ASUS ROG Winter 2014

The year 2013 has been a great year for StarCraft II. Since the launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm we have seen over 30 premier tournaments and numerous amount of other competitions being played in the global and local scale. To keep the pace up, ASUS ROG kicks off the year 2014 with another premier StarCraft II tournament in the Nordic, ASUS ROG Winter 2014!

ASUS ROG StarCraft II tournaments return to Helsinki on January 31 with a two day event presenting a roster of 32 players and a $25 000 USD prize pool. The tournament is also part of the StarCraft II World Championship Series as a WCS Global Event, with 4000 WCS points to distribute. Naturally, a free HD stream is provided with professional English commentary. On-site audience can enjoy the action live in the ASUS ROG arena.

Quick Facts

Time: Fri 31 January - Sat 1 February 2014
Place: Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Players: 32
Prize pool: $25 000 USD + 4000 WCS points
Format: 2 group stages & single elimination playoffs
Streams: Free HD main stream + community streams
Participation: Invites & online qualifiers
Visitor tickets: €30
Rules: PDF
Replays: Replay pack (zip, ~29MB)
Official results: tournaments.peliliiga.fi
Stream schedule: docs.google.com

Prize distribution

1st: $10 000 + 750 WCS points
2nd:  $5 000 + 500 WCS points
3rd-4th: $3 000 + 375 WCS points
5th-8th: $1 000 + 250 WCS points
9th-16th:   + 125 WCS points

Schedule

Times in local time EET (CET+1 / GMT+2).

Friday, January 31st, 2014
14:00 Group Stage 1
19:30 Group Stage 2
Saturday, February 1st, 2014
14:00 Quarter Final A
15:30 Quarter Final B
17:00 Quarter Final C
18:30 Quarter Final D
20:00 Semi Final A
21:30 Semi Final B
23:00 Final
 

Streams

Stream schedule (updates on the go)

 

Main stream

 ROGtournament

  • Thomas “Khaldor” Kilian - Caster
  • Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen - Commentator
  • Alexandre “FunKaDeLiC” Verrier - Observer
  • Dennis “TaKe” Gehlen - Host
  • Hun "inuh" Park - Translator

 

Community streams

Like many other organizers, ASUS ROG relies on the StarCraft II community to provide commentary on languages other than English.

 /  UniSL

 

Format

The tournament format is the same that has been used in the ASUS ROG Summer tournaments. The players go through two WCS style group stages and the top eight advances to the single elimination playoffs. All the matches are best-of-five except for the final which is a best-of-seven match. Since the tournament is a two day event, as opposed to the three days in the summer, both of the group stages are played on the first day of the tournament while the second day is reserved for the playoffs.

Participation

There are two ways to gain one of the 32 spots in the tournament, by a direct invite or by an online qualification tournament. In order to receive an invite, players must first request an invite by filling out an application form. Everyone is encouraged to request an invite first, and participate in the qualifiers second if need be.

Online qualifiers

There is two online qualifiers which each give out four spots for the main tournament. Please note that the qualifier tournaments will only grant the right to participate to the main tournament. Travel and accommodation expenses are not covered.

ASUS ROG Winter 2014 Online Qualifier #1

Date: Sun 29 December
Time: 15:00 CET
Server: Europe
Prizes: Top 4 players receive a spot in the ASUS ROG Winter 2014 tournament
Requirements: Master or Grandmaster on any Battle.net region
Rules: pdf
 

ASUS ROG Winter 2014 Online Qualifier #2

Date: Mon 30 December
Time: 17:00 CET
Server: Europe
Prizes: Top 4 players receive a spot in the ASUS ROG Winter 2014 tournament
Requirements: Master or Grandmaster on any Battle.net region
Rules: pdf