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![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/blog_header/9a/9ACIQE0NX3Q81545094694441.jpg) SourceIntroducing WCS Winter 2019
StarCraft II esports—the competition and the community—impressed and inspired us more than ever before in 2018, and today we are excited to shed some light on what 2019 will look like. We are still working out the details so some of this may be subject to change. Both WCS Korea and the WCS Circuit will continue in 2019, and we look forward to sharing the full details of both programs next year. In the meantime, we are pleased to announce WCS Winter.
What Is WCS Winter?
Serving as a prelude to the WCS 2019 season, WCS Winter replaces one WCS Circuit stop. This 10-week program will consist of a pair of 32-person online tournaments—one for the Americas (including Latin America, Taiwan, ANZ/SEA, and China) and one for Europe—each with a USD $60,000 prize pool, and with WCS points awarded as outlined below. Each tournament will culminate in a live, winner-advances battle between the top six, one for Europe and one for the Americas. See the full rules, including residency requirements, here.
WCS Winter Prize Pool and Points Distribution![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/z9abuEu.jpg)
Qualifiers
There are two ways players can qualify for WCS Winter’s two 32-person online tournaments.
The Ladder
Both the Americas and Europe will have eight of their 32 slots decided, respectively, by Americas and Europe ladder placements. The competition will take place between promotion windows and run January 10–13. For a full list of cut-off times per region, see the WCS 2019 ruleset.
Open Qualifiers
Europe: Three separate qualifiers will be held on the Europe servers on January 17, 18, and 20. The top eight from each will move to the European round of 32.
Americas: Two separate qualifiers will take place on the Americas servers on January 15 and 20. A third qualifier will be run on the Asia server on January 19. The top eight from the Asia server qualifier and the top 6 from each Americas qualifier will move to the Americas round of 32. Players who are eligible to play in the Americas region for WCS Winter but who are not in the China region may participate in all three of these qualifiers.
Sign-ups for both Americas and Europe qualifiers will be open soon; keep an eye on the StarCraft Esports Twitter for information.
China: Four players will be selected from a China qualifier and will move to the Americas round of 32.
The Rounds of 32, 16, and 8
Once the top 32 players in each competition have been determined, both regions will enter into their own GSL-style double-elimination groups, with a round-robin top eight.
In-Studio Finals—Round of 6
The top six players from both the Americas and Europe then will be seeded into two separate winner-moves-on tournaments—starting with the sixth seed taking on the fifth seed, the winner of which will fight against the fourth seed, and so on.
Korea in 2019
We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our 2019 plans for WCS Korea. Look for more details in the new year for the region that started it all.
We’ll have further information to share about the rest of the 2019 WCS Circuit soon. Next year the WCS will be streamed live at wcs.starcraft2.com, where you also can find the complete schedule for WCS Winter . Stay up to date with qualifier information, stream locations, and more via Twitter.
Following such a historic 2018, we can’t wait to cheer alongside you all as 2019 unfolds.
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As expected, they scale down WCS system a bit in term of finance but good news is WCS survives for another year.
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Fuck, you directly copied my edited post and posted it as yours lol :D nevermind 
But yeah finally some news about WCS. So excited!
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Announcements are pretty late in arriving because they had to get approved by the new CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. Whoever that is. I got $50 that says it ain't an electrical engineer.
User was temp banned for this post.
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Hm, this probably means no live audience and that Leipzig was cut, but otherwise a Winter season seems nice.
Players get a bit more money (120k vs 100k) and Blizzard saves a lot of money as well, so that's a good deal I guess.
Edit: I forgot the qualifiers, so it's not more money for the players!
It's a bit worrying that they are still working on the details for the main circuit and WCS Korea, but at least everrything is confirmed now.
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So Region Lock still alive?
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On December 21 2018 03:30 Cricketer12 wrote:
So Region Lock still alive?
Seems so. It would be weird for things to change between WCS Winter and the rest of the year.
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On December 21 2018 03:20 TheBloodyDwarf wrote:
Fuck, you directly copied my edited post and posted it as yours lol :D
But yeah finally some news about WCS. So excited!
Hey, you got it back!
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we're fucked. (I'm sorry if i was too much emotional).
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i'm too lazy to make an entire thread about this so i'll just stick it in here.
BTTV can receive funding from a War Chest purchase. This is fantastic news.
Congratz to Rifkin and BTTV. Rifkin and BTTV have earned it!
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On December 21 2018 03:37 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
i'm too lazy to make an entire thread about this so i'll just stick it in here.
BTTV can receive funding from a War Chest purchase. This is fantastic news.
