• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 19:40
CEST 01:40
KST 08:40
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists12[ASL21] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Fresh Flow9[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt2: News Flash10[ASL21] Ro24 Preview Pt1: New Chaos0Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - Presented by Monster Energy21
Community News
2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers11Maestros of the Game 2 announced32026 GSL Tour plans announced10Weekly Cups (April 6-12): herO doubles, "Villains" prevail1MaNa leaves Team Liquid20
StarCraft 2
General
Adeleke University 2026/2027 Admission Form is Out Weekly Cups (April 6-12): herO doubles, "Villains" prevail MaNa leaves Team Liquid Oliveira Would Have Returned If EWC Continued Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists
Tourneys
2026 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) SEL Doubles (SC Evo Bimonthly) $5,000 WardiTV TLMC tournament - Presented by Monster Energy
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
Mutation # 521 Memorable Boss The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 520 Moving Fees Mutation # 519 Inner Power
Brood War
General
ASL21 General Discussion Pros React To: Tulbo in Ro.16 Group A BW General Discussion [BSL22] RO32 Group Stage mca64Launcher - New Version with StarCraft: Remast
Tourneys
[ASL21] Ro16 Group B [BSL22] RO32 Group D - Sunday 21:00 CEST [BSL22] RO32 Group C - Saturday 21:00 CEST Korean KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers What's the deal with APM & what's its true value Any training maps people recommend? Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
G2 just beat GenG in First stand
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine YouTube Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion!
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
[G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Reappraising The Situation T…
TrAiDoS
lurker extra damage testi…
StaticNine
Broowar part 2
qwaykee
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Iranian anarchists: organize…
XenOsky
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2536 users

$7000 Ultimate Series: Format & Schedule

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Tournaments
Post a Reply
Alex007
Profile Joined December 2010
Ukraine211 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-22 14:36:28
September 12 2018 11:16 GMT
#1
Ultimate Series: format, qualifiers, schedule

[image loading]

With StarLadder Amateur Series concluding this weekend and the total number of sign-ups coming close to the 2,000 players mark, we’re proceeding to announce general details of Ultimate Series – an international tournament with a $7000 USD prize pool, sponsored by Blizzard Entertainment.

GENERAL FORMAT. Three regional group stages held in Swiss Triple Elimination System, eight players in each of the regions (CIS, Europe, North America). Four winners of each regional group stage advance to global playoff.

PARTICIPANTS. Four players are invited into each regional groups stage. For CIS region, Ultimate Series 2018 Season 1 Round of 4 finishers are invited. For EU and NA, current WCS Challenger Round of 4 finishers are invited. If anybody rejects the opportunity, players among Round of 8 finishers of corresponding tournament will be chosen as a replacement.

Current invites status:
CIS - Rail, BratOK, HellraiseR, Kas
EU - Serral, Elazer, MaNa, uThermal
NA - Neeb, Scarlett, TRUE, MaSa

PRIZE POOL. $7000 is spread between all 24 participants as following:
1st place: $2000
2nd place: $800
3rd-4th places: $500
5th-8th places: $300
9th-12th places: $200
13th-24th places: $100

Note that prizes for participation are paid for the players to compete according to the schedule set by organizers and for always showing up in time. No games will be casted by replays. Please don’t sign up for the tournament if you might be unable to follow the schedule.

QUALIFIERS. Amateur Series Grandmaster league held at sc2.starladder.com is the qualifier for the Ultimate Series. To sign up for the qualifiers, you need to speak Russian (CIS region) or be eligible for European (EU region) / North American (NA region) WCS Challenger while also having an active in-game Grandmaster league account on the corresponding StarCraft II server. Follow our detailed step-by-step player guide if you have any difficulties.

Amateur Series GM will be held on the weekend of September 15th-16th and will consist of (up to four) GSL group rounds. Four winners of each regional Amateur Series Grandmaster league will be invited to the corresponding Ultimate Series.

NOTE: If you have earlier participated in WESG qualifiers organized by StarLadder, you might have some technical difficulties while signing up on our website as our Battle.net API integration has changed since then. Please don’t hesitate to contact us via starcraft@starladder.tv (or me personally via Twitter @Alex007UA, DMs are open) - we’ll make sure to assist you.


