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1001 YEARS KESPAJAIL22272 Posts
Source: Afreeca Press Release
AfreecaTV Revealed GSL(Global StarCraft® II League, GSL)' Tour Plan for 2017.
The GSL is making its return in 2017 even bigger than last year. Next year the GSL will expand from two seasons to three. In addition, AfreecaTV will host two additional tournaments during the year known as the GSL Super Tournaments. These events combined will award 570 million won, a prize pool increase of 20% compared to last year. All leagues will be held live at the FreecUP Studio in Seoul, Korea with English commentators Nicolas ‘Tasteless’ Plott and Dan ‘Artosis’ Stemkoski.
The format of the GSL has changed slightly. There will no longer be a Code A, instead being replaced by the qualifiers. Code S will remain as the round of 32 onwards. The rest of the format remains the same; round of 32 and round of 16 will be groups of four, dual tournament format. Round of 8 onwards will be a single elimination tournament.
There will be two Super Tournaments in addition to 3 regular seasons. The main purpose of the Super Tournaments is to provide more opportunities to SC2 Players. The 1st and 2nd place players of the preceding season of the GSL and 14 players from qualifiers will be entered into Super Tournaments.
Sookiel Kevin Seo, AfreecaTV CEO, said “GSL has been a historic and most iconic SC2 event of all time. AfreecaTV will do its best to continue to produce SC2 content. Thank you all GSL fans.”
2017 GSL Season 1 Qualifiers will start on December 27 and the main league will begin in January 2017.
Watch GSL Live on AfreecaTV:
http://afreeca.tv/2017gsl (Tasteless and Artosis)
http://afreeca.tv/korea20 (Alex007 - Russian)
About AfreecaTV
AfreecaTV is a social media platform that anyone from anywhere can use to broadcast live from PC and mobile devices. Founded in 2006, AfreecaTV is the #1 live streaming platform in South Korea. To make it accessible to global users and to expand on our success, AfreecaTV Global launched in 2015 and everyone can enjoy AfreecaTV’s original eSports content and various streams such as K-Pop, mokbang and social. For more info, visit AfreecaTV Global Website http://afreeca.tv .
Contact Info
Support@afreeca.tv
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Great news. Cant wait. Replacing Code A with qualifiers may help to focus the attention.
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Are those qualifiers going to be streamed? Code A was always streamed and was quite the delight to watch.
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Looks good I guess! .. I still wanted more opportunities for top Korean players to shine but I think this will be good for now! GLHF to all the players .. and can't wait to see top notch GSL games again!
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Good news 
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SCBoy for Chinese broadcast pls
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wow, unexpected, great news!
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They really shouldn't give the rights to any other and piss a lot of people who only watch SCBoy
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I wish tournaments would stop seeding players in based on performances elsewhere.
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Super happy for more GSL overall. Really looking forward to see how talent develops in this new atmosphere.
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So now every season is like this one.
I'm going to miss Code A.
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Looks like they wont broadcast any qualifier matches either.Too bad, code A was a great filler in between seasons.
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I think Code is needed more then every. Let those guys play
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Please don't set stream platform restriction again for Chinese stream
NeoTv/Scboys cast would be great
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Great news !
Moreover, Afreeca announced on Twitter they're looking for foreign casters. Would love to see a GSL casted in 6 or 7 languages like all the big events.
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Austria24422 Posts
Good. They needed to shorten their tournaments to retain the standard of quality they've set. Let's be honest, Code A is not profitable for them. I'm not even sure a 32 man Code S is - but it's good that they're trying it.
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The removal of Code A is gonna hurt a lot of players in an already damaged scene. If this was a necessary step to keep GSL running, so be it, but I can't say I'm enthused.
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Austria24422 Posts
Pretty sure it won't. There's not enough new talent coming up anyway.
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RIP Code A but seems like overall good news, just happy for more GSLs
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On December 21 2016 19:03 Olli wrote:
Pretty sure it won't. There's not enough new talent coming up anyway.
It's not about new talent. It's about players who are already in the scene. Qualifying for Code A was worth over 1500$ in 2016. Next year that money is gone, you fail the qualifiers and you get nothing. And it's not like you can just count on making up for that loss with online cups in 2017 because the best in the world play in all of them now.
Oh and you most of the time don't have a team.
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On December 21 2016 19:00 Elentos wrote:
The removal of Code A is gonna hurt a lot of players in an already damaged scene. If this was a necessary step to keep GSL running, so be it, but I can't say I'm enthused.
