One of the biggest tournaments in China returns for its second season with top Chinese and international teams. The World E-Sports Professional Classic-Association for Chinese Esports (WPC-ACE) has confirmed via their official site the attendance of Chinese teams DK, Invictus Gaming (iG), Vici Gaming (VG), LGD, and TongFu as well as The International 2013 (TI3) champions Team Alliance at its tournament for 2014. WPC-ACE is also coordinating the attendance of other international teams, but have yet to receive any confirmation.
See: Match recap and analysis of the best of seven WPC-ACE Grand Finals
WPC-ACE 2014 will have an ‘NBA-style league format’, where the regular season will feature three months of 72 games, and will have 100 matches including the playoffs. There will also be an online qualifier with 64 available spots. Interested teams may register for the online qualifier up until March 12. More details can be found here.
The league will begin on March 29, 2014 at the Shanghai eSports Center, and will end roughly around June. This may clash with other Western tournaments such as E-Sports League (ESL) One, Dreamleague Finals, and Major League Gaming (MLG)’s event in Anaheim. Considering The International 4 is said to be happening in July, having so many major tournaments scheduled so close together in different continents may affect the teams’ performance and stress them out.
See: Will The International 4 be held in July and in a new venue?
The first season of the WPC-ACE happened after TI3 and after the post-TI3 Chinese reshuffle. However, a number of major Chinese tournaments managed to cause problems with the schedule. Despite this, the league ended with a very memorable best of seven grand finals between DK and iG, where DK came back with four straight wins after three losses. With this upcoming tournament so close to The International 4, you’ve got to wonder if it will be a preview of things to come, or if the teams playing willchoose to keep more strategies in their pocket for the grandest stage of them all.
For more information, head over to WPC’s official web site or their official Weibo.
(via OnGamers.net, WPC-ACE)
Look back at WPC-ACE 2013’s epic best of seven grand finals:
WPC-ACE League Grand Finals: Match Analysis – Part 1 WPC-ACE League Grand Finals: Match Analysis – Part 2
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