A total of 16 players will be competing in this tournament: 8 invited and 8 from qualifiers. In order to accommodate players' different times of availability, they will be given a specific time frame to complete their matches (listed under Important Dates). More specific details and rules can be found in the Challonge links below.
Links
Main event: https://challonge.com/ApprenticeSeason1
Qualifier 1: https://challonge.com/ApprenticeSeason1Qual1
Qualifier 2: https://challonge.com/ApprenticeSeason1Qual2
Eligibility
Only NA residents who have not reached a Group Stage 3 (Top 32) in any 2018 WCS event may participate in this.
Main Event Format
Ro16 - Bo3 round robin group stage with 4 players in each group. The top two players will advance to the Playoffs.
Playoffs - Single elimination. Ro8 and Ro4 are Bo5. Finals is Bo7.
Players have until the specified date to play their matches. If both players cannot agree on a scheduled match time, a default date/time is set.
Qualifier Format
Bo3 double elimination.
Top 4 qualify for the main event.
Important Dates
Qualifier 1: December 22nd @ 7 PM EST
Qualifier 2: December 23rd @ 7 PM EST
Ro16 round robin group stage: December 31st - January 5th
Ro8: January 7th - 12th
Ro4: January 14th - 19th
Finals: January 21st - 26th
Prize Pool
1st -
2nd -
3rd/4th -
Other Information
Discord server: https://discord.gg/b4VREDm
In-game chat channel: ApprenticeNA
Default server: NA Central
EDIT: Thanks to a generous $50 donation from Reddit user aquanutz, the total prize pool is now $200! Changes to the prize pool distribution have been made above. Additional donations will first go towards adding payouts for the 5th - 8th place finishers.
EDIT 2: feardragon will be covering the Ro16 games on his Twitch channel. You can see the schedule here: https://www.twitch.tv/events/FkrYKNtaQ0ueXu82jfKO3A