The new set of formats is rather similar to the Davis Cup system often applied in modern tennis. Both sides will first of all issue two solo players and a tag team for four singles and one doubles prior to match.

It is, however, upto the team manager whether the tag team is made up of participating solo players or anyone else in their team.

Each player will take on their counterparts with respect to seeding. The format of best-of-three and the officials randomly drawing the starting map for each match has been left untouched.


This format transformation is in line with the change of map pool ESL announced three weeks ago. With such a change in the format it requires, at the very least, only two players to take part in a match.

ESL simply saves one of the longest running leagues from death with this move and answers demand from those organizations, who are breaking away from massive Warcraft III teams, and choose to sponsor a handful of players instead.

Another side effect of this move will probably be the reduction of total time amount. A match under the current format could easily last over 4 hours including the time deciding which games should start first and host test for a number of players coming from all over the world, which could somewhat make an exciting clash dull and lackluster.

Supervisor of the WC3L, Sebastian "Baschi" Weishaar in the press release on WC3L.com, considers this move inevitable so as to keep the big boys participating in one of his greatest brainchildren.

"During the last 6 years the WC3L has undergone a lot of changes. We have always made these changes based on what we thought was necessary to maintain the WC3L's status and reputation and based on what we thought was the best for the fans and the Warcraft 3 community."

"We will be making yet another of these changes today, this one probably being one of the biggest if not the biggest change so far, and it is my belief that this change is the best possible approach to ensure the continued participation of all the top teams and players on the one hand and to preserve the general concept of the WC3L as a team league on the other hand."

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Images courtesy of WC3L