Starladder recently announced what the format of the qualifiers will be for the competition that will be heading to China later this year called WESG. Currently Starladder are dealing with some offline qualifiers hosted in Dubai, however they have announced their stretch of the European & CIS Qualifiers which are set to take place throughout September.
With an already busy schedule in the next few months, Valve opted to drop any potential candidates of having a Major in Q3 of 2016, and opt for Q4 in 2017 instead, which has loosened up the potential cluster of major events that are happening in the next few months. WESG is one of those events with a whopping $1.5million on the line for Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, and for those interested in the United Kingdom, 8 teams from Europe & CIS will also bag themselves a share of $75,000 in the qualifiers if they do manage to qualify from the Offline Qualifier.
This is a fantastic opportunity for those teams in the United Kingdom to perhaps get out there and show off our scene in a positive light, as we now have our own dedicated slot (with Iceland) for a guaranteed team in the actual qualifier. The Regional Finals will see 20 teams from all over Europe and the CIS Region head to Kiev to compete for a share of $75k and 8 invites to the Global Finals held in China later this year. For those unaware this is incredibly similar to the way World Cyber Games used to run with dedicated qualifiers for certain countries that fed into either Regional Finals and/or into the Global Finals.
Prize Pool Distribution (Regional Finals)
1. $30,000
2. $18,000
3. $9,000
4. $6,000
5-8. $3,000
Prize Pool Distribution (Global Finals)
1. $800,000
2. $400,000
3. $200,000
4. $60,000
5-8. $10,000
Teams can sign up to the qualifiers today, with these links here:
Qualifier for UK, Ireland & Iceland (Open for 256 teams)
Sign ups for the qualifier close on September 22nd, so there is of course plenty of time for teams to finalise their rosters post insomnia58, with the qualifier beginning on September 24th at 5pm UK time. It should be noted that ANY player who has been banned by Valve, or has a VAC ban on their record (which is a VAC-3 designated record ie. Counter-Strike:Global Offensive) will not be permitted to play at all throughout these qualifiers. You can find all designated rules for these qualifiers on this page here.
The Regional Finals will take place in Kiev on October 6th – 9th, there is no news on when the Global Finals will take place and exactly where they will be but we will endeavor to find this information out in due course. Over the weekend, in Dubai this weekend, WESG found out it’s first competitors from the Africa & Middle East region, with Space Soldiers, Bravado Gaming (which some people should know from previous Majors) and Dark Passage all qualifying to the Global Finals.
Will we see any UK Team make it through this path of the qualifiers, and is there potential for any UK team to really help shape the future of our scene? We will cover the UK Qualifier every step of the way as well as following any team who makes it through to the Regional Finals later on in this competition.
