BSL Season 20 - NEW ERA

Dear StarCraft lovers!

Hello guys,

Welcome to the first season of BSL in 2025. This year is going to be amazing. I finally got the courage to move out of my comfort zone, refresh and rebuild the BSL you’ve known for 20 seasons. To be clear, I wasn’t afraid of making changes, nor was I facing a lack of ideas - I was just afraid you guys were not going to read them and assume it's the same as usual Kappa. From the very beginning BSL had a goal to keep the scene active and alive, I feel like the simple battle.net ladder stage is no longer serving its purpose, so we implemented a number of changes to keep this season exciting.

First of all, I want to remind everyone that we excluded Chinese players from participation in the ProLeague of BSL.
Read more about it here
+ Show Spoiler +

I would like to address one of the most challenging decisions in the history of the Bombastic StarLeague (BSL). Our mission has always been to foster and grow the foreign StarCraft: Remastered community, ensuring a platform where players can thrive, improve, and connect with fans globally.

After thorough consideration and extensive feedback from our players, as well as consulting it with Patreons and biggest goal donators, we have decided to exclude Chinese players from the ProLeague of BSL.

Feedback from Players:
A significant majority (over 70%) of our ProLeague players felt that including Chinese players compromised the fairness of competition due to:
- lag,
- Chinese tournament organizers don’t invite foreigners to their tournaments,*
- Scheduling the matches is very hard,
- They have their own pro scene, so they can play StarCraft full time, no chance to compete with them,
- Chinese viewers don’t contribute enough to the prize pool (compared to what Chinese players has been winning),
- They are not engaging with our community, outside of paid matches,

*We reached out to SanPao, a prominent figure in Chinese StarCraft tournaments, who explained that including foreigners in their events is currently unfeasible due to lag.

Positive Aspects of Inclusion:
- Chinese players undeniably elevate the level of competition, provide exciting matches, and serve as a motivation for skill enhancement among foreigner players.
- Their participation has also contributed to the popularity and viewership of BSL.

Our Decision:
Despite these benefits, we must prioritize our core objective: to nurture and sustain an engaged and integrated StarCraft community outside of Korea. The feedback clearly indicates that this inclusion impacts the motivation and participation of our local players, which is vital for the health of our scene.

Moving Forward:
We deeply value the skills and contributions of Chinese players and their fans. Therefore, we will introduce the BSL Super Gosu Tournament after each BSL Season, featuring TOP4 BSL and TOP4 Chinese players. This initiative aims to:
- Keep the international player base connected.
- Provide additional high-quality StarCraft content for fans.
- Motivate our local heroes to test themselves, continue improving and competing
- Work as World Championship outside Korea

Conclusion:
We are committed to the growth and vitality of the StarCraft community. I hope that in the future we will have enough support for the players, so they can play StarCraft full time, and invite Chinese players back to BSL ProLeague, but the truth is that for now we just can’t compete with the Chinese scene with the resources at our disposal.
While this decision might disappoint some, it is made with the long-term health and engagement of our scene in mind. We hope it will unite the scene outside Korea and China, inspire the players to improve and in future with better internet connection, we will be able to compete together with Chinese players yet again. We appreciate the understanding and support from all fans and players. Thank you for your continued support of the Bombastic StarLeague.

We were struggling a lot to find funding for this season, we didn't meet the goal and we are still missing $1400, so the prize pools will be lowered until we will find an additional sponsor for BSL20.

It makes me even more grateful for all those amazing people, who despite all the challenges, still support StarCraft and BSL.

BSL Season 20 sponsors:

Liquid`Nazgul & Liquid`Steve - Read more here about their incredible support! It warms my heart that after all these years, such Legends care about the well being of StarCraft outside Korea.
Read a few words from Nazgul on that occasion:
+ Show Spoiler +
Brood War is an incredibly special and important game to me. It led to the creation of Team Liquid in its original form, and let me travel to Korea and be a part of its early Esports scene. It's amazing to see that over twenty years since I played professionally, Brood War is still going strong because of the passionate community. Even though Korea has long been the center of the BW scene, I believe it's valuable for players from all over the world to have meaningful competitive experiences. Foreigner competitions were a big opportunity for players like me, and it's why TL worked to host the TSL and TLS series of tournaments. That's why I'm personally putting my support behind the BSL so the top players in the foreign scene continue to have a place to test their skills, and have a goal to strive for. Steve is also an old school gamer who enjoyed Brood War in its heyday, even if he wasn't as involved in Esports back then. He wants to show his personal support for BW now, both as a fan of the game and because he knows how important it is to me and to Team Liquid. We want to honor TL's history and keep building its legacy in doing so. Good luck to all the competitors, and we hope these upcoming seasons of the BSL are the best yet.
Community Support to 20 Goal - Special thanks to CRVT who donated $2000, DaYanJing, jziriy, LML, Chaosu as well as all the other goal donors - check out all of them here
BSL Patreons -> Without the support of our Patreons it would be impossible to continue. BSL is scheduled months ahead, having regular support helps us plan the events for the future -> https://www.patreon.com/Bombastic (Check them out here)

