The eSports landscape of Warcraft® III and StarCraft® II is all set to return in May 2021. The qualifiers for the 2022 ESL Pro Tour Championship will kick off in April. Blizzard made the announcement on 16th December by revealing the competitive calendar of both titles. They have also uploaded an alternate calendar against the COVID-19 status. And also removed the regional lock which means that the South Korean players can now take part in the International SC2 tournaments
Blizzard has made a comprehensive announcement for each tournament and has also made it clear that the schedule can change if COVID-19 remains a barrier to the mass gatherings. However, the developer is hoping that the pandemic ends before May so that the fans can enjoy and watch their favorite stars compete for Supremacy.
StarCraft II Competitive Circuit
For StarCraft II, Blizzard has revealed that there will be five EPT Masters competitions till Feb/March 2022. The first one will be the DreamHack SC2 Masters: Summer 2021 ($170,000) which will take place from May to July. The second one is the DreamHack SC2 Masters: Fall 2021 ($170,000) from July to September. Then we will have the DreamHack SC2 Masters: Winter 2021 ($170,000) from September to November. DreamHack SC2 Masters: Last Chance 2022 ($40,000) will take place from December 2021 to January 2022. And Lastly the EPT Championship: IEM Katowice 2022 ($500,000) will be held in Feb/March 2022
Warcraft III Competitive Circuit
For Warcraft III, Blizzard has planned three online EPT tournaments before the 2021 EPT Championship. The first competition will be the DreamHack WC3 Open: Spring 2021 ($25,000) which will be held from April to May. Then from July to August, we will have the DreamHack WC3 Open: Summer 2021 ($25,000). For the Fall season, fans will be able to enjoy the DreamHack WC3 Open: Fall 2021 ($25,000) from September to late October. And lastly, in December we will have the $100,000 EPT Championship: DH WC3 Championship 2021
Plans for IEM Katowice 2021 CS: GO
On 14th December ESL announced a change in the format of the IEM Katowice 2021 CS: GO. The February championship will be held without spectators, but the teams will play on LAN in a European studio. At the same time, the tournament operator does not exclude the possibility of a complete transition of matches online.
The competition format, prize pool, and dates for IEM Katowice 2021 remain the same. ESL offered ticket holders to this tournament either to keep them until the next championship in the series or to fully return the money spent.
IEM Katowice 2021 CS: GO will take place from 16 to 28 February. 24 teams will compete for a million dollars. The tournament is also part of the Intel Grand Slam series and has Championship status.
We hope that the StarCraft II and Warcraft III competitions will take place in the LAN format. The same statement cannot be said for IEM Katowice 2021 CS: GO since February 2021 is too early to tell if we will be able to overcome the COVID-19 barrier.
