Starcraft 2 news:
Various competition organizers hold regular online tournaments in which you can compete against other players and maybe even win some prizes! Most of these contests are open to everyone. In addition, there are professional tournaments taking place like the WCS Nordic Nationals which you can follow via video stream.
This weekend, both the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) and the Global StarCraft II Team League (GSTL) will conclude in an epic ocean-side clash at Haeundae Beach in Busan, South Korea. First, Jang “SK.MC” Min Chul will seek his third GSL title, but the brilliant upstart and comeback king LG-IM.Seed looks to establish himself as the protoss counterpart to his teammates NesTea and Mvp. The action begins this Friday at 12:10 PM CEST!
StarCraft II patch 1.5.0 is on the horizon and it’s bringing a number of changes to your StarCraft II Battle.net experience, including an entirely new custom game experience with Arcade, tons of new additions and improvements to the StarCraft II Editor, and streaming downloads to make patching even faster.
It’s nearly time for gamescom 2012, and we hope you’re as excited as we are for the slew of awesome activities we have in store for you at the Blizzard booth!
Are you interested in joining other eSports enthusiasts to watch a live stream of intense professional StarCraft II action? Check out the following list to see if there's an event being organized in your area!
Your chance to help test the Patch 1.5.0 Arcade Beta is coming to a close! Your feedback on the 1.5.0 experience, including the Arcade and multiplayer, will help ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible with the official release of Patch 1.5.0. If you’re not already familiar with it, The Patch 1.5.0 Beta introduces a slew of exciting new features, including the Arcade, improved UI, a new streaming client to reduce patching times, powerful new Editor tools and more.
Our friends over at GameSpot have been ramping up their coverage of eSports this year. They’ve done some great interviews at all the major eSports events, which we’ve collected for you here! How does Scarlett feel about her win at WCS Canada? Why did MLG decide to abandon their Pay Per View model? And what’s going on with the documentary about Tasteless and Artosis? Find out answers to all these questions and more.
Heroes of Azeroth, prepare to embark for an exotic new frontier! World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is launching on September 25, 2012, and you can be ready to play when the servers go live by pre-purchasing the game digitally. Plus, for the first time ever, players will have the option to upgrade a pre-purchase to the all-new Digital Deluxe Edition, which comes with all of the in-game items from the retail Collector’s Edition.
Russia’s top sixteen StarCraft II players, along with Ukraine’s top eight, gathered in Kiev, Ukraine on July 21 and 22 for the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) Russian Federation and Ukraine Nationals. The epic and intense battles decided which players would be worthy of representing their countries in the WCS Europe Finals in September.
The StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) China Nationals brought together the top sixteen Chinese StarCraft II players for the 2012 CCG EXPO in Shanghai, Friday, July 13-15. The top ten earned spots to represent China at the WCS Asia Finals and compete with players from Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Find out what went down!
It all comes down to this. We started the Team Arena Challenge with 24 of StarCraft II’s best teams from around the world. Now, only seven are left standing: SlayerS, Incredible Miracle, Liquid, MVP, StarTale, Evil Geniuses, and Prime. By the end of this week, only two will remain. Who will seize their berth to the live Grand Finals in San Francisco?
The World Championship Series Taiwan Nationals have nearly concluded, and the top nine players have earned their seed to the Asia Continentals. However, the Grand Final has yet to be played. GamaniaSen and TtApolloAK still have to fight it out for the chance to earn a direct seed to the Battle.net World Championships.
One of the most anticipated World Championship Series (WCS) events, the Korea National Finals, are quickly approaching. The offline preliminaries for the event will be held on July 22 and 23, and will be broadcast by GOMTV. This event is going to be special, though: eSports superstars from all leagues, including KeSPA’s ProLeague, Ongamenet’s Starleague, and GomTV’s GSL and GSTL will take part in the WCS for the first time to determine who will represent Korea at the Battle.net World Championship in Shanghai later this year.
Various competition organizers hold regular online tournaments in which you can compete against other players and maybe even win some prizes! Most of these contests are open to everyone. In addition, there are professional tournaments taking place like the World Championship Series Russian Federation & Ukraine Nationals and the 2012 MLG Summer Arena which you can follow via video stream. Interested?
The MLG summer season is kicking off with the Summer Arena this weekend. The Arenas have always provided the highest density of top-quality games, full of Korean stars and Western heroes. In past seasons they have been Pay per View, but thanks to a partnership with Full Sail University, MLG is now offering the stream for free!
Both the GOMTV StarCraft League and Team League are down to their last four competitors. In the individual league, terran hero ByunPrime takes on LG_IMSeed while GSL Champions SK.MC and MvPDongRaeGu fight it out for a shot at another trophy. This weekend, SlayerS-EG goes up against Team SCV Life and MVP faces FXOpen in the GSTL. If you haven’t watched yet this season, there’s no better time to jump in and cheer for your favorite.
After the upcoming Russian Federation and Ukraine Nationals, the next national event in the StarCraft II World Championship Series takes place in Stockholm, Sweden on July 28. The line-up will include the top Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish StarCraft II players, who’ll be battling their countrymen for a share of the $30,000 USD prize pool and some coveted slots in the Europe Finals in September.
You’ll find our costume and dance contests, eSports action, live raids, and all-around excitement at the Blizzard Entertainment booth at gamescom 2012. But perhaps best of all, you’ll be able to try out our newest games for yourselves!
Last week’s match between JangBi and ZerO was positively breathtaking. It was everything you could want from a PvZ, and left both the viewers and the commentators speechless with emotion. The next match has the potential to be even better. Flash takes on Fantasy in a match to determine which terran legend will advance to face JangBi for the gold. Will Flash reach the last Starleague finals, poised to break NaDa’s record and become the winningest player in history? Or will Fantasy deny him that honor, earn a rematch with JangBi, and tie his mentors BoxeR and iloveoov for OSL golds?
We’ve just announced that the Battle.net World Championship event -- the culmination of the over 30 StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) tournaments, and home to the upcoming World of Warcraft Arena global finals -- will take place November 17 and 18 in Shanghai, China.
The North American Star League has grown by leaps and bounds since it started last year, and this third season has been the best yet. After nine long weeks of matches and a nailbiting playoffs, only eight players remain to fight it out for the grand prize. Will EG.PuMa repeat? Will Liquid`HerO or SK.MC take their revenge? Or will a new champion arise?
This weekend, thirty-two of Canada’s best will come together just outside of Toronto to compete for the right to be called the national champion, and to represent Canada at the North American finals. The games are sure to be exciting and full of stories, but those stories are all the richer if you know the faces behind the keyboards. We contacted three players from the tournament and asked them for their thoughts.
Take a look at some of the open tournaments coming up in the next days - you can sign up to take part, or simply watch the live streams to get inspired by the players. It’s your turn now!
Ready to exhibit your talent at gamescom 2012? Become your favorite character and flaunt your creativity in the Blizzard Costume Contest on Saturday, August 18. Choose a World of Warcraft race and put on your dancing shoes for the Blizzard Dance Contest on Sunday, August 19.
So, we hope you’re all in the mood for some eSports… because this weekend, we’ve got three major WCS events! The WCS South America Finals, WCS Canada Nationals, and WCS China Nationals are all going on this weekend. You’re going to need all your browser tabs if you want to catch all the action.