Blizzard today announced changes to the structure of Starcrfat 2’s competitive events, including retiring the World Championship Series in what it calls “the next era of StarCraft II esports”.
Starting with 2020, Blizzard will partner with Dreamhack and ESL, establishing a new Starcraft 2 Esports circuit for the following three years.
Blizzard Partners with Dreamhack and ESL for Starcraft 2 Esports Circuit
With Starcraft 2’s WCS now retired, the associated app is also offline as of December 31, 2019. The WCS is scheduled to be taken down at some point in early 2020.
In its stead, Starcraft 2 Esports receives the ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II and DreamHack SC2 Masters. The new circuit will be made up of six international tournaments (four Dreamhack’s, two ESL’s), alongside weekly competitions that “will feed into the ESL events”.
The global finals will then move to the IEM Katowice World Championship in 2021. The format for Starcraft 2 Esports during Blizzcon will also change, although details on that will come “later”.
As for the Korean side of Starcraft 2 Esports, Blizzard is “actively working to finalize plans for 2020 and beyond”.
In its new role, Blizzard will “serve as an overall support network for the new system” that sees Dreamhack and ESL “taking over the operational management of StarCraft II esports”.
Blizzard will provide prizes of over $1.2 million per year for each of the upcoming three years. The 2020-2021 ESL/Dreamhack circuit will have prizes in excess of $1.9 million.
You can read the full announcement and see where on social media you should now look for Starcraft 2 Esports content over on the Starcraft 2 website.
