We are currently three days from the beginning of the playoff stage of the ELEAGUE Boston Major, and it has been revealed that, yet again, there will be a team that must play both their quarter-final and semi-final match on the same day to ensure their path to the major final. This puts extra strain on said team, removing a night of practice in preparation for the team they may play, and may leave them emotionally or physically drained after their previous match.

The question is, why?

If you are familiar with the running of CS:GO tournaments, you should know by now that it is an impossible task to host four Best-of-Three (BO3) matches in one day of play. With a ballpark number for the average playtime of a single map being around an hour (including half-time and time-outs, but not including possible technical issues or overtime), there are instances where a BO3 match can take upward of three hours, or more, without accounting for the 20 to 30 minutes between matches for team rotations and desk analysis. This puts enormous strain on the production teams, and some tournament venues simply do not allow fans and attendees in venues past a certain time, an issue that has come up with many ambitious tournaments in the past. Thus, we are limited to three BO3 matches in one day.

What can we do about the situation?

If the players believe the system is imbalanced with one team playing more games than the others in a day, the only clear alternative to the current system is to split the quarter-finals and their respective semi-final in half, giving each half a day. In other words, if one team must play two games in a day, then every team will play two games in a day, making the system “fair.” This is the only real alternative if the tournament wants to stay cost-effective, as extending the playoffs by a day will not attract attendees that need to work on Thursdays, and will add extra cost to venue-booking and production-hiring.

Clearly, finer details of the system would have to be worked out, but if the players really wanted a change like this, I imagine the matchup seedings would work like this, using teams that have qualified for the playoffs of the current major.

First, each matchup is ranked by the placement of the “home team,” that being determined by the team’s seed (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), and then separated by round-differential in the group stage. In this case, G2 eSports versus Cloud9 is ranked 1st because G2 is a 1st-seed team with a higher round-differential than FaZe Clan, the other 1st-seed team. FaZe Clan versus Mousesports is then ranked 2nd. Natus Vincere versus Quantum Bellator Fire is then ranked 3rd as the game is a face-off between two 2nd-seed teams, and SK Gaming versus Fnatic is ranked 4th as it is a face-off between a 2nd-seed team and a 3rd-seed team, thus by seeding, the “easiest” game in the playoffs.

The semi-final matchups will then be the winners of the 1st and 4th-ranked games, and the winners of the 2nd and 3rd-ranked games, respectively, as is common with 1st through 4th-seed matchups across multiple sports. This gives the “advantage” to the team that worked the hardest to come out on top of the group stage, as they will receive the “easier” matchup (provided they win their quarter-final), as well as the extra day for practice and preparation for the final (provided they win their semi-final).

The issues.

The obvious downside to this system is that each semi-final team will have to play two games in a day, which is tiring, thus the reason for the continuing outcry from the teams that must suffer the disadvantage. This system may also result in less-exciting semi-finals, as teams will try harder to play their own game as opposed to “anti-stratting” their opponents, and may make more errors should they be drained after their first game of the day. Finally, I feel that it takes away from the Day Two suspense of the semi-finals that decides which teams will duke it out in the final. However, if players such as Taco feel disadvantaged compared to the other teams competing against them, and enough of an outcry is heard, perhaps the change-of-system would benefit the players’ mindset regarding the format of the tournament.

And once again we MAYBE (if we win the quarter finals against fnatic) will have to play 2 BO3 in the same day while all other teams will play only one. So unlucky and also unfair. Make it equal to everyone! Please! — Epitácio (@TACOCS) January 23, 2018

This is definitely a discussion that needs to be brought up after the tournament if it makes players unhappy, as opposed to discussion involving a rework of the legends system, however whether or not teams want this is only for angry tweets appearing over the course of the next five days to decide.