ESL Gaming has announced the details for the upcoming StarCraft 2 ESL Pro Tour in 2023 and 2024.
There will be weekly cups throughout the year, as well as live Masters Finals on DreamHack Summer 2023 and DreamHack Atlanta 2023. DreamHack StarCraft 2 Masters will be rebranded to ESL StarCraft 2 Masters, and some regions will be merged to make for a more streamlined experience.
The ESL Pro Tour is one of the most prominent events in competitive StarCraft. The competition will feature weekly ESL Open Cups, two online StarCraft Masters Regional tournaments, and the EPT Championship as the flagship event of the year.
The most notable change for this year is the merging of certain regions. Latin America and North America will be merged into a new region called simply ‘Americas’, while China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Oceania, and the Rest of Asia will be merged into the ‘Asia’ region. European and Korean regions will remain the same as in previous years.
Also new is the fact that from 2023 onwards, ESL will be funding the program in its entirety, including prize money. This means that Activision Blizzard, the publisher of StarCraft, will no longer need to foot that bill.
Michael Van Driel, VP of Game Ecosystems at ESL FACEIT Group, said: “Earlier this year at IEM Katowice, Li ‘Oliveira’ Peinan showed the world what it means to win the Championship title.
“Moments like these are why we want to continue to provide the platform for players to excel and succeed, and we look forward to seeing the fans and community unite once again this year around the ESL Pro Tour.”
