MLG Columbus Games

MLG has recently finalized the format and rules for the five events they're running as part of MLG Columbus. Starcraft 2 and Halo Reach are returning as per usual but they're going with a bit of a fighting theme for the other three events. Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur V, and King of Fighters XIII. I'm sad that League of Legends isn't around this time but am a little intrigued to see some fighting games since I don't believe any have run at any of the MLGs I've paid attention to.

The prize pools are interesting. 76k (and 8 full trips to the next arena) for SC2. 59k for Halo. 33.4k for MK. 16.7k for SCV. 16.7k for KoF. Starcraft is clearly the biggest draw but the fighting games combine for more than Halo and I have to assume that the fields for the fighting games are going to be softer than the SC2 field for sure and likely the Halo field as well since there have been a lot of MLGs with Halo. I'm imagining some decent fighting gamers around Columbus could have aspirations for some real cash next weekend. (They appear to have scheduled things so that you could sign up for all 3 fighting events.)

I found the rules to be interesting as well. Mortal Kombat has a character and two maps banned. Soul Calibur has a fighting style and original characters banned. (I don't even know what those are.) King of Fighters doesn't seem to have any odd bans. Are these things banned because people perceive them to be overpowered? Unfun? Too complicated? Just the fact that they've even had to ban some things made me question how appropriate those games may be for a big event...

But then I got to thinking about Starcraft and how the tournament community has impact the maps used. GSL and MLG both alter the maps that can be used in some pretty significant ways. If a map has some spawn points which aren't symmetric they ban those starting locations. A lot of maps have been altered to include neutral submerged supply depots at the bottom of ramps. (This prevents Protoss players from building two pylons at the bottom of a zerg ramp which would keep them from expanding.) And they've pretty much universally removed all of the gold mineral patches from their maps. (They did this because Terran mules were too good on the gold bases.) Blizzard even nerfed mules by making them only return a normal amount of minerals from gold bases in response to these map changes!

So maybe having the tournament ban things is actually a good step toward balance? The people who play the game competitively probably have a better idea of game balance than the people who design the game. As long as they're able to objectively approach the things they ban for the good of the game instead of for the good of themselves, anyway.