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2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series

From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki



Overview[edit]

The 2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series is a series of events organized by or in cooperation with Blizzard Entertainment. They are designed to include three major StarCraft II broadcasters, ESL, GOMeXP and SPOTV Games. There will be a 1.6 Million USD prize pool, that will be spread out among multiple events throughout the year. Those events are split into regions with two in South Korea and the rest of the world reunited in a single WCS. There will be three seasons of the regional events. Players will earn points throughout the seasons to qualify for the overall final.

There are big changes in the 2015 edition, with WCS Europe and WCS America merged in a unique WCS, and the creation of a second league in Korea organized by SPOTV Games.

Format[edit]

2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series qualifiers breakdown

Regional Events[edit]

WCS[edit]

  • Qualifiers will be tournaments giving 32 players access to the WCS Challenger.
    • For the first season, 64 players will have access to the WCS Challenger.
  • WCS Challenger contains 64 players vying for a spot in the Premier League for the current season.
    • Only one round, consisting of 32 best-of-five Up-and-Down matches. The losers are eliminated from the WCS season, while the winners proceed to the WCS Premier League.
    • Introduced for the Season 2 in the regions of America and Europe, Premier Pick allow the Premier League players to pick the WCS Challenger players.[1]
    • For the picks, Premier League players are ranked as follows:
  1. Placement in the previous season
  2. WCS Points (as of the previous WCS Season Finals date)
  3. If both the placement and WCS Points are equal between a group of players, the ranking will be determined by random draw
  • WCS Premier League, contains the top 32 players in the tournament.
    Format of the 2015 WCS League
    • All those players will have to compete in the WCS Challenger of the next season.
      • The Premier League Champion will automatically retain a spot in Premier League for the next season. That player’s region will receive one less Challenger spot.
    • Both Ro32 and Ro16 consists of a dual tournament group stage where the top 2 moves on in the tournament.
    • Premier League RO32 Group Stage will be played onsite at the ESL Studios. Four groups will be played in the ESL Burbank studio in the US, and four groups will be played in the ESL Cologne studio in Germany.
    • The 16 Players advancing from the RO32 will be compete onsite at a live venue location for the Season Finals event.
  • WCS Premier League Residency Requirements
    • In order to compete in the WCS Premier League, all participants must be a resident of a country within the home regions for regional qualifiers into WCS Challenger.
    • Eligible countries and regions:
      • Europe, Africa, Middle East
      • North America (USA, Canada)
      • Mainland China
      • Latin America
      • Oceania, Southeast Asia
      • Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau
    • If the player is a foreign resident of an eligible country for the WCS Premier League, the player must submit a copy of their passport along with a valid resident visa for the eligible country for an evaluation of their residency status. The visa must be acquired before the start of the qualifiers and is only considered valid if it allows the player to stay in the region, work in the region, and earn prize money in the region.
      • Examples of acceptable identification: Professional athlete visa, Work visa, Student visa
      • Examples of non-acceptable identification: Expired visa, Working holiday visa, General tourist/visitor visa
    • If a player can demonstrate consistent residency in a region starting on or before January 1, 2013, the residency visa requirement can be waived.

GSL[edit]

Apart for the first season, GSL remains the same in 2015

The GOMeXP Global StarCraft II League operates slightly differently:

  • Qualifiers will be tournaments giving 24 players access to Code .
  • Code A, the equivalent to Challenger League, contains 48 players vying for a spot in the Premier League for the current season.
    • Only one round, consisting of 24 best-of-five Up-and-Down matches. The losers are eliminated, while the winners proceed to Code .
  • Code S will operate as Premier League, with two group stages and a final elimination tournament. The top 8 players are automatically qualified in Code for the next season.

Exceptionally, for Season 1, 32 players qualify for Code .

SSL[edit]

The format of the new league is still a bit vague

The StarCraft II StarLeague operated by SPOTV Games is a new league introduced in 2015 to give more opportunities to Koreans players to earn WCS points.

  • Qualifiers will be tournaments giving 32 players access to the Challenge round.
  • Challenge is a 32 players round where the top 16 will advance to the main event.
  • Main Event, 16 players competing for the championship, with the top 4 players automatically qualified in the main event for the next season.

