King of Battles

When it comes to Starcraft II tournaments, the best ones are always the ones that are international. While King of Battles is certainly not as big as DreamHack or IEM, it is still an international tournament, which is quite exciting.

king-of-battles-3

Image Credits | Liquipedia

What is the King of Battles tournament?

KoB is a small international tournament that started in 2020. It is organized by a Starcraft 2 team, Alpha X, which also organizes a couple of other tournaments, from which the Alpha Pro Series stands out the most. It is a GSL style tournament, and it consists of 16 best StarCraft players that compete for 1280 EPT Global Points as well as a piece of the $15,000 prize pool.

What is the format?

In order to participate in the final stage of the tournament, players have to win the qualifiers in their own regions, while the winner of the previous King of Battles earns a spot by default. The regions participating in King of Battles are:

  • Europe – 2 qualifiers, 3 spots each
  • America – 1 qualifier, 3 spots
  • Korea – 2 qualifiers, 3 spots each

Considering it is a GSL style tournament, it is a given that the tournament uses double elimination, and it has four groups. The group stage matches are played best-of-3, and the top 2 from each group advance to the playoffs.

The Playoffs are single-elimination, and matches in Quarterfinals and Semifinals are best-of-5, while the Finals are best-of-7.

King of Battles 3 Info

The latest installment of the tournament will take place between April 28th and May 1st. The format, as well as the prize pool, are the same as they have been before (GSL style, $15,000 and 1280 EPT Global Points). Perfect for some StarCraft betting!

Players participating in this year’s King of Battles are quite exciting, and we really recommend that you tune in, especially for the games played by the South Korean Terran player Maru who won the previous two King of Battles and once again earned himself an invite to the event without having to play the qualifiers.

starcraft-ii-maru-wcs-signature-series


© StarCraft Esports | Blizzard Entertainment

Maps used

  • 2000 Atmospheres LE
  • Berlingrad LE
  • Blackburn LE
  • Curious Minds LE
  • Glittering Ashes LE
  • Hardwire LE
  • Pride of Altaris LE

Players qualified from the Europe server qualifiers

  • MaxPax – Protos from Denmark
  • Clem – Terran from France
  • Cure – Terran from South Korea
  • Lambo – Zerg from Germany
  • Reynor – Zerg from Italy
  • Serral – Zerg from Finland

Players qualified from the America server qualifiers

  • Creator – Protoss from South Korea
  • Trap – Protoss from South Korea
  • SpeCial – Terran from Mexico

Players qualified from the Korea server qualifiers

  • Classic – Protoss from South Korea
  • hero – Protoss from South Korea
  • Dark – Zerg from South Korea
  • RagnaroK – Zerg from South Korea
  • Rogue – Zerg from South Korea
  • Solar – Zerg from South Korea
sc2-king-of-battles-2

Image Credits | Liquipedia

Groups

The groups are quite interesting this time around, as every group happens to have some of the best Starcraft 2 players.

Group A

  1. Maru
  2. MaxPax
  3. Lambo
  4. Reynor

Group B

  1. Rogue
  2. RagnaroK
  3. Solar
  4. Cure

Group C

  1. Trap
  2. SpeCial
  3. Hero
  4. Dark

Group D

  1. Serral
  2. Classic
  3. Creator
  4. Clem
serral-blizzcon-starcraft-ii


© Blizzard Entertainment

Where can you watch it?

There is a surprising number of streams that are going to cover this tournament, so you are probably not going to miss out on any games if they happen to be played at the same time. The games are also going to be cast in quite a lot of languages, so if there is one that uses your native language, make sure to check it out.

Tournament history

Considering that there were only tournaments before King of Battles 3, the history of this esports tournament is not that big. However, that does not mean that there are no rivalries.

King of Battles: KB International Championship (aka. King of Battles 1)

The first-ever King of Battles tournament was held from October 3rd, 2020, until October 11th, 2020. The prize pool for this tournament was slightly bigger, being $30,000, while the EPT Global Points awarded were still 1280. The tournament was won by Maru, who prevailed against Cure. The honorable mentions from the Semifinals in this tournament are TY(defeated by Cure) and Clem(defeated by Maru).

King of Battles 2

The format and the prize pool are similar to the King of Battles 3, and this one took place between November 19th, 2021, and November 21st, 2021. The winner was once again Maru, who defeated Dark in the Semifinals and Serral in the Finals. The honorable mention goes to HeRoMaRinE, who was the last semifinalist that lost to Serral.