Congratz to Rifkin and BTTV. Rifkin and BTTV have earned it!
Every content creator can apparently, Rifkin just posted it first. Twitter is being flooded by Warchest links, everyone wants in on that
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that is great news i think. If this results in more War Chest buys due to a fan's loyalty to a certain content creator that is great stuff.
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On December 21 2018 03:37 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
i'm too lazy to make an entire thread about this so i'll just stick it in here.
BTTV can receive funding from a War Chest purchase. This is fantastic news.
Congratz to Rifkin and BTTV. Rifkin and BTTV have earned it!
It's great news, but lots of other streams will have affiliate links too.
So you have to decide if you use the BTTV link, feardragon link, livibee link etc...
I hope TakeTV and Rotti have affiliate links as well.
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This means 120K is the same as 100K(Event) +2x10K(Qualifier) which I am realy happy about. They cut the costs of one big event, which is sad but we have to except it. The new format looks interesting but I fear the online events won´t reach more than 10K viewers, but more days of starcraft action. I just hope they know what they are doing, at least the Starcraft team the other teams messed up big times last year. I just hope the very positive trend of last year continues this year and please dont let wc3 mess up sc2, I see some problems coming with the release of that one.
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how much do you earn if you win that "10 week online-cup" and "in-studio finals"?
This article confuses me a lot.
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On December 21 2018 03:41 Musicus wrote:
I hope TakeTV and Rotti have affiliate links as well.
i hope one can "gift" a War Chest to a friend a get one War Chest from TakeTV and one War Chest from Rotti to support them both.
hey, what am i worried about? This is ATVI. They know how to take people's money.
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Canada8988 Posts
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It's somewhat weird, that this time there is nothing about Korea, usually they announce everything. I wounder if it's good or bad. 
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On December 21 2018 03:45 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 03:41 Musicus wrote:
I hope TakeTV and Rotti have affiliate links as well. i hope one can "gift" a War Chest to a friend a get one War Chest from TakeTV and one War Chest from Rotti to support them both. hey, what am i worried about? This is ATVI. They know how to take people's money.
Hopefully that will be possible.
Actually I decided to buy it over Wardi's link. I am subbed to TakeTV and Rotti but haven't really supported Wardi yet. He will produce more online tournaments with the money he makes.
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Basically, we live. It's good. But it was scale down. Ouch.
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That prize pool distribution is quite interesting. WCS Circuit prize pool distribution has never been top heavy (which is good) but in this WCS Winter tournament I think its getting too far. 12k vs 8k?
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On December 21 2018 04:08 TheBloodyDwarf wrote:
That prize pool distribution is quite interesting. WCS Circuit prize pool distribution has never been top heavy (which is good) but in this WCS Winter tournament I think its getting too far. 12k vs 8k?
There is a big difference in points. This way the runner up may live to fight another day. 
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I'm very happy Blizzard is supporting SC2 in any way still. They are pumping money into a game that isn't getting the kind of ROI large game developers know how to draw, and are keeping the professional scene alive because they care about the game. Looking forward to the content.
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On December 21 2018 04:12 BaneRiders wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 04:08 TheBloodyDwarf wrote:
That prize pool distribution is quite interesting. WCS Circuit prize pool distribution has never been top heavy (which is good) but in this WCS Winter tournament I think its getting too far. 12k vs 8k? There is a big difference in points. This way the runner up may live to fight another day.
1600 vs 1100 now versus 2018 WCS circuit 3000 vs 1400
So not only prize money is less top heavy, WCS points are also
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Well, we're alive. But seeing as this is already cancellation of 1 stop and mostly online only, and no info on further stuff, it will be a more scarce year for sure  . And Korea will be nervous getting nothing...
I guess the positive thing for top32 players is way more chances, double elimination and round robin is more forgiving than 2018 format.
The weird top6 bracket of doom format is interesting though. I wonder if Serral wil aim for 6th place just so he can personally wipe everyone out lol. Needs to challenge himself somehow.
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What about the challenger scene?
WCS Leipzig is cut all together?
The WCS winter event Lan finals are not scheduled, 4-6 weeks away without a date/location?
0 Informations from korea, merry christmas to all the korean progamers that are left!
No longterm goals, this is what we want to achive with starcraft in 2019. Looking back/ personal highlights of the esports team at blizzard ...
Overall structure next year?
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So... What is Blizzard's plan for WCS? Hold seasonal events?
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Next year the WCS will be streamed live at wcs.starcraft2.com
Interesting tidbit. Does this mean no twitch? Or will it just be an embed? I like how the WCS site already has a next broadcast countdown though... of 41 days
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/xHCVkDT.jpg)
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Zero information from Korea. Zero fkcing information from Korea. It's scary. I feel like this is a trick. More details only in the new year.