BSL 2025 extra events sponsors:

Rus_Brain - Another year of Kirill support, this season he supported BSL 2025 with $2700 for the additional events prize pool. Thanks to him we have prize pool for BSL Nation Wars 2, BSL Weekly Tournaments, BSL Team Wars and BSL A-Team matches. Let’s all appreciate his countless efforts to support our community for all those years. Check out interview with Kirill here
LML - Not only BSL admin, BSL Patreon but also a huge donor. He increased the prize pool of BSL Weekly Tournaments from $50 to $75 each.
T1Dragon - along with his friends, they sponsored $1000 prize pool for BSL 2v2 Season 3
Adun - Sponsored 1 ETH for prize pools of BSL LAN Parties in 2025. Thanks to him, we have regular events where we can all meet in person - which is the best part of StarCraft. Next LAN in in Kraków 05-06 April - see you there ?

Big thanks to all of you guys, for enabling us to have yet another season of Bombastic StarLeague! Everyone who is watching, commenting and sharing info about BSL is helping so much, it wouldn’t be possible without your help and support!

But now hold onto your seats, and read carefully, because the changes are BIG

BIG CHANGES YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT:

BSL 2025 Points will allow to secure 11 spots in ProLeague, 8 spots in GosuLeague tier 1 and 4 spots in GosuLeague tier 2.
Earn points by playing in: BSL Nation Wars 2, BSL Weekly Tournaments, March ladder on SB, BSL20 Battle.net ladder stage & Open Qualifier Tours + community tournaments like BWCL or CSL Pro Spring Finals!
Change ProLeague from 24 to 32 players. Groups RO16(bo3) into RO20 (bo1)
GosuLeague, Hasu and Chobo format will be changed drastically - one 16 player group with 1x bo3 a week.
We will change the number of games required to qualify from ladder to ProLeague (40), GosuLeague (25), HasuLeague (20) and ChoboLeague (15).

IMPORTANT NOTES

You have to play on your real nickname (no smurfs)
You can have only one nickname registered (register is available only with 0:0 stats)
No account reset available
8 out of 32 spots will be given through OPEN TOURNAMENTS
We will keep DE bracket as a standard in BSL now
TOP3 players from BSL20 GosuLeague will have seed in BSL21 ProLeague
Continue improving your BSL20 Ladder placement even after being qualified - the player with the higher ladder placement will be given priority during map vetoes in Ro20 and bracket stage

Battle.net Ladder stage starts TODAY, it will end 30.03.2025 23:59 CET. You can start playing now!

How do I sign up to BSL20?

Create a new account using the BSL- tag on any gateway
BSL-, e.g.: BSL-MadiNho, BSL-CRVT, BSL-LML, ..
Head over to: https://bombasticstarleague.com Register on the site and add your in-game BSL-account to the rankings (with 0:0 stats)
Launch StarCraft: Remastered and start laddering!
Join BSL Discord
Confirm your participation on BSL Discord after the ladder stage ends.
You have to play on your real nickname (no smurfs)

Bombastic StarLeague/20

How do I qualify for each division?

ProLeague RO24 (min. 40 games)

BSL20 Latin America Ladder -> 1st - 2nd -> Ro32
BSL20 North America Ladder -> 1st - 2nd -> Ro32
BSL20 Europe Ladder -> 1st - 2nd -> Ro32
BSL20 World Ladder -> 1st - 4th -> Ro32
BSL 2025 Points -> 1st - 11th - RO32
4x Open Tournament with 2x slots in ProLeague each

#1 - Monday 20:00 EST, 09 April -> Top2 -> Ro32
#2 - Tuesday, 20:00 EST, 10 April -> Top2 -> Ro32
#3 - Wednesday, 20:00 CEST, 12 April -> Top2 -> Ro32
#4 - Thursday, 20:00 CEST, 13 April -> Top2 -> Ro32

RO32 Seeds from BSL19 GosuLeague:

Hawk ,

UltrA ,

Julian
RO20 Seeds from BSL19 ProLeague :

