The Battle.net World Championship, which will take place later this year, will be the culmination of more than 30 eSports events run by Blizzard and tournament organizers. These events are collectively known as the StarCraft II World Championship Series.
The goal of the StarCraft II World Championship Series is to identify a true global champion, as players enter and qualify through open tournaments starting at the national level. The National Championships are designed to allow local heroes to rise to the top and be recognized in their country. The top finishers at each National Championship will earn spots at their continental Finals events, which will be an all-out brawl between neighboring countries to decide who will represent their continent at the Battle.net World Championship.
Do you think you have what it takes to compete at the Battle.net World Championship?
You must climb the ranks of the StarCraft II World Championship Series. The entry level will be made up of National Qualifiers and will give players a chance to earn a spot at their respective National Championship. Once you’ve made it through to your National Championship, you must then fight through your compatriots for an invitation to your Continental Championship. At your continent’s Finals, you’ll be up against other National Champions all vying to earn the right to represent their country and continent at the Battle.net World Championship.
What are National Qualifiers?
National Qualifiers are events, both live and online, that have been awarded slots that feed into a National Championship. Winners of National Qualifiers will receive an invitation, including travel expenses, to attend their National Championship. Some events will have Nationals slots added to their prize pool; others will be complete standalone events. More information about where to sign up for your country’s National Qualifiers will be made available soon!
Will the format of every National Championship and Continental Championship be the same?
Yes! The rules of play for each National Championship and Continental Championship will be identical. Each tournament will be a best-of-3 double-elimination format.
How do you define nationality?
For the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, nationality is defined by your country of citizenship. Should you have multiple countries of citizenship you must choose one for the tournament year, and you will have to qualify through that country’s path in order to climb through the ranks.
My country is not listed here; will I be able to participate in the StarCraft II World Championship Series?
We plan to accommodate as many countries as possible. More information about participating countries not listed here will be posted at a later date.
What is the total prize pool of the StarCraft II World Championship Series?
More information about prize pools for the StarCraft II World Championship Series will be announced soon.
When are these events happening?
More information for National Qualifiers -- including details about your country’s National Qualifiers and the various organizations involved at the National Qualifier level -- as well as details on National Championships and Continental Championships, will be announced soon. Be sure to check back at StarCraft2.com for further updates.
Wow, looks cool, I really like that they're paying expenses for the national championship matches, not just the finals. Should be really good to see some lesser known players battle in the continental finals. Part of me thinks that representation should be weighted by population though. But I don't know how they'd accomodate that.
The continental finals will definitely be the most exciting. We'll finally get a definitive answer to the question of best European player, the North American ones should be fairly interesting and the Asian continental should show us some boss-level play while also opening the SEA esports scene a bit more.
Ah, so much love for the community. So, I'm feeling like it's completely fine that there is no BlizzCon. I'm way more excited about this! I wonder if part of the initiative to introduce more tournament maps to the ladder pool is part of this.
Going to be great to see a StarCraft 2 Olympics! YA!
This can't be right. Everyone says Blizzard doesn't do anything for the community and is only looking out for their bottom line...but they've answered the call and given us a worthy replacement for WCG.
This is going to be great. Though with all the great foreigners like Stephano, Thorzain, Naniwa, Sase, and White-Ra being from America we're going to have probably the toughest qualifying tournament.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
It's a Blizzard hosted tournament... i highly doubt they would use non blizzard maps in the tournament. (This of course is probably going to be twoards the end of the year so there will be alot more ladder maps)
Also, alot more tournament maps are being included in the ladder pool, i don't really have a problem with the ladder map pool right now, and it's only going to get better as they add more tournament maps.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I know, Cloud Kingdom, Antiga Shipyard, and Daybreak are such terrible maps. We need to be using things like Dual Sight. Now THAT'S a tournament-quality map.
On April 05 2012 01:26 Acritter wrote: Whose bright idea was it to not define Korea as its own continent? I feel sorry for everyone else in Asia.
Probably historians and geographers, but I get your point.
But hell, do you feel bad for players in platinum and diamond that can't beat GM players? If you're not good enough, or not going to put in as much effort as the best players, you don't deserve to be better than them. Everyone will have to play the Koreans eventually.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I know, Cloud Kingdom, Antiga Shipyard, and Daybreak are such terrible maps. We need to be using things like Dual Sight. Now THAT'S a tournament-quality map.
What are National Qualifiers? National Qualifiers are events, both live and online, that have been awarded slots that feed into a National Championship. Winners of National Qualifiers will receive an invitation, including travel expenses, to attend their National Championship. Some events will have Nationals slots added to their prize pool; others will be complete standalone events. More information about where to sign up for your country’s National Qualifiers will be made available soon!
On April 05 2012 01:26 Acritter wrote: Whose bright idea was it to not define Korea as its own continent? I feel sorry for everyone else in Asia.
Probably historians and geographers, but I get your point.
But hell, do you feel bad for players in platinum and diamond that can't beat GM players? If you're not good enough, or not going to put in as much effort as the best players, you don't deserve to be better than them. Everyone will have to play the Koreans eventually.
Yes, but this means that China is effectively going to be discriminated against. It's going to be next to impossible for an up-and-coming Chinese player to make a name for him/herself.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I know, Cloud Kingdom, Antiga Shipyard, and Daybreak are such terrible maps. We need to be using things like Dual Sight. Now THAT'S a tournament-quality map.
Steppes of War. THAT'S a Tournament map.
My point is, saying "the ladder pool is awful!" is WAY out of date. It's highly composed of tournament-quality maps these days. And meanwhile, Dual Sight is still kicking around in major tournaments, despite common sense AND statistics both telling us it's a terrible map and hugely imbalanced.
On April 05 2012 01:26 Acritter wrote: Whose bright idea was it to not define Korea as its own continent? I feel sorry for everyone else in Asia.
