THE ROAD TO WORLDS 2024 BEGINS!

Masters Series
Written By Matthew Sergeon

After 7 months of fierce competition, it it now comes down to this; the Road to Worlds beings now! Welcome to the Last Chance Qualifier for THE FINALS Masters Series: World Championship! Teams will fight across two open qualifiers for a chance at claiming 1 of 4 remaining slots in Worlds. Who will come out on top and take their claim to fame?

2024 WORLDS FORMAT

ROAD TO WORLDS LCQ

Going into the Last Chance Qualifiers, we will follow the same format as our normal qualifiers with some updated rulesets. On day 1, Teams will compete in a double elimination bracket where the top 4 teams will qualify for playoffs. There is where we change things up a bit. Teams that qualify for the Upper Bracket Final will play in a Best of 5 match to decide who will directly qualify to Worlds. The remaining teams will fight it out in the lower bracket with the Lower Bracket Final also being a Best of 5 to fight for the remaining slot.

Next, let us go over the format of the 2024 World Championship. We wanted to make Worlds a gauntlet of intense matches that brought the best out of every team while also being more challenging. With that, there a major changes to the base format that we will be running.


GROUP STAGE
To start off, group stage will take place on Weekend #1 (November 9th-10th). Teams will compete in the Cashout gamemode in Groups of 4. Each group across two days will play a total of 8 matches (4 matches a day). The top two teams from each group will move onto playoffs. One change we have made is to the map rotation. Since we have update the map pool (See below), we will now lock out maps every 4 map rotations now (formerly 2). This means, for example, that map 1 cannot be chosen again until Map 6 (Day 2). This will allow for more map variation and force teams to adjust to the various maps in the pool. Additionally the team that will choose the opening Map on Day 1 will be based on the Global Leaderboard standings with priority to the Top 2 teams from each Masters. Each following map will be chosen by the winner of the previous map as usual.

PLAYOFFS
Alright, this is where things will get spicy. Playoffs will take place on Weekend #2 (November 16th-17th) with more at stake. Outside of our normal bracket, we wanted to take a more intense approach to playoffs. Instead of our traditional double-elimination bracket, teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket. All Quarterfinal matches on day 3 of Worlds will be a Best of 3 with day 4 Semifinal and Grand Final matches being Best of 5. Seeding for Quarterfinals will be based on performance in the Group Stage, while Semifinal and Grand Final seeding will be based on overall performance in the Quarterfinal.

MAP POOL

With the introduction of Fortune Stadium, we have finally hit the map limit that we originally wanted to introduce. Generally in titles we try to keep the pool as diverse as possible with 7 maps being the ideal number we want to have. With the introduction of Fortune Stadium, that also means we will be adding Kyoto 1568 into the map pool as well. We are looking forward to what strats teams are planning to come up with!

RULESET UPDATES

With the introduction of season 4 and the numerous balance changes, we have opted to take a look at our current rules and adjust them accordingly.

(EDITED) BANNED SPECIALIZATIONS/GADGETS:

  • Winch Claw

    • Reason: Game-Breaking Bug

  • Glitch Mine

    • Reason: Game-Breaking Bug

After revisiting these items at the start of season 4, we have found that the issue with the items are still present and have not been addressed, therefore they will still be put into the competitive quarantine.

UPDATE: As of the most recent patch, we will be allowing Winch Claw in competitive play

(REMOVED) HEAVY CLASS CLAUSE:

Teams are allowed to run a maximum of ONE Heavy class

  • Teams found to be running more than one Heavy will be subject to forfeiture of a map (originally was a forced replay of the map)

  • If a team is found to have run the class again at ANY time during the tournament, they will be disqualified from the tournament

After two splits of being locked up in quarantine, the heavies have broken free and are now running free in the arenas of the Masters Series. This change has been a long time coming as we monitored the ecosystem of the game through the streamers, competitors, and casual community. We believe the heavy class is in a much better place now in terms of balancing where other classes have a chance to shine in the meta. So Heavy mains, get out there and put on a show!


(UPDATED) LOADOUT CLAUSE:

  • Teams are only allowed to run one Specialization per class

  • Teams are not allowed to change loadouts/classes during the gameplay

  • Teams found to have violated the rule will be subject to forfeiture of a map

  • Teams, however, are allowed to change loadouts/classes in between maps

With the removal of the heavy class clause, we needed to take another look at balancing and how it would affect the gameplay as a whole. We wanted to make sure that everyone would be at a level playing field regardless of what they run. We have decided after long consideration that we would place a limit at how many specializations could be run. This rule, however, does not affect gadgets. This should open the door to more diverse gameplay. We will monitor this change over the Last Chance Qualifiers as we get closer to the World Championship.

You may not run more than one of:

  • Cloaking Device

  • Evasive Dash

  • Grappling Hook

  • Dematerializer

  • Guardian Turret

  • Healing Beam

  • Charge ‘N’ Slam

  • Goo Gun

  • Mesh Shield

  • Winch Claw (Currently banned from competitive play)

FAQ

Q: What teams have qualified for the World Championship?

A: Teams that were invited are the top 2 teams from both Masters (4), and the top 8 teams via the global leaderboard, as well as the top 2 teams competing in each Last Chance Qualifier (4).

  • BURTS (NA)

  • 223 (EU)

  • NTHX Esport (EU)

  • Quattro Squad (EU - In place of LRC)

  • Frog3 (EU)

  • Holtows Finest (NA)

  • VOLPE (NA - Formerly Pushing 30)

  • Scallywags (NA)

  • Ape Squad (NA)

  • Divine Dead (EU)

  • Grief Party (NA - In place of No Idea)

  • KRblSA (EU - In place of BKO)

  • LCQ #1.1

  • LCQ #1.2

  • LCQ #2.1

  • LCQ #2.2

Q: What’s the event schedule?

A: Check-in opens at 11:00 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. BST. The starting time for the event will be as follows:

  • Last Chane Qualifier (Qualifiers #1 and #2) Day 1

    • Matches will start at 1:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. BST

    • There will be no Official Broadcast for Day 1

  • Last Chane Qualifier (Qualifiers #1 and #2) Day 2

    • The stream will start at 1:30 p.m. ET/ 6:30 p.m. BST with the matches starting at 2:00 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. BST.

Q: If I play in one qualifier, can I compete in the other?

A: There is no limit on how many qualifiers you can compete in, so get out there and play without fear!

Q: Where can I watch the event?

A: You can watch the event live on the Breakout Esports Twitch or YouTube here:

Matthew Sergeon
Next

YOUR GUIDE TO THE FINALS : SPLIT 2 MASTERS