From Alisaunder

All thoughts and crazy ideas probably solely by the author.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Blizzard News & Tournaments For Show Notes


The purpose of this post is to provide news about Blizzard related tournaments and news about Blizzard properties that Blizzard doesnt promote as widely and hopefully offer more than patch notes and press releases to you podcasters. There is a lot here, far more than any podcast can use, so use what you wish and please consider at least briefly mentioning some Starcraft and other news now and then. Posts will remain for up to a week after expiration due to podcasts schedules.

I intend to update this and the Blizzard Calendar post as often as I come across news and events, so every few days, and will link to WoWhead.com and MMOChampions.com  if its something I found particularly interesting.

It's very long. I know. I'm sorry. Please leave comments and suggestions!

<3 Alisaunder



      WORLD OF WARCRAFT      



March 15: Live Q&A with Ion Hazzikostas on Battle For Azeroth

Join us live next Thursday as we answer your #BattleforAzeroth Alpha questions for our latest Developer Q&A! Submit your questions using #WarcraftQA.  👉 http://blizz.ly/WoWQA 



World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3 Preview

Amazon has put up some pages of the World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 3 book as a preview! The book will be released on March 27, 2018 in the US. Author: Chris Metzen   https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/7429-World-of-Warcraft-Chronicle-Volume-3-Preview-Blue-Posts-Allcraft-Curse-Hiring

Pg 40 (Map): Whats that island SW of the Maelstrom? Zandalar? And the ones SE of the Maelstrom is what? 



Interview with Blizzard Dialogue Team

Take a deep dive into the creation of Blizzard's dialogue in our new interview with @AndreaToyias, @JustinGDye, and @Moorgard! https://t.co/dcX8fkZ23s 
https://t.co/rnlu2sLoFp




FOLLOWERS AND MISSION TABLES IN BAZEROTH

https://www.wowhead.com/news=282279/early-look-at-new-followers-in-battle-for-azeroth



Blizzard Making a Mobile RPG According to Another Job Listing

https://gamerant.com/blizzard-mobile-rpg-job-listing/



Warcraft Lawsuit Update, Infringement

https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-winnows-claims-in-warcraft-infringement-saga/



Activision Blizzard Expands Esports Leadership Team

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180315005291/en/Activision-Blizzard-Expands-Esports-Leadership-Team

Contact information below should anyone be interested in interviewing people from the Esports Team, on OverWatch or any other Blizzard ESport. 

Said Snow. “I was personally attracted to the strong sense of integrity and commitment to quality here—both of which are reflected in the production and operation of each of the leagues, and which make for a powerful and appealing brand experience for potential new partners.”


Contacts

Overwatch League
Mark Van Lommel, 949-955-1380 x61147
MVanLommel@overwatchleague.com
or
Call of Duty World League
Xav de Matos, 949-955-1380 x66624
xdematos@mlg.tv
or
Activision Blizzard, Inc.
Press
pr@activisionblizzard.com

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD, INC.






                 STARCRAFT                 


SUMMARY


In current news, The Katovice tournament was won by Rogue, and GSL Code S is continuing with round of 8 this week. I'm behind on it but intend to catch up. 

WESG is starting in China. WESG is famous / notorious as it has one of the biggest prize pools in all Starcraft and two tournaments a year. The Ukraine tournament is great but every year the China one , conditions are horrible. This year is no different. 

Players are tweeting hotel rooms with live roaches, rats, no water, tea colored water, and some say the hotel is being inspected to be shut down. Other players chose to pay for their own hotel rather than stay there. 

At the tournament venue, they are playing on 780p monitors except Snute who brought his own. 

This is the tournament that last year put on the Olympics style stage show with contenders led into the stage by nation block with flag girls, and live music numbers between every music set. It was a sight to see. 

In non Tournament news, the 20th anniversary of Starcraft is at the end of this month and logging into various games or Twitch is giving prizes and free stuff, see the blog. 

Starcraft Caster /  streamer / commentator inControl has tweeted that he will be on a panel at PAX talking about a Starcraft announcement of some kind, so more might be coming, hopefully for Warcraft in lieu of the uninspired anniversary the ins, or for Starcraft itself. 

Lastly, the fans have voted and our three representatives for NationWars V have been chosen. Representing the USA is Champion Neeb, MCanning and Twitch streamer / troll Avilo  who went all out this year urging his viewers to vote. 

Known for spending as much time typing disparaging, highly negative comments at his opponent during the game as much as actually playing, everyone is in an uproar and waiting to see if he will bring his show to NationWars, shape up, or if Neeb will let him play at all. 


Starcraft Remastered Pro Arrested For Match Fixing

https://compete.kotaku.com/starcraft-remastered-pro-arrested-for-match-fixing-1823809648



An Interstellar Anniversary Approaches. 20 years of Starcraft

Prior to the Grand Finals of IEM Katovice featuring reigning Globals champion Classic and reigning Champion Rogue, Starcraft Dev Team Tim Morton announced "20 years of Starcraft"    ( https://clips.twitch.tv/ShakingLazyEelSmoocherZ  )  with a new website https://starcraft2.com/sc20 , new 20th anniversary UI skins, new decals, portraits and skins, an anniversary stream Live March 30 and 31st with favorite Starcraft personalities on Twith.tv and Twitch itself will hold some kind of Starcraft event as well. Diablo 3 players will receive the Dominion's Revenge Pet, a Terran battlecruiser in black and gold. OverWatch will see a Kerrigan Ghost Skin for Widowmaker, World of Warcraft will Between March 31 and April 6, /salute one of the following StarCraft-themed companion pets – Zergling, Grunty, Mini Thor, Baneling, or Zeradar – to receive the “Salute to StarCraft” Feat of Strength. Log in to Heroes of the Storm between March 27 and April 7 to receive a 20th Anniversary Portrait for Protoss, Terran and Zerg. Play a StarCraft-inspired Tavern Brawl between March 21 and 25 to receive three Kobolds & Catacombs packs!  Read brand-new stories about the past, present and future of StarCraft.  

  • MIKE MORHAIME ON 20 YEARS OF STARCRAFT ESPORTS   https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/21574697
  • CHECKING IN WITH THE DEEPMIND STARCRAFT II TEAM  https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/21509421
  • SCARLETT, NOREGRET, AND THE HOUSE CHANGING STARCRAFT II ESPORTS   https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/21509419
  • EVOLUTION COMPLETE: REIMAGINING CLASSIC STARCRAFT UNITS FOR STARCRAFT II    https://starcraft2.com/en-us/news/21509420 
  • And something "Coming Soon" 


Twitch Rivals Channel Hosts Starcraft II FFA Bounty Brawl  https://www.twitch.tv/twitchrivals

8v8 match, 5 matches/day.    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/238026123
March 12, 20, 24 EU with retired SC1 pros White Ra and Retjah, and SC2 pros TLO, Stephano, Mana, Hastem, BeastyQT and DeMuslim.
March 16, 25 29 NA with iNcontroL, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ? and ?

