This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　Thorin's crucible is a regular column in which I address topical or more general matters of concern to myself and the esports community at large.

　　In my previous column I presented criticism of the current LCS split format, since it doesn't give enough motivation for teams to place highly during the regular portion of it, it over-rewards playoff performance and it doesn't have a significant enough impact on a team's chance of qualifying for the World Championship, since the Spring split only decides who gets into the Summer split and thus has a chance to potentially qualify.

　　Criticism alone has its place, but I've always thought it's best if it comes with some solutions to the problems raised. In this column I'll look at a system I think would drastically improve the LCS format and solve a lot of the problems I outlined in my previous column, thus improving LCS. LCS cannot be looked at as just a league in its own right, as for the top teams it serves primarily as a method to qualify for the World Championship, which is their true goal for the year.

　　

Current problem scenarios

To outline some of the current problems of the system not putting rewards in the right place, let's take a look at some of the extreme scenarios which are possible under the current system. Let's first look at a team who does very well in the first split, well in the regular portion of the second split and then falters in a single Bo3 playoff series, thus not qualifying.

　　

Great team, bad single day

So my hypothetical team has the perfect opening split to the year, they go 28:0 undefeated in the Spring split and then they do the unthinkable: they win the playoffs with a 2:0 in the semi-final and a 3:0 in the final. Their incredible performance in the regular portion earns them nothing but a top two seed for the playoffs, so they skip a round and are guaranteed some prize money, and a spot in the Summer split. Their brilliant playoff run earns them the first place playoff prize.

　　Going into the Summer split two other dominant teams rise up and finish ahead of our boys, but they still manage a respectable winning record of 17:11 (61%) and finish in third, as SK Gaming did in the Spring split of LCS EU in 2013. That third place finish, even if it has then numerous games ahead of the teams ranked fourth through to sixth, only moves them into the playoffs and into the first round, to place the sixth placed team. In my hypothetical world, this happens to be the one team out of the lower four who has a winning match-up against my team, stylistically. Think of Gambit vs. GIANTS in LCS EU Spring 2013 or TSM vs. CLG from LCS NA Summer 2013. After the Bo3 has been played, my team loses out in a narrow 1:2 game.

　　Losing out in that quarter-final ensures that not only has my team lost a chance to move on in the playoffs, they've now no chance of qualifying for the World Championship. A combined two split record of 51:13 is rewarded only with one set of prize money, for their initial LCS Spring playoff run, and no chance at all of making it to worlds, due to losing a single game at the wrong time. A 79.68% winning record over both splits isn't enough to get my team into the World Championship.

　　

Terrible team, good two day run

Now let's consider the opposite end of the spectrum. My second team has an appalling first split, they finish bottom of the league with 0:28 after the regular portion. They make a roster move at the end of the split which finally kicks in and they manage to fluke their way through the Promotion series against the best amateur team, winning out 3:2 in the Bo5. In the Summer split they continue to be lackluster, though things have improved a little and now they finish with a poor 11:17 (39%) losing record, but, just as with GGU (now Coast) in LCS NA Spring 2013, that is somehow enough to snag them the sixth spot for the playoffs.

　　In the playoffs they face, well wouldn't you know it, my first team, who finished with a 17:11 record that split, just as Team Dignitas did in the very same split GGU amassed that record I mentioned. Just as occurred with GGU, my second team beats my first team, though in this case we'll make it 2:1. They lose the semi-final 0:2, but fluke a win over the team from the other side of the bracket in the third place decider, winning 2:1.

　　They've qualified for the World Championship, despite being a top three team only based on the arbitrary semantic structure that LCS qualification tells us they are one of the top three teams, due to having qualified. Their combined splits record of 15:47 (24.19%), ignoring the Promotion series result, has qualified them for the World Championship after the LCS season has played out for their region.

　　

How China and Asia do it

Now in all of the systems around the world, there are problems which can be found with their qualification systems, as we'll soon explore. So in China, a team could be the fourth best team over the season and yet have a good two day performance and thus qualify in third. In OGN a team could win the first season, as Sword did, and then through circumstances of teams who had not existed in that first season, with their good line-ups at least, arrising to dominate after, thus qualify anyway.

　　Problems do exist in most of the systems, but a simple examination of these problems in comparison to those in LCS should show how ridiculously skewed things are in favour of the Asian approaches over the LCS approach. There is no way a team as appalling as my second team could qualify for either of those Asian regions, the worst case scenario involves a team once being excellent and dropping off, or a team being at least pretty good consistently and then having a small spike in performance. Let's take a look in more detail at the Chinese and Korean qualification methods.

