2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series

Overview[edit]

The 2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series is a series of events organized by or in cooperation with Blizzard Entertainment. They are designed to include four major StarCraft II broadcasters, ESL, DreamHack, AfreecaTV and SPOTV Games. There will be a 2 million USD prize pool, that will be spread out among multiple events throughout the year. WCS will be essentially split between the WCS Circuit and WCS Korea, only reunited in WCS Global Events and in the WCS Global Playoffs that conclude the season.

Sixteen spots in the WCS Global Playoffs will be available, either by winning specific events (WCS Circuit championships or WCS Korea seasons), or by being one of the top-ranked players of the WCS Circuit or WCS Korea.

Format[edit]

The WCS system is split in two: WCS Korea and WCS Circuit. Both systems have their standings, with points earned at various events.

Throughout the year[edit]

WCS Korea[edit]

There will be two seasons of Global StarCraft II League (GSL) and StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL) awarding points.

GSL[edit]

The Global StarCraft II League is organized by AfreecaTV, and operates as follows:

Qualifiers will be tournaments giving 24 players access to Code .

Code A contains 48 players vying for a spot in Code S 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 has 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, 30 players qualify for Code .

SSL[edit]

The StarCraft II StarLeague is organized by SPOTV Games, and operates as follows:

Qualifiers will be tournaments giving 12 players access to the Main event

The Main Event will have 16 players competing for the championship:
- Single elimination until the semifinals
- Double-elimination with the four remaining players, automatically qualified in the main event for the next season

Exceptionally, for Season 1, 16 players qualify for the main event.

WCS Circuit[edit]

Championships[edit]

There will be three WCS Circuit Championships (Winter, Spring, Summer) awarding points. These events are run by third-party tournament organizers.

Regional Challenger tournaments will seed into the championships, and provide additional points.

Circuit Events[edit]

Additionally, WCS Circuit events will give the opportunity to earn more points. They will be split in two categories:

5000-point events, with a minimum of 16 players
2500-point events, with a minimum of 8 players

Global Events[edit]

WCS Global Events will reunite players from both regions, awarding 7500 points.

Conclusion[edit]

2016 WCS Format overview

Global Playoffs[edit]

At the end of the year, eight players from each region qualify to the 2016 WCS Global Playoffs:

WCS Korea: 4 seeds from the GSL and SSL events, 4 seeds from the standings
WCS Circuit: 3 seeds from the Circuit Championships, 5 seeds from the standings

If a player has won multiple GSL/SSL events, or multiple Circuit Championships, then there will be one more seed from the standings.

There will be four groups of four players :

Two players from WCS Korea, two players from WCS Circuit
Dual Tournament format
Best-of-three
Top two qualify to the WCS Global Finals

Global Finals[edit]

The 2016 WCS Global Finals will feature 8 players qualified from the Global Playoffs, playing in a single-elimination bracket, with Bo5 matches leading to a Bo7 grand final, crowning the 2016 WCS Champion.

2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series Events[edit]

Event	Date	Winner	Runner-Up	Score

World Championship
	2016 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Playoffs and Finals	2016-10-27 - 2016-11-05	ByuN	Dark	4-2


2016 Global StarCraft II League Season 1	2016-01-08 – 2016-05-01	Zest	TY	4-2
2016 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 1	2016-01-07 – 2016-04-09	Dark	Stats	4-2
2016 WCS Korea Season 1 Cross Finals	2016-05-22	Stats	Dark	3-1


2016 Global StarCraft II League Season 2	2016-05-27 – 2016-09-10	ByuN	sOs	4-1
2016 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 2	2016-06-02 – 2016-09-11	Solar	Dark	4-3
2016 WCS Korea Season 2 Cross Finals	2016-09-25	Dark	Solar	3-2


2016 WCS Winter Circuit Championship	2016-03-02 – 2016-03-05	Polt	Snute	4-2
2016 WCS Spring Circuit Championship	2016-05-14 – 2016-05-16	ShoWTimE	Nerchio	4-3
2016 WCS Summer Circuit Championship	2016-08-12 – 2016-08-14	TRUE	Polt	4-1

2016 WCS Circuit Events[edit]

Event	Location	Date	Points	Winner	Runner-Up	Score
2016 DreamHack Open: Leipzig	Leipzig	(2016-01-22 – 2016-01-24)	5,000	PtitDrogo	Bly	4-1
Gold Series International 2016	Shanghai	(2016-03-21 – 2016-03-26)	5,000	Harstem	Snute	4-1
2016 DreamHack Open: Austin	Austin	(2016-05-06 – 2016-05-08)	5,000	Hydra	Neeb	4-2
2016 DreamHack Open: Valencia	Valencia	(2016-07-14 – 2016-07-16)	5,000	Nerchio	MarineLorD	4-0
IEM Season XI - Shanghai	Shanghai	(2016-07-28 – 2016-07-31)	5,000	uThermal	Neeb	4-2
WCS Copa Intercontinental	Mexico City	(2016-09-10 – 2016-09-11)	4,100	Snute	ShoWTimE	4-2