I think that it would have been a good idea to include Korea separately here, I would actually feel more sorry for non-Korean Asians otherwise, lol. That way there, is a non-Korean guranteed out of Asia for this tournament. I'm not saying Sen/...well, Sen couldn't do it, but it's highly unlikely, and gives the finals the potential for a little more diversity. Furthermore, given the distribution of SCII players in Korea compared to other continents, I believe it makes sense that SK deserves to be a stand-alone unit here.
would be amazing if they just did it as 24 players from korea and 8 foreigners, get the best quality games then, or let anyone compete in each qualifier. fuck qualifier for each region, doesnt give us viewers best games, but to be fair helps with letting a more diverse amount of players qualify ( which I think isn't the best for viewership, should have the best player no matter on where your from )
This is amazing. Really globalises esports and brings it all together. Hopefully the prize pool is impressive to truly make it something specific to aspire for, like WCG was. I also hope that they allow 2 or 3 champion from each country to be crowned
I was just listening Inside the game and the crew was talking about lack of developer support when I saw this thread. Made me giggle like a little girl for a while.
On April 05 2012 01:47 ydeer1993 wrote: would be amazing if they just did it as 24 players from korea and 8 foreigners, get the best quality games then, or let anyone compete in each qualifier. fuck qualifier for each region, doesnt give us viewers best games, but to be fair helps with letting a more diverse amount of players qualify
Hmm... that sounds like too many foreigners. Based on foreign results, I think a better count would be more like... two. Yeah, two sounds good. And we'd need to give it a good name for it. Well, it's a Starcraft league, and it's international... How about the Global Starleague? GSL for short.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I don't understand why people think they would, there has been Blizzard events and all of them have used a map pool similar to other tournaments. Not ladder maps.
Can't help but notice they labeled something "world champions" but exclude a whole continent, Africa.
I don't really see the point or fairness in these type of tournaments. It's just gonna be either a korean smashing everyone, or some random non-korean getting lucky in a few BO3's in a row, cause a "zomg new talent" type of vibe on the net and then disappear cos he actually sucks and can't repeat a once in a lifetime fluke.
Also, if the qualifiers and finals are played on different patches then it kind of defeats the purpose of the tour, if they push out a major balance patch in the middle of the tournament then it really screws with the whole process.
I like the idea with continets but its not fair. far from fair. Everyone knows that North- south america and Oceania is worse then Asia and Europe. So like the players that come in round of 36 in korea and round 8 in Europe is better then the best players in North- south america and Oceania. So what i say is that i would like 8 players from North- South America. 2 from Oceania. 8 from Europe. 16 from Asia. Or something like that.
I think this will be AWESOME! But to send the same amount of players from Europe as from Oceania or North America is not good, they need to divide Europe into south/north or east/west.
On April 05 2012 01:54 FZZ wrote: I think this will be AWESOME! But to send the same amount of players from Europe as from Oceania or North America is not good, they need to divide Europe into south/north or east/west.
yes this idea is also good! you can count on swedes!
To everyone complaining about regional/continental qualifiers:
Do you know its not much different from how the FIFA World Championship works and to some extent the olympics?
Do you think countries like New Zealand or Iran would stand any chance of qualifying to the WC if they were put in the EU bracket? Ofc they wouldnt but if you pretty much exclude entire continents you dont get the message out to everyone of how great a sport this is. It is in EVERYONES interest to have a playing field that represents a majority of the world. Otherwise you could just call it GSL, MLG or IPL where we see the same names dominate again and again.
Why would we want/need another tourny like that? Answer is we dont!
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Muahahahaha it's Blizzard silly fool! Bringing back scrap station and steppes just for this tourney is more likely than not using the map pool. All spawns disabled BUT close.
On April 05 2012 01:58 DaCruise wrote: To everyone complaining about regional/continental qualifiers:
Do you know its not much different from how the FIFA World Championship works and to some extent the olympics?
Do you think countries like New Zealand or Iran would stand any chance of qualifying to the WC if they were put in the EU bracket? Ofc they wouldnt but if you pretty much exclude entire continents you dont get the message out to everyone of how great a sport this is. It is in EVERYONES interest to have a playing field that represents a majority of the world. Otherwise you could just call it GSL, MLG or IPL where we see the same names dominate again and again.
Why would we want/need another tourny like that? Answer is we dont!
im not saying its bad that everyone have a chance. im just saying i want it to be a better tournament with better players. so more from the places where the players are good read Europe and Asia (korea).
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Muahahahaha it's Blizzard silly fool! Bringing back scrap station and steppes just for this tourney is more likely than not using the map pool. All spawns disabled BUT close.
seems great, hopefully a few more countries are added to the list. Also, Korea should have been by itself, the chinese players wont be able to qualify now.
On April 05 2012 01:26 Yonnua wrote: The continental finals will definitely be the most exciting. We'll finally get a definitive answer to the question of best European player
no single tournament could ever answer that question
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I'm pretty sure they will. At least it won't be as bad as the last time tournament they ran, next seasons map pool is actually less than a year behind the GSL's map pool which is pretty up to date... for Blizzard.
And who knows, the last tournament they ran was so terrible they got rid of close positions on ladder maps. Maybe games on Antiga will be so terrible they make it x pos only.
I dunno but IPL 4 is more representative of producing a "Global Champion" than this ... the lineup for IPL's got the best of the best on SC2 minus a few like naniwa
Seems nice, I like the localness of the preliminaries!
Only worry is if the preliminaries are "offline", then maybe the best players wont bother to come from Korea/wherever just for that, unless there is a huge price pool.
On April 05 2012 01:18 opterown wrote: ooo i want to know more :D hope it's a decent enough prize pool to be considered a premier :D sounds a bit like WCG haha
On April 05 2012 01:23 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: So it's like WCG except with continents?
