Before I begin, let me share a bit of information on how I understand WCG autoberths have worked in the past two years in Melbourne.
The cafe's that take on the responsibility of hosting a WCG qualifier enter into an agreement that they will cover the costs of an autoberth. Why would they do that? Because the WCG brand is suppose to be something the event organisers can flaunt to sponsors and gain interest for registrations, even if it is just a qualifier - this is certainly the case in other countries, and may have been for WCG events prior to 2009.
In 2009 when we helped ZAM run the WCG qualifier, it was stressed to us by Russell (owner of ZAM) that we needed to get as many teams as possible, or it will run at a loss for ZAM. 2010 was no different when we offered our assistance to Midcity to arrange the WCG Qualifier, our instructions were to get as many teams as possible.
The Queensland qualifier this year however only attracted a total of 5 teams. No matter how you do the maths, fitting venue hire, let alone an autoberth itself just isn't possible. But despite the low registrations until the date of the event, no warnings were made to encourage signups, so we can assume the teams competing came into the qualifier were under no stress that an autoberth may not have been viable.
Fast forward to today - two days before WCG Finals are set to begin, 
Immunity who won the autoberth in Queensland still haven't had their tickets booked and were told today that there is only $375 for the flights.
The runners up Boston Deagle who were set to attend WCG this week are now also in limbo as two of them had counted on having their tickets booked through Immunity's autoberth (two iM members reside in Sydney). To make matters worse, the remaining Boston Deagle members have already booked flights and accommodation to WCG.
It's not known what these two teams will do yet, but it's expected Immunity will fly up on their own dime again.
Rize is correct, if they had of just given iM a straight invite to WCG, they would of happily paid their 3 flights + accom and be on their way.
Now it looks like they will pay 3 flights + accom for the qual PLUS more costs for flights.
The only downside to that is, it's a slippery slope. If you invite iM, do you then invite Archaic ? if you invite Archaic do you then invite KBS ? and so on. eventually it doesnt matter how good you are, you can play nats as long as you have a sponsor.
This combined with the fact people do not like beyond internet cafe.
If we know upfront there won't be any auto-birth or the possibility of an auto-birth pending team attendance then teams will know what they're getting themselves into. I have an issue with events that state flights will be included when clearly there are a lot of conditions surrounding the statement which are not defined or even alluded to.
If a team is the Australian Champions - e.g. won the previous LAN National I don't see any problem offering that team whoever they may be a immediate qualification position. It is then up to the teams discretion whether they accept the invite or attend a qualifier in order to obtain an auto-birth. Immunity has been through this hoop many times before and it's frustrating having to pay $2K for a qualifier and $2k for the final.
After speaking with CBN it's clear an agreement was made with the relevant LAN Cafe's stating they were responsible for the qualification flights (The LAN Cafe). This is ultimately where things have gone pear shaped. In regard to the Sydney qualifier I've been informed that Archaic were given the money.
At the end of the day this shouldn't take away from WCG AU. I hope everyone involved has a great time and everyone plays some good CS. :)
GL HF!
The Rules
Immunity and the current national champion or 2nd place (if the champions of the last national were Immunity) will recieve an INVITE to the next national competition. The Second/1st Placed team (apart from Immunity) can choose to accept their INVITE spot, or they can gamble and attend a qualifier in attempt to gain an Auto-Birth. Immunity will lose there privelidge of attaining an automatic invite if they drop below top 2 rank in Australia and have to qualify like everyone else.
NSW/QLD/VIC qualifiers are now given 1 or 2 (depending on the last winners) more auto-birth spots for the nationals.
Why Immunity gets a free ride you might ask?
Why not? iM has undoubtedly been the best/well backed organisation in Australia since 2005, and also has placed top 3 in almost every national final in the last 5 years, They can afford it and will also save alot of money not attending smaller qualifiers. Europe has done this method since i can remember and have auto-birthed teams like SK.Swe and Fnatic to their national finals
If anyone has an argument against why iM should get an invite directly to nationals OR why the 1st/2nd place teams shouldnt either please post it
EDIT: Sarcasm.
i suggested this ages ago to george bd and gomez vinny :P
First I've heard of that
In saying that there isnt really any breakup of team level anymore in Aus its that dead... i got no idea anymore
There's an incredible lack of teams at qualifiers already, i really cant see it as a good thing to make 1, possibly 2, less teams show up to quals.
