StarCraft II & WarCraft III competitions are set to return from June 2020 in the lead up to the Masters Championship of 2021. They’re also coming back bigger than ever before as we’ve installed an increase of over 75 days of competition across both titles compared to our original planning. We’ve made changes that players, fans & community members can get excited about; we believe this to be the best possible system we could have rebuilt.
StarCraft II
Masters Tournaments
All SC2 tournaments in 2020 will take place online as multi regional competitions, with a return to offline events expected in 2021. There will be 3 seasons of competitive play:
DreamHack SC2 Masters: Summer
DreamHack SC2 Masters: Fall
DreamHack SC2 Masters: Winter
Each season will consist of 6 regional divisions:
Each season will be played across a 5-6 week period starting with qualifiers and concluding with a Season Finals.
The Format
Europe:
4x 8 Player RR Groups - Top 4 Qualify (16)
16 Player DE Bracket (8x UB & 8 LB)
North America:
2x 8 Player RR Groups - Top 4 Qualify (8)
8 Player DE Bracket (4x UB & 4 LB)
Latin America, Oceania/RoA, China, TW/HK/MACAU/JP:
2x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (4)
4 Player DE Bracket
Season Finals
The season final introduces global competition. Once regional divisions conclude and the best players from each have been crowned, each division will take their top finishing player(s) to compete for the title of Season Champion. This will include players from South Korea, bringing the world together for a weekend of global competition.
The Format:
Season Finals
4 x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (8)
8 Player SE Bracket
Masters Championship
As originally designed, 36 players will travel to IEM Katowice 2021. The slot distribution will be split between the 7 global regions into Ro24 or Ro36 allotments.
*5x players will earn direct qualification through Global competitions.
IEM Katowice 2020: Rogue
GSL Season 1: TBD
GSL Season 2: TBD
GSL Season 3: TBD
Global SC2 Masters 2021: TBD
Each regional division will compete for ESL Pro Tour points across the 3 seasons to qualify for designated positions into the Masters Championship. In total there are 20x Ro24 and 16x Ro36 positions.
ESL Open Cups
All cups receive a $300 increase (+300%) and will move from Sunday to Monday starting May 18th ending January 18th, 2021. This decision was made based on the upcoming TeamLiquid Starleague & EPT competitions that will take priority on weekends. The decision here is to allow players a choice to compete in both. The prize money increase per region is a decision made after evaluating the recent success of an increase in participation and viewership; we are happy to reward the competition with this upgrade.
1st place: $200 & 10 EPT points
2nd place: $100 & 5 EPT points
3rd/4th place: $50
This $34,200 increase will expire on January 18th, 2021. With this change, we are also changing the Ro4 matches to Bo5.
Prize money & ESL Pro Tour points
For each season there is $238,500 to compete for:
European: $84,000
North America: $38,000
Latin America: $17,200
Oceania/Rest of Asia: $14,100
Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macau / Japan: $14,100
China: $14,100
Season Finals: $57,000
For a full distribution of prize money & for the ESL Pro Tour point allocation please visit here.
WarCraft III
Challenger Tournaments
All WC3 tournaments in 2020 will take place online as multi regional competition with an expected return to offline competition in 2021. There will be 3 seasons of competition:
DreamHack WC3 Open: Summer
DreamHack WC3 Open: Fall
DreamHack WC3 Open: Winter
Each season will consist of 3 regional divisions:
Each season will be played across a 4 week period starting with qualifiers and concluding with a Season Finals.
The Format:
Europe:
4x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (8)
8 Player DE Bracket
North America:
2x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (4)
4 Player SE Bracket
Asia:
2x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (4)
4 Player SE Bracket
Season Finals
The season final introduces global competition. Once regional divisions conclude and the best players from each have been crowned, each division will take their top finishing player(s) to compete for the title of Season Champion.
The Format
Season Finals:
2x 4 Player GSL Groups - Top 2 Qualify (4)
4 Player SE Bracket
WC3 Championship
The Championship is moving from December 2020 to IEM Katowice 2021. 15 positions will be split between the 3 regions, with Moon qualifying from DH Anaheim.
Each regional division will compete for ESL Pro Tour points across the 3 seasons to qualify for designated positions into the WC3 Championship.
Prize money
For each season there will be $35,000 to compete for:
Europe: $10,000
North America: $5,000
Asia: $10,500
Season Finals: $10,000
For a full distribution of prize money & for the ESL Pro Tour point allocation please visit here.
FAQ
Are there more details on the fall & winter season schedules?
We will release the detailed schedule for both titles closer to the start times of each season.
What happens with my EPT Points now that everything is regional?
Already gained EPT points will be taken to the players respective division. Example: Serral with 600 global EPT points will take his points to the European division to compete for the allotment to the Masters Championship.
Are EPT points awarded from ESL Open Cups going to also be regionalized?
No, the ESL Open Cups will remain global points. The EPT points earned from these will be transferred to the region of the winning players.
Which division do I play in?
A detailed policy will be outlined in our updated rulebook. However our intention will be prioritized on residency.
How & when do the invitations for the division work?
We will invite based on the EPT Ranking and will invite all players to the division after the conclusion of TSL 5.
How do non-Korean players living in Korea work?
These players are welcome to compete in their respective home region alongside competing in GSL.
How will you deal with server ruling in the regular season but more importantly the Season Finals?
All details will be released within our rulebook advance to the first season of competition. Each division will have a home server that all matches must take place on while the rules for the season finals are still to be determined.
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