Inspired by our friends at Rival Gaming with their Rival StarCraft II League (RSL), we have decided to start our own individual league. Like the RSL, this league will be set up in the same format as the GSL with a group stage followed up by a playoff bracket.
The goal of this league is to foster nonprofessional NA talent and give them an opportunity to participate in a league-format tournament. For this reason, we are restricting participation to NA-only players. In our case, NA players are defined as players currently residing in USA, Canada, and Mexico. Additionally, professional players will not be allowed to play in this tournament. Professional players will be defined as players who have qualified for and played in premier tournaments in the years 2016 and 2017. There will most likely be special cases here and there, so if you're unsure, go ahead and sign up anyways and we can discuss it.
EDIT 1: As for DH Austin and its open bracket format, the top 32 players will be considered as professional.
EDIT 2: Latin American players will be permitted to participate as long as games are played on NA servers (west, central, east).
The prize pool for this season will be $200 with the payouts being the following:
- 1st: $100
- 2nd: $50
- 3rd/4th: $25
The PSL will be a 32-player tournament with 8 invites from PSISTORM Academy and 24 qualifier spots. The format is as follows:
- Ro32 group stage with 8 groups. Top 2 players of each group advance to Ro16. All series are Bo3.
- Ro16 group stage with 4 groups. Top 2 players of each group advance to Ro8. All series are Bo3.
- Playoffs begin at the Ro8 and are Bo5.
- Semi-finals and Grand-finals are played in Bo7.
Qualifier 1: http://challonge.com/PSL1Q1
Qualifier 2: http://challonge.com/PSL1Q2
Qualifier 3:http://challonge.com/PSL1Q3
Liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/PSISTORM_StarCraft_II_League
An official comprehensive rule book with full details will be posted after the qualifiers conclude.
On a final note, we want to give a big shoutout to PSISTORM Gaming for making this all possible. Future updates will be announced on their official Twitter account, so be sure to give them a follow if you haven't done so already.
https://twitter.com/psistormgaming