Stephano broke out of his base to attack his neighbor Harstem, while Retjah eliminated TLO who had defeted White Ra, but Ret spent the game quietly expanding into the south wall and center while Stephano made and broke alliances along the north wall, BeastyQT Terraned up to Battlecruisers to assault his neighbor to the north DeMuslim, who was fending off attacks by Stephano and Harstem. It was a long slog of alliances and peace deals back and forth, until Stephano attacked Ret, by now holding over half the map and with his Team Liquid allies and fellow Dutchman, Harstem, taking out the remaining players with massed corrupters leaving Harstem to last, but failed to notice one last unit of DeMuslim's hiding deep in his own territory, leaving Retjah the winner of map #1, DeMuslim in 2nd, Harstem third and Stephano 4th. 

BeastyQT decimated TLO who tried for a fast expand too fast, Stephano on WhiteRa but let him live, taking out Retjah instead as Harstem was assaulting Ret's corner, the 4 mid bases taking out their nearest corner neighbor all but Demuslim who took out Mana to expand to mid. TLO expanded south into the Retjah bases as BeastyQT took over his. Harstem took those though and in fleeing behind TLOs expansion drew Harstem and White Ra into attacking TLOs new empire and carving it like a cherry pie. Stephano went for Harstem next but the carriers won leaving DeMuslim, Stephano and Harstem, with White Ra's one base patrolling the map underfoot and BeastyQTs last two command centers running silent on the edge. DeMuslim took 3rd after Harstem sniped White R and BeastyQT, leaving Stephano to take first.

Retjah, DeMuslim, White Ra and TLO emerged from the ashes of the first 14 minutes of game 3, Ret feuding with TLO across the South center and White Ra poking into Ret's bases. DeMuslim called for a Team Liquid reprieve and an ascendent TLO agreed, taking out Ret then White Ra. DeMuslim on the NW island had covered it in missile turrets leaving no way for TLO to assault, but TLO took out enough turrets and 4 nydus erupted ferrrying his army across, but it wasnt enough and TLO tapped out.



World Electronic Sports Games 2018 Global Finals

March 13th to 18th in Haikou, China.  http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/531700-wesg-finals-format-dates-and-groups-announced      
WESG Commenced March 12th with another Olympic style march of Champions and ceremonies fitting the StarCraft tournament with the largest prize pool of the year.  Players however, began live tweeting almost immediately upon arrival, their hotel including live rats, roaches, no running water, tea colored water, no power, and inspections to shut the hotel down entirely. Several players relocated, the rest were relocated the next day by WESG officials with apologies.  
https://www.twitch.tv/wesg_sc2



Starcraft announcement at PAX?

Geoff Robinson  @iNcontroLTV
Waiting for confirmation but if you are attending @PAXEAST_2018 I probably will as well! I am on a panel on behalf of Blizzard discussing something related to @StarCraft ... hope to see friendly faces in the audience :)

2018 Penny Arcade Expo - East will begin on Thursday, April 5.



ROGUE WINS IEM KATOVICE  (Kat oh veet suh)

The defending BlizzCon champion wins Katovice 4-0 against fellow Korean Classic, the last match by the skin of his teeth. His win surpasses last months total earnings champion SoS, amassing over $546,000 in his Starcraft career and sends him to BlizzCon 2018 along with Finnish WCS Valencia champion Serral.

March 2-4 Finals in Poland. Top contenders in the StarCraft II competition will battle it out for a $250,000 USD prize pool in the largest and one of the most renowned tournaments for the game outside of the StarCraft II World Championship Series. The winner of the tournament will also earn a direct seed to the WCS Global Finals.

The early shocker of IEM Katovice 2018 was to see one of the top Korean players, Stats, taken out by Maru (known as one of the 4 Horsemen of Terran, and one of the Greatest players of all time) and sent to losers bracket where he lost to souL 2-1 and was out of the tournament.  souL, a Polish Terran, is an up and coming player (currently ranked 93 in the world) and lost to Korean TY in the 3rd round of the Round of 76, going on to the losers bracket where he eventually lost to Ryung,  2-0 after an impressive showing.  Ryung (Ranked 36 in the world and a 3 time Champion) had been taken out by TY as well, and after defeating DnS 2-1 and souL, has advanced into the round of 24.


Scarlett, the female winner of IEM Pyeongchang a month ago, was taken out by Guru  0-2 in the first round, and fought her way through the losers bracket until falling to TRUE 2-1 in Zerg Vs Zerg. Maru, Ryung, TY, Solar, Serral and TRUE advance. 3 Terrans and 3 Zerg.    
SpeCial (Ranked #4 in the world) should face off against Zest (Ranked 9 in the world), and either could advance. SpeCial the Mexican Terran is undergoing what could be a miracle year after his past 2 years in Korea, while Zest is a former Korean Champion and emerging from his own slump. He and Scarlett have advanced into the Round of 8 in the Korean GSL League, which is on hold for the next two weeks due to Katovice.

Brackets 3 and 4 played Tuesday, with Zest, HeroMarine, Trap, SpeCial, Hurricane and Neeb advancing to the Round of 24 Round Robin.  soO the Korean powerhouse went down to EU Protoss Harstem in a complete upset 2-1, but before the Year of Harstem began, but was kneecapped in heartbreaking fashion by Neeb the last standing American. SpeCial livened up his matches with his preferred style of nukes and seige tanks trading blows and devouring the map of its resources against the Korean Terran Bunny and the Norwegian Zerg "King of Queens" Snute. Longtime German Terran HeroMarine was the surprise of the day, against all expectations coming through unscathed against Snute and Kelezhur. Hurricane took out Neeb 2-0, forcing him to qualify through the losers bracket but putting into question his chances when play resumes Feb 28.     
The 12 that advance into Group Stages will face a revitalized ShoWTimE, Elazer fresh from korea, Nerchio, uThermal and 8 more top Koreans, including INnoVation, Dark, sOs and Classic, who are expected to win Katovice but as every tournament shows, there are always upsets, new princes rise and old kings falter.   Despite heated balance complaints, 8 Protoss, 8 Zerg and 8 Terrans have qualified for the next stage of Round Robin matches.   
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/531622-more-upsets-on-day-2-of-iem-katowice-as-soo-is-eliminated-in-the-open-bracket
March 3rd, Serral from Finland becomes the first player going into the Round of 4, defeating the Korean Trap in a reverse sweep. Serral was down 0-2 and losing match 3 but turned it around to a 3-2 win. 



