It is our great pleasure to announce the TeamLiquid StarLeague 5. After eight transformational years for both TeamLiquid and StarCraft, the tournament returns to find the game, and indeed the world, in a very different place. Despite the flux and uncertainty, the TSL will remain true to its core principle, anyone can play. Supported by our headline sponsor Shopify and boasting a $30,000 prize pool, the TSL is open to everyone, as 20 players from eight open qualifiers will join four invitees to fill the bracket. All qualifiers will be run through ESL Play, and more detailed information can be found here.
Following the qualifiers, TeamLiquid is partnering with DreamHack to bring you a main event spread over eight days. Beginning on May 16th, 24 players will compete in a double elimination tournament to crown the TSL 5 champion.
It has been a long time since the last TSL, but it has never been far from our minds. Having the right opportunity and ambition is important for a passion project to succeed, and the TSL has always been that. We strongly feel that StarCraft II is in an exciting place right now. With the ESL Pro Tour providing long-term security for players, teams and tournament organizers, and solid viewership numbers for tournaments, there is every incentive for organizers to jump into the StarCraft II scene in 2020. That excitement for the game is what made us decide to bring the TSL back.
We aren’t the only ones who feel this excitement. Our main sponsor, Shopify, operates with that same passion for building new businesses and growing ideas. Their platform allows anyone to start a business and scale up almost anywhere. The parallels between the people working at Shopify and the people working in esports meant we quickly found common ground regarding their sponsorship of TSL 5.
First and foremost, we're just fans. Whether you look at the number of players and fans we have working at Shopify, partnering in on these sorts of events is basically a no brainer for us. I think we also recognize a massive amount of talent and passion in the esports world and would love to help inspire this group to consider starting their own businesses or even joining our team to tackle some of the pretty complex engineering challenges we're working through in making entrepreneurship a little bit easier and more accessible for everyone.
— Jeremy head of esports initiatives at Shopify
In addition to being involved in TSL 5, Shopify is also running a hiring campaign. With the effects of COVID being felt around the world, it is important to know that there are still exciting opportunities available. Take a look!
You can check out information on the qualifier dates here. Complete information about the invited players, our partners, and where to watch are coming this week and we think you’ll be very excited. Buckle up, its TSL time once again!
Was literally in Twistzz chat last weekend talking with someone logged into the teamliquid twitch account about how long it had been since TSL4, this is awesome!
Besides the incredible support from Shopify, DreamHack, and other to be announced partners, we are also so thrilled to be working with Salon Alpin again. Lip Comarella was responsible for the original Steel, Swarm, Spirit horse logo designs as well as so many other incredible pieces of art, including the TSL4 styleguide and intro video.
Even legendary TLnet admin Manifesto7 is back to help carry this to become a successul tournament.
Hope you will all tune in for some amazing matches and reward the partners and individuals who made this happen.
On April 21 2020 03:59 Liquid`Nazgul wrote: I couldn't be happier to see this come to live.
Besides the incredible support from Shopify, DreamHack, and other to be announced partners, we are also so thrilled to be working with Salon Alpin again. Lip Comarella was responsible for the original Steel, Swarm, Spirit horse logo designs as well as so many other incredible pieces of art, including the TSL4 styleguide and intro video.
Even legendary TLnet admin Manifesto7 is back to help carry this to become a successful tournament.
Hope you will all tune in for some amazing matches and reward the partners and individuals who made this happen.
What an incredible feel good comeback story. If you/they want to use this as an opportunity to re-release those Steel, Spirit, Swarm shirts again that'd be cool, too. Just saying, cause mine are finally starting to degrade after years of heavy rotation.
TSL 3 was one of my all time favourite tournaments, I hope this one can be similarly excellent. Would be sweet to have some of the old faces (Day9, djwheat, Chill...) could drop in, just to really get the nostalgia going :D
On April 21 2020 03:48 colingrad wrote: Was literally in Twistzz chat last weekend talking with someone logged into the teamliquid twitch account about how long it had been since TSL4, this is awesome!
It was actually Elige's Twitch Stream . I am glad you're excited though, I was laughing pretty hard when we were talking about it.
So little names that are still playing this game after such a long time. It's going to be a blast!
Tfw JonnyRecco is the top placing foreigner. Such different times.
This should be excellent!
TSL 4 and 5 seem to bracket the rise and fall of complete Korean domination in SC2. 2010-11 was the Wild West where someone like Thorzain could rip through FruitDealer and MC because nobody really knew how to play the game yet, and now you've got foreigners like Serral who are able to contend at the top level.
Manifesto7 is back??? Dude, I first found out about pro Starcraft after downloading one of his .RWA files. Went through his entire website and downloaded everything he had. You kids these days with your instantly available on-demand VODs... back in MY day we had to download a RWA and load up the replay in the BW client and hope it didn't go out of sync!
This is really awesome news! Forgive me if this has already been addressed elsewhere in the thread, but is there any possibility of having a companion tournament in SC:R? I think it would be an awesome nod to the legacy of TL & Brood War, if that makes sense
On May 06 2020 00:06 Immaterial wrote: This is really awesome news! Forgive me if this has already been addressed elsewhere in the thread, but is there any possibility of having a companion tournament in SC:R? I think it would be an awesome nod to the legacy of TL & Brood War, if that makes sense