How the Extreme Masters Work

In both Warcraft 3 and Counterstrike, 24 participants will play for the biggest prize purse ever in an all European tournament. 160,000 Euro (about 205,000 USD) are up for grabs. In each discipline, 24 participants will be determined to enter the main group stage. There are two ways to qualify for the Extreme Masters by ESL, depending on your country of origin. Countries with an active ESL Pro Series will determine their participants via the ranking of the last finished season.

Countries without an active ESL Pro Series will get so called National Qualifiers. All national teams can apply for a place in that tournament. Depending on the country's place in the Extreme Masters Country Ranking a certain amount of teams or players will move on to the international stage.

Teams that qualified nationally, can enter the Extreme Masters in three different tournament phases, depending on their national rank and their country's rank. The first possibility is a direct entry into the main round. If a team does not qualify directly, it has to go through a two stage international qualifier. 24 teams and players have to play in the first round, another 12 participants are seeded into round 2 of this international qualifier.

In the end, 12 participants succeed from the international qualifier, joining the other 12 for the final lineup of 24 participants in the Extreme Masters main round.

Extreme Masters Prize Money Distribution

Overall 160,000 Euro (about 205,000 US-Dollar) prize money are distributed as follows:

Finals Prize Money Distribution:

	Counter-Strike		WarCraft 3
1st	40,000 €	1st	15,000 €
2nd	25,000 €	2nd	8,000 €
3rd	10,000 €	3rd	5,000 €
4th	7,000 €	4th	3,000 €
5th	3,000 €	5th	1,000 €
6th	3,000 €	6th	1,000 €
7th	2,000 €	7th	500 €
8th	2,000 €	8th	500 €
	92,000 Euro		34,000 Euro

Furthermore all teams can receive a win bonus. Every winner of each of the 60 matches will obtain the win bonus amounting to 300 Euro / 100 Euro.

Prize Money Win Bonus:

	Counter-Strike	WarCraft 3
Win Bonus	300 €	100 €
Games Total	60	60
Overall Win Bonus	18,000 Euro	6,000 Euro
Win Bonus + Finals Prize Money	110,000 Euro (142,000$)	40,000 Euro (51,000$)

In addition to the 150,000 Euro prize money (listed above), eight teams and players will receive an Intel Friday Night Game bonus. Half of the bonus will only be given out when the participant is on time. The teams that play at the Intel Friday Night Games in Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Paris have the chance to obtain money for taking part in an Intel Friday Night Game as follows:

Intel Friday Night Game Bonus and travel expenses:

	Counter-Strike	WarCraft 3
Per Team/Player	1,000 €	250 €
Total	8,000 €	2,000 €

Extreme Masters Country Ranking

To guarantee the best possible lineup of participants in each discipline, a group of experts devised a country ranking, that determines how many slots for which round a country gets. The following table also gives information about which countries send their ESL Pro Series teams into the Extreme Masters.

Warcraft 3 Country Ranking:

Rank	Country	Qualifier	Main Round	Slots QR2	Slots QR1
1-2	Sweden	National	2	2	1
1-2	Germany	EPS	2	2	1
3-4	Bulgaria	National	2	1	1
3-4	Russia	National	2	1	1
5-8	Czech Rep	National	1	1	1
5-8	Denmark	National	1	1	1
5-8	France	National	1	1	1
5-8	Netherlands	National	1	1	1
9-10	Alpen	EPS	12	1	1
9-10	Ukraine	National		1	1
11-24	Belarus	National		12	1
11-24	Belgium	National			1
11-24	Croatia	National			1
11-24	Finland	National			1
11-24	Greece	National			1
11-24	Italy	EPS			1
11-24	Lithuania	National			1
11-24	Norway	National			1
11-24	Poland	National			1
11-24	Romania	National			1
11-24	Slovakia	National			1
11-24	Spain	National			1
11-24	Turkey	National			1
11-24	UK	National			1
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Counter-Strike Country Ranking:

There is one exception in the Country Ranking of Counter-Strike. Although Italy is only ranked 11-24, the country gets one extra direct slot for the winner of the national ESL Pro Series.

Rank	Country	Qualifier	Main Round	Slots QR2	Slots QR1
1-2	Sweden	National	2	2	1
1-2	Germany	EPS	2	2	1
3	Norway	National	2	1	1
4-8	Alpen	EPS	1	1	1
4-8	Denmark	National	1	1	1
4-8	Finland	National	1	1	1
4-8	France	National	1	1	1
4-8	UK	National	1	1	1
9-10	Russia	National		1	1
9-10	Spain	National		1	1
11-24	Belgium	National		12	1
11-24	Bulgaria	National			1
11-24	Czech Rep	National			1
11-24	Estonia	National			1
11-24	Greece	EPS			1
11-24	Hungary	National			1
11-24	Italy	EPS	1		1
11-24	Latvia	National	12		1
11-24	Lithuania	National			1
11-24	Netherlands	National			1
11-24	Poland	National			1
11-24	Portugal	National			1
11-24	Romania	National			1
11-24	Turkey	National			1
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