Blizzard have released most of the information pertaining to the upcoming season of the World Championship Series. A number of changes will be made to player rankings within the Premier League.

WCS Challenger Schedule

The 32 WCS Challenger matches between aspiring qualified players and battle-tested regional Premier League champions will occur throughout April. Below are the current dates for the various regions:

Europe - April 27, 29, 30
USA & Canada - April 27, 28
China – April 16
Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau - TBD
Latin America – TBD
Oceania & South East Asia – TBD

WCS Challenger – America and Europe “Premier Pick” System

We wanted to give you a sneak peak of a change to WCS Challenger that will go into effect for Europe and America in Season 2 and 3 of WCS. The system is as follows:

“Premier Pick” will rank Premier League players based on performance in this order: placement in the previous season, WCS Points (as of the previous WCS Season Finals date). If both the placement and WCS Points are equal between a group of players, the ranking will be determined by random draw. After the Premier League players are ranked, they will be allowed to pick, in the order of that ranking, their opponent for Challenger from the pool of qualified players from their respective region.

We’re still working out details of how we can make this process as transparent as possible to WCS followers. We believe this new system will lead to tense rivalry and more exciting WCS Challenger matches overall.

WCS Premier League Round of 32 Schedule

For the last item, we’re happy to be able to share the WCS Premier League Round of 32 schedule.

WCS Premier League: May 16-17, 23-24 in Burbank, California
WCS Premier League: May 28-31 in Cologne, Germany
Looking ahead, we’re making plans for the WCS Season 2 Finals to be held in North America near the end of June. We’ll have more information on next season’s Finals as we progress through the upcoming season, and you can ensure you’re up to date with the most recent developments by visiting StarCraft2.com/WCS.

Source: http://wcs.battle.net/sc2/en/articles/wcs-qualifiers-schedule-and-new-premier-pick-system-for-season-2

Aeromi

France14462 Posts

March 11 2015 18:49 GMT

Yay WCS schedule!

Alchemik

Poland7124 Posts

March 11 2015 18:49 GMT

SCHEDULE HYPE

Heyoka

Katowice25012 Posts

March 11 2015 18:51 GMT

The Premier Pick thing seems kind of nice.

pretender58

Germany713 Posts

March 11 2015 18:53 GMT

"Premier Pick" looks like an awesome idea

digmouse

China6331 Posts

March 11 2015 18:53 GMT

#JeSuisAeromi
Good thing they finally knows how to post a schedule.

Beastyqt

Serbia516 Posts

March 11 2015 18:55 GMT

Wouldn't it make more sense for challenger players to pick rather than premier?

It's kinda weird that they want in theory "better" players (premier league) to have an advantage over challenger league players by letting them pick their best match-up.

SC2Toastie

Netherlands5725 Posts

March 11 2015 18:55 GMT

Gj!

ZigguratOfUr

Iraq16955 Posts

March 11 2015 19:00 GMT

Well at least they have the schedule earlier this time. Not sure how I feel about the premier pick; it seems like an unneeded advantage for the players in premier which might reduce the diversity of players. I'm sure it will be fun though.

vult

United States9400 Posts

March 11 2015 19:01 GMT

#10

On March 12 2015 03:55 Beastyqt wrote:
Wouldn't it make more sense for challenger players to pick rather than premier?

Would make sense, since the league is "Challenger" and its them aiming to prove they're skilled enough for Premier. But I think they are aiming for a very likely outcome of the best players picking the worst challenger players and it balancing out in the middle, sort of a player-interactive seeding. I don't expect the really skilled players to pick really strong Challengers.

DeG3n

Germany130 Posts

March 11 2015 19:03 GMT

#11

Finally they get rid of the random draw in Challenger. Sounds really good...

Circumstance

United States11403 Posts

March 11 2015 19:09 GMT

#12

The Premier Pick system reminds me of the GSL Up & Downs of 2011, where a player would call out their chosen opponent. I like the dramatic potential - who will Naniwa challenge? Who will try and convince someone to challenge them? Will someone be forced to pick a teammate? It has potential pitfalls, obviously, but could be brilliant if executed properly.

Supersamu

Germany296 Posts

March 11 2015 19:16 GMT

#13

It is called sneak peek! How can they get this wrong? There even is a twitter account specifically for this kind of thing: https://twitter.com/stealthmountain

I like the Premier Pick System, it makes a lot of sense.

SuperHofmann

Italy1741 Posts

March 11 2015 19:23 GMT

#14

Thanks Aeromi for the awesome job, Blizzard starting doing good things maybe?

BaneRiders

Sweden3630 Posts

March 11 2015 19:33 GMT

#15

Maybe the premier pick can make the challenger process more exiting. I'd still prefer some kind of groups stage though. With picks.

Zealously

East Gorteau22261 Posts

March 11 2015 19:34 GMT

#16

On March 12 2015 04:23 SuperHofmann wrote:
Thanks Aeromi for the awesome job, Blizzard starting doing good things maybe?

Such as hosting a multi-million dollar tournament? About time they started doing that

SetGuitarsToKill

Canada28396 Posts

March 11 2015 19:36 GMT

#17

On March 12 2015 04:33 BaneRiders wrote:
Maybe the premier pick can make the challenger process more exiting. I'd still prefer some kind of groups stage though. With picks.

I would prefer a system where the players are forced into a cage fight, but we can't all have our way...

OtherWorld

France17333 Posts

March 11 2015 19:44 GMT

#18

Yay, awesome idea of letting Premier player chose their best matchup instead of doing a random draw that is probably the fairest thing you can do here. But hey, I guess that since the single Bo5 format is totally unfair anyway it won't be worse.