16 players super tournament is the most disappointing thing. With the suppression of code A it just means that B teamer should do anything they want except SC2.
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Austria24422 Posts
The sustainability of GSL comes before anything else. With three seasons of GSL, they were always going to have to cut down on something - and I'm perfectly fine with that being Code A.
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On December 21 2016 21:35 Olli wrote:
The sustainability of GSL comes before anything else. With three seasons of GSL, they were always going to have to cut down on something - and I'm perfectly fine with that being Code A.
Yeah the sustainability of GSL is high priority. But I think it's reasonable to be sad (Code A is tradition after all) or disappointed. When the WCS announcement came out, we were told Korea got 3 GSLs, 2 Super Tournaments and Ggyeongi, but no more SSL. A bit over a week later we get the info that Code A got cut to make this happen.
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I'm not sure I like not having Code A..... While having more tournaments is good, only 32 players will get to play in the "only league" in Korea. I do like the addition of GSL Super Tournaments. We missed those!
I guess Wolf and Brendan Valdez are out of a job then?
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Looking forward!!! Go go Terran!!!!
I really do hope there will be a losers bracket. Dropping out because of 1 / 2 games is disappointing.
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I like it so far, glad to see they're looking to sustain the GSL as best they can.
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Lot's and lots of retirements will come our way after the GSL qualfiers
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Greaaat news! So happy for GSL <3
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On December 22 2016 00:52 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Lot's and lots of retirements will come our way after the GSL qualfiers
Not sure about the amount honestly. Anyone considering retirement could have already retired by now. Even someone like Hush, who was never a successful player, found himself a new team and is streaming a lot. Maybe in the end we won't take as many casualties at first.
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fuck yes we get tastosis all the way through
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On December 22 2016 00:57 Elentos wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2016 00:52 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Lot's and lots of retirements will come our way after the GSL qualfiers Not sure about the amount honestly. Anyone considering retirement could have already retired by now. Even someone like Hush, who was never a successful player, found himself a new team and is streaming a lot. Maybe in the end we won't take as many casualties at first.
Well qualifiers are pretty soon so it makes sense to wait and see if you can qualify for code s. After that though? I think the success there might make the difference for a lot of players.
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China6331 Posts
On December 22 2016 01:01 The_Red_Viper wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2016 00:57 Elentos wrote:On December 22 2016 00:52 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Lot's and lots of retirements will come our way after the GSL qualfiers Not sure about the amount honestly. Anyone considering retirement could have already retired by now. Even someone like Hush, who was never a successful player, found himself a new team and is streaming a lot. Maybe in the end we won't take as many casualties at first. Well qualifiers are pretty soon so it makes sense to wait and see if you can qualify for code s. After that though? I think the success there might make the difference for a lot of players.
Three seasons and players might have different thoughts. Plus there is another factor in online events now that players are free to play in whatever they want.
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On December 22 2016 01:09 digmouse wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2016 01:01 The_Red_Viper wrote:On December 22 2016 00:57 Elentos wrote:On December 22 2016 00:52 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Lot's and lots of retirements will come our way after the GSL qualfiers Not sure about the amount honestly. Anyone considering retirement could have already retired by now. Even someone like Hush, who was never a successful player, found himself a new team and is streaming a lot. Maybe in the end we won't take as many casualties at first. Well qualifiers are pretty soon so it makes sense to wait and see if you can qualify for code s. After that though? I think the success there might make the difference for a lot of players. Three seasons and players might have different thoughts. Plus there is another factor in online events now that players are free to play in whatever they want.
The thing with online cups is that now the big names (like Inno) are blocking the top spots, so generally unless there's another event going on at the same time the players that struggle to make Code S won't make much money in online cups anymore either.
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As one who pretty much expected SC2 to die in Korea next year, these are fantastic news.
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Online cups are nice but it's not really the same and as soon as more and more top players enter it will be hard games for a low amount of money.
Now without teams these players have to pay rent and food as well, if you cannot make enough money playing sc2 then there is simply no way you can keep playing the game. This isn't even only affecting the b teamers tbh
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On December 22 2016 01:43 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Online cups are nice but it's not really the same and as soon as more and more top players enter it will be hard games for a low amount of money.
Now without teams these players have to pay rent and food as well, if you cannot make enough money playing sc2 then there is simply no way you can keep playing the game. This isn't even only affecting the b teamers tbh
Welcome to how SC2 works for the rest of the world.
