The 2025 RLCS season opens this week, and the qualifier structure looks different from what most teams were running last year. We've already covered the high-level changes; this piece is the deep dive on how a typical regional Open will actually play out under the new rules.
The four stages of a 2025 Open
- Double Elimination Bracket — open registration. Top 32 advance to the Swiss groups (24 in the back-half Opens, because the previous Open's top 8 are pre-seeded).
- Swiss Groups — two groups of 16 teams. Top 8 from each advance.
- GSL Stage — two groups of 8. Top 4 from each advance.
- Hybrid Elimination Bracket — 8 teams. The top 4 from the GSL stage get two losses' worth of life, the bottom 4 get one. Winner takes maximum RLCS points and qualifies for the Major.
Why the double Swiss groups matter
Splitting Swiss into two groups of 16 instead of one group of 32 is the most subtle change but probably the biggest in practice. Swiss tournaments scale harder than people realize — the difference between an 8-team and 16-team Swiss is roughly one extra match per team, but the difference between 16 and 32 is closer to two extra matches and a significantly higher chance of "scoreline runs" inflating someone above their true skill.
By keeping each Swiss at 16, BLAST gets cleaner sorting per group at the cost of running two parallel tracks. Top teams reach the GSL stage faster. Lower mid-table teams die out faster too.
Why the GSL stage is the real test
GSL — short for Global StarCraft II League, where the format originated — is an eight-team double-elimination-style group that always feels brutal because every match is win-or-go-home for half the field. Two teams advance per GSL group, so eight total move from GSL to the Hybrid Elimination Bracket.
For a pro team, the GSL stage is where you find out whether you're a top-tier roster or a Major hopeful. If you're advancing through GSL with no losses, you're getting Major points and likely a top-3 seed. If you're scrapping out of the losers' side, you'll still qualify, but the bracket draw gets cruel.
The hybrid elimination bracket
This is the "playoff" stage of each Open. Eight teams enter, and the format blends double and single elimination: the top half of the GSL stage starts in the upper bracket, the bottom half in the lower. The upper bracket runs as single elimination from there; the lower bracket runs as double.
The Grand Final is best-of-seven. Everything before it is best-of-five.
What changes for Majors
Majors compress the format. There's only one 16-team Swiss stage (instead of two parallel ones), with the top 8 advancing directly to the hybrid elimination bracket. Otherwise the playoff structure is the same.
Implications
A few things follow from this:
- Stamina matters more than in 2024. Going deep in an Open now means more matches across more days. Teams without solid scrim rotations are going to fade in the back half.
- Coaching is more valuable. With Swiss + GSL + hybrid playoffs, the in-between-series adjustment window is constant. The teams with the best between-game prep are going to outperform their raw mechanical level.
- The Open-2-onward shortcut is huge. Top 8 of the previous Open auto-qualify into the Swiss stage of the next one. Win Open 1, and your path to Open 2 just skipped 4-6 matches of grind.
First regional opens kick off this week. We'll be tracking results and putting up the first power rankings heading into Birmingham.