The main problem you seem to have is the difficulty you guys have in attending quals (due to cost and interstate lineup) and thats your choice to have, but its also your problem and you have to deal with it. It's not fair in the slightest to other interstate teams who may be of a lesser quality who still have to do the hard yards and either play the qual without their full team in the hope they can still get an invite, or fork up the cash to play the qual with their lineup.
It is our choice and problem in the end to have this lineup but yea im just getting over going interstate for 1 day with a 4-8 team qual. If it was a decent qual with 16 teams i wouldnt care at all its just depressing. And we cant really use 3 sluts for nsw/qld as that would be turd.
For example to answer #17, Immunity will still have to pay an entry fee which will go to a nominated state. Therefor the funding for autoberth for the state qualifier is still there whilst saving money on what would have been wasted on transport/accommodation.
Then from then on the past victor gets the priviledge. Does mean less teams at quals though, which is still a problem.
LOL
Edit: sarcasm
I dno thats just my opinion, the only real reason they want to do it is because its a hassle to fly interstate players for qualifiers, so its win/win for them, yet it offers absolutely zero benefit to the competition and australian cs in general and if anything only harms it.
It's also very unfair to all the other interstate teams around that have to either attend quals with a far weaker lineup, or pay their own money to attend quals with their full team
Then you lose quality at a qualifier, funding, and quality at nationals.
$4K is a big price to pay for a chance at an overseas trip which players will end up forking out $$$ anyway.
rize has already said that iM has the money to attend the quals, its just a pain for them to do, tbh i really dont see the problem. We need more teams attending quals not less..
See you all on saturday :)
s2
Lets face it guys, the same old faces are the ones that are playing the game these days. There are no new teams flying to nats i mean in the last like 5 nats there has essentially been the EXACT same players who have rearranged themselves into different lineups but the player base remains exactly the same...
What miles is saying is since iM are FORTUNATE enough to have the means to fly to every nats and compete at every nats without auto money, why not give the funding to teams that actually NEED the money to travel to the national event.
ANY Australian team with financial support in terms of complete flights and accommodation coverage at this stage with the community being as small as it is SHOULD be given automatic entry into national events not just iM...
This way more newer teams might play the game because there's instantly another invite up for grabs at every qualifier so you might lose teams like iM and Archaic at quals and end up with 2-3 more new teams who are turned away from LAN events because of the skill gap...
Food for thought cheers.
"#15 that sounds good, now qld can have 4 teams instead of 5 at their qual and the autoberth can be worth $175 now instead of $325"
$175 to a QLD team is better than $0 after iM take the $325 :)
"rize has already said that iM has the money to attend the quals, its just a pain for them to do, tbh i really dont see the problem. We need more teams attending quals not less."
I again will side with Miles and say that it is NOT in iM's best interest to fork out money for 3 of their players to fly to QLD to steal another teams auto which doesnt even cover the flights they had to pay for to get to the qual, let alone the next 3 tickets back into sydney to attend the nats... QLD LAN loses money, iM loses money and nobody wins out of iM having to qual...
And yes I am very involved in this subject because this scenario DIRECTLY affected my team and our capabilities to go to Nats so I realise I am speaking with some bias but none of what i said isnt true.
Valid points from a lot of people. I don't see a real problem assuming the 'champions' are the ONLY team extended an invite and are still required to pay the entry fee (Perhaps even nominate a state it contributes towards). I don't see one less team at a qualifier being a problem - it's only 1 state and it's only 1 team.
The big positive that's already been mentioned is the fact the 'champions' aren't taking away from another top teams chance at qualifying and in turn the funding that comes along with it.
Either way it's an interesting topic of debate.
^
Completely off topic from what's being said but may interest some people keen on dubstep after wcg :D
i didnt post that last post about jobless fucks btw.