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United States33581 Posts
Source: ESL Announcement
StarCraft II has officially been announced as part of the Esports World Cup 2024 (formerly Gamers8), with the tournament serving as the World Championship for the 2023/24 EPT season.
18 players will play in a 5-day event, and play for "the largest prize pool StarCraft has ever seen" (the sum was not disclosed in the official ESL post). The previous top prize pool for StarCraft II was $700,000 at BlizzCon 2017-2019.
ESL announced the following qualification process for the tournament:
- 2023 ESL Masters Summer champion (DH Jonkoping): Serral
- 2023 ESL Masters Winter champion (DH Atlanta): Clem
- Top 4 from IEM Katowice 2024
- Top 4 from ESL Masters Spring (DH Dallas)
- Top 2 EPT Europe point standings
- Top 2 EPT Korea point standings
- Top 1 EPT Americas point standings
- Top 1 EPT Asia point standings
- 2 players from open qualifiers.
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/ewcqualification.png)
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I thought this was already confirmed before, would've been REALLY awkward if it wasn't after all of these teams getting players and IEM Katoice no longer being the world championship lol
"the largest prize pool StarCraft has ever seen" (the sum was not disclosed in the official ESL post). The previous top prize pool for StarCraft II was $700,000 at BlizzCon 2017-2019.
Nice!
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18 players, I wonder how the format would look like.
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On February 03 2024 01:28 ekojs wrote:
18 players, I wonder how the format would look like.
two round robin groups of 9 into top 8 single elim bracket? I guess.
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Maru should be ranked by having won 2 GSL.
But hey, the ESL always supporting its European boys
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On February 03 2024 02:18 conormcgregor156 wrote:
Maru should be ranked by having won 2 GSL.
But hey, the ESL always supporting its European boys
Why should GSL give out invites to ESL Masters AND the World Cup?
I really hope they don't fuck up the format for this - 18 players is already a bit awkward, but lets wait and see. Could also be that there is some sort of PlayIn-Stage.
Also like the invite-structure, giving weight to the last Masters. Also interesting to see what will happen when players qualify multiple times - will their slot just be given to their region instead (e.g. Serral gets Top 4 at Katowice, so EU gets a slot more)? Could lead to some interesting dynamics. While it is highly unlikely, the biggest prizepool in SC2 history could be played out with just two koreans, which would be insane. But I gues it is more realistic Korea will atleast snatch 6-7 slots, if not the entire 10-12 (depending how the Open Qualifier will work) that are up for grabs.
Anyway, great that there are finally numbers to work with and players and fans have the confirmation how many players will be able to attend and what they have to do for it. The uncertainty was kinda dampening the mood for me lately.
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Kinda disapointing, that the EPT points are pretty much meaningles now. Almost no players get invited over the standings compared to last years Katowice and Blizzcon before that
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On February 03 2024 02:35 dbRic1203 wrote:
Kinda disapointing, that the EPT points are pretty much meaningles now. Almost no players get invited over the standings compared to last years Katowice and Blizzcon before that
Yeah, I kinda agree with this. I am constantly confused about what the system even is these days, it seems to change faster than it takes me to learn, and I have mixed feelings over the saudi money, but SC2 staying alive is good overall.
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I guess this means we'll have a $1.000.000 price pool, which is the minimum price pool of all other games that were last year in Gamers8. SC2 was the only game with a $500.000 price pool if I remember correctly.
The rules for multiple qualification seem to be unclear. I think the best option would be the top positions in the tournaments to be fixed and not replaced (i.e. if Serral and Clem are top4 in IEM Katowice 2024 then only the other 2 players qualify), but they are replaced if they are in the "top points" list (i.e. currently 3rd and 4th from Europe qualify, as Serral and Clem are 1st and 2nd).
Edit: As this is now EPT World Champship, perhaps its rules apply.
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On February 03 2024 02:59 Xamo wrote:
I guess this means we'll have a $1.000.000 price pool, which is the minimum price pool of all other games that were last year in Gamers8. SC2 was the only game with a $500.000 price pool if I remember correctly.
The rules for multiple qualification seem to be unclear. I think the best option would be the top positions in the tournaments to be fixed and not replaced (i.e. if Serral and Clem are top4 in IEM Katowice 2024 then only the other 2 players qualify), but they are replaced if they are in the "top points" list (i.e. currently 3rd and 4th from Europe qualify, as Serral and Clem are 1st and 2nd).
Edit: As this is now EPT World Champship, perhaps its rules apply.
This is already the case.
The next set of players will qualify by reaching the semifinals of IEM Katowice 2024 and ESL SC2 Masters Spring at DreamHack Dallas 2024 or by topping their respective regional EPT standings - in case any player earns more than one slot, the competitor with the highest EPT Global Standings rank will be invited. The lineup will be complete after the last chance open qualifiers, to be held online later this Summer.
It will be from the global standings though.
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Northern Ireland26459 Posts
I don’t like a tournament having borderline retrospective qualification standards
The first iteration hey it’s a new tournament with that Saudi money, you’ve got to cobble something together somehow. Needs must and all that.
This iteration you can’t specify the qualification standards more in advance? And they’re very different standards from Gamers 8.
Like I wonder how many players have been grinding the weeklies assuming EPT points would be how most entrants get in, only to find those efforts are completely immaterial now the standards are announced
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United States1916 Posts
On February 03 2024 03:11 WombaT wrote:
I don’t like a tournament having borderline retrospective qualification standards
The first iteration hey it’s a new tournament with that Saudi money, you’ve got to cobble something together somehow. Needs must and all that.
