In December both the WC3L and the NGL ONE announced they would be changing the format of their upcoming seasons to cater for the change in the current climate. mTw already restructured as did nGize and many more will follow suite.

Fragster.de interviewed the godfather of the WC3L Sebastian "Baschi" Weishaar in his first interview since the format changes were announced.

"It is no secret that WC3 teams have become too expensive and after logic thinking it was clear that this had to be the medium term solution," said Baschi. However, "it was not predictable that it would happen so simultanously and on such a broad basis, especially as the subject has been discussed for a longer period now."

Should it not be down to the clans to reduce their players salaries instead of their number of players? "Basically that would be a sensible approach, no doubt," said Baschi, "but in the short-term it is not realistic as the players will not accept half the money or even less for the same performances from one day to the next."

With the salaries inevitably dropping players will be forced to think carefully how much they believe they are worth. "It will take some time until the players learn to evaluate their current value more realistically," said Baschi "and then they have to wonder if they are willing to keep playing for less money or if they might like to end their pro-gaming career."

However, Baschi does not believe it is all down to the clans. "Of course we bear to blame as well," admits Baschi, "we failed to develop the WC3L as strongly as we had wished to, especially in marketing." With the China market continuing to expand WC3L became no longer the only place to see the clash of the titans, "we have to admit that the WC3L lost some of its relevance".

The change in the Warcraft3 scene also plays a part with these big name clashes becoming more common. "While it was a true highlight to see a match between Grubby, Moon or Sky two years ago, these fixtures are seen much too often nowadays in my opinion," said Baschi, "which leads to an engorgement of all participants, especially the audience. This makes it a lot harder for leagues to create real highlights."

One question many asked is whether the upcoming season will be modified to cater for the new rules after the qualifications for season XV were played with the old format. "We are going to analyze the upcoming season very accurately and then decide before the next qualification whether changes are necessary or not," said Baschi, "by trend I would say that a second division is more likely than an increase in teams, but of course both cases are possible."

The new rules also allow a team to compete with only two players, what fragster calls the "Two-Men-Show". "WC3L is sometimes forced to accept compromise as our ultimate ambition is in every case to show our fans the best players in the world," said Baschi.

Fragster.de