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2018 StarCraft II World Championship Series

From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki

Overview[edit]

The 2018 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, AfreecaTV, DreamHack and ESL. Like in 2017, 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 and Finals that conclude the season.

Sixteen spots in the WCS Global Playoffs will be available, either by winning specific events (IEM Katowice, WCS Circuit events or WCS Korea GSL 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]

Three seasons of Global StarCraft II League (GSL) awarding points.

GSL[edit]

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

  • Code S has two group stages and a final elimination tournament. Like previous year, in 2018 only the semifinalists are seeded into next season's first Code S group stage.
  • Three GSL seasons in 2018, as in 2017.

WCS Circuit[edit]

Events[edit]

Four WCS Circuit Events awarding points. These events are run by DreamHack.

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

Global Events[edit]

Besides the WCS Global Playoffs and Finals, WCS Global Events will reunite players from both regions.

Conclusion[edit]

2018 WCS Format overview

Global Playoffs[edit]

At the end of the year, sixteen players from each region qualify to the 2018 WCS Global Finals.

  • The winner of the global event IEM Season XII - World Championship.
  • The winners of the three GSL seasons, and the four WCS Circuit events. If one of them is the winner of the IEM Katowice, then the next-highest placing player qualifies.
  • With WCS points:
    • WCS Korea: 5 seeds from the standings.
    • WCS Circuit: 4 seeds from the standings

If a player has won multiple GSL seasons, or multiple Circuit Events, then there will be one more seed from the corresponding standings. There will be one less seed in the region where the winner of IEM Katowice plays.

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 2018 WCS Global Finals features 8 players qualified from the Global Playoffs, playing in a single-elimination bracket, with Bo5 matches leading to a Bo7 grand final, crowning the 2018 WCS Champion.

2018 StarCraft II World Championship Series Events[edit]

Event Date Winner Runner-Up Score
World Championship
2018 StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals 2018-10-26 – 2018-11-03 Finland Zerg Serral South Korea Protoss Stats 4-2
GSL
2018 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 2018-01-06 – 2018-03-31 South Korea Terran Maru South Korea Protoss Stats 4-2
2018 Global StarCraft II League Season 2 2018-04-18 – 2018-06-23 South Korea Terran Maru South Korea Protoss Zest 4-0
2018 Global StarCraft II League Season 3 2018-07-04 – 2018-09-15 South Korea Terran Maru South Korea Terran TY 4-3
WCS Korea Events
2018 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 1 2018-04-05 – 2018-04-08 South Korea Protoss Stats South Korea Zerg Dark 4-3
2018 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2 2018-09-27 – 2018-09-30 South Korea Protoss Classic South Korea Protoss sOs 4-3
WCS Circuit Events
2018 WCS Leipzig 2018-01-26 – 2018-01-28 Finland Zerg Serral Germany Protoss ShoWTimE 4-2
2018 WCS Austin 2018-06-01 – 2018-06-03 Finland Zerg Serral Poland Protoss MaNa 4-2
2018 WCS Valencia 2018-07-12 – 2018-07-14 Finland Zerg Serral Taiwan Protoss Has 4-1
2018 WCS Montreal 2018-09-07 – 2018-09-09 Finland Zerg Serral Italy Zerg Reynor 4-3

2018 WCS Global Events[edit]

Event Location Date Winner Runner-Up Score
Intel Extreme Masters IEM Season XII - World Championship Poland Katowice 2018-02-26 – 2018-03-04 South Korea Zerg Rogue South Korea Protoss Classic 4-0
GOMTV Global StarCraft II League 2018 GSL vs. the World South Korea Seoul 2018-08-02 – 2018-08-05 Finland Zerg Serral South Korea Protoss Stats 4-3

See also[edit]

External links[edit]