Announcing 6th iteration of The NA Apprentice! This season will be experimental, with a bunch of changes to see how they affect the tournament. There's also a good chance that this is the final NA Apprentice season of the year!
Here's a list of all the changes for Season 6:
* No more WCS group stage-related eligibility requirements! As long as you're eligible to play in WCS NA then anyone can participate!
* The player count is decreasing from 32 to 24. I noticed a lot of walkovers from the last event, most of which happened in Group Stage 1. We'll see what happens with less people playing in this season.
* Instead of inviting the top 8 players of the previous season, I'll be inviting 8 other players for this event. The list of invited players will be unveiled at a later date.
* There'll be 1 group stage that leads into a 12-person playoff bracket instead of 2 group stages into an 8 man bracket.
* The base prize pool is being decreased from 200 to 150. I'd like to save a bit of money here to use for my other SC2 projects I don't think this should impact participation too much.
Eligibility:
Any player eligible for WCS NA may participate in this event.
Player Schedule:
* Group Stage: September 30 - October 10
* Ro12: October 11 - 13
* Ro8: October 14 - 20
* Ro4: October 21 - 27
* Finals: LIVE (TBD)
Format:
* Group Stage 1: 4 Bo3 round robin groups with 6 players in each group. Top 3 of each group advance to the playoffs.
* Playoffs: Single elimination bracket. Ro12, Ro8 and Ro4 are Bo5. Finals is Bo7.
Links:
Liquipedia: https://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/The_NA_Apprentice:_Season_6
Matcherino: https://matcherino.com/tournaments/19737/overview
Rulebook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mXDgLeOsDWo_4gF76nykKkl5sShXzbRVf-m3GstLLtw/edit?usp=sharing
Discord: https://discord.gg/JakSZZv
Important Dates:
Qualifier 1: Friday, September 27 @ 7 PM EDT
https://na-apprentice.challonge.com/ApprenticeSeason6Qual1
Qualifier 2: Saturday, September 28 @ 7 PM EDT
https://na-apprentice.challonge.com/ApprenticeSeason6Qual2
Season 6 begins: Monday, September 30