2017 StarCraft II World Championship Series

Plans for 2017 were published in December 2016. The basic idea remained unchanged with respect to the championship last year : there were still two rating systems in the world - the WCS Korea rating, designed for the best e-sportspeople in the world and open to everyone, and the open WCS rating ( WCS Circuit ) Korea 8 players from each rating were sent to the world final; they could be included either by winning one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year, or by hitting the highest score in their ratings given for participating in tournaments ^[1] .

In the non-Korean ranking, four qualifying events were organized in collaboration with DreamHack : WCS Austin ( Austin , USA ), WCS Jönköping ( Jönköping , Sweden ), WCS Valencia ( Valencia , Spain ) and WCS Montreal ( Montreal , Canada ) ^[1] . Like last year, before each championship of the WCS open rating, online contests of candidates were held ( English WCS Challenger ), in which 8 paid vouchers for the respective championships were played: 4 on the European server and 4 in the US ^{[2] [1]} . In the Korean rankings, Intel Extreme Masters Gyeonggi and the three seasons of the Global StarCraft II League became the qualifying championships ^[1] . Another change in GSL, in addition to increasing the number of seasons from 2 to 3, was the introduction of two GSL Super Tournament - short-term tournaments held in between seasons ^[3] . Unlike the previous year, a StarCraft II StarLeague victory no longer guaranteed a slot in the world final ^[1] , but participation still gave points for the WCS Korea rating ^[4] . In addition, in collaboration with the Electronic Sports League , two global events were organized, in which participation was available for representatives of both ratings: GSL vs. The World and Intel Extreme Masters Katowice. The IEM Katowice champion also received an invitation to the world finals, picking up one slot in his rating ^[1] .

A significant innovation in 2017 was the trophy fund ( War Chest ) - an analogue of combat passes for The International ^[5] . Ordinary StarCraft II players could buy items from the trophy fund in the in-game store, and 25% of the amount received from their sale went to the World Championship Series e-sports competition prize pool ^[6] . Thus, the prize fund set by Blizzard Entertainment, as in the past year, of 2,000,000 US dollars could be increased due to crowdfunding ^[1] . In accordance with the plans of Blizzard, the first collected 200,000 dollars went to an increase in the prize fund of the world finals, which initially had a prize fund of 500,000 dollars, and the money collected further went to the organization of individual competitions ^[7] .

WCS Open Rating

The champion of three of the four WCS competitions was Alex “Neeb” Sanderhaft ^[8] . At WCS Austin, he became the champion, beating Bloch in the Arthur final “Nerchio” 4: 2 ^[9] . At the WCS Jönköping finals, he defeated Joona "Serral" Sotal with a score of 4: 3 ^[10] . At WCS Valencia, the champion was Mikolaj “Elazer” Ogonovski , who beat Jens “Snute” Oskord in the final with a score of 4: 3; Neeb flew into the quarterfinals, losing to Juan Carlos Ten of “SpeCial” Lopez with a score of 2: 3 ^[11] . At WCS Montreal, the championship took Neeb again, having won a crushing victory in the final over Snute with a score of 4: 0 ^[8] .

WCS Korea Rating

The Intel Extreme Masters Gyeonggi was invited to 4 e-sportsmen, who took the top places in the 2016 WCS Global Finals ; the remaining 12 places were played in open qualifications. The championship began with a group stage, played on the GSL system in a format of up to two victories; then followed the play-off stage, playing up to three wins, and the final was playing up to four wins. Anyone could take part in the competition, but all matches were held on a Korean server and participants needed a Korean visa or residency in a visa-free country with South Korea ^[12] . IEM Gyeonggi began on December 14, 2016 and ended up with Lee “INnoVation” Xing Hyun's victory, who defeated Kim “Stats” De Joop in the final with a score of 4: 0 ^[13] . The winners of the GSL season were Kim "Stats" De Ёp (second place - About "soO" Yun Soo ) ^[14] , Koh "GuMiho" Byong Jae (second place - about "soO" Yun Soo) ^[15] and Lee "INnoVation »Xing Hyun (second place - Kim" sOs "Yu Jin ) ^[16] .

