Hot off the heels of WCS Challenger Season 1, we’re ready to launch into the next chapter of North American and European StarCraft II esports. WCS Challenger Season 2 is just around the corner, so here’s what you need to know.

In each region:

• Four will qualify based on their performance in 2019 WCS Challenger Season 1
• Four players will qualify from their rank in the Season 2 Ladder Race
• Eight players will qualify from the online open qualifiers

Qualified Challengers from Season 1

North American Challengers:

• Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft
• Jarod “JonSnow” George
• Maru “MaSa” Kim
• Dario “TLO” Wünsch

European Challengers:

• Joona “Serral” Sotala
• Tobias “ShoWTimE” Sieber
• Marc “uThermal” Schlappi
• Mikołaj “Elazer” Ogonowski

Ladder Race

The top four qualifying players from the EU and NA ladders will automatically receive an invite to WCS Challenger. The cut-off will be based on MMR and will take place on May 26, 23:59 CEST (for EU) or 23:59 EDT (for NA).

Players must complete 15 ladder games each day between Grandmaster League promotion windows (21:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST) starting in the Thursday–Friday window and continuing through Sunday.

Starting at the Thursday promotion window, players will be required to play under the name they wish to use during the WCS Circuit event. If you have already competed in the WCS under a name in 2019, you must use that same name for subsequent WCS competitions unless you receive permission from Blizzard to have a name change. Please contact sc2admin@blizzard.com if you require a free character name change to compete.

EU Ladder:

• Thursday, May 23, 21:00 CET: Promotion window 1
• Friday, May 24, 21:00 CET: Promotion window 2
• Saturday, May 25, 21:00 CET: Promotion window 3
• Sunday, May 26, 21:00 CEST: Promotion window 4
• Sunday, May 26, 23:59 CEST: Grandmaster League cut-off based on MMR

NA Ladder:

• Thursday, May 23, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 1
• Friday, May 24, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 2
• Saturday, May 25, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 3
• Sunday, May 26, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 4
• Sunday, May 26, 23:59 EDT: Grandmaster League cut-off based on MMR

Open Qualifier Schedule and Signups

Note: Signups will open on May 7 and will close two hours before the day’s tournament begins. 

North America:

• June 1: NA Qualifiers Day 1
  • First match begins at 16:00 PDT - sign-up here
• June 2: NA Qualifiers Day 2
  • First match begins at 16:00 PDT – sign-up here

Europe:

• June 1: EU Qualifiers Day 1
  • First match begins at 16:00 CEST - sign-up here
• June 2: EU Qualifiers Day 2
  • First match begins at 16:00 CEST – sign-up here

Challenger Tournament Dates

The main WCS Challenger tournament will begin June 8, with the first half of each broadcast day dedicated to Europe and the second half focused on North America. In both Europe and North America Challenger, there will be a group stage featuring four groups of four players each. The “dual tournament” format will see the first player to win two matches in a group advance to the knockout phase, while the first to lose two matches will be eliminated. The remaining two players will battle for the group’s last spot in the single-elimination playoff. The full tournament breaks down as follows:

June 8: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
June 9: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
June 15: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
June 16: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
June 22 - EU Finals: From 2 p.m. CEST (5 a.m. PDT)
June 23 - NA Finals: From 11 a.m. PDT (8 p.m. CEST)

Prizing

The top four WCS Challenger players in both North America and Europe will receive invites to Group Stage 3 at WCS Spring. Based on their performances in this season of WCS Challenger, the field of players receive cash prizes and WCS Points as follows: