Emergence of new Tournament Formats

With relatively rare balance patches in the recent months, a problem for tournaments had been that certain units and decks were played very often, leading to more predictable, less exciting games. 

To counter that, tournament organizers have been toying with modifications, such as to force players to play both factions, or ban specific units and commanders (such as Razorback, Fanatics, Liang).

In one of his latest tournaments, the Game.TV Finals, 13lade introduced an even more sophisticated system that actually worked great: Both players ban some units or commanders that the opponent can't chose. This allows for an interesting metagame, e.g.:

1. Do I ban the strongest units/commanders, or what I think this opponents likes / needs the most?
2. If I ban these units, what will the opponent play? How can I counter it?
3. Can I bait my opponent into playing a certain type of deck by banning a specific unit?

But see for yourself, it's a 2.5h well spent for any Rivals fan:

What I would like to see more in future tournamnets is more pre-determined maps. E.g. that it's clear which 5 maps are played in order for the semi-finals. This could allow players to come up with a game plan stretching the full series vs. just for each map.