Starladder and ImbaTV have announced that they will host the qualifers for the $1.5 million World Electronic Sports Games (WESG).

Over the next months, qualifiers will be held in four different regions and also in China to determine the 24 teams that will attend WESG, an esports event that will be hosted by Chinese e-commerce tycoon Alibaba later this year at an as-yet unannounced location. A total of $3.7 million will be paid out across four tournaments, with $1.5 million being allocated to the Counter-Strike competition alone.

As we get closer to the start of the qualifying process, more details are emerging about the tournaments' rules. It has now been revealed that team rosters are limited to one country, effectively ruling international lineups out of the competition.

Twenty-four teams will compete at WESG

According to Stepan Shulga, Executive Producer at Starladder, this rule "could help esports to be recognized as official sports and potentially included in the Olympic Games."

The first qualifier announced is for teams from Africa and Middle East only. It will begin with an online stage, on August 13-14, and will culminate with an offline event at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai, from August 26-28, with the top three teams advancing to the WESG global finals.

In addition to the spots at the main event, teams will also fight for approximately $75,000 at the qualifier, with the prize breakdown looking as follows:

1. ~ $30,000
2. ~ $18,000
3. ~ $9,000 
4. ~ $6,000 
5-8. ~ $3,000 

Teams can find more information about this regional qualifier and the registration process by heading over to the official WESG qualifier website.

Below you can find the allocation of WESG slots per region:

The $1.5 million will be distributed between the top eight finishers as follows:

1. $800,000
2. $400,000
3. $200,000 
4. $60,000 
5-8. $10,000