Alliance, Cloud 9, Sigma.int, Empire and Fnatic have been confirmed by WPC as the five European teams that will be participating in the Western qualifiers for the WPC-ACE League, due to begin on 29 March.
As a follow-up to the previous inclusion of Titan and Orange into the WPC-ACE League group stage, WPC have just announced the candidature for the Western qualifiers. The western and eastern tournament will follow a similar format - a best-of-two round-robin. The top two teams on the west and the top six teams on the east after the round-robin will advance into the playoffs, which is to happen late May.
The group stage on the eastern tournament will begin on 29 March, and it is due to be played in a LAN environment at the Shanghai eSports center. The Malaysian teams will be flying to China to compete as well. There is no schedule yet for the western tournament. The eight teams reaching the play-offs will be competing for a share of the ~$245,000 prizepool, an increase from last year. All the teams will be receiving some form of monetary compensation for reaching the play-offs.
Teams invited for the Western qualifiers:
Alliance
Team Empire
Sigma.Int
Cloud 9
Fnatic
Teams in the Chinese Group Stage:
DK
Invictus Gaming
LGD
HGT
Vici Gaming
Tongfu.WanZhouu
DreamTime
NewBee
CIS
Orenda
Titan
Orange
Source: WPC's Weibo