After an action-packed WCS Challenger Season 2, we’re ready to jump into the next chapter of North American and European StarCraft II esports! WCS Challenger Season 3 is just around the corner - here’s what you need to know:

In the North America region:

• Two players will qualify based on their performance in 2019 WCS Challenger Season 2
• Two players will qualify based on their performance in Cheeseadelphia X
• Four players will qualify from their rank in the Season 3 Ladder Race
• Eight players will qualify from the online open qualifiers

In the European region:

• Four players will qualify based on their performance in 2019 WCS Challenger Season 2
• Four players will qualify from their rank in the Season 3 Ladder Race
• Eight players will qualify from the online open qualifiers

Qualified Challengers from Season 2

North American Challengers:

• Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft
• Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn

European Challengers:

• Joona “Serral” Sotala
• Julian “Lambo” Brosig
• Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti
• Mikołaj “Elazer” Ogonowski

Ladder Race

Please read carefully 

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 July 21, 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, July 18, 21:00 CEST: Promotion window 1
• Friday, July 19, 21:00 CEST: Promotion window 2
• Saturday, July 20, 21:00 CET: Promotion window 3
• Sunday, July 21, 21:00 CEST: Promotion window 4
• Sunday, June 21, 23:59 CEST: Grandmaster League cut-off based on MMR

NA Ladder:

• Thursday, July 18, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 1
• Friday, July 19, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 2
• Saturday, July 20, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 3
• Sunday, July 21, 21:00 EDT: Promotion window 4
• Sunday, June 21, 23:59 EDT: Grandmaster League cut-off based on MMR

Open Qualifier Schedule and Signups

Please read carefully

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

North America:

• July 22: NA Qualifiers Day 1
  • First match begins at 16:00 PDT - sign-up here
• July 23: NA Qualifiers Day 2
  • First match begins at 16:00 PDT – sign-up here

Europe:

• July 22: EU Qualifiers Day 1
  • First match begins at 16:00 CEST - sign-up here
• July 23: EU Qualifiers Day 2
  • First match begins at 16:00 CEST – sign-up here

Challenger Tournament Dates

The main WCS Challenger tournament will begin August 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:

• August 8: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
• August 9: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
• August 10: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
• August 11: From 7 a.m. PDT (4 p.m. CEST)
• August 24 - EU Finals: From 3 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. PDT)
• August 25 - 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 Fall. Based on their performances in this season of WCS Challenger, the field of players receive cash prizes and WCS Points as follows:

Streams

Catch us this week on the StarCraft Twitch channel, joined by Nathan “Nathanias” Fabrikant, Paulo "Catz" Vizcarra and Kellan "Colttarren" McPhail. Ravi “feardragon” Pareek will join us starting August 24th for the conclusion of the Playoffs. We'll also be bringing you all the action in an additional eight languages thanks to our community partners:

• German: TakeTV
• Polish: emStudio, ESL Poland, IndyStarCraft
• French: O’Gaming
• Russian: StarLadder, Psinsin
• Spanish: HorussTV
• Portuguese: DeathzoneTV
• Korean: Crank