(And most of the Koreans who would normally stomp everyone else won't be represented except by their *champion*?)
The champion of koreans isn't going to stomp everyone else?
It's just a different idea. That is why you have olympics or world championships in soccer. What DarkPlasmaBall means is that past tournaments have proven to be dominated by KR players, where a top10 finish for HuK means something differen (for some people better) than this tournament format.
Wow, I'm super excited about how this will play out. Great move by Blizzard, especially when I began to lose faith in them. I only hope that countries not mentioned in the list will be handled properly.
I like the idea of a Global scale SC2 tourney, just like what WCG should have been. I however do not like it being spilt into continents, start the Finals at National stage and completely discard continents.
On April 05 2012 03:15 Torte de Lini wrote: This is awesome! No wonder WCG went mobile.
Kind of amusing to wonder whether these is any causation working in either direction here. Either way, will be interesting to see how this goes and unfolds.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
You don't know how Geography works.
By your logic they should make S. Korea a completely different continent instead, just to give the Chinese a fighting chance.
I don't care about how geography works - this is SC 2, not geography. Besides which, going by geography, there are seven continents in the scheme that divides Europe from Eurasia - where's the African and Antarctica tournaments?
The logic for excluding those regions is the same for not having separate tournaments for NA and SA, Oceania and SEA - the scenes in those regions aren't big and mature enough. There are no SC 2 scenes in Africa and Antarctica, so Blizzard skipped them. But the scenes in SA, Oceania, and Southeast Asia are likewise underdeveloped, and their servers are combined with other servers for a reason. NA + SA is one scene in practice, and the same for Oceania + SEA.
This is a ploy for making the tournament look continental when the scene isn't, and the results are going to embarrass the players in those regions.
I'm not that excited since I feel the player pool is too small. There is almost no essential difference in any tournament right now since we have a really small, constant, pool of top players. Blizzard should invest more work into the game itself and hopefully these new formats will attract new players.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
You don't know how Geography works.
By your logic they should make S. Korea a completely different continent instead, just to give the Chinese a fighting chance.
They should.
As far as pro-scenes go, this is how it works in SC 2.
The major scenes:
Korea NA + SA Europe
The minor scenes:
Oceania + SEA China Taiwan
Six scenes in total. The reason Taiwan is separate from China is separate from Korea is because that's how their tournaments and leagues are - Taiwanese players play TESL, Chinese players play G-League and NSL, Koreans play GSL and EMW, with minimal overlap.
This is like WCG, except it will be better. Why? It will be dedicated to SC2, this means more time for it. WCG's SC2 was way too short, because they had other games too.
I'm really looking forward to see the prizepool. This might definitly be the reaction from Blizzard to the amounts of money Riot pays for tournements...
More or less as expected after the announcement of the announcement. I hope the competitiveness of the global tournament won't be ruined by one nation dominating global play (*glares at S.Korea*)
Will Blizzard be launching/announcing any training initiatives? Something akin to the Redbull lan, or perhaps to pre-season games/camps in most sports?
I have a theory that one of the main reasons that Blizzard recently decided to revamp the ladder map pool with ton of GSL and community-made maps is to make this World Championship Series look more legitimate. Therefore, I do expect them to use the ladder map pool considering that there will seem to be a ton of smaller "grass-roots" qualifier events, which might give them a reason to use the ladder pool since not every average Joe has dedicated practice partners and teams to practice tournament maps with.
But it would be cool if they decided to use a more legitimate tournament map pool sometime in the championship, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
Thats because they are not basing this on how the scene works, they are basing it on how geography works. This isn't like any other tournament, this is something very unique which is based on the idea of finding a world champion. Separating players purely by geography and with no concern for how strong certain areas are or where the highest concentration of players are. Its not bad its just different.
On April 05 2012 01:58 DaCruise wrote: To everyone complaining about regional/continental qualifiers:
Do you know its not much different from how the FIFA World Championship works and to some extent the olympics?
Do you think countries like New Zealand or Iran would stand any chance of qualifying to the WC if they were put in the EU bracket? Ofc they wouldnt but if you pretty much exclude entire continents you dont get the message out to everyone of how great a sport this is. It is in EVERYONES interest to have a playing field that represents a majority of the world. Otherwise you could just call it GSL, MLG or IPL where we see the same names dominate again and again.
Why would we want/need another tourny like that? Answer is we dont!
im not saying its bad that everyone have a chance. im just saying i want it to be a better tournament with better players. so more from the places where the players are good read Europe and Asia (korea).
Most tournaments are already like this so go watch them there are plenty of tournaments out there whith different formats where the viewer can pick what tournament he wants. If someone wants to watch the best players play they can watch GSL if someone wants to watch a WCG style tournament they can watch this. Also i find it funny you include korea and europe together as if they are in a similar skill level.
It would be nice if they just make different tournaments for different leagues, because as a plat player I dont have any chance to reach very far in these. I know that maybe thats a reason to improve my play, but I wont be high master anytime soon I think.
With league based tournys, they would reach much more people, as masters and diamond accounts are only a slice of all player base.
I think this is going to be awesome - don't really care how they make it work with the uneven distribution of players in the different world parts or if they even take that into consideration, as long as blizzards just try to do something for esports and the community I am fine with it.
Everyone's said it, but there needs to be a South Korea continent. There's good talent in China/Taiwan that would be great to learn more about and see games of.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
Thats because they are not basing this on how the scene works, they are basing it on how geography works. This isn't like any other tournament, this is something very unique which is based on the idea of finding a world champion. Separating players purely by geography and with no concern for how strong certain areas are or where the highest concentration of players are. Its not bad its just different.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
Thats because they are not basing this on how the scene works, they are basing it on how geography works. This isn't like any other tournament, this is something very unique which is based on the idea of finding a world champion. Separating players purely by geography and with no concern for how strong certain areas are or where the highest concentration of players are. Its not bad its just different.
On April 05 2012 03:29 Azarkon wrote: Oceania separate from Southeast Asia - ???
South America separate from North America - ???
Blizzard doesn't know how this scene works.
Thats because they are not basing this on how the scene works, they are basing it on how geography works. This isn't like any other tournament, this is something very unique which is based on the idea of finding a world champion. Separating players purely by geography and with no concern for how strong certain areas are or where the highest concentration of players are. Its not bad its just different.
Why not have Africa, then?
They don't have servers based in Africa
But it's by geography, not servers. Didn't you hear?
This is a huuuge production which brings a large organizational challenge. I would not be surprised if Blizzard outsource the running of the nationals in countries which have a strong community and experienced tournament organizers (ESL, IPL, DH, etc), but what about those that don't (i.e. avoid AZK all over again)? Will blizzard take care of things themselves, and if so, how?
---
As far as I can tell, there's no information about how many players from each continent will participate in the finals:
([...] an all-out brawl between neighboring countries to decide who will represent their continent at the Battle.net World Championship [...], my bold - who can be plural as well as singular unless I'm mistaken)
Furthermore, there are five qualifiers linking into the finals. Five players make for an awkwark tournament, though I suppose it could be done as 5-player round-robin into some sort of final bracket.
I would not be surprised if more than a single player from each continent will be allowed to play at the world champs.
---
Regarding relative strengths and how a single (or very few) Koreans would be silly - they could do it like the World Cup or Champions League of football, wherein different continents (associations, really) or leagues are given different amounts of slots depending on their relative strength. In the WC europe has tons of slots while Oceania/Australia gets a single one. A similar system could be worked out for starcraft.
Edit:
On April 05 2012 05:20 Rasun wrote: Thats because they are not basing this on how the scene works, they are basing it on how geography works. This isn't like any other tournament, this is something very unique which is based on the idea of finding a world champion. Separating players purely by geography and with no concern for how strong certain areas are or where the highest concentration of players are. Its not bad its just different.
Actually, as far as I can tell, we know squat about this. We'll just have to wait for more information! Or we could keep speculating endlessly. Either works for me
---
Anyway, massively pumped for this! I expect blizzard to have learnt a few lessons from the last Blizzcon about how to stream a starcraft production as well, so I think it will be awesooooooooooooooome.
I hope blizzard streams it the way they did the invitationals over the summer - that stream rocked for those with less than average internet connections.
On April 05 2012 01:26 Acritter wrote: Whose bright idea was it to not define Korea as its own continent? I feel sorry for everyone else in Asia.
If I understand correctly, you'll have to win at the national level before you even compete for "continental champion" (server-based?) So Asia won't be flooded purely with Koreans.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
This. If they do, it'll be, once again, another example of Blizzard really being out of touch with the competitive scene.
now really, if this was still in the days where they were using delta quadrant and scrap station months after people thought they were hilarious, you might have a point, but now? while it would be nice if they used daybreak or whatever, given that it's their tournament, who cares?
So, there better be a higher distribution of players coming from Asia and Europe than South America or Oceania at the Grand Finals. Don't really wanna see more South Americans or Oceania players than necessary qualify at the expense of the more talented Koreans.
If they get the distribution of players from different regions at the Grand Finals right though, this could be a good tournament.
Oh and please use tournament versions of the maps, Blizzard. Tq.
Honestly, I don't like those format. Just invite the top players based on achievements so that countries like Sweden, Ukraine and Korea can send everyone who deserves it to the regional qualifiers...
On April 05 2012 09:00 borny wrote: Honestly, I don't like those format. Just invite the top players based on achievements so that countries like Sweden, Ukraine and Korea can send everyone who deserves it to the regional qualifiers...
To have a true world champion they should have seeding based on other major tournament's winners.
I really don't mind the format. I don't think it should be dependent on the results of players in other tournaments etc. It's an independent tournament and it has the right to an independent format. I am honestly happy that this is going to happen and I am happy with the format. It's something different, it feels like the FIFA World Championship. I like it.
There are always things you can criticize about a certain tournament but I think it's quite amazing that Blizzard is organizing and funding this tournament. I am looking forward to it and hope it's going to be good.
how come NA and SA are seperate but CN/TW/KR are all together and SEA is by itself? I don't think there is enough talent in the SEA community (sorry, I mean who do you have besides moonglade?) and there is too much talent in KR. I think SEA/CN/TW should be together, KR alone and NA/SA together as well.
On April 05 2012 09:59 emc wrote: how come NA and SA are seperate but CN/TW/KR are all together and SEA is by itself? I don't think there is enough talent in the SEA community (sorry, I mean who do you have besides moonglade?) and there is too much talent in KR. I think SEA/CN/TW should be together, KR alone and NA/SA together as well.
Really good point. However, I think they thought there might be lag problems if SEA/CN/TW were playing each other. KR/CN/TW will have a lot less lag, and CN/TW don't really have talent to take on Korea so it won't make much difference, except Aussies having easier road.
On April 05 2012 01:53 littlesaint wrote: I like the idea with continets but its not fair. far from fair. Everyone knows that North- south america and Oceania is worse then Asia and Europe. So like the players that come in round of 36 in korea and round 8 in Europe is better then the best players in North- south america and Oceania. So what i say is that i would like 8 players from North- South America. 2 from Oceania. 8 from Europe. 16 from Asia. Or something like that.
I love this idea. Since Europe is getting all the candy in FIFA World Cup, why can't Asia (esp Korea) have this kind of treatment in SC.
I wish they did it more like the world cup where it was weighted based on perceived skill and past accomplishments (aka europe and SA get most of the spots, and in this case for sc2 would be south korea/asia).
