Blizzard has announced that after seven years the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) is being retired and replaced with the brand new ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II and DreamHack SC2 Masters.
The two new competitions will work in tandem to operate as the new SC2 esports tournament circuit for the next three years. SC2’s new competitive ecosystem will feature six international tournaments a year–four with DreamHack, two with ESL–in addition to weekly competitions that will factor into ESL events.
The SC2 global finals will shift away from BlizzCon to the new IEM Katowice World Championship in 2021. SC2 esports at BlizzCon will look different in the future, but will still be present. Blizzard has stated more information on their plans for SC2 at BlizzCon will be shared at a later date.
The WCS mobile app will be shut down on December 31, 2019, and the WCS site will be taken down in early 2020.
DreamHack and ESL will be taking over the operational management of StarCraft II esports while Blizzard will server as the overall support network for the new competitive system. Blizzard will be providing the prize money for all three years, totally out at more than $1.2 million each year.
In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the release of StarCraft II, the 2020-2021 ESL/DreamHack circuit will receive a larger prize pool of upwards of $1.9 million. Blizzard is increasing the IEM Katowice prize pool from $250,000 to $400,000, on top of their 2020-2021 commitment.
You watch watch Starcraft II esport competition on ESL’s Twitch TV page.
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