ESL Pro Tour: Prize Pools & Points explained

by Olli

One of the interesting talking points of Tuesday's ESL Pro Tour announcement is a re-allocation of prize money and points. Shaun "Apollo" Clark, prior to yesterday's announcement, told us the goal was for both money and points to trickle down to lower placements. This article will examine these differences between the late WCS Circuit and the ESL Pro Tour 2020-21.

Prize Money

The main events (excluding qualifiers) of the six Masters tournaments and IEM Katowice 2021, the grand final, will be allocated a total of $1.6m in prize money.

• IEM Katowice 2020 — $400,000
  
• DreamHack SC2 Masters Dallas — $125,000
  
• DreamHack SC2 Masters Valencia — $125,000
  
• DreamHack SC2 Masters Montreal — $125,000
  
• TBA — $200,000
  
• DreamHack SC2 Masters TBA — $125,000
  
• IEM Katowice 2021 — $500,000

Important to note here is that all events, with the exception of both IEM Katowice tournaments, have been additionally supplemented for the 2020-21 season with a total budget of $325,000 to celebrate StarCraft II's 10-year anniversary. The prize pool for all non-Katowice events had been set at $75,000 prior to that boost.

As Apollo commented, prize pools for individual tournaments would be modeled after IEM Katowice in previous years. It is no surprise, then, to see that the distribution of prize money for Katowice 2020 remains exactly the same as last year's.

The distribution changes for all non-Katowice events, however. In regular WCS Circuit events a total of $100,000 was distributed as follows:

• Old System
  • Winner — $20,000
    
  • 2nd — $10,000
    
  • 3rd & 4th — $6,000
    
  • 5th - 8th — $4,000
    
  • 9th - 16th — $2,750
    
  • 17th - 32nd — $1,250

For comparison, here is the ESL Pro Tour distribution in all $125,000 DreamHack SCII Masters events:

• New System
  • Winner — $25,000
    
  • 2nd — $12,600
    
  • 3rd & 4th — $6,500
    
  • 5th - 8th — $4,000
    
  • 9th - 16th — $2,500
    
  • 17th - 24th — $1,800
    
  • 25th - 32nd — $1,000
    
  • 33rd - 40th — $800
    
  • 41st - 48th — $600
    
  • 49th - 56th — $400
    
  • 57th - 64th — $200

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Masters Qualifiers will see a similar shift in comparison to WCS Challenger. Where WCS Challenger did not differentiate between places 5 to 8, 9 to 12, and 13 to 16, Masters Qualifiers will see prize money allocated differently. European Qualifiers will each have a total of $10,500 in prize money distributed as such:

• EU Regional Qualifier Prize Distribution
  • Winner — $1,050
    
  • 2nd — $950
    
  • 3rd & 4th — $850
    
  • 5th & 6th — $750
    
  • 7th — $650
    
  • 8th — $650
    
  • 9th - 12th — $550
    
  • 13th - 16th — $450

All other Qualifiers follow the same distribution scheme, but prize pools for the Qualifiers of different regions vary:

• Regional Qualifier Prize Pools
  • Europe — $10,500
    
  • North America — $9,500
    
  • Latin America — $8,100
    
  • China — $6,600
    
  • Oceania, SEA — $6,600
    
  • Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau & Japan — $6,600

Four such Qualifiers are currently planned out for each region for all DreamHack SCII Masters tournaments. The yet to be announced, global Masters tournament in the fourth quarter of 2020 might diverge from the above distribution scheme, but there is currently no information available on it. IEM Katowice 2020 Qualifiers do not award prize money. All qualified players receive travel and accommodation, as well as guaranteed prize money from the main event pool due to their seeding.

Weekly Cups will be played for $100 each, amounting to an annual total of $5,200.

Pro Tour Points

One interesting aspect of the switch from WCS Points to ESL Pro Tour Points is a drastic reduction of the total amount of points in the system. Where a regular WCS event would grant the winner 3000 WCS Points last year, the ESL Pro Tour equivalent of such a tournament — a DreamHack SCII Masters event — now earns the first place finisher only 700 Tour Points. The distribution has also become much flatter. This was the allocation of points among the Top 32 in WCS Summer 2019:

• Old System
  Winner — 3,000
  
  • 2nd — 1,400
    
  • 3rd & 4th — 900
    
  • 5th-8th — 600
    
  • 9th - 16th — 300
    
  • 17th - 32nd — 100

For comparison, DreamHack Masters events will distribute points as follows:

• New System
  Winner — 700
  
  • 2nd — 500
    
  • 3rd & 4th — 350
    
  • 5th - 8th — 250
    
  • 9th - 16th — 130
    
  • 17th - 24th — 70
    
  • 25th - 32nd — 40
    
  • 33rd- 44th — 24
    
  • 45st- 48th — 16
    
  • 49th - 56th — 12
    
  • 57th - 64th — 8

IEM Katowice 2020, the first Global Masters tournament in the 2020-21 season, will distribute points this way:

• Winner — 1200
  
• 2nd — 840
  
• 3rd & 4th — 600
  
• 5th - 8th — 420
  
• 9th - 12th — 300
  
• 13th - 16th — 192
  
• 17th - 20th — 144
  
• 21st - 24th — 120
  
• 25th - 28th — 72
  
• 29th - 36th — 48
  
• 37th - 44th — 24
  
• 45th- 60th — 12
  
• 61st - 64th — 0

This re-allocation of Points aligns with Apollo's comment that ESL felt “[BlizzCon] slots were sometimes decided too early”. A flatter distribution of points could help avoid such scenarios, especially with the integration of Weekly Cups into the system.

Points for Weekly Cups will only be awarded to the winner and will be added to their points account in their main region. How that main region is determined is not yet fully clear but, according to Apollo, will be addressed in the official rulebook. The winner of each Weekly Cup receives 10 Tour Points.

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