After wrapping up the 2017 series at BlizzCon in November, Blizzard has revealed a number of details regarding the 2018 World Championship Series (WCS) campaign.
The 2018 World Championship Series will feature the same number of WCS Circuit events as last year. However, in January, there will be a new, supercharged kickoff at WCS Leipzig. During this event (and the three additional Circuit tournaments taking place at DreamHack events throughout the year), the winning player will receive a direct seed into the Global Finals come the end of the year.
Regional representation for these events will stay the same, with four players qualifying from Europe, four from North America, two from Latin America, two from Australia/New Zealand, two from China, and two from the Asia Pacific region.
In Korea, the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) will continue for its eighth year. The 2018 schedule will consist of three GSL seasons, with two GSL Super Tournaments mixed in to the bunch. Each GSL season will reward the winning champion with a direct seed into the Global Finals come the end of the year.
There will be three global events in 2018. The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice tournament rewards its champion with a berth at the WCS Global Finals, and will featuree a prize pool enhanced by the new StarCraft II War Chest.
On top of IEM Katowice and the WCS Global Finals serving as bookends to the global event schedule, GSL vs. the World will return in mid-2018. Stay tuned for further details.
