GENERAL BLIZZARD NEWS
3 Growth Opportunities for Activision Blizzard
With Activision's Influence Growing, Blizzard Is Cutting Costs
https://kotaku.com/with-activisions-influence-growing-blizzard-is-cutting-1831263741
League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite among list of games reportedly banned in China
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/996831/996831/
LoL is joined by several games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, including Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), among the group of games that needed to take “corrective action.”
Heroes Esports cancelled
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22833558/heroes-of-the-storm-news
NetEase Discusses Importance of Chinese Gaming Regulation, Anti-Addiction Measures
https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/netease-china-game-regulation-1203030537/
"Over the summer, Tencent noted that Chinese government regulators had mostly halted approval of new game releases in China starting in the spring, not allowing the release of paid games in the country. That evolved into a push for greater control of and limitations on games developed for children and concerns of addiction to video games. Tencent has since reduced its marketing budget but still saw a strong third quarter."
STARCRAFT
SUMMARY
ESPN announced "Moment of the year: Serral becomes first non-Korean to win WCS"
Kelazhur won "Best Athlete of other Genres" in Brazil. (IE of Esports)
War Chest: Katowice 2019 Complete Bundle is live with new skins, 3 new comics, a Diablo pet, HotS and Hearthstone loot boxes . 25% of all War Chest purchases go to StarCraft II esports. Earn Warchest XP by watching SC streams !
Blizzard announced it is still working out details of SC 2019 Esports. Both WCS Korea and the WCS Circuit will continue in 2019, and something new called "WCS Winter" replaces one WCS Circuit stop. Qualifiers run Jan 17, 18, and 20. This GSL style 10-week program of 2 online tournaments—one for the Americas and one for Europe— will culminate in a live, winner-advances battle between the top six, one for Europe and one for the Americas.
Patch 4.8.0 is out with numerous bug fixes and no nerf in sight for the Protoss.
Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, Arena of Valor, and Mobile Legends confirmed as esports to be played in the SouthEast Asian Games in late 2019, the first time that esports will be a medal event in a major sports competition.
SoulKey defeated Sharp to win Season 2 of KSL, the Blizzard Starcraft ReMastered tournament. SoulKey had not won a Championship before.
Flash won't be playing in ASL Season 7 due to his wrist injury. ((Flash is a Legendary player, Equivalent to a Michael Jordan )
Byun, the 2016 BlizzCon Champion who has suffered extreme wrist problems of his own this year, announced he is going to retire and depart for mandatory military service in January.
The National Championship Series, a nationwide series of in-person esports competitions Backed by Comcast and N3rd Street Gamers was announced. The season will feature Hundreds of regional tournaments and weekly training events including Overwatch, Hearthstone, and StarCraft II
Moment of the year: Serral becomes first non-Korean to win WCS
http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/25535120/espn-esports-awards-moment-year-serral-becomes-first-non-korean-win-wcs
Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, Arena of Valor, and Mobile Legends confirmed as esports to be played in the South Asian Games 2019
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/1003133/sea-games-2019-dota-2-starcraft-ii-tekken-7-arena-of-valor-and-mobile-legends-confirmed-as-esports-to-be-played-in-the-games/
The 2019 SEA Games will mark the first time that esports will be a medal event in a major sports competition.
StarCraft II War Chest
https://warchest.starcraft2.com/en-us/
WCS Winter Announced
http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/25535120/espn-esports-awards-moment-year-serral-becomes-first-non-korean-win-wcs
Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, Arena of Valor, and Mobile Legends confirmed as esports to be played in the South Asian Games 2019
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/1003133/sea-games-2019-dota-2-starcraft-ii-tekken-7-arena-of-valor-and-mobile-legends-confirmed-as-esports-to-be-played-in-the-games/
The 2019 SEA Games will mark the first time that esports will be a medal event in a major sports competition.
StarCraft II War Chest
https://warchest.starcraft2.com/en-us/
WCS Winter Announced
https://wcs.starcraft2.com/en-us/news/22820912/Introducing-WCS-Winter-2019/
N3rd Street Gamers Announces National Championship Series of Esports
https://www.prweb.com/releases/n3rd_street_gamers_announces_national_championship_series_of_esports/prweb16004266.htm
eSports is taking over video game tournaments
http://www.ramaponews.com/news/view.php/1036515/eSports-is-taking-over-video-game-tourna
STARCRAFT II: DEC. 6 – DEC. 19 PERIOD ANALYSIS
https://estnn.com/starcraft-ii-dec-6-dec-19-period-analysis/
Competitive Video Game StarCraft Finds Strong Following at Michigan State
http://www.wkar.org/post/competitive-video-game-starcraft-finds-strong-following-michigan-state#stream/0
The Pylon Show On The Blizzard Launcher!

Starcraft This Week: World Electronic Sports Games Qualifiers are ramping up at the national and Regional level, to compete in the Global Finals in China in March for a huge payout. Hearthstone, CS:GO and 3 other games will all compete there.
TESPA Collegiate Starcraft Tournament was won by printf, who broke into the top ranks just in time to qualify for the Finals and won a $7500 scholarship for his effort.