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On December 21 2018 05:01 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:Interesting tidbit. Does this mean no twitch?
my guess is that WCS is on MLGNetwork.
for 3 years now MLGNetwork has been listed as a "Strategic Initiative" by ATVI. WHich is a polite way of saying MLGNetwork is a FirePit where ATVI can throw money and watch it burn. My guess is ATVI wants to make MLGNetwork profitable; putting WCS on MLGNetwork is one step upwards along the stairway to heaven of profitability.
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yeah finally some news coming out.
hmm, 8 qualified from KR/Asia Server + 4 from China + Ladder NA TOP 8 + 12 qualified from NA server.
so hows the round of 32 - round of 8? on NA server played? so basically Asia/China/Oceania players will suffer the lags.
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So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(region lock REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event.
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We still esport at least 
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On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event.
yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0
Region EU, Region NA and Region KR
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On December 21 2018 05:57 Lanthdoral wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event. yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0 Region EU, Region NA and Region KR
This was 100% necessary. There was almost no motivation for an NA player to go pro when in every tournament they get immediately beaten by some faceless european.
Now they have an incentive to improve.
Can't wait for the gap to be closed. My only problem with the system is that I think NA players should be allowed to play in EU tournaments if they want to (but not vice versa) because it would add to the hype.
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On December 21 2018 06:08 Charoisaur wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 05:57 Lanthdoral wrote:On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event. yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0 Region EU, Region NA and Region KR This was 100% necessary. There was almost no motivation for an NA player to go pro when in every tournament they get immediately beaten by some faceless european. Now they have an incentive to improve. Can't wait for the gap to be closed. My only problem with the system is that I think NA players should be allowed to play in EU tournaments if they want to (but not vice versa) because it would add to the hype.
I know you mean like Neeb, Scarlett, Special, etc. playing with the europeans... but as a rule, it would be extremely unfair (...and not the first rule like that).
Anyway, we get almost the same amount of SC2, but they cut HUGE costs with the removal of a big event like WCS Leipzig. Less hype and "glamour", but if that is the cost of keeping SC2 like this, we are good.
Really hoping they stream in Twitch though... viewership rises hugely and they change the streaming platform like this? best way to freeze that rise tbh.
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On December 21 2018 06:24 Elmonti wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 06:08 Charoisaur wrote:On December 21 2018 05:57 Lanthdoral wrote:On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event. yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0 Region EU, Region NA and Region KR This was 100% necessary. There was almost no motivation for an NA player to go pro when in every tournament they get immediately beaten by some faceless european. Now they have an incentive to improve. Can't wait for the gap to be closed. My only problem with the system is that I think NA players should be allowed to play in EU tournaments if they want to (but not vice versa) because it would add to the hype. I know you mean like Neeb, Scarlett, Special, etc. playing with the europeans... but as a rule, it would be extremely unfair (...and not the first rule like that). Anyway, we get almost the same amount of SC2, but they cut HUGE costs with the removal of a big event like WCS Leipzig. Less hype and "glamour", but if that is the cost of keeping SC2 like this, we are good. Really hoping they stream in Twitch though... viewership rises hugely and they change the streaming platform like this? best way to freeze that rise tbh.
yeah hopefully it's just an embedded Twitch Stream on their website.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On December 21 2018 06:24 Elmonti wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 06:08 Charoisaur wrote:On December 21 2018 05:57 Lanthdoral wrote:On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event. yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0 Region EU, Region NA and Region KR This was 100% necessary. There was almost no motivation for an NA player to go pro when in every tournament they get immediately beaten by some faceless european. Now they have an incentive to improve. Can't wait for the gap to be closed. My only problem with the system is that I think NA players should be allowed to play in EU tournaments if they want to (but not vice versa) because it would add to the hype. I know you mean like Neeb, Scarlett, Special, etc. playing with the europeans... but as a rule, it would be extremely unfair (...and not the first rule like that). Anyway, we get almost the same amount of SC2, but they cut HUGE costs with the removal of a big event like WCS Leipzig. Less hype and "glamour", but if that is the cost of keeping SC2 like this, we are good. Really hoping they stream in Twitch though... viewership rises hugely and they change the streaming platform like this? best way to freeze that rise tbh.
