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GSL 2020 Season Format announced

Forum Index > SC2 General
18 CommentsPost a Reply
TL.net ESPORTS
Profile Joined July 2011
4 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-03-20 15:55:21
March 20 2020 15:54 GMT
#1
AfreecaTV has announced the format of the 2020 season of GSL.

The yearlong tour still consists of three regular GSL Code S tournaments and two Super Tournaments. The biggest change in format is to Code S, which has shifted from a 32 player tournament to a 28 player tournament. GSL now begins with an initial first group stage of 24 players (down from 32). The 12 players that advance will join 4 seeded players in the second group stage (the round of 16). From there on out the format is the same as before, with eight players advancing to a single elimination playoffs.

Each Code S season awards a total of $140,000 USD (roughly the same as the 170,000,000 KRW awarded in 2020), while each Super Tournament awards $30,000 (previously 30,000,000 KRW). The total prize pool of $480,000 USD is roughly equivalent to last year's 570,000,000 KRW, depending on the exchange rate at the time.

As previously announced by ESL, the three GSL Code S winners will receive direct seeds to the Masters Championship at IEM Katowice 2021.

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TL+ Member
Serimek
Profile Joined August 2011
France2274 Posts
March 20 2020 16:09 GMT
#2
All in all, everything is fine.

I do not understand the shift from KRW to USD. Are the players going to be screwed when they'll have to handle exchange themselves?
SC2 is the best game to watch and was the best to play before I grew old and slow...
J. Corsair
Profile Joined June 2014
United States470 Posts
March 20 2020 16:10 GMT
#3
Awesome news!
“...it is human nature, I suppose, to be futile and ridiculous.” - Scaramouche
DomeGetta
Profile Joined February 2012
480 Posts
March 20 2020 17:10 GMT
#4
Lets gooooo. Guess all the doomsday psychos can wait a couple more years to freak out. So much hype for this.
JuanDi
Profile Joined February 2016
45 Posts
March 20 2020 17:10 GMT
#5
On March 21 2020 01:09 Serimek wrote:
All in all, everything is fine.

I do not understand the shift from KRW to USD. Are the players going to be screwed when they'll have to handle exchange themselves?


Probably has to do with ESL now running the whole circuit. I doubt they'll get screwed since ESL and AfreecaTV are both companies with a lot of #passion for the game and care for the players so they surely have a way of making the process not so complicated for the player
BLinD-RawR
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
ALLEYCAT BLUES50685 Posts
March 20 2020 17:15 GMT
#6
So its the ASL format, seems good to me.
Brood War EICWoo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR
CynicalDeath
Profile Joined January 2012
Italy3626 Posts
March 20 2020 17:21 GMT
#7
(Wiki)Global StarCraft II League/2020/Season 1
ModeratorSC2 LP Admin - My Life for Aiur - Let the Metal flow - @Cynical_Death
Boggyb
Profile Joined January 2017
2855 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-03-20 17:34:01
March 20 2020 17:32 GMT
#8
Rogue finally advances past the GSL ro8, wins the thing, but he won't even get his previous winner cheater ro16 group because he didn't make the ro4 in Super Tournament. I wonder if they'll give it to Trap if he makes the ro4 or the winner of the Super Tournament which will be Dark.
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13992 Posts
March 20 2020 18:28 GMT
#9
This is good
Chain 1 Arthalion Chain 2 Urgula Chain 3 Mululu Chain 4 Lukias
Parrek
Profile Joined May 2016
United States893 Posts
March 20 2020 19:54 GMT
#10
On March 21 2020 02:32 Boggyb wrote:
Rogue finally advances past the GSL ro8, wins the thing, but he won't even get his previous winner cheater ro16 group because he didn't make the ro4 in Super Tournament. I wonder if they'll give it to Trap if he makes the ro4 or the winner of the Super Tournament which will be Dark.


