DreamHack will return to Tours, France, for its second consecutive year from May 14^th to 16^th. This time StarCraft II will be bigger than ever, in what is sure to be a tournament where attendees will clamour to watch the WCS Circuit Spring Championship! A field of 32 of the Circuit’s best StarCraft II players will be competing live for a ticket to the WCS Global Playoffs, their share of the massive $150,000 prize pool, and a cut of the 11,000 WCS Circuit points up for grabs.

France has always been one of the most impressive nations when it comes to real-time strategy games, producing legendary players like Stephano and ToD. We recently saw PtitDrogo take the first WCS Circuit event of the year at DreamHack Open: Leipzig, earning $16,000 and 1,000 WCS Circuit points. At Tours we can expect to see his rivals Lilbow, Dayshi, MarineLorD, and FireCake all looking to oust him from his position atop the WCS point ranking. Two French players have been seeded into the tournament as they are from the hosting nation; for the full breakdown, see below.

Slot Distribution for European players (20 out of 32)

• 2 slots from Regional Challenger (8 total)
• 8 slots from EU Server Qualifiers (14 total)
• 2 Slots for players from the hosting nation (Lilbow and MarineLorD)
• For more information on this qualifier, visit Liquipedia.
• The top 8 players from the WCS Circuit Standings as of April 11^th

Regional Challenger Structure

Ladder Qualifiers

The top 16 players in the European Grand Master League ladder qualify for the playoffs. Ladder qualifier ends Thursday, April 7^th at 11:59 PM CEST.

Grandmaster League in Europe opened up at 9:00 CEST on Monday, April 4^th. For more information regarding participation requirements, you can check this blog .

Playoffs

• Double elimination brackets of 16 players, Bo5.
• Seed is based on the player’s ladder position.
• The top 2 players will qualify for WCS Spring Championship at DreamHack ZOWIE Open: Tours.
• The top 2 players will have their travel & accommodations paid for. All 16 Challenger players will receive a share of the $10,000 Challenger prize pool.

Coverage

The WCS Spring Championship Challenger is guaranteed to bring you some amazing content. DreamHack and ESL will be broadcasting the English coverage of the European Challenger in a studio environment.

• DreamHack Coverage: DreamHack.TV
• ESL Coverage: ESL.TV

Schedule

Friday, April 8^th, 2016

Times are stated in CEST, the tournament will run on an accelerated schedule.

• 06:00 pm – Winner Bracket – Ro16
• 07:20 pm – Winner Bracket – Ro8 & Loser Bracket – Round 1
• 08:40 pm – Winner Bracket – Ro4 & Loser Bracket – Round 2
• 10:00 pm – Loser Bracket – Round 3

Saturday, April 9^th, 2016

Times are stated in CEST, the tournament will run on an accelerated schedule.

• 06:00 pm – Loser Bracket – Round 4
• 07:20 pm – Winner Bracket Final
• 08:40 pm – Loser Bracket – Round 5
• 10:00 pm – Loser Bracket – Finals

Server Qualifier

European Server Qualifiers will run from April 22^nd-24^th. Eligible players can sign up here.