Cheeseadelphia 8 is finally here and MCanning knocked Neeb out of the tournament with a 3-2 victory over the favorite.
IEM Katowice 2019
https://twitter.com/IEM/status/1067855648979861505?s=19
There will be a series of online qualifiers in January, as well as an on-site qualifier at the ESL studio in Katowice on February 25–26. Keep an eye on the official IEM website.
N3rd Street Gamers Announces National Championship Series of Esports
https://www.prweb.com/releases/n3rd_street_gamers_announces_national_championship_series_of_esports/prweb16004266.htm
This week, SoulKey defeated Sharp to win Season 2 of the Starcraft ReMastered tournament, KSL. This is a Blizzard sponsored tournament along with the other SC BroodWar tournament the ASL.
SoulKey had not won before but has been getting farther and farther in the rankings every season so good for him.
No word yet on the new War Chest that is to be out in December. War Chests typically contain a new set of racial skins and a digital comic book to unlock by playing the game, either vs AI or players, and the first $1 million in proceeds goes towards prize pools for the major tournaments and other unknown related purposes.
Another SC comic book mini series is coming out in late January, Starcraft: Soldiers.
Various Community organized tournaments are going on daily and weekly.
One of the bigger LANs Cheeseadelphia 8, just ended with an upset by Future, a 16 year old to keep an eye on for the future after defeating MaSa and #4 ranked in the world SpeCiaL.
Most of those foreigners planning to make a GSL run in early 2019 are back in Korea or soon will be, at the ROOT - Unity House to practice their butts off.
GSL and WCS dates are not yet announced other than IEM Katovice but should be any time now.
The SSCAIT Starcraft AI tournament should start up again soon for season 7 once classes are back in session. The practice ladder is still dominated by SAIDA, the bot entry from Samsung Corporation. SAIDA won the internal Samsung competition to become their official entry over the autumn. FaceBook's bot, CherryPi, is hovering around 4th last I looked.
eSports is taking over video game tournaments
http://www.ramaponews.com/news/view.php/1036515/eSports-is-taking-over-video-game-tourna
STARCRAFT II: DEC. 6 – DEC. 19 PERIOD ANALYSIS
https://estnn.com/starcraft-ii-dec-6-dec-19-period-analysis/
Competitive Video Game StarCraft Finds Strong Following at Michigan State
http://www.wkar.org/post/competitive-video-game-starcraft-finds-strong-following-michigan-state#stream/0
The Pylon Show On The Blizzard Launcher!

Starcraft This Week: World Electronic Sports Games Qualifiers are ramping up at the national and Regional level, to compete in the Global Finals in China in March for a huge payout. Hearthstone, CS:GO and 3 other games will all compete there.
TESPA Collegiate Starcraft Tournament was won by printf, who broke into the top ranks just in time to qualify for the Finals and won a $7500 scholarship for his effort.
Cheeseadelphia 8 is finally here and MCanning knocked Neeb out of the tournament with a 3-2 victory over the favorite.
IEM Katowice 2019
https://twitter.com/IEM/status/1067855648979861505?s=19
We’re excited to announce that StarCraft II will once again be featured at Intel® Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice Grand Finals on March 3, players will be battling it out for their share of a prize pool worth over USD $250,000.
There will be a series of online qualifiers in January, as well as an on-site qualifier at the ESL studio in Katowice on February 25–26. Keep an eye on the official IEM website.
2018 World Championship Series champion Joona “Serral” Sotala has accepted his invitation to compete and will be seeded directly into the Round of 24.
The Pylon Show Episode 32, a Starcraft Podcast
https://www.twitch.tv/incontroltv
With Artosis and iNcontroL every Wednesday! Also available on YouTube and as a podcast.
This week's guests, Nathanias, Rotterdam, Maynarde and Neuro! The last episode of the year. With beverages!
ESPORTS
Blizzard Wants to Clean Up Twitch Chat Using Battle.net Accounts
https://www.pcmag.com/news/365644/blizzard-wants-to-clean-up-twitch-chat-using-battle-net-acco
N3rd Street Gamers Announces National Championship Series of Esports
https://www.prweb.com/releases/n3rd_street_gamers_announces_national_championship_series_of_esports/prweb16004266.htm
League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite among list of games reportedly banned in China
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/996831/996831/
LoL is joined by several games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, including Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), among the group of games that needed to take “corrective action.”
eSports is taking over video game tournaments
http://www.ramaponews.com/news/view.php/1036515/eSports-is-taking-over-video-game-tourna
Drilling deep on how to monetize esports
https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/16/drilling-deep-on-how-to-monetize-esports/
State of OverWatch
https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1073817398770327554
Heroes Esports cancelled
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22833558/heroes-of-the-storm-news
Esports is an official medal event at the Southeast Asian Games
https://www.pcgamer.com/esports-is-an-official-medal-event-at-the-southeast-asian-games/
Hearthstone is sure to be one of the 6. It was in both trials, its nonviolent, its popular, and I think it has girls playing at high level. The IOC liked that when Scarlett won Pyeongchang, that it wasnt a white male.
