With the 2023 circuit setting down, it is time for 2024 circuit to take its place. It is no secret the motor behind 1v1 have been its tournaments and we will capitalize more on that. Below will be envisioned changes that are being planned;
Majors: Pools to Swiss Top Cut
As a concept majors was a pretty good format, it gives the players more chances and it's definitely less punishing than other formats. However, in practice its a tournament that is dragged too long for no reason, there's no way to have fair tiebreaks, and it's not a popular format. Which is why we are rebranding the tournament from a Pools to Swiss Top Cut. The latter is a popular format in tournaments and would still give more chances to the players without the potential tiebreak and mass games numbers thrown at the player.
1v1 LT: Double Elimination to Swiss Top Cut
To mirror the 1v1 Champs changes, we will be changing 1v1 LT to Swiss Top Cut instead of Double Elimination. The latter "problems" are known, it's a time consuming format that rarely affect anything winner-wise, it's just a hopium format. Most of the time players that are out early; i.e R1 do not have the motivation to go forward which is extremely unhealthy and uncompetitive for the format. Changing it to Single Elimination might be a solution but it's more punishing than Swiss early on.
1v1 Classic: Points in cups
Changing cups to Swiss or Double Elimination would make the tournament too long and makes it clash with the majority of the circuit, specially since the cups are supposed to be run same time. The old gens circuit was supposed to be a solution but I think that doesn't really reflect Classic as a tournament and it would be a year-long tournament which lessens its hype. My solution is to mimic grand slam and to not make every cup count for the overall standings. This way people that get unlucky runs in some cups aren't punished plus it favors specializing in some generations and not have a bit of knowledge in everything. Format being Single Elim 3 bo5 would not change.
I've heard from several/many people that too much tournaments are hindering contributions and promoting OGPL or even having more tournaments would be worse for the community. I believe we should not promote to OGPL to official but hang tight, with the potential 1v1 old gens, and 1v1 as a whole to grow, we should continue adding more tournaments to the mix with lower importance than officials. Let me explain;
Recognizing our winners is something that should be done, therefore the creation of Class B tournaments which is above unofficial but below official should be done. This class of tournaments should reward not trophies but stars or any other pixel similar to trophy. It would contain OGPL, Classic Cups, and other tournaments we should add.
Old generation circuit
The circuit would run alongside the main champs circuit however it would only count type B tournaments such as Classic, OGPL, and more old generations individual tournaments. This would be a mix of both, keep classic as a tournament and give more to old generation lovers that play cause they enjoy the game.
1v1 Room & Circuit integration
We're looking at ways to build a bridge between the casual play encouraged in the 1v1 room, and the more competitive tournament community. Nothing is set in stone as of now, especially when it comes to date and logistics, but we're looking at an individual tournament similar to LT. The key difference here is that the qualifiers would be room tournaments, rather than ladder achievements. I don't think we're ready to make this a team tournament for various reasons (primarily manager motivation, having no measure for popularity, and logistical uncertainty), but we might revisit that decision in the future.
I hope these changes will be well-received and if there's any other idea / opinion, let me know.