GSL have announced that Season 1 will begin on January 7, 2015 and end on March 14, 2015. GSL have also announced that first prize will be 40,000,000 Won or $36,050.00. The total prize pool per season will be $90,125.00.
While the first place prize of each season of GSL is now worth ~55% and the total prize pool only ~62%, SPOTV's prize structure means that total prize pool in Korea has increased by ~10%.
The Format
The format will largely follow the same structure as last year, but all players must now requalify for Code S Season 1. However for the following season, the top 8 players will be seeded directly into Code S while the rest of the Top 16 will fall into Code A. 24 players will qualify for Code A from the offline qualifiers starting Season 2.
Future Seasons
Code A Season 2 will start on March 25, Code S Season 2 on April 29, and the finals for that season will be held on June 27.
Code A Season 3 will start in July, while Code S S3 will run from August 5 to September 25. The finals will be held on October 3.
Broadcast Dates
To accommodate Proleague and SPOTV League, GSL will be broadcast 2 days a week in 2015: Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm KST.
WCS Point Distribution
They have also announced the points distribution for next year's WCS/GSL/SPOTV tournaments:
While the number of WCS points for first place remains the same, 2nd down to 16th places have seen an increase in points per place. For example, 2nd place now earns 250 more points than 2014.
Since SPOTV League only has a Top 16 Premier League, they will only give points for the Top 16.
What's the prize pool? Is the finals going to be held in the studio again? These are important to know whether the GSL is recovering or not. Or maybe I should say, the korean scene in general.
They should release the map pool sometime soon imo (at least 1-2 weeks) to give the players the opportunity to start to practice on the new (or old?) maps. Come on Blizz, we're all exciting waiting for what 2015 is going to bring us!! :D
On December 02 2014 10:14 Darkdwarf wrote: I want to know the prize pool!
absolutely unimportant.
The prize pool is a great indicator of the state of the GSL and korean SC2. Last time I believe it was announced that the prize pool for the GSL was getting a cut of something like 20% or more, I forgot the actual number. You would have to be blind not to realize that's telling you something about the GSL and/or korean SC2. Something bad.
On December 02 2014 10:12 lichter wrote: GSL have announced that Season 1 will begin on January 7, 2015 and end on March 14, 2015. GSL have also announced that first prize will be 40,000,000 Won or $36,050.00. The total prize pool per season will be $90,125.00.
ah... so they divided the 2014 prize pool for the 2 new leagues... ~90k for gsl and ~65k for Spotv while it was 150k for gsl last year
i don't know how you find the 20% increase for Korea though
On December 02 2014 10:12 lichter wrote: GSL have announced that Season 1 will begin on January 7, 2015 and end on March 14, 2015. GSL have also announced that first prize will be 40,000,000 Won or $36,050.00. The total prize pool per season will be $90,125.00.
ah... so they divided the 2014 prize pool for the 2 new leagues... ~90k for gsl and ~65k for Spotv while it was 150k for gsl last year
i don't know how you find the 20% increase for Korea though
On December 02 2014 10:12 lichter wrote: GSL have announced that Season 1 will begin on January 7, 2015 and end on March 14, 2015. GSL have also announced that first prize will be 40,000,000 Won or $36,050.00. The total prize pool per season will be $90,125.00.
ah... so they divided the 2014 prize pool for the 2 new leagues... ~90k for gsl and ~65k for Spotv while it was 150k for gsl last year
i don't know how you find the 20% increase for Korea though
It's 10% I computed wrong the first time
90k (gsl) + 67k (spotv) = 157k last year : 150k It's only 5% increase in $, but yeah, 12% in won
On December 02 2014 10:12 lichter wrote: GSL have announced that Season 1 will begin on January 7, 2015 and end on March 14, 2015. GSL have also announced that first prize will be 40,000,000 Won or $36,050.00. The total prize pool per season will be $90,125.00.
ah... so they divided the 2014 prize pool for the 2 new leagues... ~90k for gsl and ~65k for Spotv while it was 150k for gsl last year
i don't know how you find the 20% increase for Korea though
It's 10% I computed wrong the first time
90k (gsl) + 67k (spotv) = 157k last year : 150k It's only 5% increase in $, is your 10% in won then?
it's a slight increase in overall prize money, sure, but that's for what I guess you could call a substantial increase in work load. I want to say the shrinking GSL prize pool is almost entirely reflected in the smaller winner's check, though, so the overall impact isn't too much. a 10% increase in prize money spread over more players is a good thing, even if they're essentially getting a smaller return on their time invested if they are top players.
On December 02 2014 10:29 The_Templar wrote: This is cool news. I wonder why the map pool is such a secret. Blizzard better be cooking something good up...
On December 02 2014 11:24 negativedge wrote: it's a slight increase in overall prize money, sure, but that's for what I guess you could call a substantial increase in work load. I want to say the shrinking GSL prize pool is almost entirely reflected in the smaller winner's check, though, so the overall impact isn't too much. a 10% increase in prize money spread over more players is a good thing, even if they're essentially getting a smaller return on their time invested if they are top players.
The fact that there will be THREE KeSPA Cups is probably also a factor. Things will be a lot more spread out next year