I thought since it's a new season, the winner cheater gets reset?
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33581 Posts
March 20 2020 20:48 GMT
#11
The Code S changes leave me thinking both "why?" and "why not?"

It's a pretty miniscule change to go from 32 to 28 players, which makes you think they might as well have stayed at 32.

Then again, the pool of viable players has continued to shrink, qualifiers are pretty soft, and you save like two studio days worth of production (the most expensive part of all of this, I'd imagine). So I can't really blame them for doing some soft optimization here.
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Ziggy
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
South Korea2106 Posts
March 20 2020 20:51 GMT
#12
On March 21 2020 05:48 Waxangel wrote:
The Code S changes leave me thinking both "why?" and "why not?"

It's a pretty miniscule change to go from 32 to 28 players, which makes you think they might as well have stayed at 32.

Then again, the pool of viable players has continued to shrink, qualifiers are pretty soft, and you save like two studio days worth of production (the most expensive part of all of this, I'd imagine). So I can't really blame them for doing some soft optimization here.


consistency across their original content?
WriterDefeating a sandwich only makes it tastier. @imjustziggy
col_jung
Profile Joined October 2017
139 Posts
March 21 2020 02:31 GMT
#13
Yasssss!! Thank you Afreeca. Support GSL!
Weavel
Profile Joined January 2010
Finland9222 Posts
March 21 2020 02:33 GMT
#14
Excellent news. Non-stop GSL action from April to October.
Life/Seed//Mvp/NaNiwa fighting! ZeNEX forever!
RomanticHuman
Profile Joined November 2018
1 Post
March 21 2020 04:45 GMT
#15
So it means no Code A?
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6330 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-03-21 04:50:12
March 21 2020 04:49 GMT
#16
Code A hasn't been a thing for years and there aren't really enough talent in Korea to support a second tier league. They do call the GSL qualifier "Code A" though.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
sneakyfox
Profile Joined January 2017
8216 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-03-21 11:27:28
March 21 2020 11:16 GMT
#17
On March 21 2020 02:10 JuanDi wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 21 2020 01:09 Serimek wrote:
All in all, everything is fine.

I do not understand the shift from KRW to USD. Are the players going to be screwed when they'll have to handle exchange themselves?


Probably has to do with ESL now running the whole circuit. I doubt they'll get screwed since ESL and AfreecaTV are both companies with a lot of #passion for the game and care for the players so they surely have a way of making the process not so complicated for the player


ESL does not have any involvement in the Korean tournaments. They are run by Afreeca, sponsored directly by Blizzard. Right now we have two organizers of the main SC2 tournaments, but they come together in the Master's championship at Katowice, which is run by ESL.

The reason the prizes our now given in USD could be due to the way Blizzard supports the tournaments now. Maybe they simply supply the prize pool (which they would do in USD), and Afreeca then handles the rest of the costs themselves.
"I saw what sneakyfox wrote on TL.net and it made me furious" - PartinG
Akio
Profile Blog Joined January 2019
Finland1838 Posts
March 21 2020 13:32 GMT
#18
So GSL is adapting the ASL format? I'm fine with that
Mine gas, build tanks.
Drfilip
Profile Joined March 2013
Sweden592 Posts
March 22 2020 10:32 GMT
#19
On March 21 2020 04:54 Parrek wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 21 2020 02:32 Boggyb wrote:
Rogue finally advances past the GSL ro8, wins the thing, but he won't even get his previous winner cheater ro16 group because he didn't make the ro4 in Super Tournament. I wonder if they'll give it to Trap if he makes the ro4 or the winner of the Super Tournament which will be Dark.


I thought since it's a new season, the winner cheater gets reset?

It's the top seeded GSL player that gets the priviledge, isn't it? The winner of last season is usually the top seed, but they aren't always present in the ro16.

Looking back, season 1 has had the cheater swap. The cheater swap was nerfed in 2019 from being swap any of the non-seeded players to swap any player of your group with any other non-seeded player.
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