No, he mocks this region lock with how the Korean is based, where foreigners can take money off Korea but not vice versa
Anyway, my expectation based on the silence about GSL
No Code S next year, we get WCS Korea from now on
No Afreeca(that's why no GSL as I believe they own the trademark) & no Tastosis, offline ro8+
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United States33238 Posts
Any degree of scaling back was never going to surprise me, regardless of the year. WCS has always seemed rather expensive compared to the viewership, even if things improved in 2018 ($2M total prize money for an individual esport put it in pretty rarefied air). Despite that, I'm still a little disappointed to see it actually happen. Oh well, if you want to look at it on the bright side, we get a few weeks of appointment-viewing StarCraft, and not just one marathon weekend (pretty grueling to watch for the non-hardcore fans).
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The downscaling sucks of course, but was somewhat expected. It'll be interesting to see some more preparation work from foreigners.
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We get to live another daay. I was so pessimistic around 2016, to see we getting an other year is nice 
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Honestly minor downscaling, but the replacement seems really interesting and I'm excited for the roundrobin
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On December 21 2018 03:56 KappaKingPrime wrote:It's somewhat weird, that this time there is nothing about Korea, usually they announce everything. I wounder if it's good or bad.
Korea in 2019
We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our 2019 plans for WCS Korea. Look for more details in the new year for the region that started it all.
And I do agree with iNcontroL: If the region lock is removed from Korea DESPITE Serral, StarCraft 2 will die under current circumstances. This is only a viable conversation if and when WCS Circuit players start taking matches from Koreans about 50-50. The region lock is a good thing and we should stop clamoring for it to be released. It only hurts the overall scene for the game and while Korea has most of the talent, the rest of the world brings in the viewership.
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Hmm. On one hand, it's kinda disappointing and something about the NA and EU and prize/points pool feels awkward, on the other hand it's kinda intriguing. Now I really want to see the full picture for 2019.
I wish we had good videos (or at least good infographics) for announcements like this. Videos once in a blue moon for War Chests and Commanders, why not announcements like these? Or a few more official videos in general, maybe not quite as often as other games get them (WoW, Heroes) but just a little teensy bit more often for important stuff?
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So no Korea news yet... I guess that means GSL Season 1 isn't starting up anytime soon. Really hope they can work something out with Afreeca. The Korean players must be getting nervous.
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I have no clue what to make of this. Is that a good or bad sign? Anyways, it's just really frikken late like always. These are big companies. Why can't they plan a bit more in advance? Blizzard please.
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On December 21 2018 06:08 Charoisaur wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 05:57 Lanthdoral wrote:On December 21 2018 05:50 MrWayne wrote:
So they've downscaled WCS or at least the first WCS event. Compared to Leipzig last year, it is 30-40k less if you include all qualifiers.
The format Itself is very interesting. I like that they spread the prize pool even more between 64 players in total compared to 32 last year. What I don't like is that they basically separate Europe from the rest of the world(regin look REEEEEE :-P), at least the top 16 could face off to determine the best player outside koreas.
I think the players who will benefit from this are EuroPros who aren't consistently top 16 and the whole NA scene and the ones who get shafted are the top EuroPros and the players from China/SEA/LA etc.
Also this is probably bad news for some WCS casters, They already had almost to many casters in 2018 and this online format requires even less than a offline event. yea, basically its REGION-LOCK 2.0 Region EU, Region NA and Region KR This was 100% necessary. There was almost no motivation for an NA player to go pro when in every tournament they get immediately beaten by some faceless european. Now they have an incentive to improve. Can't wait for the gap to be closed. My only problem with the system is that I think NA players should be allowed to play in EU tournaments if they want to (but not vice versa) because it would add to the hype.
Charoisaur is a world class troll!
That's impressive but nothing compared to him worshipping Serral for a week after BlizzCon xD
Blizzard tells us Region Lock is THE WAY; I'm not sure separating EU from the rest of the world is appropriate, even If it might be limited to WCS Winter and actual offline WCS events could be the same as 2017/2018 ones.
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On December 21 2018 08:19 StarcraftSquall wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 03:56 KappaKingPrime wrote:It's somewhat weird, that this time there is nothing about Korea, usually they announce everything. I wounder if it's good or bad. Korea in 2019 We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our 2019 plans for WCS Korea. Look for more details in the new year for the region that started it all. And I do agree with iNcontroL: If the region lock is removed from Korea DESPITE Serral, StarCraft 2 will die under current circumstances. This is only a viable conversation if and when WCS Circuit players start taking matches from Koreans about 50-50. The region lock is a good thing and we should stop clamoring for it to be released. It only hurts the overall scene for the game and while Korea has most of the talent, the rest of the world brings in the viewership.
Yeah, it's not like white people like to watch Koreans play or anything...
