Now that the 2016 "StarCraft 2" World Championship has ended with Byun's triumph, Blizzard continues with their commitment to support the best players in the world as they unveil the 2017 "StarCraft 2" World Championship series.

Blizzard will maintain the World Championship Series circuit but will simplify the structure for the four championship events paving a way for players to qualify in each championship event. The same structure will be used until 2018 said Blizzard.

The 2017 "StarCraft 2" WCS will give out $2 Million prize to the best player in the world. So, to anyone who got the guts to win the prize, check out the three Global Events here:

  • IEM Katowice in Poland

This is the earliest event and a perfect opportunity for Korean and Circuit players to size up and compete with others. A paid travel will be offered to the qualifier and the winner will get a free ticket to the Global finals.

  • GSL vs. The World

This event will take place in Korea in the middle of the year.

  • World Championship Series Global Finals

The year-end championship.

The first place of each GSL Season will earn a spot at the World Championship Series Global Finals and will be joined by five players who got the highest points in the World Championship Series Korea.

Apart from the chance of winning the whopping $2 Million at the WCS, there is more that "StarCraft 2" can offer. Google DeepMind had recently partnered with Blizzard for research purposes on AI since the "StarCraft 2" uses a scripted AI.

"StarCraft 2" is the best game for the AI research since much of the information for the players are hidden, DeepMind has to dig deeper to get the answer. DeepMind's Oriol Vinyals said that the process is complex since the game hides units and players don't know where the enemies are. The game is focused on planning and resource management and players on the other hand will have to consider factors like how they would approach the enemies with their knowledge or if they have played the opponent before.

Tags AI