If you’ve been keeping your eye on the StarCraft II World Championship Series standings, you know that the race to determine the world’s top 16 WCS players is quickly approaching its epic conclusion. The Season 3 Finals will award thousands of WCS points, but the last spot for BlizzCon could be decided in the WCS America Challenger League by a margin of just 25 points.

Here are the details regarding the format, seeding, and tiebreaker processes that will set the stage for the competition at the StarCraft II: WCS Global Finals at BlizzCon, November 8 – 9.

Format

The Global Finals will place the top 16 players of the WCS Standings in a single elimination tournament. The map pool will be identical to that of WCS Season 3, and all matches will be best-of-five, except the finals, which will feature a best-of-seven series.

Seeding

Each player’s placement in the WCS Standings represents the culmination of their efforts over the course of this year’s World Championship Series competition. We want to reward the performances of the highest scoring players by giving them the greatest advantage possible. Global Finals seeding will pit players ranked 1st and 16^th against each other, 2nd vs. 15^th, and so on, until all 16 competitors have been matched with an opponent. You can see a diagram of this system here.

Tie-breakers

Because every single rank in the standings matters, we may have to settle ties between players with an identical number of WCS Points.

Ties within the Top 16 seeded players

Ties within the top 16 WCS players will be decided by cumulative points earned only in World Championship Series America, Europe, Korea, and Season Finals events. If a tie remains, it will be settled through points earned only in WCS Tier 1 events. If the players in question are still tied, seeding will be decided by coin-toss.

Ties for qualification to the Global Finals

If there is a tie across the Global Finals cutoff, the players in question will travel to BlizzCon to play an offline, best-of-five match to decide who will be seeded into the WCS Global Finals bracket.