I'm white and I have never watched a single "WCS stop" match (as in, the foreigner-only tournaments that have existed the last couple years). I don't know where you get your data from if you're saying that people would stop watching tournaments if there were only 2-3 white people out of 16 attending. That was never a problem in the past.
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It is a good new.
We will not stay up too late for weekend Tournaments.
And we can see more players.
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Alive game BOAH!
Cant wait to see Korea announcment
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I like some aspects of the concept (more games over longer period of time) but it's a shame that top Americans probably won't have the opportunity to play against top Europeans. I'm guessing they did this for logistical reasons because having one really big stage at a venue is probably really expensive.
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On December 21 2018 09:20 Jj_82 wrote:
I have no clue what to make of this. Is that a good or bad sign? Anyways, it's just really frikken late like always. These are big companies. Why can't they plan a bit more in advance? Blizzard please.
I think it's mostly a good sign. Obviously having some changes scares some guys a lot. As usual...
Of course it's sad for the Leipzig event. But hey, it's esport, it's not that much relying on regional fans but on global viewership!
And honestly, Blizzard not telling all the plans for 2019 doesn't mean they have none. You get a lot more excitement when releasing news over some time, bit by bit...
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The delay on GSL announcement would probably mean two things.
1. Blizzard and Afreeca can't agree on the terms for GSL 2019.
2. GSL season 1 is most likely going to be delayed. Qualifiers for season 1 2018 started on 26th Dec 2017.
Neither are good signs, and i would predict that GSL is getting a much bigger scale back than WCS.
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Well, people may overact to lacking of GSL news. AfreecaTV and Blizzard have been carrying Korean SC2 scene singlehandedly and it costs a lot of money. Need to take time to work out details. I expect Super Tournaments to be gone and GSL format will be changed to be a shorter and include some online components somehow to reduce production cost. They made an effort to keep WCS. I doubt they would kill GSL.
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LUL EU was locked up. The Final between Serral and (a guy who's helped him in custom games). Better to run to play GSL.
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I like the new preparation style format of WCS Winter (like GSL). I just hope ping is not an issue and that region locking of the WCS Curcuit doesn't give problems to the pros
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On December 21 2018 08:19 StarcraftSquall wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 03:56 KappaKingPrime wrote:It's somewhat weird, that this time there is nothing about Korea, usually they announce everything. I wounder if it's good or bad. Korea in 2019 We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our 2019 plans for WCS Korea. Look for more details in the new year for the region that started it all. And I do agree with iNcontroL: If the region lock is removed from Korea DESPITE Serral, StarCraft 2 will die under current circumstances. This is only a viable conversation if and when WCS Circuit players start taking matches from Koreans about 50-50. The region lock is a good thing and we should stop clamoring for it to be released. It only hurts the overall scene for the game and while Korea has most of the talent, the rest of the world brings in the viewership.
FFS why the people can see only removing the region lock... it's not JUST REMOVE REGIONLOCK!!$!%!%!@%!@%! HURR DURR!!!!!
Holy Batman on a nuclear powered pogo stick ><
If there's no protection of Korea the Korean scene will die. But since the SC2 scene will die anyway soon it probably doesn't matter now.
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all in all pretty dissapointing, considering this year broke all sorts of viewer records.
but hey, at least they show some sort of humor with the region lock for serral (or EU if you wish), now all that is missing is to keep GSL (if still existing) ooen for everybody and their mom, you know cause hypocrisy isn't a thing
thank god for some independent people like IEM, TakeTv and oGaming who provide some not-at-all locked tournaments to enjoy for the viewers
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On December 21 2018 03:25 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Announcements are pretty late in arriving because they had to get approved by the new CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. Whoever that is. I got $50 that says it ain't an electrical engineer.
User was temp banned for this post.
why would being an electrical engineer bear any relevance? your temp ban was deserved for such a silly comment
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Finally some official news!
Changing the broadcasting platform would be weird considering the whole warchest business is on twitch
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Downsizing is healthy so I'm not worried about the state of the scene.
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Despite the trolling comparisons to Korea's region lock, the soft region split between Europe and the rest of the circuit seems kinda cool to me. There were a bunch of interesting players at Cheesadelphia that I'd love to see more of than dying in the group stage of a WCS event. Essentially this is an upscaled Challenger season that replaces an actual event and the split is nothing new there.
Spreading the event out GSL style is a really good idea in my opinion and should be thought about more in the Circuit. For casual Starcraft fans it's really hard to build excitement before a WCS event and then being willing to spend basically every waking minute of an entire weekend watching the thing (maybe at ungodly hours depending on your timezone). Doing this with Challenger was a success so why not lean into it. It definitely seems to overall give more bang for the buck and could also introduce the pre-match preparation aspect into the Circuit that we mostly haven't seen there yet.