　　

The Chinese approach

In the Chinese LPL, the qualification system last year saw the top two teams from the Spring and Summer splits of LPL getting a spot in a final qualifiers for the Worlds spots. If one or more of the teams finished top two more than once, then it passed down to the next placed teams overall. This ensures that only the best teams from both seasons are going to be present and that they will then play for the Worlds spots, so if a team had been amazing in the first season, a la Sword in Korea, then if they couldn't perform when the qualifier came around then they wouldn't make it. What's more, by using double elimination the qualifier made it even more difficult for the worst teams to make it into the much coveted spots.

　　The biggest flaw of the Chinese method is that you can still have some crazy upsets getting a team in which will never perform to that level except on that day. With that said, the skill/talent gate of having to have done well in both seasons or exceptionally in one, means it's unlikely a bad team could even get into position to actually cause such flukes, so it's rarely going to ever be an issue.

　　

The Korean approach

Korea's approach was to use circuit points for all of their OGN and NLB seasons. NLB, for those that don't know, is the league below OGN, into which all the OGN teams who don't reach the semi-finals of Champions fall. Since Sword won the first OGN Champions season of S3, they earned themselves a lot of points and it didn't matter that they didn't perform well in future Champions seasons, as they managed to add additional points with excellent NLB performances.

　　That's where a lot of people stop the story, assuming that NLB points or the circuit point system are to blame for Sword qualifying to Worlds. What they often don't note is that the two best teams in Korea did not have their amazing line-ups for that first season of Champions, in fact SKT, the best team, did not exist at all. Thus, the circuit point system was entirely fair in not granting them many or any points for that season. It would have been unfair to give Sword nothing at all for winning a season.

　　The problem in Korea, also, was that Sword topping the circuit points qualified them directly, so they did not in any way have to prove themselves an elite side in the months prior to Worlds, their initial victory and then their minor successes in NLB were enough to secure the spot. Had Korea used an identical circuit point system, in terms of points gained, but then had the top four teams all go to a qualifier, a little like LPL, then Sword could have proven there that they were worthy of going to Worlds, as they may well have done, if their Worlds performance is anything to by.

　　

Thorin's LCS circuit

I think the solution is to combine the elements of the two approaches, with a little twist thrown in. So tomorrow I wake up and I've been appointed commissioner of LCS. For 2015 I implement a circuit points system where I won't even, in this column at least, rock the boat in terms of the LCS format, all I'll do is change the reward structure. So the LCS Spring and Summer splits will still be 28 games per team in the regular portion, with six teams making the playoffs and then the same money awarded for first to fourth in the playoffs.

　　What I will change is that teams will acquire circuit points for their regular split performance and for their playoff performance. This will be done for both splits and then I'll tally up the numbers and my top four teams, based on circuit points, will be invited to my World Championship qualifier, held a month before Worlds begins. Now, let's do a dry run of my system. To save making this too abstract, our dry run already took place: we'll use the results of the LCS NA season for 2013.

　　After the regular portion of the split I'll give teams the following points for placings:

　　1st - 8

　　2nd - 4

　　3rd - 2

　　4th - 1

　　After the playoff portion of the split:

　　1st - 10

　　2nd - 5

　　3rd - 2

　　4th - 1

　　So here's our dry run for the Spring split:

　　Regular:

　　1st TSM - 8

　　2nd Crs - 4

　　3rd Dig - 2

　　4th CLG - 1

　　Playoff:

　　1st TSM - 10

　　2nd GGU - 5

　　3rd Vulcun - 2

　　4th Crs - 1

　　Total Spring:

　　1st TSM 18

　　2nd GGU 5

　　3rd Crs 5

　　4th Vulcun 2

　　Now let's look at our dry run for the Summer split:

　　Regular:

　　1st C9 - 8

　　2nd Vulcun - 4

　　3rd TSM - 2

　　4th Crs - 1

　　playoffs:

　　1st C9 - 10

　　2nd TSM - 5

　　3rd Vulcun - 2

　　4th Dig - 1

　　Total Summer:

　　1st C9 - 18

　　2nd TSM - 7

　　3rd Vulcun - 6

　　4th Dig/Crs - 1

　　Tallying the scores, I have my four qualifier teams:

　　Qualifier:

　　1st TSM - 25

　　2nd C9 - 18

　　3rd Vulcun - 8

　　4th Crs - 6

　　DNQ:

　　5th GGU/Coast 5

　　6th Dig 3

　　A key subtlety is that I don't reward teams for poor placings and I do still give more emphasis to the playoffs, though I make sure I reward excellence in the regular portion of the split too. So let's run down each team and see how they got there, so we can see how fair this system is.