This is really exciting, a true overarching tournament to link up the different tournament ecosystems and regions together and provide an ultimate competition. Can't wait to see this take shape.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I know, Cloud Kingdom, Antiga Shipyard, and Daybreak are such terrible maps. We need to be using things like Dual Sight. Now THAT'S a tournament-quality map.
Steppes of War. THAT'S a Tournament map.
I think we can all agree that Desert Oasis is and will always be the best ladder map of all time.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I'm pretty sure this guy just means: don't use the ladder versions of the maps because they dont have neutral supply depots and thn you could have players cheese their way to victory with double bunker wall offs and pylon-cannon blocks.
On April 05 2012 01:26 VirgilSC2 wrote: Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
Please don't use the ladder map pool
I know, Cloud Kingdom, Antiga Shipyard, and Daybreak are such terrible maps. We need to be using things like Dual Sight. Now THAT'S a tournament-quality map.
Steppes of War. THAT'S a Tournament map.
I think we can all agree that Desert Oasis is and will always be the best ladder map of all time.
wrong. Delta Quadrant because it had the most destructible rocks!
all good players are gone from south america are gone so i dont understand that they choose them instead of using korea AND southeastasia since there is another asian server (also they not mention china so they miss 2 asian servers but having 2 american with a fully active asian server and all good players from sa went to na)
cant see where the difference to iem's model is. why are they not working together? i mean the only thing iem is missing is a complete roster of the best players, to add credibility to the world champion title. and how are they going to "counter the koreans", meaning poor asians having to compete which them for the spots?
This is going to be great. Though with all the great foreigners like Stephano, Thorzain, Naniwa, Sase, and White-Ra being from America we're going to have probably the toughest qualifying tournament.
Is this some kinda running gag or why do so many Americans think these guys are from America? If at least one of them was from America!
About the no africa thing. Has anyone of you thought that its maybe because they don't think there will be much interest there?After all they probably know how much they sold.
Well since WCG wont hold any real gaming events any more... Blizzard has to step up! (Or was it the other way round?) + Show Spoiler +
Thanks anyways Blizzard! I kinda giggled when I remembered ITG from 2 days ago, with all the complaints about Blizzard not investing into the competitive scene.
Why not make Asia into "Korea" and rest of Asia into "Oceania + Asia". Also merge the two Americas into America which is a continent according to my primary school European education.
This is going to be great. Though with all the great foreigners like Stephano, Thorzain, Naniwa, Sase, and White-Ra being from America we're going to have probably the toughest qualifying tournament.
Is this some kinda running gag or why do so many Americans think these guys are from America? If at least one of them was from America!
It is a running gag, yes. The joke is that Americans like to call anyone who is doing well or who is popular an American, or that anyone who is not Korean is from the US.
This is going to be great. Though with all the great foreigners like Stephano, Thorzain, Naniwa, Sase, and White-Ra being from America we're going to have probably the toughest qualifying tournament.
Is this some kinda running gag or why do so many Americans think these guys are from America? If at least one of them was from America!
It is a running gag, yes. The joke is that Americans like to call anyone who is doing well or who is popular an American, or that anyone who is not Korean is from the US.
And in fact pretty much everybody who knows about the joke likes to call a foreigner an American, and chant "U.S.A!" whenever it seems relevant, and whenever it does not. + Show Spoiler +
Love that joke :D Unfortunately it tends to be moderated on LR threads nowadays...
Though im surprised Oceania only includes Aus and NZ, I would have though that Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore would have been included in that category
WCG had a much better format than this at least every country had their own qualifiers and every players has the opportunity to represent their country after winning their countries qualifiers . Here instead, especially SEA has to deal with Korea and as you know Koreans are pretty good in broodwar and sc2 . Sea doesn't stand a chance having korea in that category I hope Blizzard actually revised this decision and put korea in to it's own category .
This is going to be great. Though with all the great foreigners like Stephano, Thorzain, Naniwa, Sase, and White-Ra being from America we're going to have probably the toughest qualifying tournament.
Is this some kinda running gag or why do so many Americans think these guys are from America? If at least one of them was from America!
It comes from here http://www.gomtv.net/2011championship/vod/63759 (free to watch) The World championship organized by GOM held a teamleague, Korea vs World, with Artosis as World's coach. The World team didn't had any American in it, but Artosis called it team USA, and everything began from that.
south america and north america should be 1 and SK should be seperated from asia. It's really not fair since there are probably 200+ players in asia who could beat the best south american player. Also oceania should join up with asia.
For some reason this reminds me of the Hunger Games. "At your continent’s Finals, you’ll be up against other National Champions all vying to earn the right to represent their country and continent at the Battle.net World Championship" Sounds like a bunch of tribute vying to represent their districts.
So we're basically trying to find out which korean is the best before Heart of the Swarm comes out. Jokes aside, it will probably be a high quality event (last Blizzcon sure was) but I just can't feel the "WORLD championship" hype when 99% of us already predict a korean winner.
On April 05 2012 21:54 Roachu wrote: but I just can't feel the "WORLD championship" hype when 99% of us already predict a korean winner.
Wow this is very naïve, they let the best players of each selected continent duke it out in the finals, just because the koreans are better it's not a world championship?
We've been waiting for something like this for so long, ever since WCG started its decline. Hopefully this can stay around, I'm really interested in following the development of this tournament as a spectator, because there's no way I can compete. >.<
On April 05 2012 21:02 gladsheim wrote: bascially the champ of wings of liberty?
Oh thats actually a really cool point. Like besides the fact that we have pretty much close to no idea when hots will come out, this might really end up being what you said. Speculation: HOTS beta date announcement at this event.
Terrible idea to put Korea, Taiwan, China, and Singapore together. That limits all the skills and only gives a small showcase of how much talent is stored within all 4 of those massive countries (Except for Singapore) in the StarCraft community!