NATIONWARS V   http://nationwars.tv/

Voting is underway until March 11 to choose the players. The top 3 vote winners from each nation will go into the Tournament. Anyone can vote for any nations players. Round of 32 begins March 21-24 on the NationWars website as well as the Ogaming Twitch channels.  Best of 7. Competing for $50,000 prize. $400,000 prize pool. NationWars is a part of Blizzard sponsored WCS. 32 Nations have entered and dozens of well known GrandMaster players past and present from every region, as well as Starcraft Twitch Streamer and famed Internet Troll, Avilo.  Round of 16 March 27-April 1, R of 8 April 7-8, R of 4 April 21 and Grand Finals in Paris April 21st.



2018 GSL SEASON 1 CODE S   https://www.twitch.tv/GSL

The Korean Starcraft bracket, a twice weekly months long tournament. Currently in Round of 8, Code S plays every Tuesday and Saturday. March 9, GSL Code S continues in the Round of 8, with female Champion Scarlett facing soO, Classic vs Stats, Zest Vs Dark, and Maru vs sOs. Summary of the R of 16 matches here:   http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/531445-gsl-ro16-concludes-ro8-bracket-set-for-march-9



TESPA COLLEGIATE STARCRAFT SERIES

Feb 17 - Apr 22, 2018. 4 teams will qualify to join our 12 SC2 teams for their share of $35,000 in scholarships & prizing.   Brackets at  https://compete.tespa.org/tournament/101/phase/1  currently on Round 7 of 15.  At the end of the 8 weeks of round robin, the teams will be seeded into our Towers of Doom format with the conclusion being fought out in a single elimination bracket for a chance to earn their share of $35,000 in scholarships and prizing.



STARCRAFT  1: Afreeca Star League Returns for Season 5

Afreeca TV StarCraft League (ASL) will return for its fifth season on March 11. The return of ASL marks the second season of play in StarCraft: Remastered.   English stream: http://afreecatv.com/aslenglish   ASL Season 5 will run for ten weeks, with games scheduled every Tuesday and Sunday at the Freecup Studio. The round of 24 will be held as a single elimination dual tournament. The twelve players that emerge victorious from the round of 24 will be joined by the top four finishers from ASL Season 4 in the round of 16 for Season 5. The round of 16 will also feature the single elimination dual tournament format, while the semifinals and finals will be best-of-five, single elimination.

ASL is an esports celebration brought to through the collaboration between Blizzard and Afreeca TV.


Legendary player Youngho Lee (Flash), the winner of ASL Season 4, will be joined by fellow top-four finishers Iljang Cho (herO), and HongGyu Lim (Larva), in the round of 16 in Season 5. Bisu, who has recently enlisted in the military to fulfill his mandatory military service, will not be participating and his slot will be determined by a wild card match.  The preliminaries for ASL Season 5 will be held on February 24 and 25 at the Seoul and Busan Afreeca TV Open Studios.


WCS Austin   June 1-3.

WCS Valencia   July 12-14

WCS Montreal   Sept 7-9





             WARCRAFT PVP             


Legion PvP Season 6 Ending Soon!

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/7426-Patch-7-3-5-Hotfixes-March-6-Seething-Shore-Changes


ARENA SEASONAL FINALS FOR NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/esports

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/esports/schedule

EU Cup #3   Play begins February 28 Top 8 broadcast March 3—4
NA Cup #3   Play begins March 7     Top 8 broadcast March 10-11

There will be nine (up from five) Arena Cups in each region (18 total) over the course of the year. A $10,000 (up from $6,000) prize pool will be available for each of the 18 cups. The top 12 (up from six) teams at an Arena Cup event will earn points. New point distribution system will reward consistency

Arena Global standings:    https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/esports/standings



MYTHIC DUNGEON INVITATIONAL 2018   

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21510318/the-mythic-dungeon-invitational-is-back-get-ready-for-the-proving-grounds

https://raider.io/mythic-dungeon-invitational-2018

March 6 - Proving Ground Week 2 –  Teeming,  Explosive,  Fortified
Americas: March 6 at 7 a.m. PST    Europe: March 6 at 11 p.m. PST 
China: March 7 at 3 p.m. PST       APAC: March 7 at 3 p.m. PST

Proving Grounds ends March 13 at 7 a.m. PST (10 a.m. EST). Your goal is to complete a total of five level 23 Mythic Keystone dungeons over those two weeks. The format will be double elimination, giving teams a chance to regroup after a loss and bounce right back. The Mythic Keystone level will change over the course of the tournament, rewarding teams who can quickly crush easier dungeons and survive tougher ones.




 WARCRAFT ALPHA (Spoiler Free) 

Potential Story Spoilers will be in yellow. For full Alpha information see below links as I will only post bits I think interesting.

Information from https://www.mmo-champion.com/  and https://www.wowhead.com/

Battle for Azeroth Alpha - Build 26175

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/7427-Battle-for-Azeroth-Alpha-Build-26175
  • Gazlowe, Rexxar, Lilian Voss, Princess Tess Greymane, Falstad Wildhammer, and other new followers were added.
  • A Male Upright Orc model was added
  • Garrison Ability Changes
  • RaceTrackBG - Domination. Level: 45-110 Domination. Players: 5-10. Rated players: 10. Map: [TEMP] RaceTrackBG.
  • Blacksmiths have been able to create items to assist with lockpicking for a while, and now scribes can as well.  

https://www.wowhead.com/news=282559/profession-updates-in-build-26175-weapon-and-belt-enchants-lockpicking-nets
  • Monalite Skeleton Key is the lockpicking item for Blacksmiths and  Scroll of Unlocking is the lockpicking item for scribes.

CLASS CHANGES THIS WEEK

https://www.wowhead.com/news=282320/battle-for-azeroth-alpha-26131-class-changes






                          DIABLO                      



    Diablo III Tweet "confirms" Switch?

    https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/929772/Xbox-One-Nintendo-Switch-PS4-games-Fortnite-news
    The rumours started when Video Games journalist Marcus Sellars tweeted: "Fortnite = Nintendo Switch." Asked for more information, Sellars said that it came from a very trusted source and that the port would launch later this year. He also dropped the Diablo 3 bombshell, suggesting that the Blizzard game would hit Switch next year. "Diablo 3 is in development for the Nintendo Switch and should be out early 2019," he tweeted. "They are wanting to implement Local play with multiple switches."


