First of all I think All Star is great tournament and it provides a lot of fun for the viewers, however I don't like prize that All Star is played for now. What I think All Star should be played for is seeding rights into world's. Instead of giving winner of All Star additional team on the world's, and taking quarterfinals away from losers just give them better/worse seeding. With this last placed region on All Star would lose their top seed in group stage of World Championship, while winner would make their way into quarterfinals easier. There's further explanation of this in group section.
Future qualification for the World Championship
Qualification stays same only number of team increases:
Korea - 3 teams
China - 3 teams
NA - 3 teams
EU - 3 teams
SEA/Taiwan - 2 teams
Wildcard tournament winner - 1 team
Lucky loser tournament winner - 1 team
Before people jump conclusions this is very subjective way of seeing things. Only reason I gave 2 teams to SEA/Taiwan is cause I think beside TPA/TPS and Singapore Sentinels there aren't teams there who have fan base or quality to compete on world stage. As I said this is very subjective and it can be changed.
Wildcard tournament - For me this is one of the best moves Riot has made. For granted these teams are mostly amateurs and huge underdogs coming into world's but that's what makes them interesting. This tournament helps Riot expand eSports to regions where eSports scene is still young or not existing. In future I would really like to see Japan team and maybe even African alongside Australian, Brazilian, Turkish and Latin American team. Although I hope this time there's real CIS team.
Lucky loser tournament - This is something completely new I thought about. This would be last international tournament held before World Championship starts. On this tournament teams who barely didn't qualify for World's Championship from their own region would battle for last remaining spot on World Championship. This tournament could have double bracket system with seeding done from All Stars as well or teams divided into 2 groups with system like on IPL 5. For example teams on this tournament for this year would be: KT Rolster B, Invictus Gaming, Dignitas, Evil Genious, Tapei Snipers, Singapore Sentinels and paiN Gaming.
Format of World Championship itself
16 teams will get to play on World Championship divided into 4 groups with 4 teams in each group.
Group stage each team will play other teams in their group 2 times. In case of same score, H2H score between 2 teams is taken in consideration, if teams went 1-1 tiebreaker is played to decide their final position in the group.
Fantasy group stage draw
Group A Group B Group C Group D
Najin Royal Klub Gamania Bears C9
OMG SS Ozone SK T1 Fnatic
Gambit TSM LemonDogs Mineski
GamingGear.eu N/A Vulcun N/A
Now to explain reasoning for this draw:
I took seeding from this years All Star in consideration when I made this draw. Korea who was All Star winner got #1 seed on whole tournament, other 3 regions who didn't came last (sorry Europe) got seeded as group leaders and there for they got chance for easier opponents as they wont have to play another group leader. When making this draw I tried to make it so there is no teams from same region in same group.
This makes total of 48 matches in group stage.
N/A stands for not available as on this World Championship there is 14 teams and this system is for 16 teams.
Playoffs
After group stage draw is made. On draw there are 2 seeds, teams who ended 1st in group can only play against teams who finished 2nd in their group. Additionally teams from same group can not face each other in quarterfinals.
Playoffs are single elimination, there is no loser bracket - reason for this is that I feel single elimination is much more exciting to watch and nerve wrecking for fans. Intensity of matches is higher and everything is on line every match. People may argue that the best teams might get knocked out earlier, but if they're really better or the best they should not get knocked out at 1st place.
Quarterfinals are all bo5 with 5th match being blindpick with side decided with coin toss - reason for this is I feel that blindpick is whole other level of excitement for viewers. Also it gives chance for teams to play their best champs/comps without opponent banning them out. Blind pick is kind of what penalties are in Football.
Semifinals are bo5 as well with blind pick 5th game if it gets to it.
Third place match is played between losers of semifinals.
Grand final is bo5 with blind pick 5th game if it gets to it.