For the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, nationality is defined by your country of citizenship. Should you have multiple countries of citizenship you must choose one for the tournament year, and you will have to qualify through that country’s path in order to climb through the ranks.
How do they define nationality for multi-national states, like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Will Scotland, England, Wales, NI be respresented like in the Football World Cup, Rugby World cup and the Commonwealth games or will it just be a "Team UK" like the Olympics?
Edit: just read the page of selected nations. Looks like its just United Kingdom. Half the countries of Europe seem to be missing though.
European countries missing.
Albania
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Turkey
Vatican City (Now that would be an amusing qualifier for the papacy's champion)
*The caucasus states (like Geogria) if you include them geographically in Europe. Although geographically outside of Europe Israel sometimes gets lumped in with Europe (like for FIFA world cup qualifiers) due to issues playing against there neighbours and similarities in culture. Eitherway, Israel isn't part of Asia group either.
For the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, nationality is defined by your country of citizenship. Should you have multiple countries of citizenship you must choose one for the tournament year, and you will have to qualify through that country’s path in order to climb through the ranks.
How do they define nationality for multi-national states, like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Will Scotland, England, Wales, NI be respresented like in the Football World Cup, Rugby World cup and the Commonwealth games or will it just be a "Team UK" like the Olympics?
Read the article: United Kingdom is marked solely as one entity. I wouldn't expect it any other way.
They should really hold another qualifier "the rest of the continent" with about the same amount of seeds of two national qualifiers. The national qualifiers are a good idea but not giving everyone a chance is a very bad idea.
On April 06 2012 04:10 Asymmetric wrote: European countries missing.
Albania
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Turkey
Vatican City (Now that would be an amusing qualifier for the papacy's champion)
*The caucasus states (like Geogria) if you include them geographically in Europe. Although geographically outside of Europe Israel sometimes gets lumped in with Europe (like for FIFA world cup qualifiers) due to issues playing against there neighbours and similarities in culture. Eitherway, Israel isn't part of Asia group either.
Some notable European players I can think of that would be barred from entry due to these restrictions, unless they have duel nationalities.
On April 06 2012 00:58 Harris1st wrote: 1st Korea 2nd Europe (Sweden, Germany, Ukraine probably) 3rd Canada (Go Huk ^^) . . . 45th USA ^^
i think stephano will help them out for a bo3 so i think 35th
Stephano is French.
And BTW to the guy u quoted. I think Poland will take 2nd... Nerchio/Mana/ Diestar/ Tarson too strong.
You dont get the joke and you are obviously new here. on HLTV there is another funny insider. "Poland strong,Ukraine wrong,Pasha Biceps Neo>all" All user post it under each ESC Gaming-Match because of our annoying fanboys hehe dont know if you know that xd but as a pole you actually should. Nerchio and Mana..yee..but not the rest.the majority counts Even TLO would defeat Tarson and Diestar.Not talking about Socke,Hasuobs or Darkforce
On April 06 2012 00:58 Harris1st wrote: 1st Korea 2nd Europe (Sweden, Germany, Ukraine probably) 3rd Canada (Go Huk ^^) . . . 45th USA ^^
i think stephano will help them out for a bo3 so i think 35th
Stephano is French.
And BTW to the guy u quoted. I think Poland will take 2nd... Nerchio/Mana/ Diestar/ Tarson too strong.
You dont get the joke and you are obviously new here. on HLTV there is another funny insider. "Poland strong,Ukraine wrong,Pasha Biceps Neo>all" All user post it under each ESC Gaming-Match because of our annoying fanboys hehe dont know if you know that xd but as a pole you actually should. Nerchio and Mana..yee..but not the rest.the majority counts Even TLO would defeat Tarson and Diestar.Not talking about Socke,Hasuobs or Darkforce
Yes I was very worried about how my country would perform but then I remembered our ace player and breathed a great sigh of relief.
Stephano hwaiting!!!
Edit: Also after reading the guy's post on top who points out the missing nations in the global tourney I must point out how funny it would be to watch Pope Benedict play a match of SC2. I wonder which race he would pick, Terran is the obvious answer but he looks kinda zergy so I'm not 100% on that.
they should do this like the Champs League where regions get an allocated amount of qualifying players based on skill level in that area, so for example maybe 1 from Africa & Oceanic 2 from NA, 2 from SA, 3 from Europe 4 from Korea etc...
This is so awesome! It's shaping up to be everything I've wished for!
Also,
On April 05 2012 01:26 NexUmbra wrote: Do you think you have what it takes to compete at the Battle.net World Championship?
No.
This is so racist no Africa!
In the frickin' OP!:
My country is not listed here; will I be able to participate in the StarCraft II World Championship Series?
We plan to accommodate as many countries as possible. More information about participating countries not listed here will be posted at a later date.
--
On April 05 2012 01:28 Chriscras wrote: Yo! What's wrong with the SC2 players in Africa and Antarctica?!
In the frickin' OP!:
My country is not listed here; will I be able to participate in the StarCraft II World Championship Series?
We plan to accommodate as many countries as possible. More information about participating countries not listed here will be posted at a later date.
--
On April 05 2012 01:33 Crilath wrote: No Switzerland :-/ Really hope they will add missing countries to the list !
In the frickin' OP!:
My country is not listed here; will I be able to participate in the StarCraft II World Championship Series?
We plan to accommodate as many countries as possible. More information about participating countries not listed here will be posted at a later date.
... I think you get the point.
However, it may be a good idea to spread awareness of it in countries that are not listed, so to make sure they're not simply forgotten in the process. I fully expect that players from any country will be able to compete (and I would be very disappointed if players from some countries wouldn't be able to).
For the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, nationality is defined by your country of citizenship. Should you have multiple countries of citizenship you must choose one for the tournament year, and you will have to qualify through that country’s path in order to climb through the ranks.