This iteration you can’t specify the qualification standards more in advance? And they’re very different standards from Gamers 8.
Like I wonder how many players have been grinding the weeklies assuming EPT points would be how most entrants get in, only to find those efforts are completely immaterial now the standards are announced
I think a lot of players are just happy that there is an event being held with a six figure first place prize. For better or worse, this will be the most important tournament of the year and one of the (presumably) few opportunities to win this much cash before sc2 prize pools are reduced even further. We can talk about prestige or history when we talk about tournaments, but it's the money that motivates players most of all. Some won't but I think a lot of players will forgive losing out on EPT points given what they're getting in return.
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Northern Ireland26459 Posts
On February 03 2024 04:40 Mizenhauer wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2024 03:11 WombaT wrote:
I don’t like a tournament having borderline retrospective qualification standards
The first iteration hey it’s a new tournament with that Saudi money, you’ve got to cobble something together somehow. Needs must and all that.
This iteration you can’t specify the qualification standards more in advance? And they’re very different standards from Gamers 8.
Like I wonder how many players have been grinding the weeklies assuming EPT points would be how most entrants get in, only to find those efforts are completely immaterial now the standards are announced I think a lot of players are just happy that there is an event being held with a six figure first place prize. For better or worse, this will be the most important tournament of the year and one of the (presumably) few opportunities to win this much cash before sc2 prize pools are reduced even further. We can talk about prestige or history when we talk about tournaments, but it's the money that motivates players most of all. Some won't but I think a lot of players will forgive losing out on EPT points given what they're getting in return.
I’m sure they are, it’s not my point.
Assuming this tournament was confirmed as happening quite some time ago, which maybe it wasn’t. Although judging by various orgs picking up SC2 players seemingly to have presence in another game it seems unlikely it wasn’t at least privately confirmed.
The previous iteration of said tournament was mostly based on EPT points, this wasn’t. If I’m a pro on the edge of qualifying via EPT points I’m playing every weekly going, only to find it’s basically immaterial.
Announce the qualification standards more in advance, so players can tailor what they’re focusing on, I don’t think this is unreasonable.
You’re doling out spots in a completely different way to your last tournament, halfway through a season.
It’s a terrible way to do it
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Northern Ireland26459 Posts
SC2 is just a title dangled to give this push some initial legitimacy and will be dropped entirely after an edition or two if it catches fire.
If the money was actually concerned with the scene it might bolster the GSL prize pool, or various other things. SC2 as a big legacy eSport is just there to give some legitimacy and old-school kudos to the event and will be excised once it’s up and running
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I don't think we need to talk about the motivation this thing exists, it is clearly sportswashing and has nothing to do with being concerned about the SC2 scene. That's a very different topic and I'm also not particularly happy to have this kind of thing in Riyad
But I still think ESL should get some flak for the way this all went down. Changing the format halfway through the season, leaving it open even longer how the qualification will even work etc. is just not that great of a look. Of course this probably has to do with Gamers8 and waiting to look how that worked out, but still
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Northern Ireland26459 Posts
On February 03 2024 05:14 Balnazza wrote:
I don't think we need to talk about the motivation this thing exists, it is clearly sportswashing and has nothing to do with being concerned about the SC2 scene. That's a very different topic and I'm also not particularly happy to have this kind of thing in Riyad
But I still think ESL should get some flak for the way this all went down. Changing the format halfway through the season, leaving it open even longer how the qualification will even work etc. is just not that great of a look. Of course this probably has to do with Gamers8 and waiting to look how that worked out, but still
Yeah I mean the former will have a lot of divergent opinion along various paths. Of which I have a rather strong feeling on personally, but I concede counter-arguments have some validity.
The latter feels just an outright error that there’s little justification for.
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I'm surprised Reynor didn't get a spot for winning Gamers8. I also hope that if a player qualifies through multiple events the extra spots are either added to the open qualifier or taken from the combined EPT standings. Giving a bunch of extra spots to EU because Serral and probably Clem will take multiple tournament top 4 spots would be dumb.
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On February 03 2024 04:58 WombaT wrote:
SC2 is just a title dangled to give this push some initial legitimacy and will be dropped entirely after an edition or two if it catches fire.
If the money was actually concerned with the scene it might bolster the GSL prize pool, or various other things. SC2 as a big legacy eSport is just there to give some legitimacy and old-school kudos to the event and will be excised once it’s up and running
I don't think the Saudis care at all about the general health of the SC2 scene, but I also am not sure SC2 will immediately be on the chopping block if ESWC takes off. 1 million USD is a massive prize pool for SC2, but it's almost a rounding error to the organizers (they also have to pay for production costs for a few days.) That combined with the fact that the ESWC is for sports washing, not profit, I can see SC2 remaining out of pure indifference.
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On February 03 2024 05:28 JJH777 wrote:
I'm surprised Reynor didn't get a spot for winning Gamers8. I also hope that if a player qualifies through multiple events the extra spots are either added to the open qualifier or taken from the combined EPT standings. Giving a bunch of extra spots to EU because Serral and probably Clem will take multiple tournament top 4 spots would be dumb.
That point would litterally never be discussed if any of the Koreans won one of the Season Finals, so for me it's not as a problem as some make it to be.
What I would check is whether the other players actually gain enough points to actually qualify.
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I don't feel comfortable watching any of this, knowing where the money comes from.
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EPT