　　TSM won the regular Spring split portion and the playoffs, so they locked themselves up a qualifier spot on the basis of excellence in both portions of that split. With that said, they only gets them a spot at the qualifier, if they bomb out completely, then they don't make it to Worlds.

　　C9 didn't play in the Spring split, much like SKT didn't compete in OGN Winter, but they managed to win both the regular and playoff portions of the Summer split, so they also lock up a qualifier spot.

　　Vulcun did poorly in the regular portion of LCS Spring, earning no points, but their amazing playoff run did ensure them some points earned, but not too many to ensure they will make the qualifier. They perform very well in the regular season of the Summer split, but then fall to a lower team in the playoffs. Luckily for them, my system rewards the regular portion, so with all points combined they have taken a playoff spot.

　　The final playoff spot went the way of Curse, which is an interesting case. I reward them for an excellent second place finish in the regular portion of LCS Spring and they get some points even for failing in the playoffs. In the Summer split, they get points again, this time for clawing into fourth place after a tough split. Even though they fall again in the playoffs, their combined performances in the regular season, added in with their points from the Spring playoffs, mean they snag the final qualifier spot, over GGU/Coast.

　　Now let's address GGU/Coast, so we can see why Curse deserve that qualifier spot over them. They did terribly in the regular season of LCS Spring, gaining no points under my system. They had an amazing three day run to second in the playoffs, so I do reward that with a nice bundle of points. They never earn another point in my circuit though, having another terrible Summer season and not even making the playoffs. Those three days of being good aren't enough to earn them a qualifier spot, especially not over a team who had a very good Spring split regular portion and then made the playoffs a second time, as high as fourth, in the next season.

　　

Points to consider

Under my system, a team who makes a sick playoff run does gain something, as they do in the normal LCS system if it takes place in the Summer split. If they do gain enough points from their playoff run(s), then they'll find themselves in the qualifier, where they can then prove that they are the right team for a spot at Worlds. However, I also reward teams for consistent excellence over the regular portion of the split. So if a team is an elite team for both splits, but has a couple of bad series, they are still in contention for a qualifier spot, where they can then prove if they really are good enough.

　　Now teams have every reason to battle for each and every regular portion game in both splits. It's also more important to be in both splits, making relegation more significant, but if you are a truly excellent team (a la Cloud9) then it doesn't matter if you didn't play in the first split, since you can still earn enough, combined, from top finishes in the regular and playoff portions of the split you did play in. It's also worth pointing out that the number of points can be tweaked, depending on what the league wants to emphasise and reward more, but I think you'll see that my dry run produced a good outcome in terms of getting the best teams into my qualifier.

　　I want to bring up one wrinkle that I didn't add initially, but I think is worth considering and spitballing. What if I keep my four team qualifier, based on circuit points, but I have that be for the final two spots in my region. The number one spot I simply give outright to the team who had the most circuit points at the end of the season.

　　Now you're likely thinking I've just made the same mistake as OGN did, but consider this: in my system a team who did fantastically in the Spring split and then did basically nothing of note in the Summer very likely will not have enough points to be in first place on my circuit rankings. If they do then it's because they likely are the best team over the whole season, as it would mean other teams who played both splits could not out-perform them over the four realms in which you can earn points under my system.

　　During the group stage of the OGN season that Sword won, they were not the best team, they only earned the third best record overall. They then ran through the playoffs and won the tournament. Let's take TSM from the LCS Spring split and give them a third place regular portion amount of points and have them win the playoffs. They've earned 12 points in total, which is not enough for first place and sees Cloud9 take the number one seed and automatic spot, as the best team aggregated over the entire season.

　　That wrinkle does not have to be integrated, the previous setup I outlined can be used, but it would accomplish avoiding the best possible team in the whole region, if we imagine a scenario of a team going undefeated in regular and playoff portions of both splits, having a couple of bad days in the qualifier, never to be repeated, and missing out on the Worlds spot. This is more of a preference issue, I can go either way on it.

　　

Running the qualifier

For the qualifier itself, I can see a number of ways you can go. A four team single-elimination bracket with Bo5, seeded by points, would be one very good way to decide who were the best three teams, with a decider amongst the losers. Likewise, I don't mind a Bo3 double-elimination tournament, both have their merits.

　　

Final words

It's obviously fairly unlikely that you'll see this system employed in the LCS, but I hope illustrating the problems that exist and showing a dry run of another approach will outline that there are a lot of ways to change and improve LCS. I would hope that approaches can be selected and integrated which reward consistent and excellent play, while not over-rewarding short term performance spikes which can't be maintained with any consistency. After all, the best teams are, by most reasonable definitions, the teams who are better than the others for most of the time, not simply a couple of days in a year.