ESL Pro Tour: Prize Pools & Points Explained Text by TL.net ESPORTS ESL Pro Tour: Prize Pools & Points explained by Olli



One of the interesting talking points of Tuesday's ESL Pro Tour announcement is a re-allocation of prize money and points. Shaun "Apollo" Clark, prior to yesterday's announcement,



Prize Money

The main events (excluding qualifiers) of the six Masters tournaments and IEM Katowice 2021, the grand final, will be allocated a total of $1.6m in prize money.

IEM Katowice 2020 — $400,000



— $400,000 DreamHack SC2 Masters Dallas — $125,000



— $125,000 DreamHack SC2 Masters Valencia — $125,000



— $125,000 DreamHack SC2 Masters Montreal — $125,000



— $125,000 TBA — $200,000



— $200,000 DreamHack SC2 Masters TBA — $125,000



— $125,000 IEM Katowice 2021 — $500,000 Important to note here is that all events, with the exception of both IEM Katowice tournaments, have been additionally supplemented for the 2020-21 season with a total budget of $325,000 to celebrate StarCraft II's 10-year anniversary. The prize pool for all non-Katowice events had been set at $75,000 prior to that boost.



As Apollo commented, prize pools for individual tournaments would be modeled after IEM Katowice in previous years. It is no surprise, then, to see that the distribution of prize money for Katowice 2020 remains



The distribution changes for all non-Katowice events, however. In

Old System Winner — $20,000

2nd — $10,000

3rd & 4th — $6,000

5th - 8th — $4,000

9th - 16th — $2,750

17th - 32nd — $1,250



For comparison, here is the ESL Pro Tour distribution in all $125,000 DreamHack SCII Masters events:

New System Winner — $25,000

2nd — $12,600

3rd & 4th — $6,500

5th - 8th — $4,000

9th - 16th — $2,500

17th - 24th — $1,800

25th - 32nd — $1,000

33rd - 40th — $800

41st - 48th — $600

49th - 56th — $400

57th - 64th — $200





Masters Qualifiers will see a similar shift in comparison to

EU Regional Qualifier Prize Distribution Winner — $1,050

2nd — $950

3rd & 4th — $850

5th & 6th — $750

7th — $650

8th — $650

9th - 12th — $550

13th - 16th — $450



All other Qualifiers follow the same distribution scheme, but prize pools for the Qualifiers of different regions vary:

Regional Qualifier Prize Pools Europe — $10,500

North America — $9,500

Latin America — $8,100

China — $6,600

Oceania, SEA — $6,600

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau & Japan — $6,600



Four such Qualifiers are currently planned out for each region for all DreamHack SCII Masters tournaments. The yet to be announced, global Masters tournament in the fourth quarter of 2020 might diverge from the above distribution scheme, but there is currently no information available on it. IEM Katowice 2020 Qualifiers do not award prize money. All qualified players receive travel and accommodation, as well as guaranteed prize money from the main event pool due to their seeding.



Weekly Cups will be played for $100 each, amounting to an annual total of $5,200.



Pro Tour Points

One interesting aspect of the switch from WCS Points to ESL Pro Tour Points is a drastic reduction of the total amount of points in the system. Where a

Old System Winner — 3,000

2nd — 1,400

3rd & 4th — 900

5th-8th — 600

9th - 16th — 300

17th - 32nd — 100



For comparison, DreamHack Masters events will distribute points as follows:

New System Winner — 700

2nd — 500

3rd & 4th — 350

5th - 8th — 250

9th - 16th — 130

17th - 24th — 70

25th - 32nd — 40

33rd- 44th — 24

45st- 48th — 16

49th - 56th — 12

57th - 64th — 8



IEM Katowice 2020, the first Global Masters tournament in the 2020-21 season, will distribute points this way:

Winner — 1200



— 1200 2nd — 840



— 840 3rd & 4th — 600



— 600 5th - 8th — 420



— 420 9th - 12th — 300



— 300 13th - 16th — 192



— 192 17th - 20th — 144



— 144 21st - 24th — 120



— 120 25th - 28th — 72



— 72 29th - 36th — 48



— 48 37th - 44th — 24



— 24 45th- 60th — 12



— 12 61st - 64th — 0

This re-allocation of Points aligns with Apollo's comment that ESL felt “[BlizzCon] slots were sometimes decided too early”. A flatter distribution of points could help avoid such scenarios, especially with the integration of Weekly Cups into the system.



Points for Weekly Cups will only be awarded to the winner and will be added to their points account in their main region. How that main region is determined is not yet fully clear but, according to Apollo, will be addressed in the official rulebook. The winner of each Weekly Cup receives 10 Tour Points.