Hard to say what the implication of the reduced points and prize money will be without knowing how they compare to other WCS events. It's possible that with the split between NA and Europe Blizzard does not want to emphasise the outcome of WCS Winter too much because it would benefit "lesser" NA players comparatively to the skill of same place Europe finishers. Having a very evenly spread prize pool also suggests that the tournament is mostly meant to sustain the scene over these months instead of crowning and rewarding a champion, which is fine. Having a critical mass of players is hugely important for the scene and sources of income are otherwise sparse, so it's good that there's a reliable source of income for decent finishers here.
Honestly, instead of constant whining about region locks, people who care about the Korean scene should instead advocate for a more even spread of winnings in GSL as well. Being unable to pillage other regions for prize money is not what let the Korean pro scene stagnate, it's the fact that eight players have locked up GSL to divide most prize money among themselves and there is very little incentive to try to enter it. It would be really cool to get new players there but they too need a way to sustain themselves while they get better.
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I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year.
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On December 22 2018 02:05 youngjiddle wrote:
I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year.
It may be they had plans but they had to be changed relatively recently.
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On December 22 2018 02:05 youngjiddle wrote:
I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year.
i don't know that it's that people aren't capable of looking deeply, but where is the appetite for the shadowy truth you're hinting at? pretty much anyone who cares to discuss it probably does it here on TL. even if your "conspiracy" is factually correct and we proved it, then what? SC2 may not be dead, but the community is insular and self-obsessed to a fault. what is there to gain by even scrutinizing blizzard's plan for SC2? even if it's a bad plan, what then? are we going to win a nobel prize for esports journalism because we complained on a forum?
i just struggle to understand this idea that by shitting on blizzard we're going to accomplish something or save esports or whatever? even if there are plenty of valid criticisms to make i don't really see why people want to die on this hill in 2018/19. it's SC2. i hope SC2 lives for a good long time, but it's never going to ascend and become a top esport. it is what it is. why can't we just be happy it exists?
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Especially because this type of complaint appears to be stuck in 2015 or something. If SC2 stays on 2018 levels we should be very happy.
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I think replaced one of the WCS circuits with Winter because Leipzig date is so near Katowice.
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On December 21 2018 17:09 shadow4723 wrote:
I like the new preparation style format of WCS Winter (like GSL). I just hope ping is not an issue and that region locking of the WCS Curcuit doesn't give problems to the pros
China and Mexico are in the same region for the online portion. Of course there will be lag issues. Once again the system is biased in favor of Europeans.
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On December 22 2018 02:05 youngjiddle wrote:
I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year.
Is it as concerning as last year, when they made 2018's announcement on the very same day?
Making the announcement exactly 1 year from the previous years announcement kinda makes sense, does it not?
Link from the WCS 2018 announcement, on December 19th 2017: https://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/529572-wcs-2018-details-revealed
I wish people looked more deeply into their own posts lol
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On December 22 2018 10:35 Rodya wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 17:09 shadow4723 wrote:
I like the new preparation style format of WCS Winter (like GSL). I just hope ping is not an issue and that region locking of the WCS Curcuit doesn't give problems to the pros China and Mexico are in the same region for the online portion. Of course there will be lag issues. Once again the system is biased in favor of Europeans.
You wanted chinese to play with koreans? Quite sure they lag less in NA than in EU.
I fail to see how this is biased in favor of europeans, considering they were the favourites ; if anything, it's unfair to chinese.
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On December 22 2018 11:51 billynasty wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2018 02:05 youngjiddle wrote:
I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year. Is it as concerning as last year, when they made 2018's announcement on the very same day? Making the announcement exactly 1 year from the previous years announcement kinda makes sense, does it not? Link from the WCS 2018 announcement, on December 19th 2017: https://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/529572-wcs-2018-details-revealedI wish people looked more deeply into their own posts lol
I guess you can say that of yourself then. The announcement for last year had details for the entire wcs for 2018. All events and their details.
This year's announcement only announced details for 1 event.
I am not saying there is a conspiracy, but it is obvious that things are going to be different this year and most likely a scale back from last year.
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On December 22 2018 02:05 youngjiddle wrote:
I wish people looked more deeply into this announcement.
It is very concerning that Blizzard put off planning of WCS this late. They should have had the circuit planned out with Dreamhack much earlier, or whoever is going to host the Starcraft tournaments this year earlier.
