• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:03
CEST 10:03
KST 17:03
  • 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
ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play1Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8
Community News
[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation05.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)83ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo37Weekly Cups (June 8-14): Clem and Solar double, PTR tested0RSL: S6 Finals played at BlizzCon 202611
StarCraft 2
General
Is the larve respawn broken? The Death of Cheese: From a Professional Cheeser 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) Old Replays From 1.4.6 The future of the SC game model
Tourneys
Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event INu's Battles#17 <BO.9> Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 532 Nuclear Family Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery Mutation # 530 One For All
Brood War
General
ProGamer Paychecks Story ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool Best thing happen to StarCraft since Remastered? Data needed BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL22] GosuLeague Casts - Tue & Thu 22:00 CEST
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
Path of Exile ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI Canadian Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Listen To The Coaches!
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8486 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
Italy3696 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
RSL Revival
02:00
S6 Americas Server Qualifier
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech35
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2355
BeSt 657
Hyuk 430
Mind 55
Larva 51
yabsab 39
Leta 32
ToSsGirL 22
ZergMaN 12
Bale 11
[ Show more ]
Purpose 10
Noble 9
Britney 0
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm150
League of Legends
JimRising 645
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K702
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King72
Other Games
summit1g10573
Happy314
RuFF_SC254
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick816
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 9
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 9
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos1599
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Weekly
2h 58m
RSL Revival
1d 1h
RSL Revival
1d 8h
Bombastic Starleague
1d 11h
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
OSC
2 days
CrankTV Team League
3 days
Bombastic Starleague
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
The PondCast
4 days
[ Show More ]
HomeStory Cup
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
HomeStory Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
HomeStory Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
Douyu Cup 2026
Murky Cup 2026

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
SCTL 2026 Spring
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026

Upcoming

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
ASL Season 22:Wild Card Qualifier
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
BCC 2026
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Eternal Conflict S2 E1
Heroes Pulsing #3
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 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.