WESG 2017 finals commence on Hainan Island, China

The WESG 2017 Grand Finals take place in Haikou, Haidan Island, off the southern coast of China. — AFP Relaxnews

This year's week-long World Electronic Sports Games grand finals run until March 18, with a combined prize pool of US$5.5mil (RM21.43mil) available at the high-profile Chinese event.

Four of gaming's biggest tournament titles form the pillars of the 2017 World Electronic Sports Games grand finals, gathered under one roof at the Hainan International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Military-themed team action game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, multiplayer battle arena Dota 2, sci-fi strategy StarCraft II and digital card game Hearthstone are established eSports titles, and WESG's top teams will be leaving this year's event with up to US$800,000 (RM3.12mil) to share between themselves.

Over 40 teams, organised by nation, have come through a series of regional qualifying events that began in August 2017.

The tournament as a whole is organised by Alisports, the eSports division of giant Chinese online retailer Alibaba, which explains the ease with which WESG puts up such sizeable prize pots in only its second year.

With group stage knockouts having begun on March 13, quarterfinals get underway on March 17, and WESG's packed schedule means that eSports fans will have to pick and choose between matches streamed online through WESG's channels on Twitch TV (a video streaming site owned by Alibaba's western online retail equivalent, Amazon.)

"CS:GO" quarterfinals begin on March 17 at 11:00 Chinese Standard Time (11am Malaysia Time), with three further knock-outs set for 13:00 (1pm), 16:00 (4pm) and 18:30 (6.30pm); StarCraft II quarters begin 12:30 (12.30pm), 13:45 (1.45pm), 15:00 (3pm) and 16:15 (4.15pm), while Dota 2 has two paired face-offs at 11:00 (11am) and 14:00 (2pm).

StarCraft II and Dota 2 then hold their semi-finals later the same day, with StarCraft II games recommencing at 17:30 (5.30pm) and 18:45 (6.45pm), after Dota 2's two simultaneous knockouts at 17:00 (5pm).

By contrast, "CS:GO" rolls semifinals, third-place playoffs and grand finals into the same day, March 18, with semis at 11:00 (11am) and 15:00 (3pm), the playoff at 18:00 (6pm), and finals expected to begin at 18:30 CST (6.30pm).

Dota 2 holds its final at 12:30 CST (12.30pm), with a third-place decider at 15:30 (3.30pm), while the StarCraft II final starts at 16:30 (4.30pm) ahead of the third-place decider at 20:00 (8pm).

Matches are streamed through the main WESG Twitch channel, twitch.tv/wesg_main, as well as network channels twitch.tv/wesg_csgo, twitch.tv/wesg_dota2, twitch.tv/wesg_sc2, and twitch.tv/wesg_hs, with women's tournaments highlighted on twitch.tv/wesg_csgo_women and twitch.tv/wesg_hs_women. — AFP Relaxnews