It's unclear how it's defined. How many participants are planned to be recruited in total? How many groups, and how many participants from the qualification round will advance to the main tournament bracket?
If it's analogous to the Champions League, there should be 32 players and 8 groups in the main bracket. The top 16 spots are taken by the winners of the tournaments, and the rest – how are they determined? There's a contradiction in the 2nd and 3rd quotes you provided.
In the main stage, there will be 32 players. 16 will qualify directly (all champions of 2013 + people who, for some reason, are not champions of 2013 but deserve to play in the main stage due to their personal achievements). The remaining spots will be decided in the qualification round.
