The 2018 Korea StarCraft Remastered League elimination stage starts this week

The 2018 KSL Season 1 is one of the most important offline tournaments hosted by Blizzard, to celebrate StarCraft’s 20th anniversary. Open online qualifiers brought together some of the best Korean players, but only 256 advanced to the offline stage. Those matches were played in the first six months of 2018 and the most important stage of the tournament began on July 19. The tournament has a guaranteed prize pool of ₩80,000,000 and all the 16 players who participate in the main event receive a slice.

Eight players have survived the group stage

The first stage of the 2018 Korea StarCraft Remastered League had the 16 players divided into four identical groups. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the participants were Protoss players, with half of the field choosing this race. There were a total of five Terran players and only three Zergs, but the latter had the best percentage during the group stage.

Matches were broadcasted on a weekly basis on Thursday and Friday, starting at 7 PM KST. The interest for the 2018 KSL Season 1 went well beyond Korean borders and the competition is watched by players from all over the world. The English coverage for the tournament is provided by Tasteless and Artosis who will also provide the broadcast talent for the decisive rounds.

During the group stage the matches were played in a best-of-five format and the same number of matches will be played in the quarterfinals. The semi finals and the finals will require a maximum number of seven matches to decide the winner. The games are played on eight maps and the list includes Blue Storm, Circuit Breaker, Fighting Spirit, Fortress SE, Gladiator, Polaris Rhapsody and Roadkill.

Three Protoss players win group stage

There were a total of three Protoss players in Group A, so it comes as no surprise that one of them earned the first spot. Rain advanced with a 6-2 record, while Terran player Last came in second and will face Snow in the first match of the elimination bracket. His opponent prevailed in Group B where he was the only Protoss and was also joined to the elimination round by a Terran, namely Sharp.

Group C was the only one to feature two Zerg players and both of them have advanced to the next stage. Soulkey won the group and Jaedong came in second and they will play against the Protoss winners of Group D. Horang2 finished with the best score, but BeSt is actually the more difficult opponent. The quarterfinals will take place on August 23 and August 24, on Friday and Saturday.

The lion’s share of the prize pool will be distributed among the players who finish on the podium. At the end of this week we will also know the names of the players who finish on the 5th – 8th places. Consolation prizes of $1824, the equivalent of ₩2 million were given to the players eliminated from the group stage.