They will be joined by eight more players coming from 3 qualifiers that will each be played on 3 different servers:
American Server: February 23rd at 19:00 EST (2 slots)
KR/TW Server: February 24th at 17:00 KR (3 slots)
European Server: February 24th at 17:00 CET (3 slots)
All qualifiers are open to everyone, and players can take part in one, two or all of them. KR/TW and Europe give one more spot for having the World Champion (Life) & being the host region respectively.
The total prize pool of IEM Katowice will be $117,707 and will not be winner-takes-all:
Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
On February 12 2015 05:31 Musicus wrote: Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
I mean at least claiming host region sounds better PR wise :D
Personally, I think it would be really fun if they just made it 2.5 per region, have the 3rd place finisher of the NA and EU qualifier play off in a Bo5 series for the final spot. NA-EU grudges are the best if you set them up right!
On February 12 2015 05:31 Musicus wrote: Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
I mean at least claiming host region sounds better PR wise :D
Honestly, they should have just made it 2.5 per region, have the 3rd place finisher of the NA and EU qualifier play off in a Bo5 series for the final spot. NA-EU grudges are the best
On February 12 2015 05:31 Musicus wrote: Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
I mean at least claiming host region sounds better PR wise :D
Honestly, they should have just made it 2.5 per region, have the 3rd place finisher of the NA and EU qualifier play off in a Bo5 series for the final spot. NA-EU grudges are the best
Yeah, they should change that!
ah wait it's just server location, EU's can play the NA qualifier. So can Koreans. I guess we're seeing KR take both of those NA spots then. Possibly all eight spots :D?
On February 12 2015 05:31 Musicus wrote: Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
I mean at least claiming host region sounds better PR wise :D
Honestly, they should have just made it 2.5 per region, have the 3rd place finisher of the NA and EU qualifier play off in a Bo5 series for the final spot. NA-EU grudges are the best
Yeah, they should change that!
ah wait it's just server location, EU's can play the NA qualifier. So can Koreans. I guess we're seeing KR take both of those NA spots then. Possibly all eight spots :D?
On February 12 2015 05:31 Musicus wrote: Korea gets an extra slot because Life is the World Chamipion? :D
They could've just been honest and said that the NA server sucks, not that it matters, since both NA slots will go to Koreans if everybody can play in every qualifier.
I mean at least claiming host region sounds better PR wise :D
Honestly, they should have just made it 2.5 per region, have the 3rd place finisher of the NA and EU qualifier play off in a Bo5 series for the final spot. NA-EU grudges are the best
Yeah, they should change that!
ah wait it's just server location, EU's can play the NA qualifier. So can Koreans. I guess we're seeing KR take both of those NA spots then :D
Yeah, it wouldn't matter in the end. KR gets 5 slots, EU has 3, but they could get snatched by Koreans living in America, like Hydra, Polt, Jaedong etc. although the ping from the westcoast should suck.
So ForGG, Snute and 1 Korean living in NA would be my guess for the EU slots.
KT going to be representing at Katowice! If Life practices as much as he probably will since he joined KT last night, I can see Life taking it. Unless Flash and Zest find some remnants of 2014 stature.
But, will Taeja show up out of nowhere and take home the title?
OR will MMA qualify and dominate all and become the IEM World Champion and Code S champion?
On February 12 2015 05:32 Yakikorosu wrote: Yay, no winner-take-all. As amazing it was to see sOs sending herO home with nothing, it was kind of a terrible idea.
It's fun to do once, but it'd be shitty if it was like that every year.
Fortunately, we're not in 2014 now, we're in 2015. Further, Life isn't playing at some lukewarm, kinda-decent level, he's playing the Starcraft of his life.
On February 12 2015 05:32 Yakikorosu wrote: Yay, no winner-take-all. As amazing it was to see sOs sending herO home with nothing, it was kind of a terrible idea.