How do they define nationality for multi-national states, like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Will Scotland, England, Wales, NI be respresented like in the Football World Cup, Rugby World cup and the Commonwealth games or will it just be a "Team UK" like the Olympics?
Edit: just read the page of selected nations. Looks like its just United Kingdom. Half the countries of Europe seem to be missing though.
European countries missing.
Albania
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Turkey
Vatican City (Now that would be an amusing qualifier for the papacy's champion)
*The caucasus states (like Geogria) if you include them geographically in Europe. Although geographically outside of Europe Israel sometimes gets lumped in with Europe (like for FIFA world cup qualifiers) due to issues playing against there neighbours and similarities in culture. Eitherway, Israel isn't part of Asia group either.
There's no point in Israel playing either, our only really good player (Osho) quit Starcraft 2 some time ago, and we don't have any god replacements
For the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series, nationality is defined by your country of citizenship. Should you have multiple countries of citizenship you must choose one for the tournament year, and you will have to qualify through that country’s path in order to climb through the ranks.
How do they define nationality for multi-national states, like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
Will Scotland, England, Wales, NI be respresented like in the Football World Cup, Rugby World cup and the Commonwealth games or will it just be a "Team UK" like the Olympics?
Edit: just read the page of selected nations. Looks like its just United Kingdom. Half the countries of Europe seem to be missing though.
European countries missing.
Albania
Andorra
Austria
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Monaco
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Serbia and Montenegro
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Turkey
Vatican City (Now that would be an amusing qualifier for the papacy's champion)
*The caucasus states (like Geogria) if you include them geographically in Europe. Although geographically outside of Europe Israel sometimes gets lumped in with Europe (like for FIFA world cup qualifiers) due to issues playing against there neighbours and similarities in culture. Eitherway, Israel isn't part of Asia group either.
There's no point in Israel playing either, our only really good player (Osho) quit Starcraft 2 some time ago, and we don't have any god replacements
And here I thought europe was all one country. interesting.
ESL will host Blizzard's StarCraft II World Championship Series for 12 countries: Brazil, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Spain and UK
All European countries without their own national qualification will be able to qualify through the "rest of Europe" qualifier that will be hosted by us (ESL)
As soon as we can announce further information, we will!
On April 07 2012 01:17 drsnuggles wrote: ESL will host Blizzard's StarCraft II World Championship Series for 12 countries: Brazil, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Spain and UK
I didn't read the entire thread, but it's pretty reasonable to say MLG will be the bold below..
The Battle.net World Championship, which will take place later this year, will be the culmination of more than 30 eSports events run by Blizzard and tournament organizers.
On April 07 2012 01:17 drsnuggles wrote: ESL will host Blizzard's StarCraft II World Championship Series for 12 countries: Brazil, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Spain and UK
On April 10 2012 19:41 ngooo wrote: I am already imagining the HUGE bracket for the qualifiers. I mean, a 1024 would be way to small, if a whole nation is going to partcipate.
On April 10 2012 19:41 ngooo wrote: I am already imagining the HUGE bracket for the qualifiers. I mean, a 1024 would be way to small, if a whole nation is going to partcipate.
why would it be any more than for IEM qualfiers?
If it is Blizzard organizing such a great event, there will be much more advertising and hype involved, I would imagine. So hopefully more people will attend, no matter if low or high level of play.
On April 10 2012 19:41 ngooo wrote: I am already imagining the HUGE bracket for the qualifiers. I mean, a 1024 would be way to small, if a whole nation is going to partcipate.
why would it be any more than for IEM qualfiers?
If it is Blizzard organizing such a great event, there will be much more advertising and hype involved, I would imagine. So hopefully more people will attend, no matter if low or high level of play.
Battle.net writes ¡El primer torneo de la serie está por comenzar! El MASGAMERS TECH FESTIVAL será la sede del campeonato nacional de Perú y el evento se llevará a cabo en Lima del 13 al 15 de abril en el Centro de Convenciones - Plaza San Miguel. Ahí, dieciséis de los mejores jugadores de Perú lucharán por uno de los dos espacios disponibles para este país en el StarCraft II World Championship Series South America Finals; el cual se llevará a cabo en Sao Paulo, Brasil, en el mes de julio del presente año. Los Perú Qualifiers se llevarán a cabo online este 7 y 8 de abril, y contarán con 32 espacios disponibles, ¡así que apúrate, inscríbete y participa! No olvides consultar http://www.sc2nationals.localstrike.net para conocer todos los detalles de las clasificaciones, torneos y sedes.
I don't know any Spanish, but is it correct that Peru has gotten two slots to the South America finals? And that one of those two slots is going to be filled by the winner of the tournament in Lima this week-end? Or will this tournament decide both slots? And there was an online qualifier last week-end. Was this for the Tech Festival, or some other tournament that will decide the second slot? I ran it through Google Translate as well, but I don't trust it entirely and it was still a little ambiguous...
well i didnt participate in the Peruvian qualys but i cant tell you that the players are really mad because of the organization. A lot of the top pervian players couldnt play and the start of the tourney had a 2 hours of delay.
It was such a surprise, like one day only to know about this huge tournament that many of the players couldnt subscribe in this tour. the ppl running this never gave an in chat channel for the tour.when they finnaly "start" the 1st round, with 30 min delay, one of the organizers send another e-mail to confirm your participation in the tour? and if you dintn reply you were elimnated, so... how can u answer and email if you are palying the 1st round? in that moment alot of players where DQ but later the players explained that they couldn reply and they solve this "problem", honestly this shows that the ppl running this dont know anything of sc2 or e-sports.