WCS Global Events[edit]

As for the 2013 & 2014 series, partner events will give the opportunity to players to gain WCS points outside of the league. Three tiers have been created to determine the number of WCS points given out, depending on factors like prize pool, map pool, qualifier and tournament format.

Global Finals[edit]

The 2015 WCS Global Finals feature the sixteen players with the most WCS points in 2015. They are played in California, conclude 2015's WCS and distribute a total of $250,000 USD in prize money among the participants.

Prize Pool[edit]

WCS[edit]

WCS Premier League[edit]
Place Prize (USD) Points
1st $30,000 2,000
2nd $15,000 1,250
3rd-4th $10,000 900
5th-8th $8,000 600
9th-12th $6,000 400
13th-16th $6,000 300
17th-24th $4,500 150
25th-32nd $4,500 100
Total $217,000 12,250
WCS Challenger[edit]
Place Prize (USD) Points
1st-32nd $0 Premier League
33rd-64th $2,000 50
Total $64,000 1,600

GSL[edit]

Code S[edit]
Place Prize (KRW) USD Points
1st ₩40,000,000 $36,099 2,000
2nd ₩10,000,000 $9,025 1,250
3rd-4th ₩4,000,000 $3,610 900
5th-8th ₩2,500,000 $2,256 600
9th-12th ₩1,500,000 $1,354 400
13th-16th ₩1,500,000 $1,354 300
17th-24th ₩850,000 $767 150
25th-32nd ₩850,000 $767 100
Total ₩93,600,000 $84,471 12,250
Code A[edit]
Place Prize (KRW) USD Points
1st-24th ₩0 $0
25th-48th ₩400,000 $361 50
Total ₩9,600,000 $8,664 1,200
Exception in Season 1, with no player in Code A.
The top 32 players from the qualifiers advance in Code S.

SSL[edit]

Main Event[edit]
Place Prize (KRW) USD Points
1st ₩40,000,000 $36,099 2,000
2nd ₩10,000,000 $9,025 1,250
3rd-4th ₩4,500,000 $4,061 900
5th-8th ₩2,000,000 $1,805 600
9th-12th ₩1,000,000 $902 400
13th-16th ₩1,000,000 $902 300
17th-28th ₩200,000 $180 50
Total ₩75,000,000 $67,685 10,250
Challenge[edit]
Place Prize (KRW) USD Points
1st-16th ₩0 $0 Main Event
17th-28th ₩200,000 $180 50
Total ₩2,400,000 $2,160 600
The distribution of points and money for the places 17th-28th was introduced for the Season 2.

Non-WCS Events[edit]

WCS Tier 1[edit]
Place Points
1st 1,500
2nd 800
3rd-4th 550
5th-8th 400
9th-16th 250
Total 7,000
WCS Tier 2[edit]
Place Points
1st 750
2nd 500
3rd-4th 375
5th-8th 250
9th-16th 125
Total 4,000
WCS Tier 3[edit]
Place Points
1st 300
2nd 200
3rd-4th 150
5th-8th 100
9th-16th 75
Total 1,800
Minimum prize pool for Tier 1 = $75,000, Tier 2 = $25,000 and Tier 3 = $10,000.

2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Events[edit]

Event Date Winner Runner-Up Score
World Championship
2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals 2015-11-01 – 2015-11-07 South Korea Protoss sOs South Korea Zerg Life 4-3
Season 1
2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Season 1 2015-01-14 – 2015-04-05 South Korea Terran Polt South Korea Zerg Hydra 4-3
2015 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 2015-01-07 – 2015-03-22 South Korea Zerg Life South Korea Protoss PartinG 4-3
2015 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 1 2014-12-17 – 2015-03-21 South Korea Terran Maru South Korea Terran Dream 4-1
Season 2
2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Season 2 2015-04-18 – 2015-06-28 South Korea Zerg Hydra France Protoss Lilbow 4-2
2015 Global StarCraft II League Season 2 2015-04-01 – 2015-06-28 South Korea Protoss Rain South Korea Zerg ByuL 4-1
2015 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 2 2015-04-02 – 2015-06-20 South Korea Protoss Classic South Korea Terran Dream 4-1
Season 3
2015 StarCraft II World Championship Series Season 3 2015-05-29 – 2015-09-13 France Protoss Lilbow Poland Protoss MaNa 4-2
2015 Global StarCraft II League Season 3 2015-07-08 – 2015-10-04 South Korea Terran INnoVation South Korea Zerg ByuL 4-2
2015 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 3 2015-07-02 – 2015-09-20 South Korea Protoss herO South Korea Zerg ByuL 4-2

