We’ll explain the StarCraft II tournament format, share the results from yesterday’s matches, and highlight one of the key players to watch out for. Plus, we’ll take a quick look at the lineup of other tournaments kicking off in Week 7 of the EWC!

A total of 18 players are taking part in the StarCraft II Esports World Cup (EWC), many of whom made their debut yesterday. The players were initially divided into Group A and Group B, both of which have a double knockout system.

The winner of both groups will advance to the last four, along with the winner of the 2nd place vs 2nd place match between the participants from Group A and Group B. Fourth place will be awarded to the last player remaining in the knockout play-off phase.

In the group stage, all matches will be played in a best-of-five format, while the playoff matches will be played in a best-of-three format until the finals, which will revert to the BO5 format. The semifinals will then be played in a best-of-seven format and finally the Grand Finals will be played in a best-of-nine format.

As for players to watch, all eyes are on Serral, who is almost expected to win the Esports World Cup StarCraft II trophy. According to the ESL Pro Tour 2023/24 Combined Standings, he is currently the best player in the world by a wide margin. Technically, Serral has even qualified for the EWC three times, having won the ESL SC2 2023 Masters Summer, the ESL SC2 Masters 2024 Spring, and the IEM Katowice 2024!

Below are the results from the first day of the StarCraft II event, where Serral, unsurprisingly, came out on top in dominant fashion. Also shown in parentheses is the team each player represents:

• Maru (Team Vitality) 3 – 0 Spirit (Natus Vincere)
• Oliveira (Weibo Gaming) 3 – 2 ByuN (Shopify Rebellion)
• GuMiho (Cloud9) 2 – 3 Astrea (Virtus.pro)
• HeroMarine (MOUZ) 0 – 3 Dark (Talon Esports)
• Serral (BASILISK) 3 – 0 Coffee (All Players)
• herO (Weibo Gaming) 3 – 0 Solar (Team Vitality)
• Cure (Team Liquid) 2 – 3 Reynor (BASILISK)
• Classic (Twisted Minds) 0 – 3 Clem (Team Liquid)

As mentioned, there is a lot of StarCraft II action planned for the next few days, with the grand finale set for Sunday, August 18, 2024.

Week 7 has just begun, as two more events begin tomorrow. Players will compete in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and EA Sports FC 24, and their goal is to forever immortalize themselves in esports history by getting their name engraved on the totem of the first-ever esports World Cup!