StarCraft® II is shaping up for another incredible esports year as ESL reveals the ESL Pro Tour 2023/24 program
Fans from around the world can look forward to cheering on their favorites at several live events
| Press release summary: - ESL Pro Tour in StarCraft® II 2023/24 program to include weekly ESL Open Cups, two online ESL StarCraft® II Masters Regionals with live Finals, and the EPT Championship. - Live ESL StarCraft® II Masters Finals to take place at DreamHack Summer 2023 and DreamHack Atlanta 2023. - The EPT StarCraft® II Championship to be announced later this year. - ESL to take over the full funding, including prize money, of its StarCraft® II esports ecosystem. |
Cologne/New York – The StarCraft® II legacy continues as ESL, an ESL FACEIT Group brand, today announced the 2023/24 program for the ESL Pro Tour (EPT) in StarCraft II, featuring weekly ESL Open Cups, two online ESL StarCraft II Masters Regionals with live Finals, and the live EPT Championship.
Going into the coming year, what was previously known as DreamHack StarCraft II Masters will be rebranded and titled ESL StarCraft II Masters. Players and fans can still expect the same professional competitions and excitement, while also being able to look forward to a brand new format.
During the ESL StarCraft II Masters, players worldwide duel in one of four online regional leagues to ultimately qualify for a spot in the live Finals:
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- ESL StarCraft II Masters Summer:
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- Online Regionals on May 2 - 21, 2023
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- Finals to take place live at DreamHack Summer in Jönköping, Sweden, on June 16-18, 2023
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- Featuring a $200,000 total prize pool
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- ESL StarCraft II Masters Summer:
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- ESL StarCraft II Masters Winter:
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- Online Regionals on October 31 - November 19, 2023
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- Finals to take place live at DreamHack Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, on December 15-17, 2023
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- Featuring a $200,000 total prize pool
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- ESL StarCraft II Masters Winter:
In order to give fans the opportunity to watch top players face off against each other on a more regular basis, the Latin America and North America regions will be combined in the Americas (AM) region, while China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Oceania, and Rest of Asia will be merged into the Asia region. The European (EU) and Korean (KR; operated by GSL) regions continue like preceding years.
After a year of tough battles and stellar action, the world’s best StarCraft II players will battle it out at the EPT StarCraft II Championship. At this pinnacle StarCraft II tournament, one of these players will ultimately lift the coveted trophy and become the new official World Champion. Stay tuned as more details about the EPT StarCraft II Championship will be announced later this year.
The open ecosystem provides opportunities for players around the world to compete in the biggest tournaments across the StarCraft II program. The 2023/24 program marks the fourth year of the renewed relationship between ESL and Blizzard. Beginning in 2023, ESL will fully fund the program, including prize money, while continuing to operate the EPT.
“EFG is committed to the StarCraft II and RTS community,” said Michael Van Driel, VP Game Ecosystems, at ESL FACEIT Group, “Earlier this year at IEM Katowice, Li “Oliveira” Peinan showed the world what it means to win the Championship title. Moments like these are why we want to continue to provide the platform for players to excel and succeed, and we look forward to seeing the fans and community unite once again this year around the ESL Pro Tour.”
Anything unclear?
Here is our FAQ for the upcoming 23/24 season:
We feel that the level of competition in previous season’s regions was too different from each other. The main goal of our change is to make sure we have a strong competition in every regional tournament where players are able to compete in a good environment and produce a great show for our esports fans.
With DreamHack being a festival brand and ESL being focused on esports competitions, we would like to better highlight the nature of our tournament. With the upcoming format changes, ESL Masters is going to be focused on the highest level of StarCraft II esports - but the offline events will still be part of DreamHack festivals so we hope to see you there!
Our goal is to focus more on the highest level of competition and we are going to implement new tournament formats for both Regionals and offline Finals. More details about the ESL Masters format will be announced on our website soon.
We pay very close attention to the feedback from the community and know that having no talents onsite in Atlanta was really disappointing for a lot of our fans. Our current plan is to bring the talent lineup to both Masters events this year.
The total prize pool is going to be at least $663.600 which includes:
- $200.000 for the Summer season
- $200.000 for the Winter season
- $63.600 for 53 weekly Open Cups
- At least $200.000 for the EPT Championship to be announced later this year
Stay tuned as more details about the EPT 23/24 Championship, including its location, will be announced later this year - however, the prize pool level of at least $200.000 is guaranteed!
Yes, GSL continues as well - you can find all details of GSL 2023 plans via AfreecaTV announcement.
We are still happy to include the 3rd party tournaments into the EPT circuit - and we definitely hope to see HomeStory Cup, TeamLiquid StarLeague and other community events in the lineup for this season! There are no 3rd party tournament-related announcements to be made from our side at this point though.
We will continue supporting the SC2 esports scene with some of the most talented progamers and passionate fans in the whole esports world. Our current plan is also to continue implementing the tournament map pool updates and balance changes from Blizzard Entertainment.
