SC2 confirmed for Esports World Cup, will be EPT World Championship

"the largest prize pool StarCraft has ever seen" (the sum was not disclosed in the official ESL post). The previous top prize pool for StarCraft II was $700,000 at BlizzCon 2017-2019.

Nice!

On February 03 2024 01:28 ekojs wrote:
18 players, I wonder how the format would look like.

But hey, the ESL always supporting its European boys

Why should GSL give out invites to ESL Masters AND the World Cup?

I really hope they don't fuck up the format for this - 18 players is already a bit awkward, but lets wait and see. Could also be that there is some sort of PlayIn-Stage.
Also like the invite-structure, giving weight to the last Masters. Also interesting to see what will happen when players qualify multiple times - will their slot just be given to their region instead (e.g. Serral gets Top 4 at Katowice, so EU gets a slot more)? Could lead to some interesting dynamics. While it is highly unlikely, the biggest prizepool in SC2 history could be played out with just two koreans, which would be insane. But I gues it is more realistic Korea will atleast snatch 6-7 slots, if not the entire 10-12 (depending how the Open Qualifier will work) that are up for grabs.

Anyway, great that there are finally numbers to work with and players and fans have the confirmation how many players will be able to attend and what they have to do for it. The uncertainty was kinda dampening the mood for me lately.

On February 03 2024 02:35 dbRic1203 wrote:
Kinda disapointing, that the EPT points are pretty much meaningles now. Almost no players get invited over the standings compared to last years Katowice and Blizzcon before that

Yeah, I kinda agree with this. I am constantly confused about what the system even is these days, it seems to change faster than it takes me to learn, and I have mixed feelings over the saudi money, but SC2 staying alive is good overall.

This is already the case.

The next set of players will qualify by reaching the semifinals of IEM Katowice 2024 and ESL SC2 Masters Spring at DreamHack Dallas 2024 or by topping their respective regional EPT standings - in case any player earns more than one slot, the competitor with the highest EPT Global Standings rank will be invited. The lineup will be complete after the last chance open qualifiers, to be held online later this Summer.

It will be from the global standings though.

The first iteration hey it’s a new tournament with that Saudi money, you’ve got to cobble something together somehow. Needs must and all that.

This iteration you can’t specify the qualification standards more in advance? And they’re very different standards from Gamers 8.

Like I wonder how many players have been grinding the weeklies assuming EPT points would be how most entrants get in, only to find those efforts are completely immaterial now the standards are announced

Assuming this tournament was confirmed as happening quite some time ago, which maybe it wasn’t. Although judging by various orgs picking up SC2 players seemingly to have presence in another game it seems unlikely it wasn’t at least privately confirmed.

The previous iteration of said tournament was mostly based on EPT points, this wasn’t. If I’m a pro on the edge of qualifying via EPT points I’m playing every weekly going, only to find it’s basically immaterial.

Announce the qualification standards more in advance, so players can tailor what they’re focusing on, I don’t think this is unreasonable.

You’re doling out spots in a completely different way to your last tournament, halfway through a season.

It’s a terrible way to do it

If the money was actually concerned with the scene it might bolster the GSL prize pool, or various other things. SC2 as a big legacy eSport is just there to give some legitimacy and old-school kudos to the event and will be excised once it’s up and running

But I still think ESL should get some flak for the way this all went down. Changing the format halfway through the season, leaving it open even longer how the qualification will even work etc. is just not that great of a look. Of course this probably has to do with Gamers8 and waiting to look how that worked out, but still

The latter feels just an outright error that there’s little justification for.

On February 03 2024 05:28 JJH777 wrote:
I'm surprised Reynor didn't get a spot for winning Gamers8. I also hope that if a player qualifies through multiple events the extra spots are either added to the open qualifier or taken from the combined EPT standings. Giving a bunch of extra spots to EU because Serral and probably Clem will take multiple tournament top 4 spots would be dumb.

That point would litterally never be discussed if any of the Koreans won one of the Season Finals, so for me it's not as a problem as some make it to be.

What I would check is whether the other players actually gain enough points to actually qualify.