2015 WCS Partner Events[edit]

Event Location Date Points Winner Runner-Up Score
GOMTV Global StarCraft II League 2014 Hot6ix Cup South Korea Seoul (2014-11-18 – 2014-12-07) 4,000 South Korea Protoss sOs South Korea Terran MarineKing 4-1
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season IX - San Jose United States San Jose (2014-12-03 – 2014-12-07) 4,000 South Korea Protoss herO South Korea Protoss Rain 4-3
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season IX - Taipei Taiwan Taipei (2015-01-28 – 2015-02-01) 4,000 South Korea Zerg Life South Korea Terran Maru 4-3
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season IX - World Championship Poland Katowice (2015-03-12 – 2015-03-15) 7,000 South Korea Protoss Zest South Korea Protoss Trap 4-1
Gfinity Gfinity Spring Masters I United Kingdom London (2015-03-27 – 2015-03-29) 1,800 South Korea Protoss PartinG South Korea Zerg Hydra 4-2
Copenhagen Games Copenhagen Games Spring 2015 Denmark Copenhagen (2015-04-01 – 2015-04-03) 1,800 South Korea Protoss PartinG South Korea Terran FanTaSy 4-0
Gfinity Gfinity Spring Masters II United Kingdom London (2015-05-01 – 2015-05-03) 1,800 South Korea Zerg Solar South Korea Zerg Hydra 4-1
KeSPA 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 1 South Korea Seoul (2015-05-03 – 2015-05-05) 4,000 South Korea Protoss herO South Korea Zerg Dark 4-3
DreamHack 2015 DreamHack Open: Tours France Tours (2015-05-08 – 2015-05-09) 4,000 South Korea Protoss PartinG South Korea Terran GuMiho 3-1
HKESPORTS 3rd Hong Kong Esports Tournament Taiwan Taipei (2015-05-31 – 2015-06-13) 1,800 South Korea Protoss PartinG South Korea Zerg Leenock 4-1
KeSPA 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 2 South Korea Seoul (2015-07-06 – 2015-07-12) 4,000 South Korea Zerg soO South Korea Zerg Dark 4-1
DreamHack 2015 DreamHack Open: Valencia Spain Valencia (2015-07-16 – 2015-07-17) 4,000 South Korea Zerg Curious South Korea Zerg TRUE 3-0
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season X - Shenzhen China Shenzehn (2015-07-16 – 2015-07-20) 4,000 South Korea Protoss Classic South Korea Protoss PartinG 4-1
4Gamers StarCraft II Tournament 4Gamers StarCraft II Tournament Taiwan Taipei (2015-07-27 – 2015-09-05) 1,800 South Korea Zerg HyuN South Korea Terran Bomber 4-2
ASUS ROG Tournaments ASUS ROG Summer 2015 Finland Helsinki (2015-07-30 – 2015-07-31) 1,800 South Korea Zerg Losira France Protoss PtitDrogo 4-2
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season X - gamescom Germany Cologne (2015-08-05 – 2015-08-09) 4,000 South Korea Terran INnoVation South Korea Zerg soO 4-1
2014 MSI Beat IT MSI Masters Gaming Arena 2015 United States Seattle (2015-08-30 – 2015-08-31) 4,000 South Korea Protoss sOs South Korea Zerg Solar 3-0
DreamHack 2015 DreamHack Open: Stockholm Sweden Stockholm (2015-09-24 – 2015-09-25) 4,000 South Korea Zerg Solar South Korea Zerg HyuN 3-1

Racial Distribution[edit]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Blizzard Entertainment (March 11, 2015). "WCS Qualifiers, Schedule, and New Premier Pick System for Season 2". Wcs.battle.net. Retrieved March 11, 2015.