2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series - Page 23

On December 18 2015 07:12 NonY wrote:

I just read it once and I'm sure someone will make some infographic or something, but simply it looks like this:

For non-Koreans
It is called the WCS Circuit for non-koreans

There are 3 WCS Circuit Championships a year

There are 6 regions that make up the WCS Circuit and each region has a qualifier ($10k prize pool) to qualify for each Championship

People also qualify based on their Points

These Championships and their qualifiers are the equivalent to premier/challenger etc things that we've seen in the past, but they're gonna be live events with crowds. They're more like normal non-korean events, not drawn out leagues

In addition to these standard events for the Circuit, any major third party (IEM, DH, etc) SC2 tournament that pops up can ask to be put on the Circuit, which means it has to follow the region-locking and qualifier rules and live audience and commentators player booths etc that a Circuit event requires.

Third party SC2 tournaments can also ask to be Global events, which means they're for non-koreans and Koreans as well. Those are also for points and have their set of format requirements (must have qualifiers, must allocate spots for certain regions, etc) and event requirements (live play, booths, live commentators, crowd, etc)

Third party SC2 tournaments can also do whatever they want and they just won't count for WCS points

In the end, the 3 players who win circuit championships will essentially go to blizzcon (will actually go to the week-before-blizzcon Ro16 thing) and 5 other players who have the most points will fill out the rest of the 8 non-korean slots

----

for Koreans
Pretty simple, they have 2 seasons of GSL and SSL each. The 4 champions go to the week-before-blizzcon thing. 4 highest points fill out the rest of their remaining slots.

They can of course attend WCS Global events as previously mentioned to earn additional points

They can also become a resident with a proper visa and essentially become a non-Korean and do the WCS Circuit instead (non-Koreans also have the option of doing GSL/SSL themselves if they'd rather not do WCS Circuit, btw)

Oh and the winners of GSL team up against the winners of SSL to do some crazy archon mode match for $25k



edit: Oh and Blizzard is throwing a ton of financial support in for third party tournaments that do decide to be a WCS event (paying for player travel expenses, adding money to prize pool)

On December 18 2015 15:11 Diabolique wrote:

1. PartinG is screwed and all those similar to him outside of Kespa are screwed.
2. TOP9-TOP12 Koreans are screwed, e.g. sOs, as he never won a GSL or SSL league and is great just in big international offline tournaments, which he will not be able to attend anymore.
3. All the second tier Koreans are screwed. In the past, they were beaten heavily in Proleague, but then they went to some DreamHack, won it and it gave them enough confidence to start performing in Korea as well. This is gone now.

I understand, that western players are happy about it, as they can have Ronaldo's and Messi's salary while being on the level of an average Spanish league player without the necessity to play against Ronaldo and Messi. Of course, in this case, they will never ever reach the level of Ronaldo and Messi. It is more probable, they will get the idea to establish "WCS Welfare player's Unions" and will negotiate with Blizzard every year higher prize pool for WCS Welfare Circuit, or they stop playing. Because it is them, Blizzard needs. Not Messi and Ronaldo. Right?

But I am angry at all the professional people in the SC2 business, who are lying to the fans and painting it nicely so that they can get their share of money from their employers. Fuck Apollo! http://apollosc2.tumblr.com/post/135405158638/my-thoughts-on-wcs-2016

On December 18 2015 16:45 gingerfluffmuff wrote:

The whole foreign player plus caster scene is only here for the cash. Skillwise they have never been relevant (if they all could just stop to use the title "Progamer").

I can only imagine how hard they have been trying to sway Blizz to their side. I just hope the viewer numbers will crash for Dreamhack and IEM, at least i will contribute to that.

On December 18 2015 13:20 SuperHofmann wrote:
I don't agree with "Setting up an epic year in StarCraft II ESports".
I think that - Starcraft II + Esporst + Less Tournaments in Korea = Less Epic - .

My hopes are in a new and more epic Proleague format, possible with less 1vs1 competition

On December 18 2015 06:52 Die4Ever wrote:
I already bought tickets for Dreamhack Austin, they'd better have koreans there

On December 18 2015 16:57 gingerfluffmuff wrote:


I guess the additional study time will come in handy for my oral Electrodynamics II and QM II exams next year. Thx Blizz and foreign e-celebrities for helping me focus on uni!

On December 18 2015 16:58 NyxNax wrote:
"I hope the viewer numbers go down for Dreamhack and IEM.... I wont watch any foreign only tournaments".... Good lord...

On December 18 2015 15:11 Diabolique wrote:

1. PartinG is screwed and all those similar to him outside of Kespa are screwed.
2. TOP9-TOP12 Koreans are screwed, e.g. sOs, as he never won a GSL or SSL league and is great just in big international offline tournaments, which he will not be able to attend anymore.
3. All the second tier Koreans are screwed. In the past, they were beaten heavily in Proleague, but then they went to some DreamHack, won it and it gave them enough confidence to start performing in Korea as well. This is gone now.

I understand, that western players are happy about it, as they can have Ronaldo's and Messi's salary while being on the level of an average Spanish league player without the necessity to play against Ronaldo and Messi. Of course, in this case, they will never ever reach the level of Ronaldo and Messi. It is more probable, they will get the idea to establish "WCS Welfare player's Unions" and will negotiate with Blizzard every year higher prize pool for WCS Welfare Circuit, or they stop playing. Because it is them, Blizzard needs. Not Messi and Ronaldo. Right?

But I am angry at all the professional people in the SC2 business, who are lying to the fans and painting it nicely so that they can get their share of money from their employers. Fuck Apollo! http://apollosc2.tumblr.com/post/135405158638/my-thoughts-on-wcs-2016

On December 18 2015 17:04 deacon.frost wrote:

He's getting money thanks to Blizzard, without Welfare money ESL isn't doing anything SC2 related and Apollo is fucked. Of course he would write something like this. No one ever publicly criticized Blizzard. Day 9 was always overwhelmingly positive about Blizzard until he stopped doing SC2 "suddenly". Same applies for others. Everyone from these people always was positive and never said anything bad about Blizzard. The only exception is TB but he doesn't give a fuck about any big name in the industry. Stop being naive

On December 18 2015 17:05 SC2Toastie wrote:

To throw a Dutch expression into the mix which perfectly fits to this:
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

No clue whether that makes any sense to any non-Dutch-speaker ^^