It's fun to do once, but it'd be shitty if it was like that every year.
not sure it was even fun once, big lack of respect for the 4th-2nd place and bad the pro scene health in general, only thing is now organizers can say "-hey remember when all cash went to the winner? -yeah, let's never do that again."
if only Taeja was still as good as he was a year ago
true but there's also no guarantee that life will be as good as he is right now
I can almost guarantee that with NSSL/GSL ongoing and Life just transferring to KT, he will do as much as or more than he ever has to stay on his toes and maintain his peak performance level. He might experience a dropoff in April/May unless he's really found stability, but before that doesn't strike me as likely.
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait, did you change your team tag to KT when Life switched? lol.
Yes I did, I need to make sure I support Life properly. If it were possible to have two tags, I would split KT/CJ though, I like CJ a lot more as a team.
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait, did you change your team tag to KT when Life switched? lol.
Yes I did, I need to make sure I support Life properly. If it were possible to have two tags, I would split KT/CJ though, I like CJ a lot more as a team.
You have the power to make it happen! (maybe^^), but what would be even more awesome are tags like on liquidlegends... The main TL is kinda behind in that regard :/
Feels so weird that IEM circuit starts in one year but ends in the next. The prize distribution is pretty top heavy, but if you compare it to last year's then its still an improvement
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait, did you change your team tag to KT when Life switched? lol.
Yes I did, I need to make sure I support Life properly. If it were possible to have two tags, I would split KT/CJ though, I like CJ a lot more as a team.
You have the power to make it happen! (maybe^^), but what would be even more awesome are tags like on liquidlegends... The main TL is kinda behind in that regard :/
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait, did you change your team tag to KT when Life switched? lol.
Yes I did, I need to make sure I support Life properly. If it were possible to have two tags, I would split KT/CJ though, I like CJ a lot more as a team.
You have the power to make it happen! (maybe^^), but what would be even more awesome are tags like on liquidlegends... The main TL is kinda behind in that regard :/
Change is coming! (soon TM)
AWWWW YEAH :D Instead of a favorite champion we gotta pick our favorite player, right? ^^
Wow $117,707 is insane for a prize pool that is not WCS Grand Finals. Not complaining tho since that's fucking awesome !!! Time for Flash to stomp some faces in. His inconsistent results recently is actually a secret plan by him so everyone will underestimate him and then he will snag $68,707 for first.
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait, did you change your team tag to KT when Life switched? lol.
Yes I did, I need to make sure I support Life properly. If it were possible to have two tags, I would split KT/CJ though, I like CJ a lot more as a team.
KT bias instead of liquid bias in the next article i bet
On February 12 2015 05:39 Zealously wrote: With this tournament, Life becomes the highest earning SC2 player of all time
hype
edit: just kidding the GSL/NSSL finals aren't until after
Wait seriously? Only MC deserves that spot
In case that wasnt clear im assuming triple championships for Life which would take in a cool ~130k, putting him equal to or probably just above MC. If he wins WC he'll probably still overtake MC later this year though :D
Bullshit. The prizepool needs to be at least 200k for it to be called a world championship. ARGHHH we need to a funds donation programme by all the fans to contribute to prizepool!!!! 110k so little
Tournament overlap with GSL's Ro4 and part of NSSL's Ro4 (the side of the bracket that Life is on!). Very disappointed to see them have it during this time, but I guess it's almost impossible to avoid all of the Korean tournaments going on right now =/
I imagine this is the main reason Innovation cancelled participation in Taipei! He knew he would not be available because he'd be owning the GSL Ro4, so winning Taipei and qualifying for Katowice would cause overlap!
On February 12 2015 10:32 Blargh wrote: Tournament overlap with GSL's Ro4 and part of NSSL's Ro4 (the side of the bracket that Life is on!). Very disappointed to see them have it during this time, but I guess it's almost impossible to avoid all of the Korean tournaments going on right now =/
I imagine this is the main reason Innovation cancelled participation in Taipei! He knew he would not be available because he'd be owning the GSL Ro4, so winning Taipei and qualifying for Katowice would cause overlap!
