2014 MLG Anaheim Format

• Overview
• Format
• Qualifiers
• Open Winners' Bracket
• Open Losers' Bracket
• Standings

Open Bracket

• The Open Bracket is a double-elimination, best of three tournament.
• Up to 256 players start in the Winners' Bracket.
• Players who lose in the Winners' Bracket enter the Losers' Bracket.
• Players who lose in the Losers' Bracket are eliminated from the event.
• The final top 4 players in the Winners' Bracket join the Pool Play.
• The final top 4 players in the Losers' Bracket join the Championship Bracket.

Pool Play

• 16 players divided into two Pools.
  • 12 players who qualified.
  • 4 players who topped the Winners' Bracket.
• Pool A consist of Players seeded 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, and 16.
• Pool B consist of Players seeded 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, and 15.
• Each Pool is played in a single round-robin format with best of three matches.
• Once all matches are played, players are ranked from 1st to 8th based on their record of matches won and lost.

Pool Play Tiebreakers

1. Head to head Pool Play match winning percentage (Pool Play matches won vs. tied players / Pool Play matches played vs. tied players).
2. Head to head Pool Play map winning percentage (Pool Play maps won vs. tied players / Pool Play maps played vs. tied players).
3. Overall Pool Play map winning percentage.
4. If these Tiebreakers can’t break a tie involving only players who start in the Championship Winners' Bracket or only players who start in the Championship Losers' Bracket, the tie is broken by Pool Play Seed.
5. If these Tiebreakers can’t break a tie where a player(s) starts in the Championship Winners' Bracket and a player(s) starts in the Championship Losers' Bracket, matches are added to Pool Play, in the form of a Tiebreaker Bracket, in order to break the tie.

Championship Bracket

• 20 players in a double-elimination bracket.
• The results of Pool Play dictate where each player is placed in the Championship Bracket:
  • 1st and 2nd place start in the Championship Winners' Bracket.
  • 3rd and 4th place start in the Championship Loser' Bracket Round 3.
  • 5th and 6th place start in the Championship Loser' Bracket Round 2.
  • 7th and 8th place start in the Championship Loser' Bracket Round 1.
• The final top 4 players in the Open Losers' Bracket also start in the Championship Loser' Bracket Round 1.
• Players who lose in the Winners' Bracket enter the Losers' Bracket.
• Players who lose in the Losers' Bracket are eliminated from the event.
• All matches are best of three.

Grand Finals

• The Championship match begins with an initial best of three.
• If the Winners' Bracket player wins the initial match, he wins the event.
• If the Losers' Bracket player wins the initial match, a 2nd best of three is played. The winner of this match wins the Event.

Seeds

• Players are seeded based on the WCS Standings on Monday June 16th minus all WCS Points earned beyond the Round of 32 in 2014 GSL Season 2 and 2014 WCS Europe Season 2.
• Players are then seeded by MLG Starcraft 2 Pro Points.
• Ties in WCS Points are broken by MLG Starcraft 2 Pro Points and all other ties are broken randomly.
• Players starting in Pool Play are seeded 1-12.
• The final 4 players in the Open Winners' Bracket are seeded 13-16 for Pool Play, based on their Open Bracket Seed.
• The final 4 Players in the Open Losers' Bracket are seeded 17-20 for the Championship Bracket, based on their Open Bracket Seed.