[Dox]

In order to fit three seasons within a compressed timeline last year, it was necessary for Challenger League and Premier League to overlap. This structure was difficult to follow at times, and Challenger League was also overly complex.

In 2014, WCS will feature a much simpler system. In America and Europe, the bottom 16 players from the previous season’s Premier will be waiting in Challenger. Qualifier tournaments will be played to identify 16 players to challenge the former Premier players. Challenger will then take place, consisting of 16 best-of-five up-and-down matches between a qualifier and a Premier League dropout to identify the next Premier League players.

This system provides a number of benefits. Qualifiers, Challenger, and Premier league can now be run in sequence. It's easier to understand, and with fewer Challenger matches to play, there's more importance placed on each match. And since the schedule doesn't overlap, players are now free to transfer between regions between seasons.

Korea will work slightly differently, which brings us to the next point: GSL is Back!

GSL will also feature higher prize pools in each season to reflect the added challenge of competing in the region. Aside from differences in naming and prize money, GSL will continue to have 24 players fall out of Code S each season to take on 24 new qualifiers in Code A in each season. This differs from WCS America and Europe having 16 players fall out of Premier and down to Challenger per season. Code A competition will feature group stages, which is different from the basic up-and-down matches that America and Europe will operate. These differences represent regional preferences communicated to us by GSL.

OGN has been a dedicated partner for WCS Korea 2013. In addition to hosting a season of WCS Korea and a Season Final, OGN also broadcasted the WCS Global Finals live from BlizzCon on November 8-9. With the goal to provide a more streamlined experience for both the players and the audience, OGN will not be hosting WCS Korea 2014. OGN has rights to run both StarCraft and StarCraft II tournaments alongside WCS and will be able to run WCS global events that offer WCS points. Additionally, OGN will remain our partner outside of the WCS and will produce entertainment shows and tournaments for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

We purposefully made the WCS an open system last year. While our intention was to have a sprinkling of players venture into other regions, we failed to anticipate the high volume of international players competing outside their home regions. Going into 2014, we're making an adjustment that affects qualifier slots into WCS America and Europe. Korea remains unaffected because the GSL system is and has always been a completely open for anyone who can attend the live qualifier.

In 2014, we will reserve most qualifier slots for citizens and legal residents of the home regions for both WCS America and WCS Europe. Since America has become the home WCS region for players from countries such as China, Australia, and Taiwan, we will reserve qualifier spots for players from those specific regions as well as the Americas. Ladder wildcard spots will have open enrollment with no citizenship or residency restriction, but still have a master's level requirement with a minimum number of ladder wins within that regional server. Master's level will also be required across all qualifiers. The Qualifiers for Season 1 WCS 2014 will take place in January—look for details about these in December.

The WCS partner events were successful last year at tying in tournaments outside the WCS league structure into the overall WCS umbrella. By creating three different types of partner tournaments, we hope to have an expanded number of these partner events in 2014 and give players more opportunities to compete and gain WCS points outside of league play. We're also aiming to have a more even geographic distribution of partner events in 2014.

In 2013 we set up a system where the top finishers in each region met in a global season final for more prize money and more WCS ranking points. While these events were exciting and impactful, it took away some luster from the accomplishment of winning a region, and created a situation where top finishers from the region who made a global final and performed well for a weekend were able to quickly pull ahead in rankings and prize money. In 2014, we will no longer hold global season finals events.

We've also redistributed much of the prize money that would have gone into the Season Finals back into regional finals events to reflect their added importance. GSL features a more top-heavy distribution to reflect Korea's regional preference, while America and Europe have a more even distribution of prize money between top and bottom. Additionally, cash prizes are now being made available to those who compete in Challenger.


In summary, the 2014 WCS will feature:

• A linear, easier to understand schedule that allows more room for third-party tournaments
• The return of GSL, with more prize money funneled into the Korea region
• A partial region lock, where the bulk of qualifier spots are reserved for players from the home region
• More WCS Global Events with partner tournaments , for additional competition and opportunities for players
• More emphasis on regional play, with additional points and prize money for Premier League players compared to 2013

Source: Battle.net
Feedback: Battle.net