The WCS Season 3 Finals have arrived! The top eight players from across the world will compete in the final season of WCS in 2015, and most likely the final WCS season played in HotS. But that’s not the only tournament this weekend, as ESL is also proud to bring you more HotS action with the Americas Open, Go4SC2 Europe Cup, NA Late Night Skill Cups and Brazil’s Community Cups, not to mention the SEA LotV Anniversary Tournament which makes its way to Thailand this week.

The Pro Scene:

WCS Season 3 2015 Premier League Playoffs







Could this be it, the tournament that gives foreign players their long awaited HotS WCS Championship? There are five foreigners to three Korean players, and with and ForGG playing each other in the first round, the chances of a non-Korean champion are reasonable to say the least. A rematch of the Season 2 Finals between Lilbow and Hydra in the first round could see all but one korean knocked out of contention, but the Frenchmen's drive for vengeance needs to have him in top form against last season's champion. Zanster , MaNa , GunGFuBanDa and Petraeus will also be striving to be the WCS champions. Theoretically GunGFuBanDa, Petraeus and

Could this be it, the tournament that gives foreign players their long awaited HotS WCS Championship? There are five foreigners to three Korean players, and with Polt andplaying each other in the first round, the chances of a non-Korean champion are reasonable to say the least. A rematch of the Season 2 Finals betweenandin the first round could see all but one korean knocked out of contention, but the Frenchmen's drive for vengeance needs to have him in top form against last season's champion.andwill also be striving to be the WCS champions. Theoreticallyand Lilbow could all qualify for Blizzcon with a first-place finish, but Lilbow alone could still advance if he makes it to the quaterfinals (although a higher finish would cement his chances!).

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Live Stream here Official VoDs here

The Community Scene:

SEA LotV Beta Anniversary Tournament Qualifier: Thailand

SC2 1on1 Brazil Community Cups:

ESL Late Night Skill Cups NA #26

Thailand will be the home of the fourth qualifier for the. The action will begin Saturday, September 12th at 23:00 PDT (Sunday, September 13th , 13:00 ICT) and signups are open to any and all Thai players who want a chance to test their mettle against their countrymen and, possibly, against the world’s best LotV players. The top two finishing players in this double-elimination bracket will advance to the Round-of-Ten Group Stage taking place on October 18th, 2015.Winners of the previous Qualifiers are:From the Philippines qualifier:andFrom the Singaporean qualifier:andFrom the Malaysian qualifier:and Catch The Action Live at: http://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2b Check the Brackets here And visit the official webpage for more information.Taking place Sunday, September 13th, 2015 at 14:00 CEST (05:00 PDT) featuring aprize pool withfor the winner and €50 for the runner up. Europe's best ladder heroes will compete for dominance, Go4SC2 Points, and enough prize money to celebrate their victory in style.Check out the monthly Go4SC2 Cup Standings here Streams: TaKeTV , TBAKicking off Sunday, September 13th, 2015 at 15:00 PDT on the Americas server, everyone can come to compete for thegrand prize in this weekly HotS open tournament. The matches will be broadcast on Twitch.tv by community casters. Congratulations to last week's winner, Sign up here and compete yourself to get paid and receive everlasting adoration.Streams:TBABrazil's community cups continue on Saturday September 12th at 11:00 PDT, with two back-to-back tournaments for all skills levels. Get ready for a display of the unique style of HotS that the Brazilian community has to offer which guarantees exciting games and close calls no matter what league.Check the brackets or sign up here:Catch the action live fromRockletztv: http://www.twitch.tv/rockletztv Sign up and join in on the action Saturday September 12th at 18:00 PDT. The three simultaneous HotS open tournaments cover all levels of skill on the Americas ladder, from Bronze to Masters. Compete for the free coaching grand prizes, great games and join an even better community of competitors that will push your play to the limit.The events will be shoutcasted on twitch.tv, steamers permitting.Sign up here:

In Case You Missed It:

WCS Season 3 Premier League Round-of-Sixteen





These groups were stacked with talent and not a single one was easy an easy call. Many considered the Group A favourites to be





The upsets continued in Group B, with the passing of the old guard happening via





Group C, most commonly referred to as the Group of Death, provided a teaser of a major potential upset when WCS Season 2 Champion





Finally Group D saw the fall of a tyrant. THE Tyrant, , who went on to an impressive victory against the favoured

These groups were stacked with talent and not a single one was easy an easy call. Many considered the Group A favourites to be MaNa and MarineLorD , but nobody could reasonably count out elfi or Zanster from contention. While MaNa did manage to advance, Zenster provided the relative upset by advancing without dropping a series.The upsets continued in Group B, with the passing of the old guard happening via Sen ’s elimination and along with Snute ’s BlizzCon dreams being dashed by the youngsters Petraeus and GunGFuBanDa Group C, most commonly referred to as the Group of Death, provided a teaser of a major potential upset when WCS Season 2 Champion Hydra lost his opening set against Poland’s own Elazer (who replaced Hitman on short notice). WCS Season 1 Champion Polt also teased at another upset as his play looked sketchy in his first few games against longtime rival viOLet . Despite these early hiccups, the favourites prevailed however as both this seasons previous WCS Champs moved on to the Round-of-Eight.Finally Group D saw the fall of a tyrant. THE Tyrant, Jaedong could not recover from his opening series loss to last season’s WCS Runner-Up Lilbow who went on to an impressive victory against the favoured ForGG iaguz had the dubious pleasure of being the groups punching bag and unfortunately could not find a single victory. In the end, the final spot belonged to either Jaedong or ForGG , and the crafty Terran was not to be denied.

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Place Prize Player Name 1st $150 USD Beastyqt 2nd $100 USD qxc 3rd $25 USD Cougar 4th $25 USD TOP



The tournament also featured notable pro players Nerchio , TRUE , NightEnD ,



The tournament also featured notable pro players Bly EnDerr as well as community figure desRow and ESL’s own Seigfried

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The entire second group stage was played this week in an epic sprint to the finals this weekend. Time is limited if you want to catch up on the action before the finals start on Saturday, but if your favourite player got knocked out of contention in one of the many upsets, this is where you can find them.Official VoDs here Official Brackets here The first Gauntlet SC2 LotV Open drew almost 40 players from all leagues together to test their Legacy of the Void Beta prowess against each other for a share of the $300 USD prize pool. The single-elimination style tournament featured a Best-Of-Three format until the semi-finals (Best-of-Five) and the Best-of-Seven Finals.You can find all the VoDs Here Click Here for the official bracketsFollow the Official GaunletSC2 Twitter here for updates regarding future events in HotS and LotV.If you have any feedback - bad or good - about anything we are doing in StarCraft II then please let us know in the forum Would you like to get involved with StarCraft 2 in the world's largest biggest and most important eSports league? Apply now! Good luck, have fun,Your ESL Staff