ECS has been always invitational but the best teams were only invited. This time half of the teams those are invited are the bests without any doubt. But the other half isn't. I'm saying half/half but the numbers can changed considering your opinions. I mean, it might be seen 10/12 teams are the bests and the other 2 isnt to someone else. But the problem is there will always be at least those 2 teams that aren't good enough to have an invitation while there are better teams will compete in the qualifiers. What creates the problem is this.
Teams those didn't get an invitation will compete in the qualifiers. And only 4 teams those finished first in their groups will be able to go on. But DGNR and Pub are formed by top-tier players, they have much more potential than some of the invited teams and all of the other teams signed upfor the qualifiers. Tardet is right about something here saying that they weren't signed up yet, when he already invited Fearless and Tq to replace 2 drops.
Now DGNR and Pub will compete in the qualifiers and they most probably will finish at top of the groups and carry on their way to the group stages. People are suggesting things about tournament format which will be more fair, and in my opinion these 2 team should be replaced by 2 teams from the invited teams.
I should have say that I'm happy about that EV, Unity, Wonwokie, KURWA, Freelancers and IG are invited. Because they're the best without doubt. FTW and BRO deserve places too, because FTW was in the top in WNL5 for a long time and they had good scores although they replaced most of their players they're still good enough to compete at least in the group stage. BRO finished in top 4 in the ECL. Since Malta, FF and The Turks are not exist anymore they should have given that place which Tardet already granted.
I apoligize because this might sound a little bit salty, but the rest of those teams aren't good enough and if they compete in the qualifiers except for Tq, they will probably wont have a chance to finish their groups at top. Although Tq is quite new they've been practicing a lot for a long time. But this definetly doesn't mean they'll finish at top in their groups, but they will compete hard enough to have a strong chance to qualify.
So maybe you can consider this idea Tardet and people can write about their opininons;
EV, Unity, Wonwokie, KURWA, F, IG, FTW, BRO, DGNR and Pub will be the invited (10)teams. Then you can seperate rest of the teams into 3 groups each are formed by 6 teams and the best 2 teams from each group will qualify into the group stages. Or you can make 6 groups each are formed by 3 teams and the top teams can qualify for the group stage. But the second idea sounds a little bit more unfair to me and will sound unfair to much I think. For the time limitation, teams can play 2 matches in a week. One match in Wednesday and the other in Sunday. So the qualifier stage will last 3 weeks as you were planning. Matches will be in the old 2 maps format, to make it quicker, because best of 3 maps system were tried out before in a Turkish league and it lasts a little bit more longer considering the drops and the tactics are talked for each map. But the match fixture and maps (and factions) should have been decided before the qualifiers, so teams will be able to know who they'll face in which maps and factions.
This is my opinion.