I was thinking about the tournaments running in the world of competitive gaming right now and have realised that we don't even have a real World Championship on the scene. I mean, the national tournament, where the top-some-of-them national teams would compete. This could be the greatest LAN of them all, you may not support one of the teams in your country, but you surelly will feel for the national team, which defends the colours of your national flag. Furthemore, sponsors would be very interested in such a large event, of course there should be a great (I've meant GREAT) venue involved to attract the medias, fans and the goverment. I've tired of following the results of another club event, this is less fun day to day and I want fun! Besides, Latvia has the most crazy fans of its national ice hockey team.
National World Championship is great because:
- You can feel for your one-of-a-kind national team with passion.
- This could be the greatest event ever happened on Earth, even if it's hosted once in two years.
- No more separation in national community.
- Possibility to attract more powerful govermental partners, due to national prestige involved.
don
it's called ESWC, or failing that WCG
the_casual
ESWC and WCG are club tournaments as well, I'm talking about National event like ENC in a more attractive form.
don
They are club tournaments, but the clubs are chosen via national qualifiers to select the best players and teams from their countries. In the single-player disciplines they are basically exactly what you are suggesting. As far as the team disciplines go, to scrap qualifiers for existing teams who are well practiced and know each other inside out and to form so-called national mix teams would only serve to lessen the quality of play.
the_casual
Yeah, actually it is lessening the quality of teamplay, but as to me that would be just more spectacular than what we have now. Make the prize fund twice bigger than WCGs one and give the players a couple of months to practice - that is the short way to the future. It probably could attract governmental money as a support of national team, it always does when the prestige of a country is in play. My opinion is not an absolute truth generation, it is an opinion. :)
SweepeR
Yea, it is WCG or ESWC. I mean, I dunno how it is in other countries, but in Poland everyone cheers for players and teams that represent the country there and it's always a great pride if any of them gets a medal. If you've seen a movie (or been there) from ESWC 2007 CS finals you'd see a great bunch of Polish people with flags, scarfs, t-shirts, shouting for PGS and cheering. The team themselves had Polish flags on them while receiving the trophy on the podium. So that was a great moment and was easily a big national event for us ;)
Even me, who is not a huge fan of PGS/MYM , was cheering for them this year in ESWC and in the future tournaments (WCG).