2019 GSL vs. the World Preview

GSL vs. the World is a unique StarCraft 2 event that clashes players from South Korea with their foreigner (non-Korean) counterparts.

Participant drawing format

Team World and Team Korea are formed through a hybrid WCS ranking system and a popular vote. Each team receives the strongest representative of each race with the highest amount of WCS points, providing the initial 3 out of 8 players per team.

The rest of the participants are voted in by the community through a system which ensures balanced race distribution.

GSL players vote page on Team Liquid

The World players vote page on Team Liquid

Participants

Team Korea

• Classic (P) @SC2_Classic 
• Stats (P) @Splyce_Stats
• Maru (T)
• Dark (Z)
• FanTaSy (T) @sc2fantasy
• soO (Z) @ChivosoO
• Trap (P) @JinAir_Trap
• TY (T) @Splyce_TY

Team the World

• Neeb (P) @onfireNeeb
• SpeCial (T) @specialsc2
• Serral (Z) @ENCE_Serral
• ShoWTimE (P) @ShoWTimESC2
• HeRoMaRinE (T) @mouzHeroMarine
• Elazer (Z) @Elazersc2
• Reynor (Z) @GO_Reynor
• TIME (T)

Talent crew

• Artosis (Dan Stemkoski) @Artosis
• Tasteless (Nicolas Plott) @CallMeTasteless
• RotterdaM (Kevin van der Kooi) @RotterdaM08
• Maynarde (Leigh Mandalov) @Maynardesc2

Schedule

Since the event is held in South Korea, its schedule is most suitable for the fans from Asia. EU, NA and SA residents will have to either stay up late or start the day early to watch it live.

• The first game of each day starts at 08:00 CEST (23:00 PDT)
• The last game of each day starts at 11:45 CEST (02:45 PDT)

The tournament takes place between 15 and 18 August.

Bracket

Storylines to follow

• Serral exposed his mortality during Assembly Summer 2019 and he might want to reaffirm his nickname of the Finnish Phenom. Former GSL vs the World champ starts the tournament with a match against TY, a match that would decorate any finals.
• As the champion of Assembly Summer 2019, Stats could win this tournament and technically become the best player across both regions, at least until Blizzcon.
• Dark lost to Serral in the Ro8 of both WESG 2018 finals and Blizzcon 2018. If the two meet in the finals, Dark will have a perfect opportunity for revenge.
• Maru, despite his blazing GSL runs, is still ranked second on Aligulac, trailing behind Serral. This tournament could let the Korrean surpass his Finnish opponent.

The tournament broadcast will be held on the official GSL Twitch channel. There will also be a few community streams held in the various languages.