    'Diablo III' rumors: Switch port in the works?

    "Diablo III" is allegedly hot in development for another console, as the game has been rumored to have a Nintendo Switch version in the works. Fans of the franchise and owners of the Switch might want to take the rumor with a grain of salt since Blizzard or Nintendo has yet to confirm the rumor. This has been reiterated multiple times, in fact, with Blizzard also flat-out saying that there's currently not Diablo 2 or Warcraft 3 remasters because “the games need more work” – they're clearly getting that work now. Blizzard has since denied that a Diablo 2 remaster is in the works. The hosts of Frozen Nerdz podcast, Epic and Kilroy, addressed the Switch last week on their podcast. On their 2017 tour of Blizzard HQ, they saw a room full of every system ever created that can play games, including a Switch. The tour guide told them that Blizzard is fascinated by technology but that was all it meant. True or false, thats the story, and the rumor.


    A Blizzard tweet has everyone thinking Diablo is coming to Switch

    https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/2/17070788/diablo-3-nintendo-switch-hint-twitter-blizzard 



    SEASON 13 NOW LIVE

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo3/21557613/season-13-now-live

    Season 13 Preview: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/21534734/?utm_source=desktopweb-news&utm_campaign=web-us-desktopwebnews&utm_medium=internal&utm_content=21535475




         HEROES OF THE STORM     


    Heroes of the Storm Ranked Season 2 

    March 6th :  Heroes of the Storm Ranked Season 2 begins as soon as the next patch is available.



    IN-DEVELOPMENT: HERO UPDATES, ENFORCER SKINS, AND MORE!

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes-of-the-storm/21535472/in-development-hero-updates-enforcer-skins-and-more



    UPCOMING SONYA AND MEDIVH GAMEPLAY UPDATES

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes-of-the-storm/21508381/upcoming-sonya-and-medivh-gameplay-updates



    Team Dignitas Wins IEM EXPO HGC WESTERN CLASH 3-0 over Tempo Storm 
    http://www.iem-expo.com/hgc-2018-western-clash

    March 2-4 finals, also in Katovice.  Prize pool: $100,000.-
    Teams: top 8 teams from EU and NA, determined by league rank
    The Western Clash will pit the top four teams from North America and Europe against each other. Tournament format: Double elimination bracket. Teams will be competing for an extra spot at the Mid-Season Brawl for the winning team’s region. Last year, it was Team Dignitas who took home the trophy after a thrilling final against Fnatic. Team Dignitas have taken the trophy two years running.

    Team Dignitas vs HeroesHearthEsports,   Fnatic vs Team Freedom,   Method vs Team Twelve,  and Tempo Storm vs Zealots   make up the Round of 8.
    Bracket at  https://esports.heroesofthestorm.com/en/schedule?week=11271&region=NA&year=2018



    HEROES OF THE DORM   https://heroesofthedorm.com/

    Each week, all eligible teams will play one game within their Region and one game outside of their Region. At the end of the regular season, the top performing teams will be seeded into the Round of 64 in the National Championship Bracket, alongside Regional champions.

    Feb 8 - March 8.  Season Play
    March 11.  Regional Championships. Week 4: Feb 28 - March 4, Week 5: March 7-8.
    Group Standings page at https://compete.tespa.org/tournament/94/phase/1
    March 28 – April 19. Round of 64 Bracket play

    In a one-of-a-kind broadcast partnership between Raycom and Tespa, Heroes of the Dorm will have a dedicated, nationally-syndicated program during a five-week period of competition from February 17 to March 15. Heroes of the Dorm will have a dedicated, nationally-syndicated program during a five-week period of competition. Raycom will produce the weekly, one-hour Heroes of the Dorm program, featuring schools competing in the tournament’s Atlantic Coast Region. The original series, which will cover competition as well as spotlight player and team stories, will be broadcast across Raycom Sports’ syndicated network of affiliates in more than 50 markets in the United States.



    HGC Eastern Clash March 16-18 in Taiwan

    https://esports.heroesofthestorm.com/en/schedule





                  HEARTHSTONE              


    2018 SPRING HEARTHSTONE COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIP


    Matches live streamed at twitch.tv/playhearthstone   5pm PST to 9pm PST every Monday and Tuesday from February 19th to April 3rd. The champions of each region will advance to the live finals in May to play for scholarship prizing.

    Current Bracket: https://compete.tespa.org/tournament/97/phase/1

    Tespa is launching a varsity Hearthstone tournament region for 2018! Students enrolled in schools that have official varsity esports programs are invited to participate in a region specifically curated for their teams. The university administration have sanctioned a varsity esports program. Teams that recieve scholarships from their school solely due to their involvement in competitive esports are automatically eligible for varsity status.



    SO YOU THINK YOU CAN CAST: HEARTHSTONE EDITION 2018

    We’re looking for some fresh faces in our 2018 Hearthstone broadcasts. If you’re a couple of cool commentators, a dynamic duo, or even a terrific twosome who shoutcast high-level Hearthstone on the regular, this is your chance! From now until March 13, try your hand at casting the video below.
    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/hearthstone/21553829/so-you-think-you-can-cast-hearthstone-edition-2018   Upload your video to YouTube.

    We also want to know more about:


    • Your previous experience casting, creating Hearthstone content, or competing, if any
    • Your favorite deck, and why it’s your go-to
    • Your favorite Hearthstone moments. They can be moments from your own games, or something from a Twitch stream or a Hearthstone Esport event.
    • What you’d change about current Hearthstone casting, and why
    • What esports you think has the best casters, and why
    • Why you want to take the plunge and be a Hearthstone caster!

    Starting March 13, we’ll review your submissions and reach out to shortlisted entrants with further instructions. The finalists will move on to cast the Hearthstone Collegiate Championship Playoffs for Spring, which will take place this April 28 – 29 2018.

    Video Background:  It’s the fifth and final game between North American competitors Azumo and Antreezy in the semifinals of the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) World Championship, which means the winner of this game advances to the grand final!
    Antreezy is a newcomer who surprised at the 2018 Summer Championship, defeating reigning world champion tom60229. Azumo is an old-school powerhouse player, having won nine tournaments throughout the year. He came into the 2018 HCT World Championship as the top point earner for North America, and is one of the favorites to win it all. The players brought the following decks:      Antreezy: Control Warlock, Jade Druid, Murloc Paladin .      Azumo: Big Priest, Miracle Rogue, Zoo Warlock



    HCT BANGKOK

    HCT Bangkok will be a Grand Prix tournament held March 16 through 18. This offline tournament’s top 32 players earn Hearthstone Competitive Points, with additional cash prizes for the top 16 players. HCT Bangkok will have a 256-player bracket. The tournament bracket will be double elimination. All matches will be best-of-five in Conquest format with one ban, so each player must bring four different classes.