Wow, I really hope this is a mistake because if Life and Rain advance in their respective tournaments they probably won't be able to play in IEM That would make me a very sad nerd.
On February 12 2015 09:22 ukiya2004 wrote: Bullshit. The prizepool needs to be at least 200k for it to be called a world championship. ARGHHH we need to a funds donation programme by all the fans to contribute to prizepool!!!! 110k so little
SC2 and crowdfunding don't really work together very well these days. You'd get like, 5k extra max.
On February 12 2015 08:22 LimeNade wrote: Wow $117,707 is insane for a prize pool that is not WCS Grand Finals. Not complaining tho since that's fucking awesome !!! Time for Flash to stomp some faces in. His inconsistent results recently is actually a secret plan by him so everyone will underestimate him and then he will snag $68,707 for first.
I really like the money distribution of 1/3rd sc2 and 2/3rd LoL. Beucause when divided among the players in the LoL teams its actually more like 5/15th for the sc2 winner and 2/15th for a single LoL winner :p
On February 12 2015 10:32 Blargh wrote: Tournament overlap with GSL's Ro4 and part of NSSL's Ro4 (the side of the bracket that Life is on!). Very disappointed to see them have it during this time, but I guess it's almost impossible to avoid all of the Korean tournaments going on right now =/
I imagine this is the main reason Innovation cancelled participation in Taipei! He knew he would not be available because he'd be owning the GSL Ro4, so winning Taipei and qualifying for Katowice would cause overlap!
Wow, this is actually a huge issue, what were they thinking?
On February 12 2015 10:32 Blargh wrote: Tournament overlap with GSL's Ro4 and part of NSSL's Ro4 (the side of the bracket that Life is on!). Very disappointed to see them have it during this time, but I guess it's almost impossible to avoid all of the Korean tournaments going on right now =/
I imagine this is the main reason Innovation cancelled participation in Taipei! He knew he would not be available because he'd be owning the GSL Ro4, so winning Taipei and qualifying for Katowice would cause overlap!
Wow, this is actually a huge issue, what were they thinking?
the dates for IEM Katowice are fixed and known since September 2014
On February 12 2015 05:40 LongShot27 wrote: SCOOBERS!!!!
Sorry man, I wish it happened again Will definetly go there again though! Last year was a blast and I can't imagine it being anything less than that this time.
Can you play the EU qualifier after failing in NA qualifier =O? First I thought there would be a chance for a foreigner, but after noticing qualifiers aren't region locked I'm sure there won't be any foreigners ),=
On February 13 2015 00:54 ossavi09 wrote: Can you play the EU qualifier after failing in NA qualifier =O? First I thought there would be a chance for a foreigner, but after noticing qualifiers aren't region locked I'm sure there won't be any foreigners ),=
Yeah I think anyone can play in any qualifiers. That's pretty curious, to be nice.
On February 12 2015 10:32 Blargh wrote: Tournament overlap with GSL's Ro4 and part of NSSL's Ro4 (the side of the bracket that Life is on!). Very disappointed to see them have it during this time, but I guess it's almost impossible to avoid all of the Korean tournaments going on right now =/
I imagine this is the main reason Innovation cancelled participation in Taipei! He knew he would not be available because he'd be owning the GSL Ro4, so winning Taipei and qualifying for Katowice would cause overlap!
Wow, this is actually a huge issue, what were they thinking?
the dates for IEM Katowice are fixed and known since September 2014
True enough, but the potential overlap between IEM, GSL and NSSL should have been noticed by someone (I didn't say who). Specifically Life and Maru, who are qualified for Katowice and could still theoretically win both GSL and NSSL, are a bit fucked here.
GSL's been willing to shuffle around in the past for involvement in foreign premiers. NSSL is run by Kespa, so I'd naturally assume that if you choose a foreign event over theirs, they DQ you, bar you from any Kespa event, dock your Proleague team 40 points per round, and levy a giant fine on you.
EPT
IEM Season IX - Shenzhen : 
TaeJa and 
Solar
Zest
.
