The sixth season overall and the second season with StarCraft II of the Intel Extreme Masters is going to kick-off at the world's largest trade fair and event highlight for interactive games and entertainment: gamescom in Cologne. Last year's tournament was the first major live event in StarCraft II's history and we are looking to top its success this year!

But first things first: Instead of inviting players from all around the world ESL and its enterprises will host online qualifiers in the next couple of weeks!

Slot distribution:

16 slots overall, arranged as followed:

7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier
4 Korean Invitees
1 Chinese Player via Qualifer
1 South-East Asian Player via Qualifier
1 National Champion of Host Nation

European Qualifiers: (hosted by ESL)

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Qualifier #1
Date & Time: Sunday, Jul 03 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl.eu/eu/sc2/masters/season6_cologne_qualifier1/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: DieStar - Kas

Qualifier #2
Date & Time: Sunday, Jul 10 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl.eu/eu/sc2/masters/season6_cologne_qualifier2/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: SaSe - Nerchio

Qualifier #3
Date & Time: Sunday, Jul 17 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl.eu/eu/sc2/masters/season6_cologne_qualifier3/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: Beastyqt - Stephano - Tarson

American Qualifiers: (hosted by NESL)

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Qualifier #1
Date & Time: Monday, Jul 04 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.nationalesl.com/us/sc2/go4sc2/cup70/rankings/
Qualified for Final: TT1 - Drewbie - KawaiiRice - Attero

Qualifier #2
Date & Time: Thursday, Jul 07 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.nationalesl.com/us/sc2/go4sc2/cup71/rankings/
Qualified for Final: NamhciR - Agh - [image loading]

SonKiE - Axslav

Qualifier #3
Date & Time: Monday, Jul 11 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.nationalesl.com/us/sc2/go4sc2/cup72/rankings/
Qualified for Final: legosu - StrifeCro - Everize - dde

American Final
Date & Time: Thursday, Jul 14 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Invited Players: IdrA - SeleCT - KiLLeR - Fenix
Grid: http://www.nationalesl.com/us/sc2/go4sc2/gamescon1/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: IdrA - SeleCT

Chinese Qualifier: (hosted by ESL Asia)

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July Go4SC2 Pro China
Date & Time: Friday, Jul 08 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) - Saturday, Jul 16 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/cn/sc2/go4sc2/iemchina/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: Jim

South-East Asian Qualifier (hosted by ESL Asia)

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Go4SC2 #11
Date & Time: Sunday, Jul 03 7:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/sea/sc2/go4sc2/cup11/rankings/
Qualified for Final: mOOnGLaDe - MaFia

Go4SC2 #12
Date & Time: Thursday, Jul 07 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/sea/sc2/go4sc2/cup12/rankings/
Qualified for Final: RedArchon - Shuffle

Go4SC2 #13
Date & Time: Sunday, Jul 10 7:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/sea/sc2/go4sc2/cup13/rankings/
Qualified for Final: bosser - Ninja

Go4SC2 #14
Date & Time: Thursday, Jul 14 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/sea/sc2/go4sc2/cup14/rankings/
Qualified for Final: deth - iaguz

South-East Asian Final
Date & Time: July 15th - 16th 2011
Grid: http://www.esl-asia.net/sea/sc2/1on1/iem6_gamescomquali/rankings/
Qualified for gamescom: mOOnGLaDe

Players at gamescom:

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Socke
DieStar
Kas
SaSe
Nerchio
Jim
mOOnGLaDe
IdrA
SeleCT
Beastyqt
Stephano
Tarson
tbd
tbd
tbd
tbd

sleepingdog

Austria6145 Posts

July 01 2011 14:08 GMT

Is there any reason why Killer is directly invited to the American final while everyone else seems to have to go through a gigantic bracket?

Not that I dislike him...just...why? IdrA and Select I can understand based on their previous results/performance.

Daniello

Poland127 Posts

July 01 2011 16:42 GMT

I wonder why Koreans are invited and EU/NA players have to qualify.

Carush

United States356 Posts

July 01 2011 16:47 GMT

7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier

:/

i know that this is a European league but cmon

stormLP

Canada19 Posts

July 01 2011 16:54 GMT

On July 01 2011 23:08 sleepingdog wrote:
Is there any reason why Killer is directly invited to the American final while everyone else seems to have to go through a gigantic bracket?

Not that I dislike him...just...why? IdrA and Select I can understand based on their previous results/performance.

I can answer that

KiLLeR is regular top performer in our Go4SC2 Cups winning weekly cups and monthly finals.

Skiba

Germany153 Posts

July 01 2011 16:57 GMT

And Killer is one of the few top south american players.

i think the ratio of 7:2 in favour to europe is reasonable, because of a lot more top level players in europe then in NA.

Korean invitees probalby because of the non existend ESL infrastructure in KR

pdd

Australia9933 Posts

July 01 2011 17:05 GMT

Hmm why isn't Morrow invited given that he won the same tournament last year? Or is it just that he's win was already rewarded by a seed in the IEM World Champs?

