2019 StarCraft II World Championship Series

Overview[edit]

The 2019 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, AfreecaTV, DreamHack, ESL and StarLadder. Like in 2018, 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. As in 2018, only the semifinalists are seeded into the next season's first Code S group stage.

Three GSL seasons in 2019, as in 2018.

WCS Circuit[edit]

Events[edit]

Three WCS Circuit Events and two regional WCS Winter Events awarding points.

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

Global Events[edit]

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

Global Playoffs[edit]

At the end of the year, sixteen players (eight from each region) qualify to the 2019 WCS Global Finals.

The winner of the global event IEM Season XIII - Katowice.
The winners of the three GSL seasons, and the three 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: 5 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 2019 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 2019 WCS Champion.