We’ve made the decision to play Intel Extreme Masters Katowice: StarCraft II online with players remaining in their homes for cross-region play. After consulting with players and authorities regarding requirements for travel and comfort levels this is our best way forward to continue the competition.
To account for online play we’ve made several adjustments to the tournament. Players will now compete for a prize pool of $250,000, with the remaining prize that was set for the event to be spread across qualifier, regional, and season final events in the next two seasons of ESL Pro Tour SC2 ending at IEM Katowice 2023. This prize will remain in the regular ecosystem and be attainable to those participating in the coming months and years.
To adapt to the changing landscape the schedule will be adjusted to play on February 20-28. These three additional days are added to account for schedules around the world to allow players to compete at more comfortable times in their local time.
Following the event we will still proceed with resetting yearly EPT points in order to begin the ESL Pro Tour SC2 2021-22 season fresh, using the yearly total for invitations and seeding only for the first event, following our planned off-season. During this period we will continue with our regularly weekly ESL Open Cups however no EPT points will be awarded for them.
For reference, the Katowice prize pool was originally planned to be $500,000 with a $170,000 first place prize. It's now a $250,000 total prize tournament with a flatter distribution while the other $250,000 get spread throughout the next two years of ESL Pro Tour.
They did same thing for CS GO with lower prize pools but more small or regional events (meaning more money for more teams). They will use the money for SC2 that's good enough
Shame Serral won't be millionairy (speaking of earnings) after Kato with this smaller prize pool
Really sad! But this is for the best in the midst of a pandemic, in terms of healthy and safety. I will still be tuning in of course, and this does not take away the prestige/grandeur of Katowice 2021.
On January 22 2021 00:50 tommey.liang wrote: this does not take away the prestige/grandeur of Katowice 2021.
I mean, it 100% does. I'm not sure how going online and halving the prize pool could fail to lessen its prestige/grandeur. But likely the right decision regardless, for reasons of player safety and practicality.
On January 22 2021 01:22 Brutaxilos wrote: Shouldn't migrating to online save money due to lesser logistics? Or is it due to ESL losing money from no live paying spectators?
Regardless, I'll accept whatever decision is the most financially responsible in the long term planning.
I think it‘s also about having such a huge tournament with so much money on the line not being played with constant ping advantage/disadvantage problems.
Well given how the pandemic is going right now this was kinda expected, and it's probably for the best. A bit sad we won't have offline battles between the top players but it's alright.
$65.000 is still more than most people make in a whole year, for many even more than in two years - not even speaking about so-called "third world countries". So, still a good prize to win, imo.
It's def not a cost thing. Online tourneys can have too many weird things to put all the prize money in one tournament. I know a lot of other online games are doing more tourneys for less money each to try to make sure the best players still win the most. This is unfortunately the only good choice for now as logistics and trying to fly/quarantine people would have been a nightmare/useless if more stuff gets shut down. I'm curious if they would have considered delaying it for a month if things were rapidly improving and they thought they'd be able to do it live but as of now I don't see global live stuff till at least may/june and they can't delay it for 3-4 months.
I guess it's fitting that we have a cross server final after one year of cross server events and the prize distribution is much better than the original one.
On January 22 2021 02:23 Karis Vas Ryaar wrote: It's def not a cost thing. Online tourneys can have too many weird things to put all the prize money in one tournament. I know a lot of other online games are doing more tourneys for less money each to try to make sure the best players still win the most. This is unfortunately the only good choice for now as logistics and trying to fly/quarantine people would have been a nightmare/useless if more stuff gets shut down. I'm curious if they would have considered delaying it for a month if things were rapidly improving and they thought they'd be able to do it live but as of now I don't see global live stuff till at least may/june and they can't delay it for 3-4 months.
As far as I know Americans would even have been prohibited from entering Europe. At least that‘s what I caught from the current Chess tournaments. They do take place, but without American participants.
And yes, I think it‘s the right decision. It‘s unfortunate, but an online tournament with 65k for the winner is more than enough. And the money will not be los. So it‘s fine.
EPT
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