This points to one of two things: Blizzard is trying undercut Dreamhack on a price, or Dreamhack is trying to increase the price. That's why the first event is getting canceled. It also might be Blizzard saying "see, we can run our own events without you, now drop the price".
I mean, or Blizzard just can't get their shit together and can't plan anything.
Or how about a conspiracy theory? The new CEO could be trying to sabotage it. If Starcraft has a bad year this year because of a bad WCS format, the CEO is essentially creating a reason to cut Starcraft next year.
You are looking way too deep into the announcement. Blizzard often announces the structure of WCS in late December like how many WCS events and how many GSL. They tend to allow the more details a bit later later the New Year holiday, This year is a bit different due to the unfortunate event of HGC and other financial problems they may have. They are not gonna host WCS as standalone events because that is very expensive unless they host in their studio in LA.
We all expect a bit of a scale-down in term of finance for this year given they just outright canceled HGC. So if they cut one WCS stop and make it online event and reduce the prize pool, that is very much expected. They may do the same for GSL as well. At least we have another year of WCS to enjoy. Look at what happened to Heroes, we shouldn't take anything for granted.
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On December 22 2018 10:35 Rodya wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2018 17:09 shadow4723 wrote:
I like the new preparation style format of WCS Winter (like GSL). I just hope ping is not an issue and that region locking of the WCS Curcuit doesn't give problems to the pros China and Mexico are in the same region for the online portion. Of course there will be lag issues. Once again the system is biased in favor of Europeans.
And I was going to say that they region locked europe out so europeans cannot win most of the prize pool money like they have been
Even the combined NA+others is weaker than EU :D
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Despite the downsizing I really like the GSL-style tournament with some preparation time for each match. The quality of games outside Korea should increase.
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WCS 2019 was promised in 2017 already, but we're still missing details. If this will be the last year it would make sense to scale it down a notch before shutting it down. Nevertheless, I'm interested will they keep the 2M total prize pool, 4 circuit stops, GSL vs the World, region lock as it is, and will they keep the offline wcs events with audience.
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If this is truly the last year then I need a "new" esport game to follow (tournaments etc) next year. 1v1 and no card games, any idea?
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On December 24 2018 20:06 Dingodile wrote:
If this is truly the last year then I need a "new" esport game to follow (tournaments etc) next year. 1v1 and no card games, any idea?
It won't be the last year, but if it is, wc3 reforged should be out already.
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On December 24 2018 20:06 Dingodile wrote:
If this is truly the last year then I need a "new" esport game to follow (tournaments etc) next year. 1v1 and no card games, any idea?
Fighting games is a good place to start, no pointless affirmative action.
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On December 24 2018 20:48 Musicus wrote:Show nested quote +On December 24 2018 20:06 Dingodile wrote:
If this is truly the last year then I need a "new" esport game to follow (tournaments etc) next year. 1v1 and no card games, any idea? It won't be the last year, but if it is, wc3 reforged should be out already.
I'm curious what kind of reality you would have to imagine for SC2 to be 'dead' but WC3:R 'alive'.
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hi everyone there
how much i earn for that
and i love that alot and to be here
god bless all of us
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Canada8988 Posts
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Oh man Cyan... tell me it's not true :/. Was getting hyped for China/Taiwan, but this could fuck up everything.
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Where’s Neeb?
Gg Scarlett!
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On January 14 2019 16:16 Musicus wrote:
Oh man Cyan... tell me it's not true :/. Was getting hyped for China/Taiwan, but this could fuck up everything.
The reddit thread, and the comments in it provide nearly irrefutable evidence that it was match-fixing, and most likely account-sharing as well
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Barcode players are not allowed, so much is clear. But what about Neeb and Dokwon (never heard) in the EU ladder race?
Since TLO is in the NA race doesn't seem to be a "home" issue. Just curious
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On January 14 2019 18:27 Harris1st wrote:
Barcode players are not allowed, so much is clear. But what about Neeb and Dokwon (never heard) in the EU ladder race?
Since TLO is in the NA race doesn't seem to be a "home" issue. Just curious
Dokwon is an account from HeroMarine
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On January 14 2019 18:27 Harris1st wrote:
Barcode players are not allowed, so much is clear. But what about Neeb and Dokwon (never heard) in the EU ladder race?
Since TLO is in the NA race doesn't seem to be a "home" issue. Just curious
TLO lives in Canada now, Neeb doe not live in EU.
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On January 14 2019 18:52 Musicus wrote:Show nested quote +On January 14 2019 18:27 Harris1st wrote:
Barcode players are not allowed, so much is clear. But what about Neeb and Dokwon (never heard) in the EU ladder race?
