount of points, which means they are both finalists.
So the one who wins the next round (unless of course Beppo wins it who can still keep himself in the match) will take 2nd place. Beppo ends up making an early mistake in the next round though and it will be a fight between huby and YoYo.
And it is YoYo who remarkably wins his 3rd round in a row (beating Huby with 0.04 of a second) which means he is the one who takes 2nd place after both Huby (who had 4 attempts as finalist) and Beppo (who had 1) fails to do so. A crazy comeback from YoYo who really can be proud of it too.

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I think this match really shows how interesting the ESL Cup Mode can make a match, and also how it makes it more fair. The fact that I can even write this much about it proves just that. With the normal Cup Mode the summary would be much more basic since there's really not much going on with it.

I hope Nadeo at least considers making this the standard cup mode as I think it would make the game a better esport. I realize chances probably are small this will become a reality based on discussions in the past... but I still felt it was worth making this suggestion for the new game.

Sincerely,

[tm2_stadium_beta]

Yes, I would like to see it in release version of Stadium too, as well as many other players. This is the way how it should be.
PS: that was probably the most exciting match of the whole season.

[Nutella_tm]

As a caster I really support this idea! It brings much more tension into the cup mode while being smarter to the players aswell The old cupmode indeed was really unfair sometimes, so I think it's a good idea to improve it.

[RtAwally]

Totally agreed with you Frost.
I really support the idea that when a player is dominating a match, he keeps getting points when he can't pull that last round.

[Nene.]

+1 i'm agree

[Rasque]

Although I kinda doubt this will be taken into account in updates, but I still can encourage anybody to make it as a script.

But of course I stand by ESL's development. however I think there would be many players in the world who got used to the classic mode. The ESL Cupmode feels better in major tournaments.

[Railag]

however I think there would be many players in the world who got used to the classic mode. The ESL Cupmode feels better in major tournaments.

Well Nadeo can just add it(but not replace) like a new game mode... "Competiton Cup" or something like that

[serujio]

A mode that makes an individual match turn into a 3x1, can´t be right at all, the finalist mode is absolutelly unfair.

If it´s an individual competition mode, it can´t make an individual match turn into a cooperation between the players that are behind the leader, like some sort of trick to punish the better player.

This looks like "trolling" to me, so the spectators can laugh at the difficulty the leader will start to have when he becomes finalist.

To me the "fairplay", or fair game, fair competition, is much more important in a sport, other than some kind of trick to entertaing the spectators.

and the esl cup mode is the best solution for this if it´s wanted to keep the finalist concept.

[Miraculix123]

Great idea !

[znik]

+1 for ESL Cupmode