WESG World Finals venue and format announced

The format and venue for the WESG World Finals, which will take place March 13-18, have been announced by the tournament organizer.

The WESG World Finals, which are set to kick off in Haikou, Hainan, China, on March 13, will have a prize pool of $1,500,000—the lion's share for the champion being $800,000. The team roster for this year has been increased from last year's edition, with 32 teams up from 24. 

Ukraine will be Europe's top seed after winning the CIS & EU Qualifier

The tournament, which will be hosted by Alisport and Haikou's Municipal People's Government, will be held at the Haikou International Convention & Exhibition Center on the island province of Hainan, across the Qiongzhou Strait from mainland China. 

The 32 qualified teams will play one preliminary best-of-one round-robin group stage with eight groups of four teams, with the top two of each group moving on to a second round-robin group stage with four groups of four teams battling it out in best-of-twos. Then, the top two of each group will move to a best-of-three single bracket playoff.

The competing team list is the following:

AGO	BOOT-d[S]
Belgium	BIG
Bravado	Cloud9
EMC	Envy
fnatic	GODSENT
Isurus	Limitless
MAX	MVP PK
New4	NOREG
NSPR	ORDER
Parallax	Recca
Russia	SK
Space Soldiers	subtLe
Swole Patrol	SCARZ Absolute
TeamOne	The Onliners
Ukraine	ViCi
Viva Algeria	Wololos

The full prize pool distribution for the WESG World Finals is:

1. $800,000
2. $300,000
3. $150,000
4. $70,000
5-8. $25,000
9-16. $10,000

Parallax Simon 'Sico' WilliamsSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiEgor 'LONSDALE' BaranovRazmik 'RaZ' BastadjanNicholas 'n1ck' Shaw fnatic #9 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim Ukraine #5 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoYegor 'markeloff' MarkelovIoann 'Edward' SukharievVladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk Swole Patrol #69 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirSamuel 'SileNt' PortilloRyan 'ryann' WelshJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroAustin 'Cooper' Abadir Belgium Adil 'ScreaM' BenrlitomAntoine 'to1nou' PirardKévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansFaris 'Faris' Ait LallaYounes 'YOUYOU' Ait Lalla Viva Algeria #164 Kyle 'NOtA' SaadiNabil 'natsu' BadiSophien 'thyx' FelkaouiDylan 'nOxii' SaadiMalik 'Malikof' Kofkof The Onliners Russia Mihail 'Dosia' StolyarovGeorgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinDenis 'electroNic' SharipovDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' Vasilyev SK #2 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo subtLe #111 Kyle 'OCEAN' O'BrienTerry 'dsr' RiouxJonathan 'Jonji' CareyMatthew 'WARDELL' YuDerrick 'LILMAN' Boyne SCARZ Absolute #148 Koji 'Laz' UshidaTomoaki 'crow' MaruokaRyo 'barce' TakebayashiShibasaki 'poem' YumekiTakemori 'takej' Shogo BIG #28 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetNiels 'luckeRRR' Jasiek GODSENT #29 Simon 'twist' EliassonJoakim 'disco doplan' GidetunFredrik 'freddieb' BuöHampus 'hampus' PoserLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Envy #23 Fabien 'kioShiMa' FieyCédric 'RpK' GuipouyVincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerAli 'hAdji' Haïnouss ORDER #58 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsSimon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJordan 'Hatz' Bajic Bravado #73 Dimitri 'Detrony' HadjipaschaliRuan 'ELUSIVE' van WykAran 'Sonic' GroesbeekRhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJohnny 'JT' Theodosiou New4 #115 Nan 'Jewelry' WangFei 'jackhan' HanYang 'Mr.six' ChengZhiTao 'Drea3er' ZhangZhiWei '0i' Liu Wololos Oscar 'mixwell' CañellasChristian 'loWel' Garcia AntoranAitor 'SOKER' FernándezDavid 'Kairi' de MiguelRajohn 'EasTor' Linato MVP PK #31 Keun-Chul 'solo' KangMin-Soo 'glow' KimMin-Seok 'zeff' ParkHyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeHae-Sung 'HSK' Kim MAX MingWei 'Lamplight' HuShengKai 'Gn' Tang AGO #20 Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMateusz 'TOAO' ZawistowskiTomasz 'phr' Wójcik Space Soldiers #15 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAhmet 'paz' KarahocaEngin 'ngiN' Kor NOREG #57 Morten 'zEVES' Vollan ChristensenEven 'nafu' LeirvikKristian 'akez' KornbakkJorgen 'cromen' RobertsenOle 'Marcelious' Kristian Langan ViCi #113 Bin 'Savage' LiuBingYuan 'tb' LiZhen 'HZ' HuangWeiJie 'zhokiNg' ZhongZhuo 'advent' Liang Recca #127 Baskoro 'roseau' Dwi PutraAlbert 'FrostMisty' GiovanniAgung 'Sys' FriantoKennedy 'Mirskie' BuntoroKevin 'Eeyore' Gunawan TeamOne #70 Pedro 'Maluk3' CamposJean-Michel 'mch' D'OliveiraCaike 'caike' CostaVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' Rossato EMC #117 ChunMing 'hypathor' JarkMingHim 'TENGU9' KwokChunWai 'CHIMEI' WongYingChiu 'chancehangtsz' WanSiuLung 'fagger' Choi Limitless #54 Léonard 'Smyli' MichelinoLéo 'Kan4' IntronatiThéo 'LoWkii' Téchené​Paul 'Polox' BarbeBryan 'Maka' Canda NSPR #262 Nathporn 'LAVA' PhoriraksakulKhomkit 'AlicPond' BoonjongPhaiboon 'j9' SaengsermsubPhakhin 'PPOverdose' JaroenthanajindaYanothai 'bongbawl' Phoungmalai Isurus #88 Julián 'Zote' AcostaNicolás 'Noktse' DávilaNicolas 'NikoM' MiozziNabil 'nbl' AleuaGabriel '1962' Sinopoli BOOT-d[S] #96 Nevin 'splashske' AwBenedict 'Benkai' TanBenjamin 'moxie' KouAnthony 'ImpressioN' LimKumaresan 'Tommy' Ramani Cloud9 #3 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' TaJake 'Stewie2K' Yip