The age of counter-comping is definitely upon us and with so much controversy surrounding the subject, I thought this would be a great subject to start my first blog here with.
From the moment we first heard that the format for the World Series of Video Games was going to be 3v3, we immediately let out a collective sigh of frustration, for we all knew what we were going to have to do to win on a consistent basis - counter-comp. Most people in the competitive World of Warcraft community consider counter-comping a "lame" aspect of the game, well so do we. However unlike a large portion of the teams you see playing competitively, we do not limit our options simply because we have played X class longer than Y class and play one 3v3 group composition. This isn't to say that other teams have not adapted and started counter-comping themselves, because there are teams that have, and I personally only see the problem (that's what it is honestly.. a problem) getting worse and more widespread with every tournament and tournament qualification process coming down to what is essentially a dice roll.
So what can be done? Well to be honest I haven't even seen this question asked much less had a solution proposed to, but for quite a long time now any time I’m discussing competitive WoW I’ve always spun an idea that I truly believe would better the competitive WoW scene 10 fold. The idea isn't particularly complex or hard to implement so to those tournament officials and organizations that might be reading this, take the following into consideration!
Essentially it is to, in the end, force teams into mirror matches of the same classes with group compositions being simply "drawn from a hat". In order for this to work at all the whole recent idea of "Online ladder qualification" has got to be stopped. Counter-comping looks like a minor nuisance compared to the "RNG" effect that online ladder play has on the game. That said, all tournaments would need to have a simple double eliminations bracket system similar to the ones used at WSVG. Specs and gear would still be of their choice however I would absolutely disallow the continuation of PvE gear being loaded into pre-made characters. Obviously some of the specifics such as rules concerning the number of classes in the pool being drawn from would be, and which classes would be in the "hat" (you wouldn't want to force mirrors of classes that have absolutely zero synergy such as warrior/rogue/hunter).
A lot of people that consider themselves as "the best at their class in the game" and whatnot might not like this idea but let me remind you that competitive WoW isn't about how good you are at spamming hemo or how flashy you can be by intervene/intercepting at random. It's about your 3v3 team capability, not 1v1 showcasing. Forcing teams to have their players learn multiple classes and specs and building synergy with non-traditional comps would not only add a lot of entertainment value to WoW tournaments, it would really show which teams have the most depth to them and not just the ones who can run 1 group composition, get the right queue string, and sit on points to qualify.
Well that's all the food for thought I can come up with for now and I hope that it intrigues the right minds. First MLG stop is coming up in about 1 week, wish us luck!
PS: These ideas are assuming that Blizzard leaves tournament realms up at all times to allow teams to practice with whatever classes/comps they would want to at any time. =P