In a move that sees the former WCS Challenger tournaments by Blizzard replaced, ESL ANZ Champs has been announced as the new way for Oceanic and South-East Asian players to qualify into four Masters level events across the year.
ESL ANZ Champs has positioned itself as Oceania’s primary gateway event to international competition. With a corresponding move announced recently in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that will send a team to a DreamHack Open event, the Champs series is forming a key part of ESL’s wider global network to feed local players into the international stage across a range of titles.
ESL Australia’s Product Manager James Fletcher is excited for the opportunities this new event will provide.
“With the addition of StarCraft II to the ESL ANZ Champs, we’re excited to also unveil this new global pathway for players in our league.”
“Competing at an ESL Pro Tour Masters level event is an aspiration that we hope many local players share, and we look forward to seeing our region represented on the global stage.”
As the replacement for Blizzard’s WCS Challenger tournament, there are now four global events that Starcraft 2 players will be able to take part in from ESL’s SC2 Pro Tour.
The move had recently been speculated on the Esports Social Club’s Not Another Podcast and the opportunites that have been announced largely mirror what was discussed there.
Three DreamHack events will form the first three opportunities, in Dallas, Valencia and Montreal and the fourth Masters level event has not yet been announced.
The StarCraft II portion of ESL ANZ Champs this year will allow players from across Oceania and South-East Asia to compete, including players from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam.
Each qualifier will consist of three stages and will award $6,600USD in prize money along with the global pathway to each respective event.
The new event streamlines Starcraft 2’s pathway to the global stage along the range of events that fall under ESL’s banner and locally enables pro Starcraft 2 to be broadcast from the marquee ANZ Champs flag.
You can read more as the event progresses at https://pro.eslgaming.com/anz/sc2/