Bonyth,

Dewalt,

Sziky ,

cRoSs

ProLeague RO32(min. 40 games)
- BSL 2025 Points - 11 slots
- BSL Battle.Net ladder - 10 slots
- Open Qualifier Tours - 8 slots
- BSL19 GosuLeague - 3 slots

GosuLeague Tier 1 (min. 25 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 8 spots
BSL 2025 Points -> 8 spots
GosuLeague Tier 2 (min. 25 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 12 spots
BSL 2025 Points -> 4 spots

HasuLeague Tier 1 (min. 20 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots
HasuLeague Tier 2 (min. 20 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots

ChoboLeague Tier 1 (min. 15 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots
ChoboLeague Tier 2 (min. 15 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots
ChoboLeague Tier 3 (min. 15 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots
ChoboLeague Tier X (min. 15 games)
BSL20 World Ladder -> 16 spots

Amount of ChoboLeague tiers will depend on the number of confirmation on BSL Discord after the ladder stage.

ProLeague

Ro32 Group Stage – Eight groups of four players each, double elimination, best-of-three. The top 2 players in each group advance to the Ro20.
Ro20 Group Stage – Four groups of five players each, ROUND ROBIN, best-of-one. The top 2 players in each group advance to the WB and top 3-4 to LB of Double elimination bracket
Play-off WB - best-of-five, LB - best-of-three, LB Quarter, Semis - best-of-five.
LB Finals - Best-of-seven
Grand Finals – Best-of-nine.

GosuLeague, HasuLeague and ChoboLeague

Ro16 Group Stage – ONE 16 players Swiss Group Stage - one bo3 a week (4 rounds + tie breakers). The top 4 of each division go into the second round of the SE bracket, next 8 players (rank 5-12) go into the first round of the bracket. Single elimination bracket, best-of-five.
Grand finals – Best-of-seven.

09.03.2025 - 30.03.2025 Ladder Stage
RO32 - Saturday, April 20, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Sunday, April 21, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Saturday, April 27, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Sunday, April 28, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Saturday, May 03, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Sunday, May 04, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Saturday, May 10, 19:00 CET
RO32 - Sunday, May 11, 19:00 CET
RO16 - Saturday, May 17, 19:00 CET
RO16 - Sunday, May 18, 19:00 CET
RO16 - Saturday, May 24, 19:00 CET
RO16 - Sunday, May 25, 19:00 CET
RO8 - Saturday, May 31, 19:00 CET
RO8 - Sunday, June 01, 19:00 CET
RO6 - Saturday, June 07, 19:00 CET
RO6 - Sunday, June 08, 19:00 CET
RO4 - Saturday, June 15, 19:00 CET
LB Finals - Sunday, June 16, 19:00 CET
Grand Finals - Sunday, June 22, 19:00 CET

Every game of BSL ProLeague will be casted on BSL’s Official Twitch Channel

RESTREAMING or STREAMING the EVENT without permission is NOT ALLOWED, our goal is to maximize viewers on the official BSL channels, as we’re trying to attract some sponsors.

RO32 Group Stage:
Game 1 & 2 -> Metropolis
Winners Match & Losers match -> Death Valley
Advancements match -> Pole Star

Choosing second / third map rules: winner bans one map, loser chooses map from remaining maps in the map pool (no repeats).

RO20 Group Stage:
Map picked through bans. Player higher in the ladder decides who bans first.

Bracket Stage Map Picks
+ Show Spoiler +

All vetoes and map picks need to be made before the matches. The player with the higher ladder stage ranking can decide if they want to veto first or second. The example order for vetoes is AB ABABC for BO5.

Example of vetoes for the BO5 match:
player A vetoes a map
player B vetoes a map
player A picks the first map
player B picks the second map
player A picks the third map
player B picks the fourth map
the remaining map will be played in the decider match
Once all vetoes and mappicks are done you can start the matches.

Grand Finals
After picking the first 7 maps, each player picks one map (as repeat) to play the 8th and 9th match on.

New exciting BSL regular tournament will be held after each season of BSL!

TOP4 players from BSL20 & TOP4 Chinese players will be invited for the event.
All the support from Chinese fans towards BSL will be spent to fund this event.

