| Most recent season or competition: 2019 StarCraft II World Championship Series | |
 | |
| Sport | StarCraft II |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Ceased | 2019 |
| Replaced by | ESL Pro Tour |
| Owner(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
| Last champion(s) | Park "Dark" Ryung Woo |
| Most titles | Kim "sOs" Yoo-jin (2) |
| TV partner(s) | Twitch |
| Related competitions | Global StarCraft II League Dreamhack Intel Extreme Masters |
| Official website | wcs.starcraft2.com |
The StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) was a StarCraft II professional tournament series organized and sanctioned by Blizzard Entertainment that ran from 2012 to 2019.[1][2] For all but its first year of operation, it was the highest tier of professional StarCraft II competition. Its longest-running iteration featured two regions, World Championship Series Korea and World Championship Series Circuit, with World Championship Series Global events featuring players from both regions. Grand finals were held annually at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California, except for the first year of competition, when the finals were held in Shanghai, China.[3] WCS Circuit events were streamed on Twitch while WCS Korea events were available on Twitch, YouTube, and afreecaTV.
World Championship Series Korea professional competition was centered on events organized by afreecaTV under the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) name, including GSL Code S seasons and GSL Super Tournament events. World Championship Series Circuit professional competition centered on tournaments held under the World Championship Series Circuit name with qualifiers held for each under the World Championship Series Challenger name.[4]
World Championship Global competition featured two large events each year. These were ESL's Intel Extreme Masters World Championship event in Katowice, Poland, and afreecaTV's GSL vs. the World event in Seoul, Korea. For its final two iterations as part of the WCS system, the former has had its prize pool crowdfunded, as did the Global Finals event for its final three iterations. This was done through the StarCraft II War Chest system, which allowed players to purchase cosmetic items in game with 25% of sales going towards funding the professional scene.[4][5]
- ^ "StarCraft II and Warcraft III: Reforged are receiving dedicated ESL Pro Tours – The Washington Post". The Washington Post.
- ^ Hillier, Brenna (Apr 5, 2012). "Battle.net World Championship detailed, 28 countries involved". VG247. Retrieved Dec 26, 2012.
- ^ "The StarCraft II World Championship Series". StarCraft II.
- ^ a b "Blizzard announces StarCraft II World Championship Series plans for 2017". Archived from the original on 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2018-09-08.
- ^ "StarCraft 2 "war chests" introduce skins, decals, sprays and more, help fund esports prize pool – VG247". 18 July 2017.