Prostak

Poland192 Posts

July 01 2011 17:06 GMT

come on eu > na
so 7-2 is fair
and ofc koreans got invites they own every cup they coming
pretty fair i would say
GL!

Baituri

Netherlands1501 Posts

July 01 2011 17:06 GMT

On July 02 2011 01:47 Carush wrote:
7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier

:/

i know that this is a European league but cmon

The European scene is a lot bigger, with more better players. So it is only normal that there are more European slots.

Bobster

Germany3075 Posts

July 01 2011 17:07 GMT

#10

Korea doesn't have qualifiers because there's no Korean division of ESL.

On July 02 2011 02:05 pdd wrote:
Hmm why isn't Morrow invited given that he won the same tournament last year? Or is it just that he's win was already rewarded by a seed in the IEM World Champs?

Exactly. Same with Fenix and qxc, hence the new invites.

sleepingdog

Austria6145 Posts

July 01 2011 17:12 GMT

#11

On July 02 2011 01:47 Carush wrote:
7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier

:/

i know that this is a European league but cmon

I'm from Europe and also have always been of the opinion that EU > NA...but I agree. Especially since Socke is seeded, so it's 8 EU vs 2 NA. And EU isn't 4 times better than NA lol.

Daniello

Poland127 Posts

July 01 2011 17:22 GMT

#12

Will there be an open bracket? Like MLG?

udgnim

United States8024 Posts

July 01 2011 17:47 GMT

#13

http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/sc2-international/players

there's only 5 NA players (6 if you include Huk which is debatable) on the first page for ELO ranking. the top 2 NA players are Idra at rank 16 and Killer at rank 26 and they already have invites to the final qualifier. the other 3 NA players are Fenix, Sheth, and Vibe and they occupy ranks 36 through 38.

so for ranks 1 through 35, there are 2 NA players occupying spots and the rest are mostly filled by EU and KR players. I find it difficult to disagree with ESL choosing to have a 7 EU:2 NA qualifier ratio.

stormLP

Canada19 Posts

July 01 2011 18:54 GMT

#14

On July 02 2011 02:22 Daniello wrote:
Will there be an open bracket? Like MLG?

there will be no open bracket at the event itself, but there will be open qualifiers to attend the event

vdale

Germany1173 Posts

July 01 2011 19:09 GMT

#15

On July 02 2011 01:47 Carush wrote:
7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier

:/

i know that this is a European league but cmon

Maybe they have a system. Both American participants (Fenix and qxc) were last in their group without winning a single series (and match?) at the IEM at Cebit and Idra was an Korean invite. You can't blame them and in my opinion 7-2 is pretty fair.

Jambi

21 Posts

July 01 2011 20:24 GMT

#16

I seriously have to buy premium to enter the open tournament?

Tidus Mino

United Kingdom1108 Posts

July 02 2011 00:11 GMT

#17

7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier
4 Korean Invitees
1 Chinese Player via Qualifer
1 South-East Asian Player via Qualifier
1 National Champion of Host Nation

Right let's make some predictions

South-East Asian player = mOOnGlaDe or Sen
Chinese players = Loner or Lovecd
Korean Invites = HuK, Losira, MKP, MC
American Players = Idra, Select
European Players = Socke, White-Ra, Naniwa, Demuslim, Ret, Tarson, Happy
National Champion = TLO as he'll be playing again by then hopefully

China63 Posts

July 02 2011 02:40 GMT

#18

@Jambi, yes you have to.

Philo

United States337 Posts

July 02 2011 03:42 GMT

#19

It's an open signup, you dont have to buy anything.

The qualifiers for this IEM are no more skewed then normal. They have a lot of European nations that need representation hence more slots. Standard.

Bobble

Australia1493 Posts

July 02 2011 03:53 GMT

#20

On July 02 2011 04:09 vdale wrote:

Show nested quote +

By that logic, SEA would have more qualifying spots, since mOOnGLaDe went the furthest of all of the non-Koreans. It's probably just because there are a lot more top quality SC2 players in all of Europe, which equates to about a 7:2 ratio.

That and IEM is European in origin, you can't blame them.

On July 02 2011 09:11 Tidus Mino wrote:
7 European Players via Qualifier
2 American Players via Qualifier
4 Korean Invitees
1 Chinese Player via Qualifer
1 South-East Asian Player via Qualifier
1 National Champion of Host Nation

Right let's make some predictions

South-East Asian player = mOOnGlaDe or Sen
Chinese players = Loner or Lovecd
Korean Invites = HuK, Losira, MKP, MC
American Players = Idra, Select
European Players = Socke, White-Ra, Naniwa, Demuslim, Ret, Tarson, Happy
National Champion = TLO as he'll be playing again by then hopefully

Socke is already the National Champion.