The organizers for the World Esports Championship have released information regarding the tournament format, rules, schedule and bracket for the upcoming LAN Finals kicking off this Friday. With eight big name teams in a Double Elimination format, all Bo3 and roughly a $168,000 prize pool, this tournament will start off the post-TI4 LAN season.
With the conclusion of the Qualifiers for the World Esports Championship, all eyes have gone to the LAN Finals hosted in China. The organizers for the WEC recently released information regarding to the scheduling, bracket, rules and prize distribution, all of which can be found below.
The WEC has had it's fair share of issues. The tournaments schedule was called into question as the organizers planned the LAN Playoffs at the same time as i-League, with i-League eventually buckling and pushing it's playoff date back. Shortly after the Western Qualifers were scrapped in favor of sending direct invites to Evil Geniuses, Cloud9 and Secret Team, with the reason behind the decision presumably being lack of time. Shortly after Secret Team had to forfeit their place for Na'Vi as the Chinese government denied their visas. Now however, all looks set and ready.
Schedule:
all times are listed in CEST (GMT +2)
September 5th, Friday
- 04:30 - NewBee vs HyperGloryTeam (Main Stage)
- 04:30 - Evil Geniuses vs Titan
- 07:30 - Cloud9 vs LGD
- 07:30 - LGD.CDEC vs NAVI
- 11:30 - WB Semi-final Match 1
- 14:00 - WB Semi-final Match 2 (Main Stage)
September 6th, Saturday
- 04:30 - LB Round 1 Match (Main Stage)
- 04:30 - LB Round 1 Match 2
- 07:30 - Winner Bracket Final
- 07:30 - LB Round 2 Match 1
- 07:30 - LB Round 2 Match 2
- 10:30 - LB Round 3
- 14:00 - Losers Final (Main Stage)
Septermber 7th, Sunday
- 10:30 - Grand Final (Main Stage)
All eight teams will compete in a Double Elimination format, with a Winners and a Losers bracket. Each match will be a Best of Three. The format of the Grand Final is slightly different from what the Dota 2 community is used to. Instead of the regular one game advantage, the winner of the Losers Final must win two Bo3 matches in the Grand Finals to become Champion whereas the team coming from Winner Bracket only needs to win one. The latest game version will be played for this tournament.
Prize Distribution:
1st: 600,000RMB (~$97600)
2nd: 200,000RMB (~$32530)
3rd: 100,000RMB (~$16270)
4th: 50,000RMB (~$8130)
5-8th: 20,000RMB (~$3250)
Chinese Tax laws stipulate that any prize money paid out will incur a 20% tax. All prize money will be paid strictly in cash.
