Alex007 Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 205 Posts #1 StarLadder, one of the biggest esports operators in Europe, announces two StarCraft II leagues, designed for Russian-language community and sponsored by Blizzard - Amateur and Ultimate Series.







Amateur Series is a competition for all casual and up&coming players, which provides anyone with an opportunity to experience competitive StarCraft. Players of all levels are accepted, even the ones without purchased StarCraft II copy - Starter Edition is enough to take part. Basically, the only requirement for players to take part is being able to speak Russian to be able to communicate with other tournament participants and referees.



Tournament platform, designed for Amateur Series, contains such features as seeding by MMR (allows to make proper seedings automatically) and map vetoing (gives players an opportunity to make vetos indepentdently and get a mappool for the series beforehand). Basic format is 4 players GSL-style groups till there are 8 players left and single elimination afterwards.



Amateur Series features $500 prize pool and slots in Ultimate Series for TOP 4 finishers. The tournament starts on August 12th and is planned to finish in the middle of September.







Ultimate Series features high-level competition between 16 strongest players from CIS. 8 of them will be invited based on their ladder rankings, 4 will advance from Open Qualifiers and 4 slots are left for Amateur Series winners. Ultimate Series is the first major StarCraft II ocmpetition to feature popular esports Swiss-like Triple Elimination system for 16 competitors (see CS:GO majors as an example of system implementation).



Ultimate Series will happen in September - October. If you're part of the Russian language community, you're able to find more information about both Amateur and Ultimate series at



If you want to bring the best action of Amateur or Ultimate series to your language as a community caster, please contact me via PM or starcraft@starladder.tv.



Hopefully our event will run smoothly and open more opportunities for regional StarCraft II competitions next year! , one of the biggest esports operators in Europe, announces two StarCraft II leagues, designed for Russian-language community and sponsored by Blizzard - Amateur and Ultimate Series.is a competition for all casual and up&coming players, which provides anyone with an opportunity to experience competitive StarCraft. Players of all levels are accepted, even the ones without purchased StarCraft II copy - Starter Edition is enough to take part. Basically, the only requirement for players to take part is being able to speak Russian to be able to communicate with other tournament participants and referees.Tournament platform, designed for Amateur Series, contains such features as seeding by MMR (allows to make proper seedings automatically) and map vetoing (gives players an opportunity to make vetos indepentdently and get a mappool for the series beforehand). Basic format is 4 players GSL-style groups till there are 8 players left and single elimination afterwards.Amateur Series features $500 prize pool and slots in Ultimate Series for TOP 4 finishers. The tournament starts on August 12th and is planned to finish in the middle of September.features high-level competition between 16 strongest players from CIS. 8 of them will be invited based on their ladder rankings, 4 will advance from Open Qualifiers and 4 slots are left for Amateur Series winners. Ultimate Series is the first major StarCraft II ocmpetition to feature popular esports Swiss-like Triple Elimination system for 16 competitors (see CS:GO majors as an example of system implementation).Ultimate Series will happen in September - October. If you're part of the Russian language community, you're able to find more information about both Amateur and Ultimate series at http://sc2.starladder.com If you want to bring the best action of Amateur or Ultimate series to your language as a community caster, please contact me via PM or starcraft@starladder.tv.Hopefully our event will run smoothly and open more opportunities for regional StarCraft II competitions next year! Russian community leader, caster and project manager working for StarLadder

Myrddrael Profile Joined November 2012 United Kingdom 291 Posts #2 Pretty cool idea, but I'm curious about the demographic choice? Are there actually that many top Russian players? Surely something like this would do even better in NA or EU. Like an SSL Premier and Challenger for the EU/NA scene. I could see that doing very well.



Regardless, good luck with this and I hope it works out!

Alex007 Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 205 Posts Last Edited: 2017-09-01 12:31:22 #3



We had 947 StarCraft II players registered in our competition. There were players from Tier 3 Bronze as well as several grandmaster players with up to 6000 MMR (which was the limit for amateurs), some of the participants are just Starter Edition users. Most of these players (around 650) actually checked-in and competed in CIS Amateur Series, making it one of the biggest competitions in the history of StarCraft II. We've already completed Round of 1024, Ro512, Ro256, Ro128, Ro64 and Ro32 (all rounds were played in GSL-style groups) and now we're ready to proceed to Ro16 (final GSL-style groups round) and Single Elimination playoffs.



Let's see how the racial distribution changed through the tournament run:







We've started from 329 terrans, 251 zergs, 277 protosses and 90 randoms - and currently there are 6 terrans, 5 zergs and 5 protoss players left. The last random player remaining was Judgin (~4800 MMR) who was knocked out in the Round of 32.



As we've also implemented automatic map pool selection for Amateur Series matches, players were able to make their map vetos before each round, choosing up to two maps which they don't want to play on. Let's see which maps are the least popular in our community:







It's no wonder that Catallena is the least favored map for both casual and high-level amateur players. However, it seems like high-level players like Interloper and Mech Depot much more than casuals, who prefer Abyssal Reef and Odyssey more. And it's quite interesting that Ascension to Aiur is our absolute #1 map as the one which was vetoed the least. Both casual and high-level amateur players like it more than any other map in the current pool.