SCHEDULE. Current Amateur Series Grandmaster stage (Ultimate Series qualifiers) schedule looks as following (CEST time zone):

[image loading]

Ultimate Series schedule (CEST time zone):

[image loading]

COVERAGE. Amateur Series is fully open for community broadcasters - just follow our instructions and you’ll be good to go on September 15th. Ultimate Series coverage might be possible for major community broadcasters: if you are interested in covering Ultimate Series, please contact us via starcraft@starladder.tv. StarLadder will make sure to cover all tournament stages in Russian on our TwitchTV channel.

Good luck and have fun!
Senior Product Manager for ESL SC2 Pro Tour
Thorix77
Profile Joined August 2012
Poland12 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-09-13 13:11:29
September 13 2018 13:10 GMT
#2
You can't do swiss triple elimination(I assume that is the format often used in cs:go events) properly with only 8 participants. As seen in ESL One New York 2016 https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/ESL/One/2016/New_York where in round 4 you had 2 teams with different scores play each other(which shouldn't happen) and these 2 teams played again next round(which again shouldn't happen).
Alex007
Profile Joined December 2010
Ukraine211 Posts
September 13 2018 13:51 GMT
#3
On September 13 2018 22:10 Thorix77 wrote:
You can't do swiss triple elimination(I assume that is the format often used in cs:go events) properly with only 8 participants. As seen in ESL One New York 2016 https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/ESL/One/2016/New_York where in round 4 you had 2 teams with different scores play each other(which shouldn't happen) and these 2 teams played again next round(which again shouldn't happen).

Yeah, the format will look exactly like ESL One NY 2016. We don't consider issue #1 (team/player with 2-1 competing against team/player with 1-2) to be major, while issue #2 is not set to happen - it depends on exact seending and results. Also, it's OK if players are matched two times in one group - this often happens in GSL group scenario.
Basically, 8-players STE is the plain analogue of 4-players DE which is exactly GSL group.
Senior Product Manager for ESL SC2 Pro Tour
Thorix77
Profile Joined August 2012
Poland12 Posts
September 13 2018 14:49 GMT
#4
Oh I see, I'm glad to see it wasn't an oversight. Nice to see a fresh format in sc2, I swear every tournament lately has been GSL groups into SE bracket (where are all the double eliminations brackets).
CynicalDeath
Profile Joined January 2012
Italy3650 Posts
September 13 2018 15:00 GMT
#5
(Wiki)Ultimate Series
ModeratorSC2 LP Admin - My Life for Aiur - Let the Metal flow - @Cynical_Death
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 21m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech138
StarCraft: Brood War
GuemChi 915
Artosis 632
SilentControl 19
NaDa 12
LancerX 10
Dota 2
monkeys_forever337
capcasts130
Other Games
summit1g12574
tarik_tv6422
shahzam396
C9.Mang0344
Trikslyr114
ViBE50
Livibee34
amsayoshi16
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV228
Counter-Strike
PGL80
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• RyuSc2 90
• Hupsaiya 82
• davetesta38
• musti20045 19
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 22
• RayReign 18
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV596
League of Legends
• Doublelift4208
Other Games
• imaqtpie1112
• Scarra738
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
21m
Escore
10h 21m
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
11h 21m
OSC
15h 21m
Big Brain Bouts
16h 21m
MaNa vs goblin
Scarlett vs Spirit
Serral vs herO
Korean StarCraft League
1d 3h
CranKy Ducklings
1d 10h
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
1d 11h
IPSL
1d 16h
WolFix vs nOmaD
dxtr13 vs Razz
BSL
1d 19h
UltrA vs KwarK
Gosudark vs cavapoo
dxtr13 vs HBO
Doodle vs Razz
[ Show More ]
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
2 days
Ladder Legends
2 days
BSL
2 days
StRyKeR vs rasowy
Artosis vs Aether
JDConan vs OyAji
Hawk vs izu
IPSL
2 days
JDConan vs TBD
Aegong vs rasowy
Replay Cast
3 days
Wardi Open
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Bisu vs Ample
Jaedong vs Flash
Monday Night Weeklies
3 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Barracks vs Leta
Royal vs Light
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
4 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
The PondCast
6 days
WardiTV Map Contest Tou…
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-04-15
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
CSL 2026 SPRING (S20)
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
StarCraft2 Community Team League 2026 Spring
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S2: W3
Escore Tournament S2: W4
Acropolis #4
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
2026 GSL S2
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.