The StarCraft 2 World Championship Series will kick off its first season in North America and Europe next week, while qualifying rounds in Korea are already underway, according to a list of dates posted to Battle.net yesterday.
Qualifying rounds in Korea began on April 4, and regional finals will be held offline May 14 through June 1. In Europe, qualifiers will kick off on April 14, league play among the chosen 32 players will occur on April 23 and regional finals will begin on May 25. North American qualifiers will start on April 20, the 32 players will be whittled down on April 28 and finals will take place on May 31. The date for the championship finals is yet to be determined.
Qualifying rounds for season two will also be taking place during the finals for season one. Blizzard has promised more details on these rounds at a future date.
Because this is the first season of the StarCraft 2 championship and qualifying players cannot be chosen from previous rounds, Battle.net is inviting the 24 top StarCraft 2 players in each region to compete. There will also be an additional round of qualifying matches to pick eight more players to join the 24.
Each region's finals will consist of the top 8 players. The season finals will be what Blizzard calls an "epic" battle between the finals hosting region's top 6 players and the top 5 players from the other regions.