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Shopify TSL 5 Update - Invitees, EPT, and Qualifiers

Forum Index > SC2 General
38 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 Next All

Shopify TSL 5 Update - Invitees, EPT, and Qualifiers

Text byJulmust
Graphics byLip the Pencilboy
April 22nd, 2020 17:03 GMT
TSL5 Logo

The first rounds of qualifiers are now mere days away and you will find some important updates on them in this thread, regarding the sign-up process and updates on participation policy and starting times.

We are proud to announce that TSL5 will be part of the ESL Pro Tour, and will award 1520 EPT Points in total. You will find the exact breakdown of points below. We want to thank DreamHack and ESL for including us in the circuit, even though it forced them to accelerate their finalizing of the new rule-set for external tournaments. We sincerely appreciate it!

This thread will also introduce our invitees to TSL5, four world class players from the international and Korean circuits!

The Four Invites

The main event of the Shopify Team Liquid Starleague 5 starts on May 16th. Starting on Friday, twenty players will battle for their place in the bracket. The remaining four spots will be filled by a quartet of highly deserving players. We are excited to announce that Serral, Zest, INnoVation and ShoWTimE have accepted our invitation to join TSL 5.


Serral

Zest

INnoVation

ShoWTimE

When inviting players, we created a system based on two criteria:
  1. It had to be objective and verifiable. The system, once in place, should have no input from us.
  2. The system needs to strike a balance between Korean players and players from the rest of the world.
With those criteria in mind, we chose to base the invites on the current EPT standings and have a 50/50 split between Korea and the rest of the world. We built one list of the highest ranked Korean players in the Korean EPT Standings and one list with the highest ranked non-Korean players on the Global EPT Standings. We then started at the top of both lists, inviting the players one-by-one. As you can infer from the final invitees, some Korean players declined invitations, but we are very happy with securing Zest and INnoVation as our Korean invitees.

EPT Points

In addition to the $30,000 prize pool, there are more than 1500 EPT points up for grabs. Here is the breakdown:

EPT Points Breakdown
PlacePoints
1st250
2nd180
3rd140
4th110
5th - 6th85
7th - 8th65
9th - 12th50
13th - 16th35
17th - 24th25
Total:1,520

Qualifier Updates

Qualifier Sign-ups
The sign-up page for the qualifiers is now live. A hub with links to all the qualifiers can be found here on ESL Play. The Qualifier info thread has been updated with a direct link to the individual server qualifiers.

NA Qualifiers Update
After our initial post, several players reached out to us regarding the starting time for the North American qualifier. Both the EU and NA qualifiers are meant for players from both regions. With the current setup, North American players can fairly easily participate in the European qualifiers, but not vice versa. This was due to the starting time for the North American qualifiers.

After discussions with players and DreamHack we have decided to move the starting time of the North American server qualifiers from 23:00 GMT (+00:00) to 21:00 GMT (+00:00). The Qualifier info thread has been updated to reflect this change.

Korean Qualifiers Update
As a result of discussions with ESL and DreamHack regarding TSL5’s eligibility for ESL Pro Tour points, we have revised our participation policy for the Korean server qualifiers. Here are the new rules regarding participation in the Korean server qualifier:

New policy: Players with South Korean nationality are only eligible to play in the Korean server qualifiers (no change). Players with citizenship or permanent residency in countries other than South Korea may choose to compete in EITHER the Global Qualifiers (NA/EU servers) or Korean server qualifiers.
Old policy: The Korean server qualifiers are ONLY open to players who are citizens of South Korea or have obtained permanent residency in South Korea.The North America and European server qualifiers are open to anyone, EXCEPT players who are eligible for Korean qualifiers (players who are eligible for both qualifiers must choose between Korea or EU/NA).
This change was primarily made to offer players from regions such as East Asia or Oceania an alternative to the NA/EU servers to ensure they could play under fair connection conditions.

We believe this revised policy preserves TSL’s original goal of allowing broad international participation while also avoiding the ‘double-dipping’ issues of non-Korean players residing in Korea.

Feedback
Please leave a message here, or contact Julmust if you have any questions.

Let’s hear from you!

The TSL is looking for community casters for the qualifiers. If you are interested in sharing your voice with the world, check out this thread here

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AdministratorI'm dancing in the moonlight
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-22 17:28:22
April 22 2020 17:27 GMT
#2
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-22 18:58:10
April 22 2020 17:31 GMT
#3
Inviting based on EPT points does feel a bit like the rich getting richer. Admittedly that's probably a bit of a moot point given that all the invitees should qualify to IEM Katowice fairly easily (maybe it helps Showtime a bit).
Olli
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Austria24422 Posts
April 22 2020 17:37 GMT
#4
On April 23 2020 02:31 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Inviting based on EPT points does feel a bit like the rich getting richer. Admittedly that's probably a bit of moot point given that all the invitees should qualify to IEM Katowice fairly easily (maybe it helps Showtime a bit).


