The Winter Circuit Championship held at IEM Katowice is the pinnacle of international competition for StarCraft II in early 2016. 32 of the most skilled StarCraft II players, hailing from 19 different home countries, will clash in a four-day event boasting a $150,00 prize pool and 11,000 WCS Circuit Points. In addition, the winner of this event will instantly secure one of the coveted 16 seats at the WCS Global Playoffs where $500,000, and the title of WCS Global Champion, will be up for grabs. It all begins on March 2, and below we’ve included all the information you’ll need to get in on the action.

---

Location
The Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland

Dates
Broadcasts begin at approximately 12:20 PM CET (3:20 AM PST) on March 2 – March 5, 2016

March 2: Ro323
March 3: Ro32 - Ro16
March 4: Ro16 - Ro8
March 5: Semi-finals and Finals

Streams

English: twitch.tv/esl_sc2
English: twitch.tv/basetradetv
German: twitch.tv/taketv
French: twitch.tv/ogamingsc2
Russian: twitch.tv/esl_stormstudio_sc2_ru
Polish: twitch.tv/esl_sc2_pl
Hungarian: twitch.tv/esl_esporthusc2
Brazilian: twitch.tv/esl_sc2_br
Finnish: twitch.tv/kaitai91
Italian: twitch.tv/italianesportsnetwork

Casters

To be announced

Hosts

To be announced

---

The WCS 2016 Winter Circuit Championship will host a 32 player single-elimination bracket. All matches from the Round of 32 to the Semifinals will be determined by a Best of 5, with the Finals being determined by a Best of 7 contest.

Total prize pool: $150,000 and 11,000 WCS Circuit Points divided amongst the top 16 players.

• 1^st Place: $35,000 and 3,000 WCS Circuit Points AND an automatic seed into the WCS Global Playoffs
• 2^nd Place: $15,000 and 1,400 WCS Circuit Points
• 3^rd – 4^th Place: $10,000 and 900 WCS Circuit Points
• 5^th – 8^th Place: $8,000 and 600 WCS Circuit Points
• 9^th – 16^th Place: $6,000 and 300 WCS Circuit Points

The official bracket WCS Winter Circuit Championship has been announced and can be viewed below or expanded by clicking on the image below:

To keep up with the tournament results as they occur, or if you're joining us in the middle of the event, you can always check out the StarCraft2.com/WCS or the Winter Championship's page on Liquipedia for the bracket's current status.

---

A slew of top talent is at the Winter Circuit Championship, and all of the competitors acquired their slot through one of the following methods:

• 8 slots were awarded for being a top 8 WCS Circuit player in the 2015 WCS Standings
• 14 slots were awarded via NA/EU Server Qualifiers
• 8 slots were awarded via Regional Challengers
  • 2 slots for North American and 2 slots for Europe
  • 1 slot for each of the following regions: Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau, Latin America, China, and ANZ/Oceania
• 2 slots were awarded via the National Qualifiers for Polish players

Notable players include (among others):

• Europe: Lilbow, MaNa, MarineLorD, and PtitDrogo
• North America: Neeb, MaSa, HuK, Major, and puCK
• International: XiGua, Kelazhur, Has, and Polt, and Hydra

---

There are many places to join the conversation, and we’ve included some of them below!

• Team Liquid - Winter Circuit Championship Thread

• Reddit.com/r/StarCraft

• eSports Forum on StarCraft II.com

• And of course… in the chat on the livestream!

---

Liquipedia page

Official IEM Katowice Website

Match Preview Article from iNcontroL

VODs (coming soon!)