Jan 19, 2012
I was awoken this morning with some amazing news from MLG. They have finally made an official announcement on their website and in a Forbes interview with Sundance. Some rumors and past thoughts were confirmed and others were debunked. The only information we have at the moment is how Starcraft 2 is going to be set up. Let’s sit down and analyze what’s in this announcement!
Season Setup and Qualifiers
The biggest change facing people who have been following MLG for as long as I have is the season setup. The 2012 season will be divided into four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Each of those seasons will feature an online qualifier broken up into worldwide regions (NA, EU, KR) for a live arena event that will happen in New York City. This arena event will decide seeding in a live championship event. For the Winter Season Championship MLG will be inviting the top 8 finishers from the National Championships last year in Providence, RI along with the top 8 finishers from each of the online regional qualifier. On top of gaining their seeding points for the Winter Championship there is a $26,000 prize pool up for grabs with first place walking away with $10,000. The Winter Championship will be held in Columbus, OH on March 23-25 and will be set up much like the huge MLG events you are accustomed to in the past.
Columbus Winter Championship
The top 16 players from the Winter Arena will transfer over to the Winter Championship bracket and will be seeded directly into the pro bracket pool play. These events will look much like the events from 2011 with the huge audiences, awesome broadcasts and the infamous open bracket for players that didn’t make it in the qualifiers. Sundance stated in his interview that MLG is going to be doing a lot of the same stuff that worked, but just in greater quantities. MLG is also working with new partners to bring brand new experiences for people who are attending these live events as well.
The Seasons
In the interview with Sundance he stated that with this new season setup MLG will be able to bring in more games throughout the year that may show up for only one or a few of the seasons. This setup allows for them to bring games in and out as they see fit. This may be a chance for some communities to step up and show MLG they have what it takes to show up and compete!
The Quick And Dirty Roundup (TLDR)
MLG is featuring 4 seasons of play next year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) where there will be an online regional qualifier that will determine invitations to an arena event held in NYC that will determine seeding for a championship event. The arena events in NYC will not be open for spectators, but the championship events will be like the good ole events you are used to. All of the events will be streamed online of course. The first live event that you can attend is the Winter Championships in Columbus, OH March 23-25!
Check out the official announcement on MLG and the great interview with Sundance on Forbes!
