VCT Format Idea

#1

deanAM

This could be a long post,
Assuming here Riot are adamant Franchising stays.

Increase the Masters events to 3 (12 teams) and Champs (16 teams) will remain the end of season tournament, say the season starts 1st February,

Have 2 or 3 week regional qualifier (like kick off, not a league) where all Franchised teams take part, along with 1 or 2 tier 2 teams will have qualified for this qualifier. Top 3 quality for Masters.

Masters starts end Feb / early March, 2 week tournament, no need for it to be longer and no need for a big gap between regional qualifiers and the start of Masters.

2 weeks after the final of Masters 1, say late March, the same process starts for Masters 2 (tier 2 teams should have a way in), this gets to in or around late April / early May, once Masters 2 complete's, there is a break until say 1st June.

1st June, same process to qualify for Masters 3, (tier 2 teams should still have a way in).

Once Masters 3 is complete, the regional championship starts, not a full league but more matches than the qualifiers for Masters 1,2 & 3. A couple of tier 2 teams should be able to also qualify for this. The winner becomes the regional champion, qualifies for Champs, along with the runner up.

The remaining 2 spots for Champs can be done on a points system, not perfect but it does reward some form of consistency through the year, but only have points awarded for qualifying masters 1,2 & 3 not for actual wins losses in the regional qualifiers.

This all effectively means Franchised teams are automatically in the qualifiers for the Masters events but that tier 2 teams have a chance at getting into those qualifiers, so if an Acend or a TSM make a push with a good roster, the have a chance at regular reward.

#2

Aayan

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I like the idea of letting tier 2 teams play, but with this it seems that the teams who already don't play much (i.e. those who aren't good) will play even less, now you could chalk that up to being a skill issue, but its a series problem since if an org doesn't play games as less companies will be willing to sponsor them. In this current system we already have the issue of too few games, so I think this would just make the inequality between the top teams and the lower teams worse

#5

deanAM

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Yeah, its working on the assumption Riot will not give up on Franchising, that causes all of the headaches, the only other hope may be that orgs / sponsors throw prize funds at independent tournaments that are more valuable than the VCT itself!

Or scrap my 3rd masters idea, condense Riots season and have what Riot refer to as the off Season something the teams actually take more seriously (assuming high prize funds independent tournaments)

#10

Aayan

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I don't think franchising is why the format you suggested is suboptimal. I think the only thing that franchising really restricts is the teams which play, but theoretically the teams that play have nothing to do with crafting the format, which is why I thought the tier 2 suggestion was good.

This is what Riot are doing in 2025, and to be honest I think it's the ideal format if you don't account for tier 2. We have a full kickoff bracket as you suggested for Masters 1 to sort of kick things into gear, then with two full independent splits where each team seems to play every other team (twice in total, meaning a minimum of 22 matches), that solves the main issue of teams not playing enough from this year, and it makes qualification for international events more structured. I think an interesting thing to note is that this is basically just the 2023 format if we were to not have LOCK//IN, where LCQ(ish tournament) and Split 1 are swapped around. I think this approach has the least drawbacks, and the main issues aren't even to do with the format. For example I don't think Masters 1 should be 8 teams at all, it should definitely be 12 but in theory that is a very easy fix. I think 4 international events is a good idea but it will only work if the off season is condensed even more.

Honestly the tier 1 format is pretty good, I think the main discussion we should be having is on how to fix the tier 2 system, so it can actually be justifiable for orgs to invest in, as the current promise of a 'roughly 1/20 place for a tier 1 spot for a year minimum' is very lacklustre.

#11

deanAM

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Oh I have to say I missed the fact the 2 splits next season are full splits as I each team will play 11 matches, that would be a hugh improvement.

If they would do something to help tier 2 before it disappears, that would also be great!

#13

Loomer

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i dont think 2 FULL splits was confirmed, so as of right now its still likely that its just 2 splits with 5-6 games.

#3

Laundry

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Allat (I’m sorry I had to say it)

#4

deanAM

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All good!

#8

Laundry

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Thank you for understanding ^_^ <3

#6

lordooohyeaa

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This could be a long post,

you couldve deleted this when you saw it became a long post

#7

deanAM

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💯

#9

Ryzmii

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i like this but imo there should be only 1 champs slot, for the GF winner, and the 3 others go from season points. Right now the most annoying thing about t1 riot esports is that regional finals rarely matter since both teams have already qualified to the event, and its not like theres millions of dollars on the prize pool. 3 slots from points means that
1: #4 team and #1 team in final - if #1 team wins, #4 doesnt go champs (makes the game important)
2: #3 and #4 teams play - depending on the points awarded for the finals win, loser is out of champs

#12

deanAM

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I'm never sure if the points system is totally fair but if a balanced system was there, I agree the winner being the only guaranteed qualifier makes that final actually matter

#14

StalwartTiger_35

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i think vct really needs a league. every sport that has been successful has some sort of season which then concludes in a champs like event. masters are the issue as no sports i know of have an equivalent. imo there should be a 2 month off season, with the regular season being split into 3. each split will be either a single or double round robin (idk how this would work logistically).

#15

deanAM

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I would normally actually agree but cs doesn't have a league and leagues are probably less common in general in sports, it's the tournaments that get people interested, something is on the online in a tournament...ie you lose, you get knocked out,

Maybe if it was 1 league with all the teams from all the regions with a playoffs to end it, so say NRG would have to fly to Europe, play half the European teams over 2 weeks, the other teams would be flying to LA to play NRG and 5 other Americas teams. Same case for all regions / teams. Could be hard to track and would be a lot of games

#16

deanAM

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To clarify, I still think something badly needs to change, preferably that allows tier 2 teams something to play for and get exposure for more often during the year.

#17

Crypto_816

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I think the Winners of the Masters should get an automatic slot. So lets say its 16 slots for champs then all teams get (minimum of 3 each). (3 slots for the 3 masters champions) and the extra slot goes is decided through an LCQ type tourney of the top next in line for champs qualification through points for each region.
So for example if NA won 1 masters, pacific won 1 masters and china won 1 masters.
those 3 teams are already in champs.
Next the winner of the final stage of each region is selected to champs. Thats 4 more teams. - total of 7 now.
The next points leaders from the points table is taken. 2 teams per region so thats a total of 8 making the net total 15 teams.
so if according to the points table of each region the next points leader not qualified for the event is taken into a double elim bracket where the winner will get the 16th spot.

#18

_Nonsense

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3 master? Man gonna be exhausting traveling a lot

Also what happen if a tier 2 team win master tho? Do they just got trophy and went back to their tier 2 region or what

#19

deanAM

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They should all be well able to travel, I would imagine the same teams wouldn't qualify for all 3 unless they are really dominant,

And yes the tier 2 teams get the trophy, get the cash and try qualify for the next 1, but at least they are playing for a reason,

I would also imagine way less scrims when at the masters, as in not turning up a week or 2 weeks before it and scrimming like crazy, get to the tournament and play. Lose, go home.