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
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.
It seems a bit funny that the prize pool distribution is flatter for all the bigger events, but the weekly cups are winner take all the points and money.
This does seems like an improvement overall though.
On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote: So Korea is out of it ?
Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.
Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.
From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.
On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote: So Korea is out of it ?
Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.
Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.
From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.
Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway
On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote: So Korea is out of it ?
Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.
Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.
From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.
Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway
Well if you check the announcement thread you'll find that Apollo said they'll consider changes to the region lock etc. for upcoming years but for this season there just wasn't enough time for them to consider fundamentally changing the system to that extent.
On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote: So Korea is out of it ?
Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.
Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.
From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.
Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway
They will reassess region lock after this season. Doesn't mean it will be lifted, but it did seem to me like Apollo at least was leaning towards that if the Korean scene keeps struggling for new players.
On January 09 2020 05:09 Andi_Goldberger wrote: Imagine someone slipping into Katowice by winning the last online cup. Or having to win the last 3 cups to get in. That would create so much hype :D
I am very excited for the upcoming 3 yrs!
And the one in front of him in points would have to play in the same online cup and would have to place better to keep the qualifying spot.
Who will we call the world champion? The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously), or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?
I think they should change the money Distribution for 25th-32nd. the older Version offers more money. changes like 17th-24th with 1550€ (reduced from 1800€) and 25th-32nd with 1250€ (increased from 1000€).
I don't get why Lat Am is favoured over China qualifier wise. China's scene looks more promising than Lat Am and it would have been smarter to support China more imo.
On an other subject, 520 pts to win on weeklies is quite huge. Time to see if offline heroes can benefit from that.
Thanks for the article, it's nice to get some more concrete info on the setup.
On January 09 2020 05:54 bela.mervado wrote: Who will we call the world champion? The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously), or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?
Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.
But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though
On January 09 2020 04:09 ZigguratOfUr wrote: It seems a bit funny that the prize pool distribution is flatter for all the bigger events, but the weekly cups are winner take all the points and money.
This does seems like an improvement overall though.
I think this is a better model. With WCS, if you won a WCS tournament you automatically qualified for a Blizzcon. Sometimes you got the bracket luck and balance luck behind you and you're good to go. Instead this system promotes consistency and makes the race a lot tighter.
With the online weekly cups, I think it's nice to have a winner take all system. It rewards players by enticing them to try harder and reduces the possibility of 322 which is prevalent in online CS:GO matches. This makes it so players actually have to try to win instead of just coasting through. Again in CS:GO, you get the occasional "upset" where it honestly feels like match fixing. Not saying it's not possible with the online cups but the possibility is reduced.
I do wonder if we'll start to see betting sites sponsor SC2 teams, matches, and tournaments now.
On January 09 2020 04:09 ZigguratOfUr wrote: It seems a bit funny that the prize pool distribution is flatter for all the bigger events, but the weekly cups are winner take all the points and money.
This does seems like an improvement overall though.
I think this is a better model. With WCS, if you won a WCS tournament you automatically qualified for a Blizzcon. Sometimes you got the bracket luck and balance luck behind you and you're good to go. Instead this system promotes consistency and makes the race a lot tighter.
But every Masters winner still gets direct qualification to Katowice, they didn't change that part.
Sounds like an amazing set of changes across the board. I really appreciate the amount of thought and effort that obviously went into the formulation of the new system. Super psyched about the future of competitive SC2!
On January 09 2020 05:54 bela.mervado wrote: Who will we call the world champion? The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously), or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?
Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.
But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though
Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to remind people who's the reigning champion should they forget.
On January 09 2020 06:32 sneakyfox wrote: Thanks for the article, it's nice to get some more concrete info on the setup.
On January 09 2020 05:54 bela.mervado wrote: Who will we call the world champion? The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously), or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?
Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.
But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though
Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to remind people who's the reigning champion should they forget.
Sorry to say this mate but then it seems you've been asleep at the wheel
On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote: So Korea is out of it ?
Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.
Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.
From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.
Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway
They will reassess region lock after this season. Doesn't mean it will be lifted, but it did seem to me like Apollo at least was leaning towards that if the Korean scene keeps struggling for new players.
On January 09 2020 06:32 sneakyfox wrote: Thanks for the article, it's nice to get some more concrete info on the setup.
On January 09 2020 05:54 bela.mervado wrote: Who will we call the world champion? The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously), or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?
Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.
But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though
Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to remind people who's the reigning champion should they forget.
Sorry to say this mate but then it seems you've been asleep at the wheel
We can just make this years Katowice winner the new OWC! Though we all know the title tjhat really counts is the UWC
Does this mean DreamHack isn't open to Koreans anymore? If so, then as far as we know this is a pretty big hit to the volume of international tournaments Koreans can participate in.
On January 10 2020 01:51 BisuDagger wrote: Does this mean DreamHack isn't open to Koreans anymore? If so, then as far as we know this is a pretty big hit to the volume of international tournaments Koreans can participate in.
You must have missed about 4 years of competitive SC2 buddy.
On January 10 2020 01:51 BisuDagger wrote: Does this mean DreamHack isn't open to Koreans anymore? If so, then as far as we know this is a pretty big hit to the volume of international tournaments Koreans can participate in.
"Real" Dreamhack don't exist since 2016, what we have are WCS/EPT event that sometime take place at Dreamhack but are paid by Blizz.
On January 10 2020 01:51 BisuDagger wrote: Does this mean DreamHack isn't open to Koreans anymore? If so, then as far as we know this is a pretty big hit to the volume of international tournaments Koreans can participate in.
You must have missed about 4 years of competitive SC2 buddy.
I was thinking of ASUS ROG from last year. My bad lol. I'll go drink more coffee now.
There is a segment in all fan communities that is very drawn to "the sky is falling" scenarios. This segment of the fan base has this bizarre love for anticipating the imminent apocalypse.
Artosis would be telegraphing some kind of concern if GSL were in any kind of danger. Artosis is a family man and from what I've seen he is a very responsible guy. If he thought the GSL were in any kind of danger he'd be making some moves the general public would notice.
Based on this, I'd have to say the GSL will be pretty similar to last year. I suspect there will be a small incremental decline in support in Korea in 2020.
EPT