Odin, on of the top peruvian players (GM i think) "lose" to a gold cause a WO, the games was schedules to be play at 3pm, his opponent shows up at 4:20pm and Odin refused to play, the organizers gave the win to the other player cause he shows 1:20 hours late? wtf?? also, apparently the referees dindt have a bnet account, all was arranged by emails...
all of this was report by the national team captain, i dont know him but he is well respected in the peruvian sc2, so i trust him.
his post in spanish in the main peruvian esports forum:
The people in charge were "Local Strike" and "Massgamers". The argentinian community can talk you about Local Strike...
Finally, Local strike reply in the bnet forums... basically they said that there were few mistakes but in general all went good because there were players and they have 16 finalis of the live event... what a joke
On April 12 2012 01:25 Topin wrote: well i didnt participate in the Peruvian qualys but i cant tell you that the players are really mad because of the organization. A lot of the top pervian players couldnt play and the start of the tourney had a 2 hours of delay.
It was such a surprise, like one day only to know about this huge tournament that many of the players couldnt subscribe in this tour. the ppl running this never gave an in chat channel for the tour.when they finnaly "start" the 1st round, with 30 min delay, one of the organizers send another e-mail to confirm your participation in the tour? and if you dintn reply you were elimnated, so... how can u answer and email if you are palying the 1st round? in that moment alot of players where DQ but later the players explained that they couldn reply and they solve this "problem", honestly this shows that the ppl running this dont know anything of sc2 or e-sports.
Odin, on of the top peruvian players (GM i think) "lose" to a gold cause a WO, the games was schedules to be play at 3pm, his opponent shows up at 4:20pm and Odin refused to play, the organizers gave the win to the other player cause he shows 1:20 hours late? wtf?? also, apparently the referees dindt have a bnet account, all was arranged by emails...
all of this was report by the national team captain, i dont know him but he is well respected in the peruvian sc2, so i trust him.
his post in spanish in the main peruvian esports forum:
The people in charge were "Local Strike" and "Massgamers". The argentinian community can talk you about Local Strike...
Finally, Local strike reply in the bnet forums... basically they said that there were few mistakes but in general all went good because there were players and they have 16 finalis of the live event... what a joke
P.D. sorry for the bad english
I was actually really surprised by the timeframe and thought this was a little bit too fast, as well. I'm going to add this to the Liquipedia page.
On April 12 2012 01:25 Topin wrote: well i didnt participate in the Peruvian qualys but i cant tell you that the players are really mad because of the organization. A lot of the top pervian players couldnt play and the start of the tourney had a 2 hours of delay. [..] The argentinian community can talk you about Local Strike...
Quite unfortunate what happened there, I feel sorry for the players that wanted in I have some contact with LS, I'll try to find what they have to say and post back if I get something useful to tell
On April 07 2012 02:48 th3rogue wrote: All European countries without their own national qualification will be able to qualify through the "rest of Europe" qualifier that will be hosted by us (ESL)
As soon as we can announce further information, we will!
On April 19 2012 10:08 Champloo wrote: LOL who decided how many slots each country gets? Netherlands get 1 slot while the UK get 3? And a lot more strange decisions.
How many of each continental finals will qualify for the world championship?
I think they decide on number of active players for each country
We are extremely excited to announce that we are partnering with Blizzard to host two events as part of their StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS).
The StarCraft II World Championship Series USA Nationals will be held at the MLG Spring Championship – June 8-10 at the Anaheim Convention Center. 64 participants will be invited through a combination of qualifiers and the StarCraft II ladder to compete in a best-of-3 games, double elimination tournament for $15k in prizing. The top 16 finishers in the USA Nationals will receive an invitation to compete in the StarCraft II World Championship Series North America Finals.
The StarCraft II North America Finals will be held at the MLG Summer Championship – August 24-26, location to be announced. 32 players from the StarCraft II World Championship Series–Canada Nationals, USA Nationals, and Mexico Nationals–will compete in a Best-of-3 games, double elimination tournament for $30k in prizing. The top players from the StarCraft II North America Finals will receive invitations to compete in the Battle.net World Championship in Asia later this year.
Additional information will be released in the coming weeks. Spectator passes for the Spring Championship are available now. If you can’t make it out in person, then mark your calendar and catch the live stream. You can read more at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/.
On April 19 2012 10:08 Champloo wrote: LOL who decided how many slots each country gets? Netherlands get 1 slot while the UK get 3? And a lot more strange decisions.
How many of each continental finals will qualify for the world championship?
I think they decide on number of active players for each country
Each qualifier is sponsored so I guess it's how many the sponsor decides to pay for, Brazil has 6, whereas Finland has 1
On April 19 2012 10:08 Champloo wrote: LOL who decided how many slots each country gets? Netherlands get 1 slot while the UK get 3? And a lot more strange decisions.
How many of each continental finals will qualify for the world championship?
I think they decide on number of active players for each country
Each qualifier is sponsored so I guess it's how many the sponsor decides to pay for, Brazil has 6, whereas Finland has 1
no active player base.
What kind of criteria was used in deciding which countries would host national qualifiers?
We looked at the size of the active StarCraft II playing population. We adjusted the number of slots up slightly at the continental championship level when a country has a recognizable professional scene, but otherwise it’s just a measure of activity.
The Combined European National is open to players with the following citizenship: Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Croatia, Ireland, Belarus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Iceland, Estonia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Cyprus, Malta, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Georgia, Armenia, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Albania, Montenegro, San Marino, Vatican City, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Israel, South Africa, Faroe Islands
Hopefully the competition will be better than last years Blizzcon where questions of the legitimacy of the MVP/Nestea series were being whispered before it even ended.
errrr..the French WCS look weird. Almost none of the top French players have made it to the Nationals: Stephano, ToD, Adelscott, SarenS, neX, effecto....with only three qualifiers left. Will they receive an invite or something like the US Qualifiers?
Also DIMAGA did not try to qualify for WCS Ukraine