One of the interesting talking points of Tuesday's ESL Pro Tour announcement is a re-allocation of prize money and points. Shaun "Apollo" Clark, prior to yesterday's announcement, told us the goal was for both money and points to trickle down to lower placements. This article will examine these differences between the late WCS Circuit and the ESL Pro Tour 2020-21.The main events (excluding qualifiers) of the six Masters tournaments and IEM Katowice 2021, the grand final, will be allocated a total of $1.6m in prize money.Important to note here is that all events, with the exception of both IEM Katowice tournaments, have been additionally supplemented for the 2020-21 season with a total budget of $325,000 to celebrate StarCraft II's 10-year anniversary. The prize pool for all non-Katowice events had been set at $75,000 prior to that boost.As Apollo commented, prize pools for individual tournaments would be modeled after IEM Katowice in previous years. It is no surprise, then, to see that the distribution of prize money for Katowice 2020 remains exactly the same as last year's The distribution changes for all non-Katowice events, however. In regular WCS Circuit events a total of $100,000 was distributed as follows:For comparison, here is the ESL Pro Tour distribution in all $125,000 DreamHack SCII Masters events:Masters Qualifiers will see a similar shift in comparison to WCS Challenger . Where WCS Challenger did not differentiate between places 5 to 8, 9 to 12, and 13 to 16, Masters Qualifiers will see prize money allocated differently. European Qualifiers will each have a total of $10,500 in prize money distributed as such:All other Qualifiers follow the same distribution scheme, but prize pools for the Qualifiers of different regions vary:Four such Qualifiers are currently planned out for each region for all DreamHack SCII Masters tournaments. The yet to be announced, global Masters tournament in the fourth quarter of 2020 might diverge from the above distribution scheme, but there is currently no information available on it. IEM Katowice 2020 Qualifiers do not award prize money. All qualified players receive travel and accommodation, as well as guaranteed prize money from the main event pool due to their seeding.Weekly Cups will be played for $100 each, amounting to an annual total of $5,200.One interesting aspect of the switch from WCS Points to ESL Pro Tour Points is a drastic reduction of the total amount of points in the system. Where a regular WCS event would grant the winner 3000 WCS Points last year, the ESL Pro Tour equivalent of such a tournament — a DreamHack SCII Masters event — now earns the first place finisher only 700 Tour Points. The distribution has also become much flatter. This was the allocation of points among the Top 32 in WCS Summer 2019:For comparison, DreamHack Masters events will distribute points as follows:IEM Katowice 2020, the first Global Masters tournament in the 2020-21 season, will distribute points this way:This re-allocation of Points aligns with Apollo's comment that ESL felt “[BlizzCon] slots were sometimes decided too early”. A flatter distribution of points could help avoid such scenarios, especially with the integration of Weekly Cups into the system.Points for Weekly Cups willand will be added to their points account in their main region. How that main region is determined is not yet fully clear but, according to Apollo, will be addressed in the official rulebook. The winner of each Weekly Cup receives 10 Tour Points. Credits and acknowledgements



Written by:

Photos: ESL



Written by: Olli Photos: ESL

Aeromi Profile Blog Joined August 2012 France 14177 Posts #2 Sounds awesome! https://twitter.com/DrAeromi | Updates on live tournaments: @StarCrafteSport

ZigguratOfUr Profile Blog Joined April 2012 Iraq 16023 Posts #3 It seems a bit funny that the prize pool distribution is flatter for all the bigger events, but the weekly cups are winner take all the points and money.



This does seems like an improvement overall though. Maps I made recently: Nevermore: https://i.imgur.com/NiqR0Rj.jpg | Rubaiyat: https://i.imgur.com/XD3E3vd.jpg | Grand Canal: https://i.imgur.com/kNgyOCo.jpg

colttarren Profile Joined June 2014 United States 26 Posts #4 These all seem like fantastic changes, so excited for this to get into full swing! I commentate stuff, sometimes.

FFW_Rude Profile Blog Joined November 2010 France 10169 Posts #5 So Korea is out of it ?

#1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".

Olli Profile Blog Joined February 2012 Austria 24289 Posts #6 On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Administrator "Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."

FFW_Rude Profile Blog Joined November 2010 France 10169 Posts #7 On January 09 2020 04:12 Olli wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.



Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. #1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".

Olli Profile Blog Joined February 2012 Austria 24289 Posts #8 On January 09 2020 04:13 FFW_Rude wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 09 2020 04:12 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.



Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.



From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying. From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying. Administrator "Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."

FFW_Rude Profile Blog Joined November 2010 France 10169 Posts #9 On January 09 2020 04:16 Olli wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 09 2020 04:13 FFW_Rude wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:12 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.



Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.



From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying. From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.



Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway #1 KT Rolster fanboy. KT BEST KT ! Hail to KT playoffs Zergs ! Unofficial french translator for SlayerS_`Boxer` biography "Crazy as me".

Elentos Profile Blog Joined February 2015 52757 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 19:40:00 #10 On January 09 2020 04:36 FFW_Rude wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 09 2020 04:16 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:13 FFW_Rude wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:12 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.



Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.



From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying. From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.



Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway

Well if you check the announcement thread you'll find that Apollo said they'll consider changes to the region lock etc. for upcoming years but for this season there just wasn't enough time for them to consider fundamentally changing the system to that extent. Well if you check the announcement thread you'll find that Apollo said they'll consider changes to the region lock etc. for upcoming years but for this season there just wasn't enough time for them to consider fundamentally changing the system to that extent. Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.

Olli Profile Blog Joined February 2012 Austria 24289 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 19:41:07 #11 On January 09 2020 04:36 FFW_Rude wrote:

Show nested quote +

On January 09 2020 04:16 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:13 FFW_Rude wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:12 Olli wrote:

On January 09 2020 04:11 FFW_Rude wrote:

So Korea is out of it ?





Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments. Just not announced yet. Korea will have at least 3 tournaments.



Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it. Yeah but i mean korea is still excluded from it.



From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying. From what? The official breakdown of KR points & prize money just isn't announced yet. Korea is part of the system. It's still region-locked, if that's what you're saying.



Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway Yeah that's what i was looking for. Oh well i thought they would rethink it. Not that big of a deal but a little sad anyway



They will reassess region lock after this season. Doesn't mean it will be lifted, but it did seem to me like Apollo at least was leaning towards that if the Korean scene keeps struggling for new players.



His quotes on region lock are here: They will reassess region lock after this season. Doesn't mean it will be lifted, but it did seem to me like Apollo at least was leaning towards that if the Korean scene keeps struggling for new players.His quotes on region lock are here: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/554463-esl-pro-tour-replaces-wcs-on-a-3-year-deal Administrator "Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."

agripsss Profile Joined June 2018 37 Posts #12 thanks for this

Andi_Goldberger Profile Joined July 2018 888 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 20:09:33 #13 Imagine someone slipping into Katowice by winning the last online cup. Or having to win the last 3 cups to get in. That would create so much hype :D



I am very excited for the upcoming 3 yrs! ~~~

B42b42oss4 Profile Joined May 2015 Germany 36 Posts #14 On January 09 2020 05:09 Andi_Goldberger wrote:

Imagine someone slipping into Katowice by winning the last online cup. Or having to win the last 3 cups to get in. That would create so much hype :D



I am very excited for the upcoming 3 yrs!



And the one in front of him in points would have to play in the same online cup and would have to place better to keep the qualifying spot.

And the one in front of him in points would have to play in the same online cup and would have to place better to keep the qualifying spot.

DreamlnCode Profile Joined December 2018 United Kingdom 62 Posts #15 Tasty stuff. Things are looking good for the coming years.

bela.mervado Profile Joined December 2008 Hungary 170 Posts #16 Who will we call the world champion?

The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously),

or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?



CynicalDeath Profile Joined January 2012 Italy 2489 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 21:01:22 #17 no points awarded for Qualifiers tho? Liquipedia SC2 LP Staff - My Life for Aiur - Let the Metal flow - @Cynical_Death

Dingodile Profile Joined December 2011 4035 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 21:16:42 #18 I think they should change the money Distribution for 25th-32nd. the older Version offers more money.

changes like 17th-24th with 1550€ (reduced from 1800€) and 25th-32nd with 1250€ (increased from 1000€). Grubby | ToD | Moon | Lyn | Sky

Serimek Profile Joined August 2011 France 2176 Posts Last Edited: 2020-01-08 21:19:07 #19 I don't get why Lat Am is favoured over China qualifier wise. China's scene looks more promising than Lat Am and it would have been smarter to support China more imo.



On an other subject, 520 pts to win on weeklies is quite huge. Time to see if offline heroes can benefit from that. SC2 is the best game to watch and was the best to play before I grew old and slow...

sneakyfox Profile Joined January 2017 6781 Posts #20



Thanks for the article, it's nice to get some more concrete info on the setup. On January 09 2020 05:54 bela.mervado wrote:

Who will we call the world champion?

The one winning Katowice in 2021 (as we did previously),

or the one with the most points after that final event (as in formula-1) ?





Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.



But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though Clearly the player who wins the World Championship at Katowice.But this also means that 2020 will not crown an official world champion, so Dark will remain the champ until March 2021. Not that anyone will notice though "I saw what sneakyfox wrote on TL.net and it made me furious" - PartinG

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