Diving into the StarCraft esports scene’s top tournaments

StarCraft is one of the biggest esports titles in the world. It has influenced so many games in the esports scene to the point that it’s called the ‘original game’. Let’s talk about the tournaments that shaped one of the biggest esports scenes in the world. 

When it comes to other games, you can easily say what the biggest tournaments are. For Dota 2, you have The International, for League of Legends, you have the World Championships, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has its multiple Valve Majors. The esports scene is now filled with premier events and StarCraft played a big part in the scene’s growth.

In CSGO, you can measure the value of the tournament when there are free CSGO skins that are being given out. While you can’t easily identify it like that in StarCraft, you need to look into the scene and keep track of the tournaments to find out the best event.

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BlizzCon (WCS Global Finals)

As Blizzard’s top convention, most people would know about this event because of the announcements that the company makes for its different franchises. StarCraft is not their only game because they also have to keep track of titles like Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch. BlizzCon is usually used for announcing updates for those games with a big convention that celebrates these titles over the years.

That is the event’s main purpose but this is also where the biggest StarCraft tournament is held. You will see so many players from all over the world competing in a tournament at BlizzCon. The StarCraft season builds up towards BlizzCon using points with every event. When they accumulate enough points, the top 16 will be invited to BlizzCon to compete in a bracket to determine who is the best player in the world.

While BlizzCon is the location of the tournament, its true name is the WCS Global Finals which is the conclusion of the StarCraft II World Championship Series. It has had so many winners over the years. In the second StarCraft game, Blizzard has held this event nine times with eight South Korean winners so far. 

There has only been one player who has won the event multiple times which was Korean Protoss star Kim ‘s0s’ Jin who won in 2013 and 2015. He is known as one of the best players in StarCraft history and it is easy to see why. He is already a skilled player but his victories at these Global Finals events is a testament to his skill and ability.

Only one player outside of Korea has won the event, which happened in the 2018 edition of the event. Finnish star Joona ‘Serral’ ‘Sotala won the event by running through multiple opponents finishing with Kim ‘Stats’ Dae Yeob from Korea.

It was the start of a new era for StarCraft because when Serral won, many foreign players started to break into the top tier and started dethroning the top Koreans in the esports scene. This was a breakthrough moment for StarCraft since there were so many stars who tried to claim the throne and they are doing well to this day with the likes of Riccardo ‘Reynor’ Romiti and Gabriel ‘HeRoMaRinE’ Segat.

While WCS was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19, you can expect BlizzCon to come back and there will be a WCS Global Finals at that convention. 

Global StarCraft II League (GSL)

Global StarCraft II League is widely known as the second-biggest event in the world. It is hosted by afreecaTV and Blizzard in South Korea. It has been held multiple times since its inception in 2010 and it has been filled with so many competitive series over the years. 

Three players hold the record for the most wins at a GSL event and these stars are Jeong ‘Mvp’ Jong-hyeon, Lee ‘INnoVation’ Shin-hyung and Cho ‘Maru’ Seong-ju. These three stars are seen as three of the best StarCraft players to touch the game. It is understood why they hold the record for the most wins because they are all talented players. 

This event has become mainstream in Korea because StarCraft is seen as a cultural phenomenon. During the StarCraft: Brood War era, Korea was the first country to embrace official events where money was given to the winners. This was the prototype for the esports model and it began to take over the world when StarCraft started to take off and become the forefather of other esports games.

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IEM Katowice

While IEM Katowice is known for holding multiple esports events for Dota 2 and CSGO over the years, StarCraft has also become a landmark esports game for the event. Poland is not known as a top SC country but IEM Katowice is a strong event for the StarCraft scene because of how many top players have performed at the event.

Even if the latest one was held online, it still held significance especially when Reynor beat Joo ‘Zest’ Sung-wook in the grand final of the event. Reynor won around $65,400 in prize money which was a solid reward for the teenage phenom. The Italian is now known as one of the best players in the world largely due to the success he earned during this event.

If pundits and the rest of the SC scene hold this event in high regard, it is fair to say that this event matters on the same level as BlizzCon and GSL. IEM Katowice will continue to be a top event across esports but StarCraft has adopted it as one of their major events for years to come.

Why StarCraft will grow further soon

While Blizzard is not committed to their StarCraft scene these days, you can expect that the devs will create the third game in the series. That will surely help the scene grow again since SC holds a great deal of value across the esports scene. While it’s not as strong as CSGO’s free CSGO skins, the gameplay is a strong enough argument to make people play SC. Hopefully, more events of this calibre will be held soon when a third game is announced.

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Words: Pocholo Magsino