Shanghai releases guidelines over eSports athlete registration and management
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414f7955544f30457a6333566d54/share_p.html
WESG Continues working its way through Nationals and Regionals to World Finals
Starcraft II and Hearthstone players have been competing for months in over 40 nations to qualify. The Global Finals will be in Shanghai China in March 2019. JustSaiyan is the US Hearthstone winner. Canada Qualifier Finals play Live at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto on December 2.
Hangzhou Opens Esports Town, LGD Gaming and Allied Esports Debut Venue
https://esportsobserver.com/hangzhou-opens-esports-town/
Hangzhou’s government plans to invest up to $1.26B across 14 esports projects by 2022, including an esports academy, hotel, office park, and hospital.
After a demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director general Husain Al-Musallam said esports still requires a single international federation before it can be fully included.
WARCRAFT III
Warcraft III: Reforged reminds us why mod toolsets should matter
https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/10/warcraft-iii-reforged-reminds-us-why-mod-toolsets-should-matter/
NetEase Revealed Esports Plan With Blizzard For Next Year, $720K Prize Pool For WarCraft III Series
https://esportsobserver.com/china-esports-recap-nov29/
The Chinese city of Hangzhou opened its “esports town”, which currently spans 3.94M square feet (17K square meter). The initial cost for the complex is ¥2B RMB ($280M), though Hangzhou’s government plans to spend up to ¥15.45B RMB ($2.22B) on the project through 2022, according to the Chinese government-run website People.cn. Some of the planned facilities for the town include an esports academy, esports-themed hotel, theme park, a business center, and even a hospital designed for esports players.
The WGL Winter Grand Finals are underway
http://dz.blizzard.cn/article/news/2521
The Warcraft III Golden League Winter Tournament was won by Moon over Ukrainian born Foggy!
The Warcraft Gold League 2018 Winter Season is the second part of the most important individual tournament in 2018. With one the biggest prize pool of the year ($21,655) and the obligation to earn his place via a qualifier tournament, this is the most prestigious event in the scene.
It is organized by Blizzard Entertainment's Chinese partner : NetEase, played at Shanghai, offline. During November, the very best players of the world will fight in a double elimination groupstage before going into the single elimination playoffs.
https://comicbook.com/2018/11/07/warcraft-iii-reforged-world-of-warcraft-references/
Daily and Weekly Tournaments here
https://www.twitch.tv/back2warcraft
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite among list of games reportedly banned in China
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/996831/996831/
LoL is joined by several games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, including Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), among the group of games that needed to take “corrective action.”
SPOILERS: World of Warcraft is redefining undeath and rewriting a race
DIABLO
The Loot Goblin Amiibo Will Steal Your Heart (And Wallet)
https://twinfinite.net/2018/12/the-loot-goblin-amiibo-will-steal-your-heart-and-wallet/
SEASON 16: THE SEASON OF GRANDEUR BEGINS 1/18
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo3/22820656/season-16-the-season-of-grandeur-begins-1-18
League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite among list of games reportedly banned in China
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/996831/996831/
LoL is joined by several games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, including Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), among the group of games that needed to take “corrective action.”
HEARTHSTONE
N3rd Street Gamers Announces National Championship Series of Esports
https://www.prweb.com/releases/n3rd_street_gamers_announces_national_championship_series_of_esports/prweb16004266.htm
OVERWATCH
Blizzard Wants to Clean Up Twitch Chat Using Battle.net Accounts
https://www.pcmag.com/news/365644/blizzard-wants-to-clean-up-twitch-chat-using-battle-net-acco
N3rd Street Gamers Announces National Championship Series of Esports
https://www.prweb.com/releases/n3rd_street_gamers_announces_national_championship_series_of_esports/prweb16004266.htm
British Esports League
https://twitter.com/British_Esports/status/1076084871422865408?s=19
League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, Fortnite among list of games reportedly banned in China
https://www.foxsportsasia.com/esports/996831/996831/
LoL is joined by several games developed by Blizzard Entertainment, including Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft (WoW), among the group of games that needed to take “corrective action.”
OVERWATCH LEAGUE SUSPENSIONS: 7 PLAYERS DISCIPLINED
https://estnn.com/overwatch-league-suspensions-7-players-disciplined/
State of OverWatch
https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1073817398770327554
WARCRAFT CLASSIC
HEROES OF THE STORM
Heroes Esports cancelled
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/22833558/heroes-of-the-storm-news
BLIZZARD MOBILE
The Loot Goblin Amiibo Will Steal Your Heart (And Wallet)
https://twinfinite.net/2018/12/the-loot-goblin-amiibo-will-steal-your-heart-and-wallet/
Drilling deep on how to monetize esports
https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/16/drilling-deep-on-how-to-monetize-esports/
OTHER BLIZZARD RELATED STUFF
Starblo – Blizzard’s Unreleased Sci-Fi ARPG
https://techraptor.net/content/starblo-erich-schaefer
Sources for these news bits include:
www.google.com
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us
http://www.teamliquid.net/
And others.
.