FORMAT

One RO8 Group, Round Robin, bo3
TOP2 goes to 2nd round of SE Bracket, TOP3-6 goes to 1st round of SE Bracket
SE Bracket: Bo5 -> Bo7 Finals
Three weekends (6 cast days) event (05-06, 12-13 & 19-20 July - 16:00 CET)
Week 1 & Week 2 - Group Stage matches, Week 3 - SE Bracket

Bombastic StarLeague Season 20 total prize pool of $4,500 USD will be distributed as follows:
BSL20 ProLeague: $3000
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship - $1400
BSL20 GosuLeague tier 1: $100

The BSL20 Proleague:
1st place - $1200
2nd place -$600
3rd place - $350
4th place - $250
5th - 6th place - $100
7th - 8th place - $60
9th - 12nd place - $40
13rd - 16th place - $30

The BSL20 Gosuleague Tier 1
1st place - $50 + BSL21 RO32 Seed
2nd place - $30 + BSL21 RO32 Seed
3rd place - $20 + BSL21 RO32 Seed

BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
1st place - $560
2nd place -$350
3rd place - $210
4th place - $140
5th - 8th place - $35

- https://bombasticstarleague.com/ - BSL Webpage for SIGN UPS and LADDER RANKING
- BSL 2025 Plans, Changes and Info
- BSL 2025 Points & SB Ladder Stages
- BSL Nation Wars 2
- BSL 2025 Weekly Tournaments
- BSL Nation Wars 2
- BSL 2v2 ProLeague Season 3
- BSL 2025 Points Table

0. ZZZero is always right

1. Everyone must join the BSL Official Discord server
------> https://discord.gg/ST6ktnD ←------

2. Confirmation after ladder stage.

Every player who played in the BSL20 ladder stage, has to confirm their participation in the tournament on BSL Discord:
a) ProLeague - within 12 hours after ladder stage ends
b) GosuLeague, HasuLeague & ChoboLeague - within one week from ladder stage ends

3. Qualification restriction
Players who have previously played in ProLeague (Seasons 14-19) can't qualify for Hasu and Chobo leagues. Players who have played in GosuLeague (Seasons 16-19) can't qualify for ChoboLeague. Players who weren't able to reach the needed MMR will have to skip this BSL Season.

4. The tournament is residency locked
The goal of the Bombastic StarLeague is to focus on the development of players outside of Korea. Therefore, only players that are living outside of South Korea can participate in this tournament

5. Smurfs
Smurfs are not allowed, you have to play on your real, most known nickname.

6. Race Picking
Upon confirming their participation, players need to declare race and matchups they play for the entire season.

7. Regular match rules
Players must be online and available on Battle.net channel Op BSL (Europe) 15 minutes before their scheduled match. Secondary channel of communication is the BSL Open Discord server - players have to be available on Discord during the matches.
15 minutes after scheduled time, if one of the players is not responding, his opponent may claim a technical win for one game.
15 minutes after that he can claim a win for the whole series.
It is not allowed to livestream your games or announce the result before they have been officially casted.

8. Playing matches before the schedule
Every match prior to the Elimination Stage can be played ahead of schedule if both players and admins agree.
Contact your opponent and set up the date to play. We strongly suggest using BSL Open Discord for this so admins can keep track of things.
On the selected day, play your match. Apply the same rules as for a regular match - use Op BSL and Discord to communicate.
If both players were unable to play on their selected date/time or weren't able to set one up, the match should be played at the official play date and time.

Both players must ensure that the replays are uploaded and available for the admins.

9. ShieldBattery
Any match can be played using ShieldBattery if both players and admins agree. For more info please visit the ShieldBattery website.

10. Latency
Default Turn Rate setting is DTR. If both players agree, the Turn Rate setting can be changed.

11. Disconnects
If one of the players gets disconnected from the game before the 2-minute mark, the game must be replayed. If one of the players had an advantage after the 2 minute mark, the decision is up to the admin.

12. Casting the game
Everyone should allow ZZZero or any other responsible person to join the game for broadcast.

13. Unsportsmanlike conduct
Any menace, insults, toxicity, bad manners, racism, homophobia, sexism and any kind of behavior which will be treated as offensive as well as unsportsmanlike conduct will be punished in BSL. If no mitigating circumstances are found, the penalty is the BAN from the BSL season.

14. Prize distribution
Winners of cash prizes are required to contact ZZZero on Discord to agree on the desired form of payment of the prize. Default payment form is via Paypal. Winners must also send Name + Surname and address to ZZZero on discord or email:zzzeropl@gmail.com within a month after the tournament is finished. The cost of sending funds and commissions are covered by the recipient.

15. Personal Data
Anyone who is participating in the tournament agrees to the processing of their personal data, which they made available to the organizer or which are accessible publicly.

16. Additional info
Anyone who is participating in the tournament and is listed in the PEP, SDN or OFAC lists is obligated to contact the organizer.

If you want to help us spread the news that BSL Season 20 Started, feel free to use all the graphics here during your stream or on your social media. Thank you <3

BSL Season 20 - NEW ERA - Big Changes!

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming