Hi, everyone! I am Olivia Wong, Tournament Admin for Team Liquid. It is my immense pleasure to announce Shopify TSL 8! Although TSL 8 is not the first TSL I’ve worked on, it is the first TSL I will be leading alongside SeaGnome and Wyf. Together we are dedicated to upholding TSL’s legacy by making fantastic tournaments.

Speaking of legacies, it would be remiss of me to not introduce our production crew for TSL 8, who has an amazing legacy of their own within StarCraft 2. No matter if they’re in a studio or at a water park, the fun and casual atmosphere they bring to events make it feel like home…Yes, our production crew for Shopify TSL 8 is none other than TakeTV!

Of course, we cannot forget how this is possible in the first place: thanks to our sponsors Twitch, Secretlab, IMC, and Shopify!

We also have an additional sponsor we’d like to introduce: Twitch user Sifolyy! This particular individual has been a subscriber of our TLnet Twitch channel for over 110 months (or over 9 years!) and recently brought to our attention we haven’t been broadcasting on that channel. That’s why the entirety of TSL 8 will be broadcasted on twitch.tv/TLnet!

Congratulations, Sifolyy! You were the change you wanted to see, and to thank you for all your dedication we have added you to our list of TSL 8 sponsors! Once again please be sure to express your gratitude to our sponsors: Sifolyy, Twitch, Secretlab, IMC, and Shopify!

Thanks to some incredible additional support from our sponsors, the success of TSL 7, and the help of TaKeTV, we're happy to support more players and a bigger TSL. Let’s dive into the details of TSL 8!

Tournament Details

Shopify TSL 8 is a 32 player, double elimination tournament awarding $30,000 USD and 1290 EPT points. The tournament will last for 3 weeks, with games every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday starting from Friday, November 26 at 7:00 EST / 13:00 CET / 21:00 KST.

32 players double elimination bracket, seeded by EPT points

• Best of 3 (Bo3) until Winner’s Semifinal and Loser Quarter Final
• Best of 5 (Bo5) Winner’s Semifinal / Loser Quarter Final / Losers Semifinal
• Best of 7 (Bo7) Winner’s Final, Loser Final, and Grand Final (Winner’s advantage)

Our previous TSL champion, Trap, has happily accepted his invite. The remaining 31 spots will be open through server qualifiers.

Qualifiers

31 player spots divided amongst 9 server qualifiers (no region restrictions)

• Tournament platform: Challonge (Tournament Sign-Up Page)
• All matches Best of 3 (Bo3), Qualifying matches Best of 5 (Bo5)

Please note: Players must change their display name when signing up to their player name or risk incorrect seeding. We will not be liable for any incorrect seeding if your player name does not match.

(If a bracket has less than 32 players, the bracket will be converted to Double Elimination)

Community casters who would like to cover the qualifiers should fill out this community caster form at least twenty-four (24) hours before the qualifier(s) you’re planning on covering begins. You must also be a member of the Discord server with your identifying nickname. For non-English coverage of the main event (beginning on November 26th!), please also fill out the form, and we’ll be in touch after the qualifiers wrap up.

Changes Made

The most prominent change is our return to a 32 player bracket. To accommodate the larger bracket without fatiguing players and production, additional tournament days were added, and the amount of Best of 7s was reduced while adding in Best of 3s. A lot of our changes were also driven to counteract player (and production) fatigue, such as starting the event one hour earlier than TSL 7 (from 10 PM KST to 9 PM KST). We hope by making the tournament start time earlier and reducing series length, our players will bring their A-game to each match instead of slogging through the end of the day.

Another major change was made to the qualifiers. Before I dive into it, I would like to thank the numerous players and community members who provided feedback. The region restrictions for the qualifiers were removed and the amount of qualifiers has increased. Each region qualifier was scheduled with consideration to competitors' schedules and availability. More notably though, our North America Server Qualifiers will be the only qualifier not seeded by EPT points. Aligulac score will be used for NA qualifiers due to the wide range of players expected to participate. We hope this will provide fairer seeding.

We have an incredible group working on TSL 8 and we can’t wait to showcase all we’ve prepared. If you happen to have any questions about the tournament, we’ll be happy to answer them here or on our official TSL Discord server. Thanks again to our lovely sponsors, and thank you for your continued support of Team Liquid, TSL, and StarCraft 2.

See you online!
- TeamLiquid