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Seeker
Where dat snitch at?37095 Posts
Not really sure if we can categorize players as "A-team/B-team" players anymore. There are no more teams they're representing.
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On December 22 2016 03:20 Seeker wrote:
Not really sure if we can categorize players as "A-team/B-team" players anymore. There are no more teams they're representing.
Saying B-teamers is still the easiest way to summarize players like Hush, Impact, etc. though. Because what we associate with B-teamers is not just that they're often not used in team leagues but also that they struggle to break through in individual leagues.
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On December 21 2016 21:35 Olli wrote:
The sustainability of GSL comes before anything else. With three seasons of GSL, they were always going to have to cut down on something - and I'm perfectly fine with that being Code A.
I can tell that the Admins here are pretty smart because they agree with me.
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Amazing, glad that they're opening up the casting opportunities/ getting the international community involved
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Now its up to us, the community, to make it the biggest year for Starcraft yet.
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You mean SC2 is not 100% dead in Korea?
Surprised, really.
I wanted to be hyped by my passion died with Proleague 
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I need gsl to out live me
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Does this mean the end of Wolf and Valdes for sc2 casting?
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NICEEEE, finally some good news for korean Sc2! And now, fuck of 2016! Ty
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On December 22 2016 02:03 Thax wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2016 01:43 The_Red_Viper wrote:
Online cups are nice but it's not really the same and as soon as more and more top players enter it will be hard games for a low amount of money.
Now without teams these players have to pay rent and food as well, if you cannot make enough money playing sc2 then there is simply no way you can keep playing the game. This isn't even only affecting the b teamers tbh Welcome to how SC2 works for the rest of the world.
I don't know how many foreign pros can live with the money they get from teams tbh. But even so, it still changes the situation in korea negatively. It being like that in the rest of the world might be true, but doesn't affect koreans at all.
It will be harder to get better, the best players might be ok with streaming and living off earned money for a bit and other players might need to retire because they have no real chance to compete anymore. Especially now that you only have 32 players who get money from GSL.
So yeah i expect quite a lot of retirements :/
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On December 22 2016 07:27 rednusa wrote:
Does this mean the end of Wolf and Valdes for sc2 casting?
Seems like it, Wolf is already quite busy casting Overwatch.
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Code A was the qualifiers for Code S. They basically just renamed it and streamlined it. There were too many one-sided matches in Code A to maintain an exciting, full-blown league, and now with less players/teams, this only makes sense.
It's pretty awesome Afreeca is expanding GSL even when most of the Korean teams disbanded. I'm looking forward to it.
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It's pretty awesome Afreeca is expanding GSL even when most of the Korean teams disbanded. I'm looking forward to it.
I agree. It is the best we can hope for until SC3.
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Glad to see the GSL going strong? for another year =)
gonna miss Code A tho, in terms of fun it delivered more than the main tournament a lot of times.
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On December 21 2016 21:35 Olli wrote:
The sustainability of GSL comes before anything else. With three seasons of GSL, they were always going to have to cut down on something - and I'm perfectly fine with that being Code A.
You're starting to sound like the guy running Sears and K-mart into the ground... "well the business is failing anyway, so let's cut costs where we can so we can hold onto it as long as possible to milk it..."
The problem with getting rid of Code A is that is begins to erode the future player base that is necessary for a sustainable future. But you've already predicted doom for the future too...
On December 21 2016 19:03 Olli wrote:
Pretty sure it won't. There's not enough new talent coming up anyway.
And people say I am the negative one. We've got to have hope that Blizzard will make the game more enjoyable so it will attract more players and the scene can rebuild itself. Of course, if you incorrectly diagnose why SC2 is failing, you can't correct the course.
On December 22 2016 03:36 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2016 21:35 Olli wrote:
The sustainability of GSL comes before anything else. With three seasons of GSL, they were always going to have to cut down on something - and I'm perfectly fine with that being Code A. I can tell that the Admins here are pretty smart because they agree with me.
That is funny because I was thinking exactly the opposite, thinking this is some Jimmy would write
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On December 23 2016 00:00 BronzeKnee wrote:
Of course, if you incorrectly diagnose why SC2 is failing, you can't correct the course.
SC2 is doing fine especially considering its Blizzard's #6 priority. Pacman and Space Invaders are "failing" though.
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oooo. I'm excited to see what events people send to them at their recruitment inbox.
Yeah, they're getting rid of some things. But they're also looking for new ideas so that's heart warming.
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EPT![[image loading]](/staff/lichter/code_s/image004.jpg)
