ESFI World

Following an official announcement by ASUS ROG that a partnership had been formed with ESV TV's Korean Weekly, ESFI World reached out to ESV TV owner and CEO Patrick "Diamond" Soulliere II to discuss the new partnership and some of the finer details for the announced Korean Weekly Grand Prix. The competition is set to take place at the end of this season and will grant the winner a guaranteed slot in and travel accommodations to ASUS ROG Winter Assembly 2012.

Pat, could you tell us how this partnership with the ASUS Republic of Gamers tournament started and what the experience was like working with them to set up a qualifier tournament for their Winter Assembly? 

This was actually one of the quickest and most painless partnerships I have ever put together. I saw the ASUS ROG's post about how to apply for the tournament. I applied on behalf of the Korean Weekly and presented all the information and history behind it. The Korean Weekly has a long standing of predicting success in both the GSL and foreigner events for players heading to said events.

 

It's not a 100% thing of course, but both GSL Code S Champion NsHS.Jjakji and NASL S1 & S2 Champion EG.Puma had major success in the tournament RIGHT before they had their breakouts. Obviously getting the first chance at these players would be a great story line for a tournament and that's what I presented them with. They liked the proposal and within several days we put together all the details.

This was very pain free and like I said very easy and dealing with ASUS ROG has been so awesome. It's refreshing to put together something like this without an endless chain of emails lasting months on end.

Do you plan to work more with them in the future and would you like to work with other event organizers such as MLG, IPL, DreamHack etc. to help Korean players compete in tournaments outside of South Korea? 

I would love to work with ASUS ROG in the future. Obviously as with any partnership this is just a start and sort of testing the waters to see how it goes but I am sure everything will be fine. I would also like to work with other tournaments as well, I think this tournament series has a lot of value to a great number of foreigner tournaments. Everyone always remembers the breakout performances of their favorite player and this is a high % chance of being that tournament for some Korean that right this second is still just another face in the crowd.

For the Korean players it offers a lot too unless you are already one of the marquee Korean players. For guys like MC, DRG, MMA, Hero, MvP, Puma and such these invites may not hold as much value, as they tend to get invited as is. That's why the Korean Weekly works, it's built to not appeal to the Top 3-5% of the Korean pro player base, but however appeal to everyone else so you see new players emerge instead of MvP or MMA winning every week. Every tournament every is going to invite (or try to invite) those players above, getting into that list of players that gets invited is very hard and this will give more players the chance to break into said list. If you come up and dominate a big foreign tournament most of the time that puts you into the circle of first choice invites for a decent period of time. Even though the direct prize money for the weekly is not massive, the long term potential it has for any one players career is big stuff with these invites in place.

What is the current status of your cooperation with GSL with the lack of a Code A seed for this season? 

We are still partnered with the GSL, there is many areas of partnerships (such as promotional) and Code A is just not one part of it.  I  did not even opt to try and apply for a Code A slot (or know if GSL would have provided it) as is.  After the CoCa and Byun incident I thought a lot and came to the conclusion having a GSL Code A (or even Code S for that matter) slot was actually not a good long term direction for the Korean Weekly for two main reasons

1) The value of a Code A/S slot is actually less in Korea then something like an invite to ASUS ROGThis tournament attracts many players with Code A/S status.  This tournament also attracts many players not in Code A/S.  I don't want to change that as the current format to separate them because the format works and having Code A/S players is obviously very good for the long term success of this tournament.

2) The value of a Code A/S slot is actually less in Korea then something like an invite to ASUS ROG  If you look at it there is currently 72 players in Korea with Code A/S, however because tournaments like ASUS ROG, MLG, IPL, and Dreamhack's are not Korean based, there may only be 5-15 Koreans those tournaments.  There also is often being no qualifiers (or ones on the KOR server at Korean times) Korean players can go and try and play in in every month like Code B.   This means that aside for again that Top 3-5% everyone in the Korean pro scene will be interested.

3) Increased cash prizes could help inject more spread out money to the Korean scene that's currently top heavy. The first week of the Korean Weekly proved I was right, we had an un heard of player base for a $200 online tournament.   It's because it wasn't for the $200 these players were playing, it was for the seed to the Grand Prix and then hopefully ASUS ROG.

