There are two facts about the WC3L: Every season ends with the playoffs, and every new one starts with the qualifier! The playoffs are about to start this weekend, the qualifier will start in one week.
Yesterday the WC3L announced the teams that will be allowed to participate in the Season XIII qualifier tournament and therefore get the chance to qualify for the most important WarCraft 3 Clanleague worldwide. Four spots are the prize for the best teams.
The WC3L qualifier usually consisted of 32 teams, but now the first time they only accepted 16 teams. Another change that goes hand in hand with the shortened number of participants is the tournament mode. In the past, the first round has been played in single elemination mode and the further rounds had double elemination brackets. Now the whole qualifier will be played in double elemination brackets, allowing every team to have a bad day once and equaling the chances.
There is no Korean team in the qualifier, obviously the most Koreans are already playing in the league. Therefore two new Chinese teams will be fighting for a WC3L spot, underlining the fast growing of the Chinese eSport market. Next to this, there is not a big favourite for the next season in the qualifier. In the past there have been several teams that were not only the favourite for qualifying but also for making it to the playoffs or even winning the season.
| WC3L Season XIII Quali Teams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 mTw (mTw) |  wisdom Neve victory (wNv) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 ieS Virtual Gaming int. (ieS) |  Team Cooler-Master (cM) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 The New Gegeration Team (nGt) | RAPTOR-GAMING (raptor) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unite Stars Together (usT) | starComa (sCa) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Gravitas Gaming (GG) |  PGS (PGS) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team Colorful (Colorful) |  Serious Gaming (srs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| hoorai (hoorai) | Team Delta (Tdel) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 European Fight Club (EFC) | egamespoint (eGp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
While mTw and wNv have been playing in the WC3L last season and now have to re-qualify due to their bad performance, ieS and cM qualified for the WC3L qualifier by reaching the top two in the WCIP Season 1. The other teams have been nominated by the WC3L team.
Good chances have got mTw, wNv (if they find good reinforcements) and the two new Chinese teams. Chances aswell, but maybe not as big, can be seen for Gravitas Gaming, PGS, serious gaming and Team Delta.
Generally all teams should have more or less chances and no team can be understimated.
The qualifier brackets will be published on November 19th, the tournament itself starts at November 22nd.
Links
WC3L.com - WC3L Website
