Starcraft 2 news » Dreamhack Winter 2012 this Weekend

Dreamhack Winter 2012 is coming to the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre in Jönköping, Sweden this weekend, from Thursday, November 22 through Sunday, November 25. This is the fifth and final stop for the 2012 Dreamhack Eizo Open tour, featuring two separate tournaments that are guaranteed to provide intense StarCraft II action all weekend long.

A total of 24 players will contend for their share in the $82,000 (550.000 SEK) prize pool over the course of the weekend. Twenty of these slots have already been filled by some of Europe and South Korea's top professional StarCraft II players, who qualified through outstanding performance at this year's previous Dreamhack events. The remaining four seats will be decided by the "Bring Your Own Computer" 128-player, single-elimination qualifier. The top four players from this qualifier will advance to the main tournament, joining the 20 invited players in the group stages.

The main tournament will kick off with a round-robin group stage. The top three players from each group then advance to the single elimination playoff bracket. With fantastic talent such as Yoon 'TaeJa' Young Suh, Marcus 'ThorZaIN' Eklöf, and Ilyes 'Stephano' Satouri, among many others attending the event, this weekend could prove to be one of the most unpredictable tournaments of the year! You can go here to check out all of the player groups, as well as keep up with tournament results in real time.

Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner will be your host for the weekend, while shoutcasters Shaun 'Apollo' Clark, Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson, Ben 'MrBitter' Nichol, and Kevin 'RotterdaM' van der Kooi will be commentating on each and every match. Of course, no tournament is complete without a fantastic observer. Michael 'Adebisi' Van Driel will be your eye-in-the-sky for Dreamhack Winter 2012.

Follow the action live in high definition, for free, by tuning in to Dreamhack's Twitch.tv stream from November 22–24. The first match of the weekend begins at 8:00 a.m. PST (17:00 CET) on Thursday, with the Grand Finals taking place at 2:00 p.m. PST (23:00 CET) on Saturday. Dreamhack has not yet revealed a detailed broadcast schedule for Thursday and Friday, so make sure to stop by the official Dreamhack event site for the most up-to-date information.

But wait, there’s more! For those attending Dreamhack in person, Blizzard Entertainment representatives will be hosting many activities, contests, and discussions over the course of the weekend. These events include a World of Warcraft challenge mode dungeon contest, a meetup with the European community team, and round table discussions with Blizzard staff on StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, and Diablo III. Finally, eSports fans will receive StarCraft II lessons from some of their favorite pro players at the “StarCraft Academy” event. For more detailed information on Blizzard’s presence at Dreamhack Winter, check out our blog, here.

If you would like to promote a StarCraft II BarCraft, or other public viewing party taking place in your town, make sure to follow the instructions on our BarCraft Calendar blog to get it listed.