    March 16: Round of 256, 7:00 p.m. PST (9:00 a.m. ICT). This day is open to participants only. There is no broadcast for the preliminary day.

    March 17: Round of 64, 10:00 p.m. PST to 6:00 a.m. PST (12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ICT) 
    This day will be open to the public and will be held in Pantip Plaza Pratunam. It will also have multiple language broadcasts on Twitch.

    March 18: Playoffs, 10:00 p.m. PST to 6:00 a.m. PST (12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ICT) This day will be open to the public and will be held in Pantip Plaza Pratunam. It will also have multiple language broadcasts on Twitch.



    HCT TORONTO

    March 9 to March 11.  This Grand Prix Tour Stop will take place in the EGLX gaming convention, which will take place from March 9 to March 11 2018. Bring your own device to this 1v1 tournament and compete in a 256-player Swiss-style bracket that narrows down to a Top 16 single elimination playoffs. HCT Toronto will be played on the Americas server and carries a total prize pool of $15,000. For more information on prizing breakdown, visit their website. You will need a ticket to the convention to access the tournament.  Registration is underway.

    All matches will be played best-of-five in Conquest format with one ban. Deck lists will be open, and the tournament will be administrated through smash.gg .




    WILDFEST IS HERE

    Through March 11, Wild cards return to the Arena for the duration of Wildfest. Play this Tavern Brawl celebrating Wild with pre-built decks. Tavern Brawl where you’ll build and lock-in a Wild deck, and then see if you can take it to twelve wins versus other players! Three losses and your run comes to an end. Your first Wild Brawliseum run is free!  If you had an Arena run in progress, it was retired automatically, and you were provided with a free Arena ticket.




                    OVERWATCH                


    New Support Hero: Brigitte Lindholm

    Daughter of Torbjorn, is the newest hero announced for Overwatch. She is a support and tank hybrid who uses a flail and shield to heal, give armor and attack her enemies.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_m8fcJb5tE

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/overwatch/21590096/new-hero-first-look-brigitte




    March 1: OverWatch Season 9 Competitive play began 

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/overwatch/21590097/welcome-to-season-9-of-competitive-play


    Interview with Mike Morhaime and Kim Phan

    https://www.venturebeat.com/          
    https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/7409-Feb-26-Hotfixes-BfA-Physical-Pre-Purchase-Heroes-PTR-eSports-Interview-OWL-Update



    Earn Rewards with the Overwatch League on Twitch

    Twitch and Blizzard are providing rewards to players that watch Overwatch League matches. Collect League Tokens by connecting your Battle.net and Twitch accounts. You’ll get one League Token at the end of every live map finish. Some lucky viewers will get 100 tokens for every final map they watch per match . Everyone watching can work together by Cheering with Bits to unlock Overwatch League skins not yet available in game Your own Cheering progress unlocks Overwatch exclusive hero emotes and team-branded loot as well League Tokens can be used to unlock Overwatch League skins, which cost 100 Tokens per skin.





                   WARCRAFT III               


    Foggy and Insomnia win WARCRAFT III INVITATIONAL
    http://liquipedia.net/warcraft/Warcraft_III_Invitational

    A Blizzard two-day event, held in conjunction with the release of Patch 1.29. It took place at Blizz headquarters in Irvine, California February 27-28, 2018. Vods  at  https://www.twitch.tv/back2warcraft    Twelve players were invited to the event, four active players from Europe, four active players from Korea and four retired pros. 

    Foggy, the current top player in the world, won the overall invitational with Insomnia winning the former pro matches. Insomnia vs Tak3r led off the stream, with Insomnia attacking early and often for the first win, then an 8 man Free For All was played with 4 koreans and 4 non koreans. Grubby, locked in a corner start position went for anti human ground unit techs but his neighbors went hippogryphs and wiped him out with neighbor ReMinD close behind, having weakened himself against the might of Grubby. Each player joined the couch as they were defeated, ending with Hawk and winner Foggy. Lyn however showed proper passion, shunning the GGs and HFs of the other players as the match began, going with "For the Horde!"

    Over 21,000 people watched the Twitch Blizzard Warcraft Invitational Day 1 stream. Neo, the host and Pete Stilwell, Senior Producer of the Blizzard Classics team spoke. Pete said that the Starcraft Remastered project slowed the pace of Warcraft III patches since they were announced in 2016. The team priorization focussed on making the game playable on modern computers. A bug patch should be out to the PTR next week and a patch mid to late March. They want to ease into balance changes to eventually be comparable to Starcraft where the balance works and the best players can discover new  metas and can evolve without them. After that they want to create a safer play space, as in dealing with map hax and modernization. Add things for map makers like the 24 player map. Improve match making. Reduce wait times. They arent planning to discuss Warcraft III Remastered at this time. They want to focus on the patch last week, that show the community how dedicated they are with more great things to come. 



    [War III] 1.29 PTR GENERAL DISCUSSION BLUE POST
    https://us.battle.net/forums/en/bnet/topic/20762056755

    BLUE POST:  We love and continue to support our Warcraft III community, and we’re excited to see classic competitors like Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, Park “Lyn” Joon, and Kim “ReMinD” Sung Sik try out all the new PTR changes for themselves—including balance adjustments to many heroes, 16:9 widescreen support, and more – all playable now on the PTR! 

    Warcraft III's PTR is back and ready for your scrutiny. Join us in testing widescreen support, hero balance changes, and updates to Map Pools for 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's and Free-for-All. We've also added some experimental modes like 24 player support for custom games. Mac clients launch on 10.11 and beyond. This will be the last version to support Windows XP.  Blizzard has added a ton of changes and improvements to Warcraft III’s in-game editor, which allows players to create custom maps and games. (This editor, you may remember, was the tool used to create the map “Defense of the Ancients,” which would go on to spawn Dota 2, League of Legends, and many many more games.)




