FACEIT reveals new format for London Major
FACEIT today have announced some sizable changes for the two Swiss portions of the upcoming London Major event. The New Challengers and New Legends stages of the events, held 5th-9th and 12th-16th September respectively, see a revamp to the seeding of rounds for the event.
The first major change is the introduction of the Buchholz system, a system first suggested by HLTV's Milan "Striker" Švejda in April. The system is a way of seeding teams so the randomness factor is restricted, placing teams who had high-scoring matches up against those who had less of a challenge in their previous match ups. This system will be implemented in rounds 3 to 5 of the Swiss brackets, with the first two rounds using the same system as previous Majors.
A further change will see an extra day used in each Swiss stage for a best-of-three match up for teams in the 2-2 elimination period, to limit further potential upsets and ensure the best teams go further in the tournament. This change was initially reported by DBLTAP's Jarek "DeKay" Lewis on Monday.
It has also been announced that the playoffs stage will also use the Buchholz system in the playoffs, preventing a potential repeat of the now infamous Astralis vs SK quarterfinal that was seen at the PGL Krakow Major. This fact was confirmed in a recently released interview Michele Attisani conducted with HLTV. DBLTAP had also reported a different seeding system for the playoffs than what was announced today.
Michele Attisani, FACEIT Co-Founder & CBO said:
Every decision we’ve made has been carefully considered with the competition, players and fans in mind. We discussed formats with CS:GO stakeholders and presented multiple options to Valve to ensure the new format was fully supported across the board.
We are always looking for ways to improve the quality and integrity of the competition, and we did see a number of issues in past format structures. We can’t wait to see the new format in action next month, and to bring fans and players a whole new standard of CS:GO Major.
FACEIT have also announced that the first two stages of the Major will be held at the same venue as the Minor tournaments, Twickenham Stadium in West London. This means the same state-of-the-art facilities will be on offer for those attending the event this September. The Major will then move to the SSE Wembley Arena in North London for the playoffs stage, where the sold-out venue will see the next Major champion crowned.