Global Competition

Intel Extreme Masters Katowice was held from February 27 to March 5, 2017 in Katowice , Poland , and became the only western third-party tournament where the slot for WCS Global Finals 2017 was played. 12 IEM Katowice participants selected through online qualifications, another 64 participants arrived in Katowice to participate in offline qualifications, of which 12 have joined the competition ^[17] . Participants were divided into 4 groups, in which each played with each; those who took the first place in their group started the game in the playoffs from the quarterfinal, and the players from the second and third places went to the 1/8 finals ^[18] . The champion was Chon "TY" Tae Young , who beat Kim "Stats" De Yop in the final. On the way to the final, Stats beat the reigning world champion, Byun “Hyun W” Hyun Wu , and the finalist of the 2016 World Cup , Pak “Dark” Riyung W ^[17] . The final match went to the end - all 7 cards were played, according to the results of which TY won with a score of 4: 3. It should be noted that several weeks earlier TY also won at ^[19] .

In the GSL vs. competition. The World, held from August 3 to 5, 2017 in Seoul , was attended by 16 players, 8 from each rating. In the Korean rating, 4 participants received invitations from the organizers, and the remaining 4 were determined by voting among the spectators. 4 participants received invitations from the world, 3 were determined by voting, and one, the Chinese player Joe “IAsonu” Hang , got into the tournament as the winner of the highest WCS points in the Chinese region. All matches were held in a format of up to three victories, the final - up to four. The winner of the tournament was Lee "INnoVation" Xing Hyun , who lost only one card for the entire tournament. In addition to a single tournament, the event also included a team match between players from South Korea and other cyber sportsmen, in which each player from one team was opposed to a player from another. Koreans won with a score of 7: 1; Diego “Kelazhur” Schwymer , who beat Chon “TY” Tae Yang, became the only non-Korean player to win. ^[20]

The world final was held at the BlizzCon 2017 exhibition in Anaheim , California , USA ^[21] . Thanks to the trophy fund, the tournament prize pool was increased from 500,000 to 700,000 US dollars; of these, 280,000 received a champion ^[22] .

Alexander “Neeb” Sanderhaft , who won three of the four qualifying tournaments in his rating ^[8] , was in the same group with Lee “Rogue” Byon Ryol , Arthur “Nerchio” Bloch and O “soO” Yun Soo ^[23] and could not get out from it ^[21] . Also, Pak “Dark” Riyung U , the silver medalist of the championship last year , and Kim “Stats” De Öp , who is considered the most stable protoss in the last two years, could not leave their groups. The two non-Koreans, who were in the playoffs, Juan Carlos "SpeCial" Tena Lopez and Mikolaj "Elazer" Ogonovsky , met in the quarterfinals. The winner of this confrontation was SpeCial, who, however, lost in the semifinal O "soO" Yoon Soo with a score of 0: 3 ^[21] .

Lee “Rogue” Byon Ryul ^[24] , who beat Yun Soo in the final about So » with a score of 4: 2 ^[21], became the world champion. On the way to the final, Rogue defeated legendary player for Protoss Kim "herO" Jun Hu with a score of 3: 1 and Terran Chong "TY" Tae Yang , who was in the lead by the number of prizes earned this year. In the six games of the final, soO showed a large number of prepared strategies, but Rogue was able to adapt to them ^[21] . 2017 WCS Global Finals was another defeat of soO in the final: by the time of the world finals, he already had six second places in the Global StarCraft II League . For Rogue, this was the first victory in a prestigious championship; thanks to her, he was among the 10 most financially successful StarCraft II eSports athletes ^[25] .

Group stage matches were held in a format of up to two victories, playoffs - up to three victories, and the final - up to four victories. Standings playoff finals ^[26] :

• Matches 2017 WCS Global Finals on YouTube
• Matches 2017 WCS Global Finals with comments in Russian on YouTube