The top eight teams from Dreamhack Winter 2013 qualified as Legends. Two teams were directly invited to participate in the tournament, while the remaining six teams qualified through an online qualifier that consisted of sixteen teams.
Teams were split up into four groups, and all group matches were best-of-ones. The highest seed would play the lowest seed in each group and the second and third seeds would play against each other. The winner of those two matches would play each other to determine which team moved on to the playoff stage, while the losers of the first round of matches also played. The loser of the lower match was then eliminated from the tournament. With one team advanced and one eliminated, the two remaining teams would play an elimination match for the second playoff spot. This format is known as the GSL format, named for the Global StarCraft II League.[4]
The playoffs bracket consisted of eight teams, two from each group. All of these matches were best-of-three, single elimination. Teams advanced in the bracket until a winner was decided.[5]
There were five maps to choose from: Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Train. In the group stage, each team banned two maps and the match was played on the remaining map. In the playoffs, each team banned one map and chose one map; the remaining map would be the decider map of the best-of-three series, if needed.
Only teams from Europe competed in the main qualifier tournament. One team from the Nordic region, one team from France, one from the United Kingdom, one from Germany, two from the CIS region, and two from Poland played in their respective regional qualifiers to qualify for the main qualifier. In addition, four teams each advanced from two general European qualifiers to the main qualifier.
The main qualifier was a 16 team, best of three, double elimination bracket. A total of six teams advanced to the Major. Team iBUYPOWER from the United States and Vox Eminor from Australia did not have to play in any qualifier and were invited to play in the Major.