      OTHER BLIZZARD RELATED STUFF  


    CHICAGO GAMING COALITION TOURNAMENT March 9th-11th

    Chicago Gaming Coalition is holding its first open BYOC LAN party, with numerous events to compete and play in including OverWatch 6v6 ( $360 Pot Bonus ), OverWatch 3v3, Starcraft 2 ( $500 Pot Bonus ), Hearthstone ( $250 Pot Bonus  ) and many non Blizzard games. It is a 3-day event, happening on the weekend of March 9th-11th. Included among the various events is an SC2 tournament that will be spanning Friday night and most of Saturday.  https://www.lanreg.org/madcitygg/chicagogamingco1




    Sources for these news bits include:

    https://news.blizzard.com/en-us

    http://www.teamliquid.net/

    And others.

    .

    Posted by Alisaunder at 5:37 PM No comments:
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    Thursday, February 8, 2018

    Starcraft AI Tournaments and Warcraft Warfronts


    From Alisaunder,

    Hi all.

    Been watching the AI bots tournament again to see whats new, and found a group of the bot makers in chat talking so I asked some questions.

    I may not grok all they said, but I'll include the log below.

    Just watched a match between the Student division 2nd place champion Martin Rooiljacker and PeregrineBot. PeregrineBot kept sending zerglings down to attack Martins Terran base, one at a time, while Martin amassed a cloud of Marines and Medics lurking between his base and his base entrance , with a Hellion rolling out to scout any incoming in the immediate vicinity and come right back chased by a zergling, sniping as he did like a Hunter in WoW kiting mobs. Then Martin had 2 Hellions. Then 3 then 4, each time getting further across the map before having to race towards home and snipe. When the 4 Hellions arrived at Peregrines base, suddenly Martins entire army poured out of his base and up to Peregrines Base, demolishing it utterly. 20 minute fight.

    Watching a second match with PeregrineBot, same thing, sending over zerglings, A moving to the enemy base to get blown up.

    Ive seen many more complex fights in this AI tournament but this match up seemed like something a Warfront could be like.

    I wondered if in WarFronts players might just zerg Stromgarde immediately and not waste time building and teching up then trying to assault, and the defenders will have the same amount of time plus the time it takes the horde to get to their gate to set up and hold, so I'm guessing if the Alliance has a Scout to look for the Horde, and everyone gets into position before Horde arrives then its a straight up 20 man PvP battle, and over with. Whereas if they both harvest trees and build buildings and knights etc, then a Warfront would take about 20 minutes, Blizzard said at BlizzCon.

    I suspect players would rather zerg it and win or lose and queue again but we shall see.

    Heres the log. Enjoy!





