With Season 2 of WCS behind us, the top 16 of the leaderboard is an interesting place.

Protoss take up 8 of the spots, with Terran and Zerg equal on 4 places apiece.

Overall, WCS America has 6 representatives in the top 16, Korea also has 6. WCS Europe only has four representatives, but three of them are in first, third and fourth place respectively, making it clear EU is dominated by its top performers.

All six WCS winners are in the top 16 (Pigbaby squeaking into 16th place solely on the back of his 2000 point haul last weekend), but two of the first-round runners-up (MMA and Oz) are struggling in the low 20s.

According to the WCS Predictor, finishing the year on 2,700 points gives players a 50% chance of qualifying for the world finals at Blizzcon, and 3,000 points offers over 95% chance of qualifying. There are currently seven players already guaranteed 2,900 points or more, so unless one of them drops out for other reasons, we’re almost certainly seeing MC, Hyun, StarDust, San, TaeJa, Polt and Zest at Blizzcon.

So what does the top 16 look like? I’ve broken it down by points from WCS and non-WCS events. (These numbers differ slightly from the official standings because I have not included points already earned from Season 3)

Interestingly, below the top four powerhouses (three from EU, one from AM) who have performed well in both forms of competition, there starts to be a clear distinction between players who have earned their points in Premier League, and those who have suffered lacklustre performances in WCS events but have made it up in other competition.

Some have levelled up through consistent placings in non-WCS competition (Polt, TaeJa, and especially Jaedong), others through one or two splashy victories (most obviously sOs for his one and only 1500 point haul at the IEM World Championship, but also CJ Entus’ Proleague specialist herO, whose 1500 extra points come from first- and second places in the only two foreign events he has attended.)

Spare a thought also for soO, whose incredible achievement as back-to-back-to-back GSL runner-up leaves him still just one unlucky Round of 32 result from dropping out of contention for the world finals, thanks to earning precisely zero points outside Korea (and 150 at the GSL Global Championship).

So what would the top 16 look like if we did not include circuit events?

7 representatives from AM, 5 from KR and still only 4 from EU. The same racial balance as before. A couple of fan favourites missing from the mix, but a few others slipping back above the cut-off.

So far this year there have been 13 non-WCS events. According to the calendar on Liquipedia, we have eight more remaining for the season. And it’s at those weekend events as much as the Premier Leagues, that the seven-or-eight Blizzcon spots that have not yet been locked up will be decided.

Another factor worth keeping in mind: the Proleague season comes to an end in a month. Will this free up some of the big name KeSPA hopefuls to try their luck at a last-minute qualification?

Certainly it puts a big emphasis on the upcoming KeSPA Cup. With 1,500 points going to the winner and 800 to the runner-up, this might be the big chance for Proleague’s automatic seeds herO and sOs to cement their places at Anaheim.