KeSPA Cup
2021 KeSPA Cup logo
GenreEsports
FrequencyAnnual
Location(s)Asia
CountrySouth Korea
Inaugurated2005
Most recent2021
Websitehttp://e-sports.or.kr/kespacup/

The KeSPA Cup (Hangul: 케스파컵) is an annual esports event organized by the Korean eSports Association. As of the 2021 edition, the tournament is organized for League of Legends. Until 2016, the tournament was also organized for StarCraft II.

History

The first KeSPA cup was hosted in 2005 as a tournament to allow professional StarCraft teams to play against amateur teams. Events were also held for Special Force, Kartrider, and FreeStyle Street Basketball. The second event was held in 2007 at Sejong University and also included WarCraft III and Counter-Strike.[1]

In 2014, seven years since the last event, KeSPA Cup was brought back for its modern iteration and it has been held every year since. StarCraft II was the only game that had a tournament in the relaunch of the initiative and it featured 16 of the year's best players playing for 8 million South Korean won.[2] The following year, two tournaments for StarCraft II were held, the first in May and the second in July. League of Legends was added as one of the events in 2015.[3]

In 2016, Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft became the first non-Korean StarCraft player to win a major Korean tournament in sixteen years after winning the 2016 KeSPA Cup. The previous non-Korean champion was Guillaume Patry, who won the first OnGameNet StarLeague in 2000.[4]

Tournaments

StarCraft

The format for the original StarCraft KeSPA Cup was a team based event where professional teams under KeSPA played against amateur teams. There have been no more tournaments held for StarCraft since 2007.

YearName of TournamentWinners
2005The First KeSPA CupSamsung
2007The Second KeSPA CupMBC Game Hero

StarCraft II

KeSPA Cup was relaunched with a StarCraft II tournament. All of the tournaments are all part of the StarCraft II World Championship Series and thus award WCS points to the participants. The format for the tournament is a sixteen player elimination tournament starting with group stages and entering a playoffs round in the round of 8.

YearName of TournamentWinnerScoreRunner-upTotal Prize Pool (KRW)
20142014 KeSPA CupJoo "Zest" Sung-wook4–1Kim "herO" Joon-ho80,000,000
2015GiGA Internet 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 1Kim "herO" Joon-ho4–3Park "Dark" Ryung-woo25,000,000
2015LOTTE Homeshopping 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 2Eo "soO" Yoon-su4–1Park "Dark" Ryung-woo25,000,000
20162016 KeSPA CupAlex "Neeb" Sunderhaft4–0Cho "Trap" Sung-ho55,000,000

League of Legends

League of Legends was added as a recurring event in 2015. 16 teams competed in the 2021 edition, including 9 academy rosters of the League of Legends Champions Korea teams, 3 amateur Korean teams, and 4 invited teams from Asia.[5]

YearWinnersScoreRunners-upTotal Prize Pool (KRW)
2015ESC Ever3–0CJ Entus100,000,000
2016ROX Tigers3–1Kongdoo Monster100,000,000
2017KT Rolster3–2Longzhu Gaming100,000,000
2018Griffin3–0Gen.G102,000,000[6]
2019Afreeca Freecs3–0Sandbox Gaming158,000,000[7]
2020Damwon Gaming3–0Nongshim RedForce144,000,000[8]
2021DWG KIA Challengers3–1Fredit BRION Challengers30,000,000[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Kespa Cup Bracket". March 4, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  2. ↑ "[스타2] KeSPA Cup 부활! 올해는 스타크래프트2 글로벌 티어1 대회로 진행" [[StarCraft 2] KeSPA Cup Revival! Announcing a Global Tier 1 StarCraft 2 Tournament] (in Korean). May 21, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ "KESPA CUP IS COMING". November 3, 2015. Archived from the original on August 4, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Neeb first non-Korean in 16 years to win premier South Korean StarCraft tourney". October 4, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  5. ↑ "담원 기아 'KeSPA Cup' 2년 연속 우승 쾌거... '2021 LoL KeSPA Cup ULSAN' 우승". gamefocus.co.kr (in Korean). December 12, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  6. ↑ Woo "Ready" Hyun (December 6, 2018). "The 2018 KeSPA Cup Tournament Will Begin Mid-December". Inven Global. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  7. ↑ Takyun "Laff" Pack; Daniel "Quest" Kwon (December 11, 2019). "League of Legends: It's back! The 2019 KeSPA Cup starts on the 23rd". Inven Global. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  8. ↑ Martinello, Eva (December 17, 2020). "Group stage schedule and casters revealed for 2020 KeSPA Cup". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  9. ↑ "2021 KeSPA컵, 10일 울산서 개막". kmib.co.kr (in Korean). December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
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