    https://www.twitch.tv/sscait

    Welcome to the chat room!
    4:13WillBotSC: observer!?
    4:14Dilyan_: cherry will lose a lot to updated bots
    4:14xilmi: cherry has the chasing-bug aswell
    4:14xilmi: which is not surprising when you know what causes it :o
    4:14Dilyan_: i have seen it to ignore scouting probe
    4:15SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: need to add firebats vs Cherry
    4:15RealLanceGunnin: ecgberht FailFish
    4:15Dilyan_: for an attack
    4:15RealLanceGunnin: wait, you see this and adding firebats is the conclusion you come to?
    4:15SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: umm
    4:15SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: where are the scvs
    4:15SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: at the exp
    4:15xilmi: seems logical, doesn't it
    4:15RealLanceGunnin: yeah the lack of mining in the expo and the lack of units was what was getting me
    4:16SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: welp
    4:16SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: this map has a BWTA bug
    4:16RealLanceGunnin: bwta bug?
    4:16SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: sometimes doesnt get the minerals
    4:16RealLanceGunnin: at least it knew to build the rax and get double upgs, thats pretty good
    4:16SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: or maybe bwapi
    4:17SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: yeah its bwta
    4:17SpriteClub: Betting open for PeregrineBot Vs. Martin Rooijackers -- Place your bets at starcraft.spriteclub.tv
    4:17SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: doesnt get all the mineral patches
    4:17SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: of that exp
    4:17Dilyan_: so they wont updaate cherry anytime soon? bastards
    4:17SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: using BaseLocations
    4:17WillBotSC: baselocation.getminerals() ?
    4:17SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: yep
    4:18SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: so no minerals
    4:18SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: no workers
    4:18WillBotSC: i found that it sometimes takes less, but i update it regularly
    4:18SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: also that
    4:18WillBotSC: then they come all
    4:19SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: umm how?
    4:19SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: just calling the getMinerals a few times?
    4:19WillBotSC: after a while
    4:19Speedyblupi: Well I fixed the bug with my bot. Apparently just switching around the attack and build order instructions solved it. I've no idea why, but whatever, it works now :P
    4:19SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: umm will try
    4:19WillBotSC: for different reasons: more bases, base lost, base mined ou ...
    4:20SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: thanks :D
    4:20SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: I only update it once when finishing the command center
    4:20RealLanceGunnin: Im pretty sure echberht wins there if he is mining from the natural
    4:20SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: and adds the minerals to a Set
    4:20SubscriberTwitch PrimeM1RaCIe: so I can track the workers assigned to the patches
    4:21s7jones: sorry my bot broke stuff again
    4:21WillBotSC: for my bot i recount everything periodicly, units, buildings ... so i dont need to deal with add and remove
    4:23WillBotSC: but this also leads to slow reaction of my bot
    4:28s7jones: can someone reset the stream?
    4:33Moderatorjaj22: nope. You could try buzzing Krasi0 on Discord.
    4:33Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Im enjoying your work. Do the bots learn or do you update build orders over time?
    4:34Moderatorjaj22: It's common to have multiple planned builds and select them based on opponent-specific learning.
    4:34Speedyblupi: @Alisaunder some of the bots have some learning implemented, but most have the build orders at least tweaked manually
    4:35Moderatorjaj22: more dynamic learning is unusual, and typically not very effective.
    4:35Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Why not @jaj22 ?
    4:35Speedyblupi: It's just very difficult to implement in a complex environment like Brood War
    4:36Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Very true. The longer the game, I cant imagine it.
    4:36Speedyblupi: Martin Rooijackers (letabot) is one of the few people who tried it. He used monte-carlo tree search to try to optimise builds
    4:36Moderatorjaj22: doesn't work yet :P
    4:36Speedyblupi: Yeah. Usually, versions of his bot that use hard coded builds rather than MCTS do better,
    4:37Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: I am not a programmer so will smile and nod.
    4:37Moderatorjaj22: AILien has had flexible builds and learned unit choice, worked worse than the usual method.
    4:38Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Why is that do you think? Lack of computing power or something deeply technical?
    4:38Speedyblupi: To put it simply, MCTS is basically a method to try to find the optimum solution to a problem, based on variations of things that worked previously, and weighting different decisions with different probabilities.
    4:38Speedyblupi: I don't really understand it myself, as I'm not an expert on AI.
    4:38Moderatorjaj22: Well, it's partly because BW has some very non-obvious sweet spots for builds
    4:38Moderatorjaj22: It's pretty tough to generate a build algorithmically that doesn't suck.
    4:39Speedyblupi: Or at least, that doesn't have at least a few hard counters
    4:40RamenDEN: At some point in the future I think a much more general AI approach will be taken to BW where bots learn from scratch against themselves like has been done by AlphaGo but there are so many more possible game situations it will require either massively more computation or more clever learning algorithms.
    4:40Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Thats what DeepMind is supposedly doing, learning, but noone knows how its doing.
    4:40Moderatorjaj22: The fog of war is a big problem for build choices.
    4:41xilmi: coding a star-craft bot is very different from coding an AI for a 4x
    4:41xilmi: real time is very different from turn-based
    4:41Speedyblupi: It's hard to find something for an AI to aim for to get a machine learning algorithm to work.
    4:41Speedyblupi: the way deepind did it for SC2 was with "minigames"
    4:42marcodbaa: it is always winning in the end but well
    4:42Speedyblupi: where they teach the ai to move units, then to pick up minerals, then to mine.
    4:42RamenDEN: Between the granularity of the maps, multiple maps, unit combinations, and thousands of frames vs turn-based the complexity is just insanely greater than something like Go or Chess
    4:43xilmi: in many cases a completely general approach makes no sense... there simply are things which we already know are ideal and can be determined and executed with relatively simple algorithms
    4:43Dilyan_: yea its incomplete information game
    4:44Dilyan_: but starcraft can be mastered quickly in specific areas
    4:44Dilyan_: for example
    4:44Speedyblupi: Yeah - micro is easy for bots.
    4:45Dilyan_: a bot by one look can know how much money you have gained by looking at minerals
    4:45Speedyblupi: I think Alibaba's micro AI used machine learning. I'm not certain though.
    4:45Dilyan_: how much gateaway you have
    4:45Dilyan_: how much time a goon can be created and how many in next minute
    4:45Speedyblupi: It's very difficult to choose good metrics though.
    4:46Dilyan_: in future bot will know exactly how much army you have made
    4:46Speedyblupi: Having more macro is good, but not very useful if your enemy has a huge army that your composition can't deal with.
    4:46Dilyan_: and will master timing attacks
    4:47Speedyblupi: or something like a dt rush - you can have a bigger army and a bigger eco, but lose it all if you don't have detection
    4:47Moderatorjaj22: Well, issue for humans is that you can't see their minerals all the time.
    4:47Moderatorjaj22: metagame is heavily dependent on that. There are dark periods where the enemy can hide their tech.
    4:48Dilyan_: we dont need to we have experience, intuition , trained eye by one look to say cant brake defense, etc
    4:48Speedyblupi: Bots can kind of "cheat" at working out how many units you have by looking at which number the unit has (stored in game, accessible to bots but not to human players)
    4:48Moderatorjaj22: yeah, that will probably go in BWAPI 5.
    4:49Moderatorjaj22: hopefully no-one's using it at the moment.
    4:49RamenDEN: Interesting Speedyblupi I did not know that, I wonder if that has been utilized
    4:49Speedyblupi: I don't think it should be. Bots should only get the same info as a human would.
    4:50Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Or if they can scout the minerals, see what units you have, maybe extrapolate from that missing mineral supply what could be built to equal that number.
    4:50RamenDEN: As long as they scout it I feel that that is not cheating, just a spot where AI has the advantage of being able to "click" thousands of times faster and compute
    4:52RamenDEN: We should put quantum computers on SCBW AI first priority when they're built :)
    4:52Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: What has been hardest to do besides AI learning capability?
    4:52Moderatorjaj22: that extrapolation's a much harder problem for bots than humans anyway.
    4:53Moderatorjaj22: well, I wouldn't consider "learning" to be an issue, really.
    4:54RamenDEN: Humans do thinge like, "based on what my enemy just saw of my army, I bet he will build XXX, so I will build YYY to counter what I expect him to build." That's hard to encode.
    4:54Moderatorjaj22: None of the bots is great at reacting to enemy choices, but that doesn't have to involve learning.
    4:55xilmi: i had an algorithm that would try to make a unit-comp based on the enemies unit-comp
    4:55xilmi: but then i learned that it's better to just be proactive ^^
    4:56Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Grins.
    4:56Moderatorjaj22: Well, that's very zerg :P
    4:56Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Good to try though and see.
    4:57Moderatorjaj22: you have to pick a tech to give the other guy a problem to deal with
    4:57Moderatorjaj22: otherwise you will be run over.
    4:58Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Im more familiar with SC2 than BW. Is walling off not a thing very much in BW? Some of the maps, the entrances seemed maybe too big to wall off, so Im not sure.
    4:58Moderatorjaj22: but then for zerg, drone count, sunkens and expansion timings need to be very reactive.
    4:59Moderatorjaj22: BW walling is very weird.
    4:59Moderatorjaj22: Buildings don't occupy whole tiles, so if you place two buildings next to each other they won't necessarily block a zergling, or even a zealot.
    5:00Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Ive seen units form part of the wall, that must be why
    5:00Moderatorsscaitmaintenance: NOTICE: Please stay tuned, the stream will continue in 2-3 minutes (we're restarting the machines to clean up after the bots). If the video doesn't start within 3-4 minutes, refresh the page.
    5:01Moderatorjaj22: Conversely, bots often have trouble with accidentally blocking their units.
    5:01Twitch PrimeAlisaunder: Ive also seen some patrol patterns that were really interesting, to defend a base.
    5:01xilmi: hmm the removal of the condition to always halt teching when under pressure makes it tougher to survive even the stock-AI zealot-rush :o
    5:01s7jones: it works?
    5:02Twitch PrimeCalmB4theStorm: Game has started
    5:02WillBotSC: what happened?
    5:02Moderatorjaj22: did you change your DLL?
    5:02WillBotSC: did you reupload something?
    5:02s7jones: I reuploaded something about an hour ago :P
    5:03Moderatorjaj22: well, it should probably work after the restart. Maybe.
    5:05SubscriberTwitch PrimeAntiga: 5-6 bots getting updated in a day
    5:05SubscriberTwitch PrimeAntiga: is pretty great
    5:08SubscriberTwitch PrimeN00byedge: More like people have buffered updates since the 20th
    5:09xilmi: ok, my hydras look quite a bit smarter now
    5:09SpriteClub: Betting open for MadMixP Vs. MegaBot2017 -- Place your bets at starcraft.spriteclub.tv
    5:14WillBotSC: these fight take place in wierd locations :D
    5:15xilmi: these obstacles are just annoying
    5:16SpriteClub: Betting open for Simon Prins Vs. AILien -- Place your bets at starcraft.spriteclub.tv
    5:17xilmi: oh 12 is a muta-strat
    5:18xilmi: that will most likely fail too
    5:18xilmi: 14 and/or 16 might work
    5:18xilmi: these are the ones with lurkers
    5:22marcodbaa: nice backstab
    5:23marcodbaa: but there is more
    5:23marcodbaa: gg
    5:23xilmi: prins is like a better version of leta
    5:23SpriteClub: Betting open for KaonBot Vs. AILien -- Place your bets at starcraft.spriteclub.tv
    5:24marcodbaa: vs zerg they play similar
    5:25marcodbaa: now at least
    5:25marcodbaa: had no tanks few days agao
    5:25marcodbaa: except vs Killerbot
    5:25marcodbaa: ago*
    5:26xilmi: i don't really know what zerg leta doesn't beat, so mimicing his build is supposed to be good
    5:27WillBotSC: kaon only one base?
    5:27marcodbaa: Tyrs terran was always good vs zerg however
    5:27xilmi: yeah but now it's even stronger
    5:27marcodbaa: his m&m are extremely compact
    5:28marcodbaa: but it is better
    5:28marcodbaa: told him to update ;)
    5:29Moderatorjaj22: Leta loses pretty heavily to SH's muta build at the moment.




