Thursday, July 9, 2015

News: World Championship 2015 to Use Best of One

The official webpage for Bushiroad's 2015 WCS series has updated with details for all three of Bushiroad's current card games. The tournament structure for Cardfight!! Vanguard's WCS2015 regional qualifiers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Oceania will be a modified Swiss format. North America will use a double elimination ruleset, while in other territories cardfighters will not be eliminated until the end of the last preliminary round. The time limit for the preliminaries will be 20 minutes, and the format will be best of one games. The top 8 cut for all territories will be single elimination; in the Americas this will be in a best of three format with a 40 minute time limit, while all other territories will use best of one and a 20 minute limit.

Despite the company's own internal surveys showing a vast majority preference for best of three sets in tournament play, Bushiroad of Japan, Bushiroad South East Asia, Bushiroad USA, and Bushiroad EU have all adamantly clung to best of one as their primary format for tournament play. Annual stories of cardfighters traveling upwards of six and eight hour distances to reach regional qualifiers only to be eliminated 0-2 by gradelock have continued to come out every year, and will doubtless continue if no changes are made. Although some have pointed to best of three being used for the top 8 cut in North America as signs of progress, the same "progress" was made in Team League 2014, with 2015 reverting to best of one for all aspects of the regional tournaments.