StarCraft 2 WCS 2013 kicks off, important dates announced
Blizzard’s Starcraft 2 eSports league 2013 World Championship Series started last week in South Korea, and the dates have been set for qualifying rounds in Europe and North America.
Since there was no preceding season to qualify players for Season one in Europe and North America, Blizzard has changed things around.
"For this inaugural season of WCS America and WCS Europe, 24 players will be invited to compete in each region based on their performance in past StarCraft 2 tournaments," said the firm.
"In addition, a round of special qualifiers will be held to determine 8 players who will join the invited 24 - with more details soon. Once all 32 players are locked in, play will commence and run for a few weeks."
The rest of Season One will then play out via the same structure planned for future seasons.
The best eight players in each region will compete in their region's finals, and once all three regional finals have concluded, the top performers from each region will head to the global Season Finals.
For that event, the top six players from the host region will be joined by the top five players from each of the two other regions.
Qualifiers for Season 2 will be taking place at the same time.
April 4 - Korea - League play begins
April 14 - Europe - Special qualifiers begin
April 20 - America - Special qualifiers begin
April 23 - Europe -League play begins (round of 32)
April 28 - America - League play begins (round of 32)
May 14 - Korea - Regional league finals begin (round of 8) (Finals for Korea will be held offline May 14 - June 1)
May 25 - Europe - Regional league finals begin (round of 8)
May 31 - America - Regional league finals begin (round of 8)