    Posted by Alisaunder at 4:01 PM No comments:
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    Labels: Starcraft, Tournament

    Wednesday, February 7, 2018

    Starcraft II IEM Pyeongchang Tournament


    From Alisaunder 

    The IEM Starcraft Tournament at Pyeongchang, Korea, played out this week as part of the Winter Olympics exhibition sports. https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2

    Scarlett ( the lone female among the top StarCraft players in the world) upset Serrel, the winner of last week's WCS tournament at Leipzig, in a bruising zerg v zerg victory. Serrel had a Road to the Olympics video however that was very good. All the player promo videos are on YouTube at ESLTV.

    Elazer fought and won a hard set against Zest who also received a video, leaving just one Korean still in the tournament, SoS, a 3 time champion. At one point Elazer made a push taking his army across the map like a stampede of thunder, and when the push expired and I could look away again at the corner map, somehow between microing a three front war he had managed to also cover over half the map in creep. Another match, he expanded to such an extent that he was mining nearly every node on the map that Zest was not already on in stunning fashion. 

    At which point I had to get to bed and will catch the vod later, with Bly vs Special and SOS vs Kelazhur.

    Bly from Ukraine, the oldest player by far at 29, had a very good video as well, but SoS might have had the best, about his childhood in poverty, in a village of 500 people picking rice on the family farm, watching others play StarCraft at PC Bangs. During this tournament, 8 years later, he became the highest earning StarCraft player ever, and alot of his earnings went to his family, buying them a car and things.

    Bly vs Special was a very entertaining set, the only match up going 3-2 this far. Bly is known for unorthodox play, some call it cheese, but he has perfected it and everyone knows to expect it, and yet it often still works. And it did here, first opening with a Nydus Worm in Special's base then a proxy in game 3, but couldnt quite keep Special off balance though he came very close despite Special's Terran Nova units and Special went through to Round of 4, yet again. 2018 continues Special's meteoric rise since spending two years in Korea at the BaseTrade House.

    SoS crushed Special in the Round of 4, 3-0, with colossus drops into Special's base and incredible micro. He has been diligently scouting super early in every match up in this tournament. SoS has not lost a match thus far, going into the Finals against Scarlett. 

    Scarlett, from Canada, moved to Korea several years ago and has made it into the Korean GSL League, a zerg known for her creep spread and very good but not expected to advance out of Round of 16. 

    Match 1 to Scarlett, both going for immediate kneecapping attempts, clubbing SoS' last base , coming back with a better army to do it again and blowing his transport out of the sky before it can get to her bases and beating him over the head with lurkers, zerglings and roaches. 

    Match 2 to Scarlett after another bruising match, both assaulting each other's bases, picking off harvesters with hit and run sniping micro, so much happening until Scarlett suddenly broke through and took the Protoss base.

    Match 3 to Scarlett. Scarlett hid her second base, immediately pumping out zerglings and morphing an Overlord to drop them and a second set of zerglings, taking out his gateway wall off while the first zerglings ran wild in his base and SoS tapped out in a very quick match, leaving Scarlett to need one more victory in this Best of 7 match. 

    Match four to SoS. Scarlett dropped 3 Overlords onto SoS locking him onto only 2 bases, seesawing back and forth attacking each other and pulling back to defend as they tech up. SoS' Immortals continue to be the back bone of his armies, pressuring her third to its bloody death, pulling back, pushing and reinforcing into her bases until she cant continue.

    Match five to Scarlett. Scarlett sneaked 6 zerglings out of her base before his scout arrives, streaking through a hole in his wall off to take down his pylon , flooding zerglings into his base! Murdering everything! SoS down to 5 workers! 3 workers 2 1 SCARLETT WINS!!!!!!!

    IEM Katovice tournament is in 2 weeks and at some point TotalBiscuit's next ShoutCraft Kings should be happening, maybe this weekend, and HomeStory Cup. 

    The casters are going to extremes to explain the units and tactics to a potentially novice audience and were given an ESPN style digital marker board to use, but it feels good to have the usual crew and Smix. 

    Smix looks great as always, PiG always puts in an effort and the makeup artist was on point, but the lack of a live audience hurt the feel of the tournament, and using the digital marker board was a little awkward but a good idea for the future.

    The camera trick of showing two screens at once made both harder to see, without adding that much. An inset box or green screened Starcraft Pro overlay would have worked better perhaps. I like to see their faces during stressful points, but that is also when you need to see the action the most.

    I did enjoy the graphic tricks between matches, adjusting the photos of the players so that the expected winner was a little larger, and the size changes fluctuating after every match. Especially as there were several upsets as there always are.

    Feels really great to see Scarlett win her first ever big tournament, I've waited a long time to see it, and I don't want it to be lost without notice.

    I missed several matches as the tournament took place while I was at work but I intend to go back for them.

    Seeing what the new meta has evolved into, and new ideas is always good, and I may have never seen a Nova unit used before, it's so rare until Special leaned on them several times.

    Thank you for reading this far and enjoy your week.

    Posted by Alisaunder at 10:08 AM No comments:
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    Labels: Bly Special, Scarlett, SoS, Starcraft, Tournament
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