Since TLO is in the NA race doesn't seem to be a "home" issue. Just curious TLO lives in Canada now, Neeb doe not live in EU.
Ahh okay, makes sense. So why didn't Neeb play in NA? ^^'
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Oh, I was so confused about TLO qualifying for the Americas side. Kinda sad I missed (or just forgot about?) the news of him moving.
And, uh, yeah... Really, horribly rough start for one half of the new ladder quals. Dunno what to say about it besides "oof" and a big eye-rolling head shake.
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Why are Neeb, Special and Masa not on the qualified list? Special was 7000 MMR on NA at the end of last year, Neeb is usually around the same as Scarlett, and for open qualifiers Masa is pretty much always top 5 with Neeb and Scarlett and Special and Kelazhur, and occasionally wins over all of them.
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On January 14 2019 21:59 Zzoram wrote:
Why are Neeb, Special and Masa not on the qualified list? Special was 7000 MMR on NA at the end of last year, Neeb is usually around the same as Scarlett, and for open qualifiers Masa is pretty much always top 5 with Neeb and Scarlett and Special and Kelazhur, and occasionally wins over all of them.
Masa is 10th, so if the supposed cheaters are eliminated then he's in the top 8.
Not sure about Special and Neeb. Maybe they didnt try, or maybe they dindt have enough games played on NA server to maintain the GM position despite having high MMR? I dont really know.
It's possible they're very confident they can qualify from the Open qualifiers and didnt feel the need of spamming ladder games.
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Neeb was in top 8...on EU XD
Special maybe was unconfortable playing too many ladder games on NA? No idea.
I'd be very surprised if they didn't get through Open qualifiers.
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On January 14 2019 20:00 Harris1st wrote:Show nested quote +On January 14 2019 18:52 Musicus wrote:On January 14 2019 18:27 Harris1st wrote:
Barcode players are not allowed, so much is clear. But what about Neeb and Dokwon (never heard) in the EU ladder race?
Since TLO is in the NA race doesn't seem to be a "home" issue. Just curious TLO lives in Canada now, Neeb doe not live in EU. Ahh okay, makes sense. So why didn't Neeb play in NA? ^^'
My guess is that he has absolute confidence that he can go through the qualifier and does not want to waste practice time on bad games on the NA server. Same for Special. Just my guess.
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Why play 45 games when you can qualify in 10~
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Canada8988 Posts
Did noone care about the qualifiers?
Drogo, Harstem, Nerchio, MLord, Mana, Stephano, Harstem, DNS, Strange all missing the qualification while Soulspirit, Goblin, Denver and freaking Kas got in seems pretty big.
With 8 places left there is gonna be a good number of traditionnaly top pro missing the mark.
Edit: nvm there is 2 more qualifier y'a everyone going in I would guess than
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There 's 2 more yeah but this first one still was very interesting. We saw some of the ladder staples rising up to enter the WCS scene now.
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On January 18 2019 09:32 Nakajin wrote:
Did noone care about the qualifiers?
Drogo, Harstem, Nerchio, MLord, Mana, Stephano, Harstem, DNS, Strange all missing the qualification while Soulspirit, Goblin, Denver and freaking Kas got in seems pretty big.
With 8 places left there is gonna be a good number of traditionnaly top pro missing the mark.
Edit: nvm there is 2 more qualifier y'a everyone going in I would guess than
With sixteen spots we should be able to see all the big names qualifying; I would add Clem, who did well yesterday, and Reynor, who did not play at all.
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Canada8988 Posts
With 1 NA and 1 EU qualifier left (+China) a quick recap of who's the big name not in yet:
NA:
Future
JonSnow
EU:
Clem
Stephano
Harstem
MarineLord
Strange
Not saying those are necesserely the best of there region left, but they are the one who did well in past WCS, EU could be a bit dicey for some.
Also congratz to DemiLove for getting into WCS and to Psyarc getting one map away, it's been a long grind for those two.
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Qualifiers finished and was really fun to watch.
However I think it should be extremely worrying that we have heard no new news from Blizzard about the rest of the WCS stops as well as any information about GSL except for qualifiers. No way there's not going to be big changes, whether for better or for worse.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On January 22 2019 13:34 Pandain wrote:
Qualifiers finished and was really fun to watch.
However I think it should be extremely worrying that we have heard no new news from Blizzard about the rest of the WCS stops as well as any information about GSL except for qualifiers. No way there's not going to be big changes, whether for better or for worse.
Heroes of the Storm silent treatment. We can just guess.
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EPT![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/page_media/5g/5G1UQT6Y1Y9I1545270447190.jpg)