With this announcement, it’s likely we’ll see more “notable” Korean players participating. Do you think this is an appropriate direction as Korean Weekly has normally attracted Code B players? 

I sort of answered this above with regards to getting into the 1st choice circle but yes on even more levels!   This is great for the Korean scene.  Right off the bat, GSL is very top heavy on prizes and only the very top of Code S make major money from it.  If you make it to through Code B, into Code A and lose in the Round of 24 you are only making $710 roughly.  Combine that with the fact that Korean salaries are not on the level of most foreign teams, meaning that player is not making much money that month.  Now if they win a weekly, then take say a Grand Prix, you might make another $1,100 followed by the chance that month to go win a chance at another $20,000 prize pool.  All of a sudden a mediocre month just went to a great one.  The more Koreans that can win money outside the Top 4 of GSL the better off all around.  While the massive 1st place for a GSL is obviously VERY good for the Korean scene, putting money in other players pockets will only benefit everyone long term.

Another important aspect is it puts the new players in the 'hot seat" when they hit a Code A/S player and gives them the experience playing these players in a tournament setting so once they get to the GSL or a LAN where only the factor of a live crowd and cameras is unfamiliar, not also the experience of playing against these type of players.

You’re using the title “Grand Prix”. What is the significance of using such a name and how does this differ from previous events? 

I am a very long time MMA fan and a huge fan of the PRIDE Grand Prix's of old.  They were great events and always something I remember.  It's named off that, and although in execution very little is the same there is one part I took away.  Which is the Grand Prix's were designed to be brutal and the ones that walked away were truly the best in that tournament.  This is why the format for the Grand Prix is going to be so brutal. There will be lots of games played, and the winner will have went through hell and back to get that championship.

So far, you’ve announced TaeJa, Crank, GuineaPig, Symbol, RevivaL, TREME & SEAL as participants.  What made these players be the initial invites to the Grand Prix or were they simply the first to confirm?

That's just logistics.  The final four weeks of Season 1 feed the first 16 invites into the Grand Prix.  So any players announced have qualified.    The two Korean invites will be NsHS.Jjakji and ST.Squirtle, the winners of the last two Korean Weekly Finals, the predecessor to the Grand Prix.  The Korean Invites will always be the most recent two champions, so whomever wins the Grand Prix #1 will guarantee them self a seed into Grand Prix #2.

Both the Korean Weekly and Grand Prix are single elimination tournaments as opposed to the somewhat standard double elimination. Can you explain the reasoning behind the format? 

I personally feel that in most situations group stages are the best way to eliminate a large number of players while having the best players advance. BO3 group stages are brutal and I think in tournaments of this size you will see better end results with the two part bo3 group stages. I was not originally a fan of them, but after seeing many tournaments such as Dreamhack implement them with great success I saw the value.  The big change we made from the Monthly Finals into the new Grand Prix was changing to a true round robin within the group stage.  Originally we used the GSL format and you sometimes had weird situations where players advanced by only beating one player twice.   It never changed anything major but just should offer more consistency.

After a double group stage  there is really no need for a double elimination and it becomes impossible from a tournament organization and broadcasting standpoint.  I could do double elim brackets at the end OR the double groups stage, and in my experience the double group stage is the better option to get the best player.

Can we expect more Grand Prix style tournaments this year and do you plan to have multiple tournament types as the year goes on? 

Yes!  Grand Prix #2 will happen sometime in Q2 this year, as more major tournaments lay out their schedules I'll have a better time frame.  If in the future if the format of one GP per season is too much, we will look at making it longer.  The Korean Weekly is a tournament that is never set in stone and can always evolve as needed.  I'm hoping to start several new tournaments this year as well. One thing I have found in the past is when I try and launch several tournaments at once they all are good, but none are out of this world. The Korean Weekly is the first tournament I sat down and dedicated pretty much 100% to, and it is out of this world. So likely I will be adding to our schedule slowly, but now is the time to start adding. Of course we will do some more show matches from time to time also!

Do you have any closing comments? 

Thank you for your time and I just want to thank Twitch TV for sponsoring the Korean Weekly and being one of the most awesome sponsors you could ask for!