What about balance and winrates in certain matchups? I'd probably like to show your more graphics, but it's absolutely pointless as winrates in all 3 non-mirror matchups are almost equal to 50%! We have 49% in PvT, 53% in ZvP and 52% in TvZ. TvT is also the most popular mirror matchup comsidering the number of terrans playing (we had 141 TvTs, 79 ZvZs and 80 PvPs so far).



Brackets of all Amateur Series rounds are available



If you're interested in high-level amateur competitors, join our broadcast at Hello everyone! As our Amateur Series season is coming to its final weekend, I'd like to share some interesting and inspiring numbers about our tournament and CIS community in general.We hadregistered in our competition. There were players from Tier 3 Bronze as well as several grandmaster players with up to 6000 MMR (which was the limit for amateurs), some of the participants are just Starter Edition users. Most of these players (around 650) actually checked-in and competed in CIS Amateur Series, making it one of the biggest competitions in the history of StarCraft II. We've already completed Round of 1024, Ro512, Ro256, Ro128, Ro64 and Ro32 (all rounds were played in GSL-style groups) and now we're ready to proceed to Ro16 (final GSL-style groups round) and Single Elimination playoffs.Let's see how the racial distribution changed through the tournament run:We've started from- and currently there are 6 terrans, 5 zergs and 5 protoss players left. The last random player remaining was Judgin (~4800 MMR) who was knocked out in the Round of 32.As we've also implemented automatic map pool selection for Amateur Series matches, players were able to make their map vetos before each round, choosing up to two maps which they don't want to play on. Let's see which maps are the least popular in our community:It's no wonder thatfor both casual and high-level amateur players. However, it seems like high-level players like Interloper and Mech Depot much more than casuals, who prefer Abyssal Reef and Odyssey more. And it's quite interesting thatas the one which was vetoed the least. Both casual and high-level amateur players like it more than any other map in the current pool.What about balance and winrates in certain matchups? I'd probably like to show your more graphics, but it's absolutely pointless as winrates in all 3 non-mirror matchups are almost equal to 50%! We have. TvT is also the most popular mirror matchup comsidering the number of terrans playing (we had 141 TvTs, 79 ZvZs and 80 PvPs so far).Brackets of all Amateur Series rounds are available on our website (unfortunately, only with Russian interface).If you're interested in high-level amateur competitors, join our broadcast at StarLadder this Saturday and Sunday at 11:00 CEST! Russian community leader, caster and project manager working for StarLadder

thefrol Profile Joined July 2012 Russian Federation 30 Posts #4 No one knows how to use Catallena in the current meta



leublix Profile Joined May 2017 479 Posts #5 Thanks for the information. Could you provide winrates per matchup for each map?

Alex007 Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 205 Posts Last Edited: 2017-09-16 14:05:50 #6 Mozgus_Chan aka DmC taking the trophey, but we're already proceeding to $2,500 Ultimate Series with best Russian and Ukrainian players competing!



Saturday, 17:00 CEST:

Bly vs DmC

Creed vs HellraiseR

Couguar vs ExE

DIMAGA vs Lucifer



Sunday, 17:00 CEST:

Rail vs BETON

BratOK vs Awers

Arctur vs Minato

Kas vs BuRning



Live stream (Russian).

Event website (Russian) Amateur Series is over withMozgus_Chan aka DmC taking the trophey, but we're already proceeding to $2,500 Ultimate Series with best Russian and Ukrainian players competing!Saturday, 17:00 CEST:Bly vsDmCCreed vsHellraiseRCouguar vsExEDIMAGA vsLuciferSunday, 17:00 CEST:Rail vsBETONBratOK vsAwersArctur vsMinatoKas vsBuRning Russian community leader, caster and project manager working for StarLadder

Dav1oN Profile Joined January 2012 Ukraine 2944 Posts #7 Have you consider the same format but with best-of-4? So "draw" is possible, since 16 players competing with each other every idividual game should mean more in terms of mapscore/result In memory of Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson 11.09.1985 - 21.07.2019 A tribute to incredible man, embodiment of joy, esports titan, starcraft community pillar all in one. You will always be remembered!

Alex007 Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 205 Posts #8 Actually, no, as we're strictly following Swiss Triple Elimination format which is easy to predict in terms of schedule. We'll consider your idea, thank you! Russian community leader, caster and project manager working for StarLadder

crovavey Profile Joined September 2017 1 Post #9 Alex007, information about this event is added to the liquipedia?

Is there a link to the circuit?

Alex007 Profile Joined December 2010 Ukraine 205 Posts #11

Liquipedia brackets

Official stream (Russian)

Round of 8 matches will be played today, Round of 4 and Finals are played tomorrow. Ultimate Series Playoffs with best CIS players competing starts in 10 minutes!Round of 8 matches will be played today, Round of 4 and Finals are played tomorrow. Russian community leader, caster and project manager working for StarLadder

pharmafreen121 Profile Joined October 2017 3 Posts #12 --- Nuked ---