To preface this rant: I’m just upset that the whole WCS thing feels rushed out the wazoo and that Blizzard is content to just sit back and throw money at folks who actually do most of the work. I have decided not to publish more scathing rants than this, if only because as much as I don’t like what’s going on (from what I know), I still want this all to succeed for the good of the game.

That having been said, let’s get on with the ranting.

The only two players who are actually from North or South America are in the same group in the World Championship Series America division Round-of-16. It wasn’t enough that only two legitimate North American players will be advancing to the second round of group play in the WCS AM Premier division, but chance or poor planning has seen them join the same group. This ensures that the tournament that is supposed to determine who the top North or South American player is will be someone who lives and works outside of North or South America.

Can WCS be any more disappointing?

If WCS was truly to crown a world-wide champion and not focus on national competitions, why call the regions by their geographical name? Blizzard is already paying for four brands to run the WCS—why not name the divisions after the partners they’re paying to run the tournament for them? It’s simple. We can just call the divisions the ESL Division, the MLG Division and the OGN/GOM Division.

Doing so kills two birds with one stone! First stone: the hypocrisy of using geographical boundaries, limits and names without requiring that players identify with any of those geographical properties is completely avoided. Second stone: the division organizers get more incentive not to screw up how they run their divisions because they’ve put their name on the division they’re responsible for.