Tournament formats in Counter-Strike have repeatedly come under criticism from various quarters. We have seen several tournament formats in use last year with varied success. We constantly see a lot of criticism towards these tournaments especially with the improper seeding in the tournaments.

Switching from the old tournaments formats, 2017 saw the usage of the Swiss system spike. Both the CS GO Majors used the Swiss system. But without proper seeding, the effect of the Swiss system was minimal.

Starladder I-League Season 4 implemented a Bo3 Swiss format. The format was dubbed an experimental format, especially after the BO1 Swiss format came under a lot of criticism from the community. This tournament proved why the format is a definite success and is somewhat less dependent on seeding. Most of the tournaments, including the Majors, have inefficient and sometimes incorrect team seeding. This format reduces the error of incorrect seeding to a large extent.

Every format has its advantages and disadvantage. As such the BO3 Swiss format also has a few hiccups to overcome. If Tournament organisers can figure out a balance between the various factors, we can have a fair and efficient tournament format in CS GO.

Starladder I-League Season 4

The Starladder I-League Season 4 came to an end with Mousesports winning the first place. They took home the majority of the prize pool earning $130,000 in the process. For many, this tournament presented the proper balance and format. Eliminated teams did not have much to complain about since the format brought out the best Counter-Strike in quite some time.

The I League Season 4 tournament saw the implementation of the Swiss system. But it is different from other tournaments that have used the format before. It used a BO3 swiss system, which means that group stages were also Best of Three matches.

Obviously, this did mean longer series and a longer tournament format. The tournament lasted for eight days starting on the 17th and coming to an end on 25th of February. But the length of the tournament did provide us with a balanced and favoured format.

Na’Vi – The Surprise

Starladder I-League Season 4 had a few favourites coming into the tournament. But few had put Na’Vi as a top contender to win the title. The CIS team, however, has managed to reach the finals, which was a big surprise in itself. Helped immensely by the new synergy within the team, Na’Vi have been able to harness Simple and Flamie to their full effect. Adding Electronic to the team definitely refreshed the mindsets of the players and the confidence is visible in their gameplay. But Na’Vi still remain a team influenced heavily by Simple.

The tournament did have a few surprises, especially when Fnatic lost out in the Group stage 0-3. This is their first Group stage exit in a long time and yet, the format is not to blame. All the matches played were best of threes and it was a Swiss format. So despite the team being upset by supposedly ‘weaker’ teams, it is still their own shortcoming. The format seems to be extremely long, however, there is merit in the results.

Upsets are not a fluke

Starladder I league Season 4 did see it’s fair share of upsets. However, these ‘upset matches’ were Best of Three matches. If this were to be a Bo1 Swiss format tournament, several other factors would come into play for any match. The map veto, particular rounds play a huge role while playing a Best of One match.

Tyloo vs Fnatic

Tyloo came into this tournament as the underdogs from Asia. There were not many expectations from

the team for the event. After losing their first match to Faze Clan, Tyloo were up against Fnatic.

The Fnatic roster has had some decent success recently, especially as they reached the quarterfinals of the Boston Major. Playing a very close BO3 series against SK, but eventually losing Fnatic did look like a strong roster. However, they have not been anything near their former self in Kiev. They eventually lost out 0-3 in the Group stage. This is one of the first times that the Swedish team has been eliminated in such as fashion.

Virtus Pro vs MVP.Pk

While Virtus Pro did win this series, it was an effort to do so. They lost Inferno in Overtime. If this tournament were a BO1 swiss format, with the map being Inferno we might actually have had MVP.Pk move on to the next stage.

MVP.Pk is not really a team that can stand tall against some of the other names in the tournament. They are one of the better Asian teams, but when compared to the likes of Faze, SK & Mousesports; they are not a tough opponent. The BO3 swiss format ensures proper results based on the talent and performance of the teams. Since there are three maps, teams can veto accordingly and are not surprised by an underdog.

Trade-Off between format and Cost

The biggest downfall of the BO3 Swiss format is the length of the tournament. But if we overlook the length and the cost which is directly related to the length, we actually have a great tournament. In the end, organising tournaments is a business. Without a viable financial model, it will become difficult to have a proper trade-off between the format and the length of the tournament.

We regularly see week-long tournaments in Dota2 with success. The Dota 2 tournament formats are probably some of the best tournaments formats. However, longer tournaments increase the cost of the tournaments. It also causes player fatigue, requires double streams etc. The tournament organisers often have to spend more on the players and talent in order to compensate for the length of the tournament.

Extra Costs for Tournament Organisers.

Player accommodation

Support Staff

Venue costs

Talent costs

With limited organizer revenues, this can prove to be a big problem. ESL has already inked broadcasting deals which pay more, in order to redeem some of the exorbitant costs in the business. While other tournament organisers have still stuck to Twitch, their finances are tighter. Since Twitch has a monopoly on the game streaming industry, they are not required to pay more in order to secure tournament deals.This reduces the potential income that esports tournaments organisers can gain from having an exclusive deal. Regular sports have huge exclusive broadcasting deals which keep the finances in order. Having a decent balance between income and expenditure is needed to ensure the success of the event organisers.

Unfortunately, there are no more tournaments announced which will be using the BO3 Swiss format. Most of the tournaments still use the GSL format or the Round Robin system. A few tournaments use the Swiss format, but they have BO1 group stages. This leads to big upsets mostly on maps that the favoured team is considerably weak. Starladder used this ‘experimental format’ to gauge the effectiveness of the format versus the costs and other factors involved.

Viability of the format

The Viability of this format is the big question on everyone’s minds. While the format is generally superior to most of the other formats seen in 2017, it does have its disadvantages. Higher costs, longer tournaments for the players means that there are always tradeoffs.

Btw. If normal tournaments can begin to have BO3 nearly the whole groupstage. Can we get BO3 all the way at the major? 😊 #ITSTIME @csgo_dev @FACEIT — Mathias Lauridsen (@MSLcsgo) February 25, 2018

The format requires more time per match since each series will come out with three potential matches. Longer matches lead to more days, higher costs and the need for proper scheduling.

The question of viability can be answered only after we get statistics from the tournament organisers financials. The players themselves also have a say in this matter. Most of the tournaments in Counter-Strike last 3-4 days which is, possibly, an optimal duration for the players. Travelling to another city and time zone and staying for more than a week might be tiring for the very busy schedule of a Counter-Strike Professional.

What’s for the future?

Tournament organisers are constantly trying to reimagine and come up with better tournament formats.

We have seen tournaments formats evolve since the early years of Counterstrike. Of course, the seeding plays an extremely important role in determining the success of a tournament format. A simple GSL Format can work wonders with the right seeding. The same goes for the Swiss BO1 group stage system currently in use for Valve Majors.

But without proper seeding, the most successful format seems to be the Swiss BO3 system. Not only does it negate the effects of a lack of proper seeding but it also does not cause unreliable upsets. Best of Threes draw out the full strength of any team, with map vetoes and a chance at redemption.

The next CS GO Major will be the FaceIT London Major. We hope that Valve approaches this major with the BO3 Swiss format and hopefully a different seeding system. The advantages of the BO3 Swiss format average out the improper seeding in Valve’s system. Let us know your opinion in comments below.