We felt it was the only fair invite system. Not too dissimilar to GSL inviting top finishers of each previous season, only that we had no previous TSL to reasonably base this on. So we felt EPT ranking was at least based on some recent merit.
Administrator"Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33643 Posts
April 22 2020 17:48 GMT
#5
On April 23 2020 02:27 Ej_ wrote:
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.


wow what if we had just invited the top four of TSL4
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
StarcraftPeffo
Profile Joined May 2019
Italy66 Posts
April 22 2020 17:53 GMT
#6
Love this! Keep up the good work
Howard_Kao
Profile Joined September 2018
China261 Posts
April 22 2020 17:56 GMT
#7
On April 23 2020 02:48 Waxangel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 23 2020 02:27 Ej_ wrote:
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.


wow what if we had just invited the top four of TSL4

Life got banned, sting retired, keen in military, only one to invite is creator who definitely won't get out of the korean qualifier. Maybe he will? Thats gonna be great.
"You don't need a gsl champion, you don't need a esl champion. I feel like I'm just a normal man. I just practice very hard this time, like 15hrs everyday" Oliveira 2023
catplanetcatplanet
Profile Blog Joined March 2012
3836 Posts
April 22 2020 19:31 GMT
#8
I like to think that rogue and maru declined in the hopes that their buddy creator would get an invite hope he beasts it in the qualifier and gets his shot anyway
I think it's finally time to admit it might not be the year of Pet
Circumstance
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States11403 Posts
April 22 2020 19:31 GMT
#9
It's good that we got two Protosses in the invite given recent patterns of results. Better chance of three-way parity that way.
The world is better when every background has a chance.
digmouse
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
China6331 Posts
April 22 2020 20:48 GMT
#10
On April 23 2020 02:56 Howard_Kao wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 23 2020 02:48 Waxangel wrote:
On April 23 2020 02:27 Ej_ wrote:
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.


wow what if we had just invited the top four of TSL4

Life got banned, sting retired, keen in military, only one to invite is creator who definitely won't get out of the korean qualifier. Maybe he will? Thats gonna be great.

And you have to go all the way down to 9-16th for players that are still relevant today which are Taeja and SpeCial.
TranslatorIf you want to ask anything about Chinese esports, send me a PM or follow me @nerddigmouse.
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8990 Posts
April 22 2020 20:53 GMT
#11
On April 23 2020 04:31 catplanetcatplanet wrote:
I like to think that rogue and maru declined in the hopes that their buddy creator would get an invite hope he beasts it in the qualifier and gets his shot anyway


If only the next 20 korean player had done the same
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
stilt
Profile Joined October 2012
France2755 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-04-22 21:30:29
April 22 2020 21:30 GMT
#12
With 4 invitations, I don't get why there is ept points after the hsc debacle.
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
April 22 2020 21:55 GMT
#13
On April 23 2020 06:30 stilt wrote:
With 4 invitations, I don't get why there is ept points after the hsc debacle.


The situation is quite different to be fair. StayAtHomestory Cup had more invites than qualified players which isn't the case here. Who gets invited for TSL does follow an objective criteria. And all of this is clear ahead of time whereas for StayAtHSC it was all very last minute.
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2720 Posts
April 22 2020 22:31 GMT
#14
On April 23 2020 06:55 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 23 2020 06:30 stilt wrote:
With 4 invitations, I don't get why there is ept points after the hsc debacle.


The situation is quite different to be fair. StayAtHomestory Cup had more invites than qualified players which isn't the case here. Who gets invited for TSL does follow an objective criteria. And all of this is clear ahead of time whereas for StayAtHSC it was all very last minute.

Still they should institute the "invites need to advance at least one round to receive EPT points" rule they had for previous points-giving tournaments with invites. Those small points could be make or break for some people and rather than having a controversy later it would be good to address this now.
very illegal and very uncool
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
April 22 2020 23:20 GMT
#15
On April 23 2020 02:27 Ej_ wrote:
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.


Creator will be glad he won't carry the responsibility of being invited in his current state.

Korean qualifiers being harder than the actual tournament?
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2720 Posts
April 23 2020 01:21 GMT
#16
"Players with citizenship or permanent residency in countries other than South Korea may choose to compete in EITHER the Global Qualifiers (NA/EU servers) or Korean server qualifiers."

I'm assuming the "or" here is the exclusive or.
very illegal and very uncool
DBooN
Profile Joined May 2011
Germany2727 Posts
April 23 2020 03:09 GMT
#17
On April 23 2020 08:20 Xain0n wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 23 2020 02:27 Ej_ wrote:
Creator robbed of title defense. There is no way he qualifies now that it's 2013 again and the Korean qualifier is harder than the actual tournament.


Creator will be glad he won't carry the responsibility of being invited in his current state.

Korean qualifiers being harder than the actual tournament?

Yeah, players hate getting a chance to play in a tournament because of the responsibility that comes with it. Especially when not getting invited means a much more deserving player like serral gets to play.
Xophy
Profile Joined June 2012
Germany79 Posts
April 23 2020 05:12 GMT
#18
On April 23 2020 10:21 argonautdice wrote:
"Players with citizenship or permanent residency in countries other than South Korea may choose to compete in EITHER the Global Qualifiers (NA/EU servers) or Korean server qualifiers."

I'm assuming the "or" here is the exclusive or.


Well, "... either ... or" already specifies that it is exclusive, right?
RealityTheGreat
Profile Joined January 2018
China564 Posts
April 23 2020 05:34 GMT
#19
Renaissance?
Betrayed, forgotten, abandoned.
dbRic1203
Profile Joined July 2019
Germany2655 Posts
April 23 2020 08:17 GMT
#20
I realy like the format and the fact they can give out EPT points, realy well done
While I think it would have been quite a fun site note, if Creator would have gotten an invite as well, I dont get how people are actually making deal out of it. (or is that just trolling, not sure tbh)
MaxPax
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